Before you start
Identify whether you’re in Smart Mode or Expert Mode. If this icon in the top right corner of your Google Ads account is called “Settings”, you’re in Smart Mode. If the icon
is called “Tools & settings”, you’re in Expert Mode.
Your Google Ads experience will differ slightly depending on whether you’re in Smart Mode or Expert Mode.
Smart Mode is the simplified version of Google Ads. It was designed to simplify the advertising experience, so businesses can drive real results and save time setting up and managing campaigns.
Every campaign in Smart Mode is a Smart campaign. Smart campaigns let advertisers choose their business goals and where they want to advertise, then Google uses AI to deliver real results tailored to those goals, like phone calls, actions on their website, and store visits, making it easy to reach more customers.
Most new Google Ads users will join Google Ads in Smart Mode.
Expert Mode offers the full range of Google Ads features and campaign types. While it gives advertisers more complete steering over their bidding strategies, it also requires more complex management. This is why we recommend it for advanced marketers and advertisers.
Compare Smart Mode versus Expert Mode
| Smart Mode | Expert Mode |
| Create Smart campaigns | Create all campaign types |
| Set your budget and goals, and we’ll take care of the rest |
Steer your settings and campaign type (App, video and more) |
| Lightweight maintenance (~15 minutes per week) | Ongoing management required (1+ hour per week) |
| Assisted ad setup, optimized keywords and more | Powerful steering for keywords, bidding and more |
| Simple, easy-to-read performance reports | Detailed, custom performance reports |
Switching from Smart Mode to Expert Mode
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from the AI technology and time saving benefits of Smart campaigns. However, if you desire more advanced features or other campaign types in Google Ads, here’s how you can switch to Expert Mode from Smart Mode.
- Once signed into your Google Ads account, click the Settings icon
in the top right corner.
- Select Switch to Expert Mode.
Once you’ve switched to Expert Mode, you’ll be able to access the full Google Ads experience and create all Google Ads campaign types, e.g. Search, Display, Video, App, Shopping.