What Are Smart Display Ads?
Smart Display Ads are Google’s latest display campaign option that allows advertisers to target placements and audiences that are most likely to drive conversions for their business without requiring any set targeting. All advertisers need to do is select a CPA goal and upload some ad assets and then Google handles the rest.
Smart Display campaign can show your ads in almost all formats across the Google Display Network (what is the Google Display network?). They are more automated than traditional Display campaigns. They use machine learning to automate the bidding, placement, and ads used.
You can consider the trade-offs in this. You will hand more control over to Google and their machine learning capabilities. For example, you cannot adjust bids or choose which ad formats to use. But, you can set a target CPA (what is Target CPA bidding?).
In return, you will spend less time managing the campaign. You may also experience performance improvements relative to what you (the human) could do.
Google Uses 3 Types Of Technology For Smart Display Ads
Automated ad creation. You provide the ad assets like headlines, images, logos and descriptions. Google takes these ad assets to form ads in various sizes and formats. They are responsive ads that will fit into almost any ad size – 728 x 90, 336 x 280, 250 x 250, etc. You just need to set the ads up once and Google will take care of the rest.
Automated targeting. You don’t select any audiences, keywords, placements at all. This is where you leave the targeting to Google’s machine learning technologies. Learn more about automated targeting in Google Display.
Automated bidding. Google will use the targeted CPA you set to optimize your bidding. They will make behind the scenes adjustments to try and meet your target CPA goal. Essentially, the goal will be to get as many conversions as possible while still hitting your CPA goal. Note, budget constraints will impact this. Learn more about automated bidding in Google Ads.
How To Setup Smart Display Campaigns
This is a great video that will walk you step-by-step through the process.
