Google Ads is not just a single “launch ad” button. It’s an entire ecosystem where each ad format solves its own task. Some find clients through search, others catch up with them through banners, and others launch video ads. And to avoid wasting your budget, it’s important to understand what types of advertising campaigns exist in Google Ads and when each of them performs best.
What types of ads are there in Google Ads?
The platform is constantly evolving: new formats based on machine learning appear, algorithms change, automation tools are added. Let’s say you launched a campaign two years ago — since then, the interface and logic of operation may have changed beyond recognition. So today, let’s figure out the current types of ads in Google Ads, from classics to new features.
Search advertising
How many calls and sales will I get by ordering contextual advertising from you?
This is where most people start their journey with contextual advertising. The principle is simple: a person searches for something on Google — and sees your offer above or below the search results. Essentially, you intercept a person at the moment when they already want to order something. They search for “buy sneakers Kyiv” — they see your store. They search for “laptop repair Odesa” — they see your repair shop.
This advertising works on the PPC (pay-per-click) model: you only pay when someone clicks and follows the ad. Not for impressions, not for views — but for an actual visit. This format is ideal for businesses where there is already established demand. If people are already searching for your product or service — this is the most direct way to reach them.
What to consider:
Keywords are the foundation of everything. If you choose too broad queries, your money will be spent on non-targeted clicks. Too narrow — and almost no one will see you.
Ad quality affects the cost per click. Google evaluates the relevance of the text, the quality of the landing page, and the expected CTR. The higher the score — the cheaper each visit.
Extensions (now called “assets”) play a very important role. They add a phone number, additional links, address, and promotions to your ad. This increases the ad’s footprint in search results and improves click-through rates.
By the way, within such campaigns, there are also dynamic search ads (DSA). They are generated automatically based on your website content. Google selects relevant queries and forms headlines.
Sounds convenient, but there’s a nuance: if your site has a messy structure or outdated content, the system may start showing ads for non-targeted queries. Therefore, DSA is better to launch on websites with a clear structure and up-to-date information.
AI Max
A new feature for 2025. Essentially, it’s an overlay on regular campaigns, adding even more automation through artificial intelligence.
The system automatically expands keyword targeting, generates variations of headlines and descriptions, and selects relevant landing pages for each query. The idea is to help advertisers find customers in places where they wouldn’t think to look manually.
But honestly, when the tool launched, opinions among specialists were divided. Some say that AI Max really finds unexpected conversion phrases. Others complain that the system spends money on irrelevant impressions. As with any automation tool — the result heavily depends on the niche, data volume, and how correctly everything is configured.
Tip: if you decide to try AI Max, don’t spend all your money on launching it at once. Allocate only a portion for testing and compare results with a regular campaign over the same period. This way, you’ll see if automation brings real value specifically to your business.
Display Network campaigns
This is about banners that appear on Google’s partner sites. And there are millions of them: news portals, blogs, forums. According to the search giant itself, GDN reaches over 90% of internet users worldwide.
The logic here is different. You’re not catching a person — you’re showing them a message while they’re reading an article, checking the weather, or scrolling through a cooking blog. These campaigns are aimed at awareness and reach. A person may not click now, but they’ll remember your brand.
Also, GDN is the main platform for remarketing. Let’s say a user visited your site, looked at products, but didn’t buy. Through remarketing, you “catch up” with them using a banner on other sites, reminding them of yourself. And this is really effective — conversion rates for remarketing campaigns are usually several times higher than regular display campaigns.
Dynamic remarketing goes even further: it shows the user the exact product they viewed. Not just a store banner, but a specific pair of shoes with a price and “Buy” button. For online stores — practically a must-have.
Attention: display advertising doesn’t deliver instant sales. Its task is to generate demand and return audiences. If you expect the same return from GDN as from search — you’ll likely be disappointed. But in combination with other promotion methods, it amplifies the overall effect.
Shopping campaigns (Google Shopping)
If you sell physical products, Google Shopping is one of the most effective solutions. Ads appear in search and the “Shopping” tab as cards with a product photo, name, price, and store. The person sees exactly what you’re offering and how much it costs even before clicking.
How it works: you upload a product feed (a file with product data) to Merchant Center, and from there it’s pulled into your ad account. No need to select keywords — the system determines them automatically based on feed data.
Shopping campaigns work especially well for online stores with large assortments. Here are a few important points:
Feed quality is everything. The more accurate the descriptions, the better the photos, and the more correct the prices — the higher the chance of showing and the better the conversion.
You can segment your offers by categories, brands, price ranges, and assign different bids for different groups.
Shopping campaigns often provide lower costs compared to text ad types, because people have already seen the product and price before clicking. They come to you more prepared.
