AdWords is now Google Ads: Smart Bidding and responsive ads

Announced June 27 and live since July 24, the rebrand touched three product families:

• Google Ads replaces AdWords and the AdWords Express brand. The new interface, in development since 2016, is now the default and the old one is being switched off account by account.
• Google Marketing Platform combines DoubleClick advertiser products and the Google Analytics 360 Suite. If you use Analytics 360, Optimize, Data Studio, Tag Manager or Surveys, they now sit under one roof with Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360.
• Google Ad Manager merges DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange for publishers.

For most small and mid-sized advertisers only the first matters. Learn the new interface now; the old one will not be there in 2019. Overview pages, the keyword planner, and the way columns and segments work have all moved.

Smart Bidding is Google's name for conversion-based automated bid strategies: Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions and Enhanced CPC. The system sets a bid for every auction using signals you cannot bid on manually: device, location, time, browser, operating system, remarketing list membership, and query-level intent. The pitch is that it does in real time what a manager does with bid adjustments once a week.

It works when three conditions hold.

1. Conversion tracking is accurate and complete. The algorithm optimizes toward whatever you count. If you count newsletter signups and purchases as the same conversion, you will get a lot of signups. Import offline conversions or set values where you can.
2. There is enough data. Google says 30 conversions in 30 days for Target CPA and 50 for Target ROAS. Treat these as floors. A campaign with 15 conversions a month will swing wildly and you will not be able to tell signal from noise.
3. The target is realistic. Set the target CPA at or slightly above your recent actual CPA, then tighten it 10 to 15 percent at a time every two weeks. Setting it 40 percent below current performance on day one starves the campaign of impressions.

A learning period of one to two weeks follows every strategy change or major target change. Do not touch the campaign during it, and do not judge it on the first week's numbers.

The failure modes are consistent across accounts.

Polluted conversions. A thank-you page that fires on every visit, a phone call conversion set to count every call of any length, a form that submits twice. Audit the conversion actions before turning anything on.

Seasonal shock. The algorithm learns from the last several weeks. A promotion, a holiday, or a budget doubling throws it. Use seasonality adjustments where available, or expect a temporary drop in efficiency.

Too many small campaigns. Ten campaigns with five conversions each cannot learn. Consolidate into fewer campaigns with shared conversion volume, and use ad groups and audiences for structure.

Chasing the target instead of the goal. If you set Target CPA too low, the system responds by bidding less and showing less. Volume collapses and the reported CPA looks fine. Watch impression share alongside CPA.

Forgetting search terms. Automated bidding does not make bad queries go away. Review search terms weekly and keep adding negatives. With the September change that lets exact match keywords match queries with the same meaning, this matters more, not less.

Announced in May and rolling out in beta, responsive search ads take up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions and assemble combinations in the auction, showing up to three headlines and two descriptions. The theory is that Google tests more combinations than you could, and finds the ones that convert for each query.

How to test them without damaging an account:

• One per ad group, next to your existing expanded text ads. Do not replace what works.
• Write genuinely different headlines. Fifteen rewordings of the same offer give the system nothing to learn. Cover the benefit, the price, the proof, the location, the call to action, the brand.
• Pin sparingly. Pinning a headline to position one guarantees it shows but removes most of the combinations. Pin only what is legally or brand-required.
• Judge on conversions per impression after four weeks. Responsive ads often win on click-through rate because they match more queries, then lose on conversion rate. Look at the whole funnel.
• Keep ad strength as a guide, not a goal. The "Excellent" rating measures asset variety, not performance.

Early results in our accounts: responsive search ads lift impressions and clicks in most ad groups, and match or slightly trail expanded text ads on cost per conversion. That is a reasonable outcome for a beta, and worth the incremental reach.

Smart Campaigns replace AdWords Express as the default experience for new small-business accounts. You set a goal, write some ad lines, pick a radius and a budget, and Google handles keywords, bids and placements. Setup takes 15 minutes.

They are fine for a business spending under $500 a month that would otherwise not advertise at all. They are a poor fit for anything more, because you cannot see search terms, cannot add negatives beyond a short list, and cannot control where across Search, Maps and Display the budget goes. If you are spending $1,000 a month or more, build a standard search campaign, even a simple one. The control is worth the hour of setup.

1. Switch to the new interface fully and rebuild any saved reports and filters.
2. Audit every conversion action: what fires, when, how often, with what value.
3. Consolidate campaigns where conversion volume is thin.
4. Move the highest-volume campaign to Target CPA or Target ROAS, set the target at current performance, and leave it alone for two weeks.
5. Add one responsive search ad per ad group in your top campaigns.
6. Review search terms weekly and tighten negatives, especially after the exact match change.
7. Check landing page speed on mobile. The Speed Score column in the new interface and the July mobile speed ranking factor both point the same way.
8. Set a monthly review that compares automated campaigns against a manual control on CPA, volume and impression share.

Paid search sits inside a connected program across brand, growth, web and technology, because an automated bidding system is only as good as the conversion data and landing pages behind it. Discover audits the account structure, conversion tracking, search term history and landing page performance. Plan sets the migration sequence: what moves to Smart Bidding first, what stays manual as a control, what the targets are and how success is measured. Build implements the tracking fixes, restructures campaigns, writes the responsive ad assets and sets up the reporting. Improve is the fortnightly cycle of target adjustments, negative keywords, landing page tests and budget shifts that keeps automation pointed at the right goal.

The performance marketing engagement is the representative pattern. A service business was spending across a dozen small manual campaigns, each with too few conversions to learn from and a conversion action that counted every form view. We fixed the tracking, consolidated into three campaigns, moved the largest to Target CPA at its historical cost and tightened the target gradually, while keeping one campaign on manual bidding as a control. Within two months the automated campaigns were delivering more leads at a lower cost than the control, and the control was migrated too.