For the Ukrainian market, shopping campaigns became available relatively recently but are already actively used. If your store is connected to Merchant Center and you have a configured feed — this is one of the first formats worth testing.
Video advertising on YouTube
This isn’t just about thirty-second inserts before full videos that many dream of skipping as quickly as possible. There are many more options.
The main ones:
Skippable In-Stream — shown before, during, or after a video. The viewer can skip the ad after 5 seconds from the start. Payment is only charged when a person watches at least 30 seconds (or the entire video if it’s shorter), or for every interaction (for example, clicking a link).
Non-skippable In-Stream — up to 15 seconds. The viewer must watch the entire video. A good option for short and concise advertising messages.
Video Discovery (In-Feed) — shown in video search, on the home page, and next to similar videos. They work as a thumbnail with a headline. Payment is charged for clicking on the ad.
Shorts Ads — short vertical ads that appear between Shorts. A relatively new option, but promising, as the Shorts audience is growing rapidly.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world (after Google itself). People spend hours there. And video advertising allows you to reach them at a moment when they’re relaxed and ready to absorb information.
What are video campaigns usually used for? For building brand awareness, launching a new product, educational content. But direct sales can also be promoted here — especially if the video has a clear call to action and a link.
Important: you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money on producing a video. Google offers built-in tools for creating simple video ads directly in the interface. Of course, professional video will give a better effect, but a smartphone with good lighting is enough to start.
Performance Max
PMax is one of the most effective types of campaigns in Google Ads, appearing in recent years. And it fundamentally differs from all previous ones in its operating principle.
The essence is this: you don’t choose where exactly the ad will be shown. You upload a set of assets — text headlines, descriptions, images, logo — and specify goals (conversions, cost per click, ROAS). Then the algorithms themselves decide where, when, to whom, and more importantly, what to show. Search, GDN, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Discover, Google Shopping — this advertising works on all platforms.
Google translates Performance Max into Russian as “campaigns with maximum efficiency.” And this name is telling: the system’s task is to squeeze the maximum out of the budget, using all available channels simultaneously.
Sounds like magic, but there are nuances:
You get less control. You can’t know exactly which portion of funds went to search and which to YouTube. Google provides limited analytics.
PMax works great when the system has enough data. If the account is new and there are few conversions — the algorithm will have difficulty learning.
For e-commerce, Performance Max has essentially replaced standard shopping campaigns, combining them with others.
Let’s say you have an online electronics store. You launch PMax, upload creatives and a feed. The system starts showing — and all of this is optimized for one goal: maximum purchases. For many advertisers, this is much simpler and more effective than connecting five separate formats.
Demand Gen
A relatively fresh type of advertising campaign that replaced Google Discovery. Its main task is to generate demand, not catch existing demand. The difference is fundamental.
If advertising answers a query, then Demand Gen creates initial interest. Ads appear in YouTube (including Shorts and In-Feed), in the Discover feed, and in Gmail. That is, in places where users spend time, scroll content, and watch videos.
The format bets on visuals: bright images, carousels, short videos. This is closer to promotion on Instagram or TikTok than to classic contextual advertising. For audience targeting, you can use Lookalike audiences (similar to your customers), interests, and intent segments.
When Demand Gen makes sense:
You’re launching a new product that people don’t know about yet and aren’t searching for;
You need to expand the funnel — attract a cold audience that will later “warm up”;
You have strong visual content: beautiful product photos, short videos, attractive banners.
One of the placement types for Demand Gen is advertising in Gmail. Ads appear in the “Promotions” tab of the inbox and look like regular emails. When clicked, they expand like an email. The format is specific, but for certain niches (for example, services, online courses, events), it gives decent results.
App campaigns
A separate type of campaign in Google Ads, sharpened for one task: promoting apps. These can be offers to install the app, engage existing users, or pre-registration (for apps that haven’t been released yet).
The principle is similar to Performance Max: you upload text lines, images, videos, and specify the target action (installation, in-app purchase, etc.). Google combines these assets and shows ads in its services.
You don’t select keywords either — the system does this itself. You can only guide it by indicating sample queries and topics, but the algorithm makes the showing decisions.
For app developers and companies that have a mobile app (food delivery, marketplaces, fintech, games) — this is the main tool for attracting users.
Smart campaigns
A maximally simplified format for small businesses. Google positions them as a way to start a campaign in 15 minutes without knowing all the platform’s intricacies. You specify your goal (calls, website visits, location visits on the map), write text, set a budget — and that’s it. The system itself selects the audience, platforms, and showing time.
No keywords, no bids, no complex settings. Sounds attractive, especially if you’re a small cafe or workshop owner and don’t want to figure out dozens of settings.
But there are significant limitations:
Minimal transparency. You don’t see what queries your ad is showing for and where;
Limited optimization capabilities. Essentially, you completely trust the algorithm, having no levers of influence.
For businesses with 15,000–20,000 UAH per month for promotion and above, it’s usually more effective to switch to standard campaigns with more fine-tuned settings.
Smart campaigns are a decent entry ticket to try advertising without involving a specialist. But if such promotion becomes an important sales channel — you’ll eventually outgrow them.
Which type of advertising campaign to choose in Google Ads?
There is no universal answer here. The choice depends on what you’re selling, what stage your business is at, and what task needs to be solved right now. But there is logic to help you not miss.
Start from the task, not the format
A common mistake is choosing a campaign type because “everyone does it this way” or “a friend launched it and it worked for them.” Let’s say you see: a competitor is running ads on YouTube, and you decide to do the same. But your competitor has a different goal — they’re building awareness for a new brand. And you need leads this week. Here, search advertising will give results faster.
Here’s simple logic:
There is established demand (people are already searching for the product) — search campaigns. This is the shortest path from query to purchase.
You sell physical goods online — Google Shopping or Performance Max with a product feed. Cards with photos and prices convert better than text ads — the buyer sees the product before clicking.
Demand is low or absent — Demand Gen, video advertising. These formats create interest among people who don’t know about your product.
Users come to the site but don’t buy — remarketing in GDN or PMax. According to statistics, most purchases don’t happen on the first visit. Remarketing returns those who “almost bought.”
You’re promoting a mobile app — app campaigns. There are essentially no other options in Google Ads for this task.
Budget matters
Not all types of ads in Google Ads are equally accessible with a small budget. And this is normal — you just need to set priorities.
If the budget is limited (say, 5,000–10,000 UAH per month), spreading it across five campaigns at once is a bad idea. Better to focus on one or two formats that will give maximum return. Usually, this is search or shopping advertising. When stable sales and conversion data appear — you can connect Performance Max, remarketing, video advertising.
With a budget of 30,000–50,000 UAH, it already makes sense to build a full funnel: search campaigns for hot demand, remarketing for “closing” deals, and Demand Gen or YouTube for audience expansion.
Attention: Performance Max requires sufficient conversion volume for the algorithm to learn. Google recommends at least 30 conversions in the last 30 days. If you currently have 5–10 conversions per month, PMax may work unstably. In this case, it’s better to start with manual search campaigns and accumulate data.
Niche and business type
Business type also dictates the choice. Here are several scenarios from practice:
Online store with a large catalog — combination of Google Shopping + Performance Max + remarketing. The product feed allows automatically showing thousands of products without manually setting up each ad. And dynamic remarketing will show the user exactly the product they viewed.
Local business (cafe, beauty salon, auto service) — search campaigns with geo-targeting. You only show to those in your neighborhood or city. If the budget is minimal and there’s no time to figure things out — you can try smart campaigns as a starting option.
B2B sector (IT outsourcing, consulting, legal services) — search campaigns with carefully selected keywords. In B2B, the sales cycle is long, so remarketing is especially useful here: a person won’t order a 200,000 UAH audit from the first click, but after three or four “touches” — quite possibly.
New brand or product — Demand Gen + YouTube. If people don’t know about your product, they won’t search for it. Therefore, search advertising won’t help. You need to first introduce yourself through visual formats, and then catch the emerging demand through search.
Combine formats
In practice, the best results come not from individual campaigns, but from their combinations. Each type of campaign in Google Ads covers its own piece of the sales funnel:
Top of funnel (awareness) — video advertising on YouTube, Demand Gen, display campaigns in GDN. The task is to reach a wide audience and generate interest.
Middle of funnel (consideration) — search advertising, Google Shopping. The person is already interested and comparing options.
Bottom of funnel (purchase) — remarketing, branded search campaigns. The person is almost ready to order — just needs a little push.
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Let’s say you’re launching an online English school. First, you show a short video on YouTube to your target audience — talk about the methodology, show student results. Some viewers will become interested and start Googling your school — here they’re met by search advertising. And those who visited the site but didn’t leave a request, you catch up with through remarketing via GDN or Gmail. Three types of campaigns, one funnel, one result.
Don’t forget to test
Whatever campaign type you choose — give it time. Google’s algorithms usually need 2–3 weeks to learn, especially if automatic bidding strategies are used. During this period, results may fluctuate — this is normal.
Launch — wait — look at the data — adjust. Turn off what doesn’t work, strengthen what brings results. But if you figure out all the types of campaigns in Google Ads and pick the right combination — your advertising return will grow noticeably.
