If you have ever opened Google Ads and felt overwhelmed by the number of campaign options staring back at you, you are not alone.
One of the most common questions we hear at Brand Beat is surprisingly simple: Which Google Ads campaign type should I choose?
Dozens of business owners freeze at this exact screen. They either pick randomly and hope for the best, or spend three hours googling "which campaign type should I use" and end up more confused than when they started.
Here's the truth nobody tells you upfront: there's no single "best" campaign type.
A plumber in Calgary needs something completely different from someone selling handmade jewelry online. What works depends entirely on what you're selling, who's buying, and what you're trying to accomplish.
Understanding Google Ads campaign types is not just a technical step.
It directly impacts how your ads appear, who sees them, how much you pay, and whether your campaigns actually drive revenue or quietly burn budget.
This guide breaks down what are the different types of Google Ads campaigns, what each one actually does, and how to pick without needing to watch 47 YouTube tutorials first.
What Is the Purpose of Campaign Type in Google Ads?
Before we dive into specific types, let's answer the basic question: why does Google even have different campaign types instead of just one universal option?
Campaign type controls where your ads show up and what format they take.
Search puts text ads on Google search results. Display throws image ads across millions of websites. The video runs on YouTube. Each targets people doing different things with different levels of buying intent.
Think about it with this example: someone frantically googling ‘emergency plumber near me’ at 11 PM is in a totally different headspace than someone casually watching home renovation videos on YouTube. You need different approaches for each situation.
Campaign type also determines which Google properties your ads appear on, how you pay (per click, per view, per conversion), what targeting options you get, and how much control you have versus letting Google's AI run things. It's basically the foundation your entire campaign builds on.
What Are the Main Google Ads Campaign Types Right Now?
Google is currently offering seven main campaign types. They keep tweaking stuff, but these are your core options.
Search Campaigns
Search Campaigns are the OG Google Ads format. Text ads that pop up when people search your keywords on Google. They're labeled "Sponsored" at the top or bottom of results. You pick keywords, write ads, and pay when someone clicks.
Search ads work for basically any business because you're targeting folks actively hunting for what you sell.
Display Campaigns
Display Campaigns show banner ads across Google's Display Network, something like two million websites and 650,000 apps. People aren't searching for you. They're reading news, checking the weather, browsing recipe blogs, and your ad appears.
Lower intent than Search, but way broader reach. Good for getting your brand out there, remarketing to people who visited your site before, or staying visible while people aren't actively shopping yet.
Shopping Campaigns
Shopping Campaigns are for e-commerce stores selling physical goods. These show product photos, prices, and your store name directly in Google Shopping results.
Shopping campaigns usually convert pretty well for retail because people see the product and price before clicking. Requires setting up a product feed, though, which adds some technical complexity.
Video Campaigns
Video Campaigns run ads on YouTube and Google's video partners. These can play before videos, during videos, after videos, or show up as standalone promoted content. A bunch of different formats, like skippable ads, short non-skippable ones, or bumper ads.
Video campaigns are solid for storytelling, showing your product in action, brand awareness, or remarketing with strong creative. YouTube is huge, so if your customers hang out there, this is worth considering.
Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max Campaigns are Google's AI-powered, everything-everywhere option, which they launched in late 2021.
You feed Google your creatives: images, videos, headlines, descriptions, and tell them your goals. Their machine learning runs ads across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps, and optimizes automatically.
Google says Performance Max got over 90 improvements in 2024 that increased conversions more than 10% for advertisers. Works best when you've got historical data for the AI to learn from, though.
Demand Gen Campaigns
Demand Gen Campaigns are newer, focused on visually engaging placements across YouTube, Gmail, and Google Discover feed. These use AI to target people based on interests and behaviors, nurturing them through your sales funnel with compelling creative.
Think of Demand Gen as Discovery campaigns 2.0; more targeted, better AI, designed for building interest, and guiding people toward buying rather than just capturing people already searching for you.
App Campaigns
App Campaigns promote mobile apps across Google Search, Play Store, YouTube, and Display Network. You give Google text ideas and assets; they optimize combinations automatically to drive installs or in-app stuff.
Only matters if you've got a mobile app to promote, obviously. Spreads across tons of placements but gives you way less control than other types.
How to Choose the Right Google Ads Campaign Type
Now that you understand all your options. How do you actually pick? Ask yourself these questions and be honest with the answers.
- What are you actually trying to accomplish?
- Where are your customers in their buying journey?
- What's your actual budget?
- How much control do you want versus how much do you trust Google's AI?
- Do you have existing conversion data?
If your goal is to gain leads or sales from people actively searching, start with Search campaigns. If your goal is awareness or remarketing, Display or Video campaigns make more sense.
E-commerce brands should prioritize Shopping and Performance Max, while service-based businesses often benefit from Search combined with remarketing.
Budget size also matters. Smaller budgets usually perform better with focused Search campaigns rather than broad, automated formats.
At Brand Beat, we often recommend starting simple, gathering data, and expanding into additional campaign types once performance benchmarks are clear.
How to Change Campaign Type in Google Ads
A common technical question is how to change the campaign type in Google Ads.
In most cases, Google does not allow direct changes between major campaign types once a campaign is created. The option doesn't exist in the interface.
Picked Search, but want Display? Can't convert it. You will have to create a whole new campaign with the correct type and either pause or delete the old one.
Why? Campaign types have fundamentally different structures, targeting options, ad formats, and optimization approaches.
So, what do you do if you pick wrong?
Create a new campaign with the correct type from scratch. Set it up with proper settings, targeting, and creativity. Run both simultaneously for a bit if you want to compare performance directly. Once the new one's working, pause or delete the original.
This limitation makes planning upfront even more important. Choosing the right campaign type from the beginning saves time, budget, and performance setbacks later.
What Are the Different Types of Google Ads Campaigns Used for?
Understanding what the different types of Google Ads campaigns are is only half the equation. The real value comes from knowing when to use each one.
No single campaign type is universally “best.” The right choice depends on your business model, audience maturity, and marketing funnel.
What works for one business might completely bomb for another in the same industry.
Our professionals have worked out that most successful advertisers follow this general path: Start with Search, capturing existing demand, and building initial conversion data. Add remarketing (Display or Video) to re-engage people who didn't convert.
Expand to awareness campaigns (Display, Video, Demand Gen) once the bottom-funnel performs. Layer in Performance Max to scale with automation after you've got a solid conversion history.
Keep testing, measuring, and adjusting based on what your specific data shows.
Campaign type matters, but it's just one piece. Creative quality, landing page experience, offer strength, targeting accuracy, and bidding strategy matter just as much.
Don't assume choosing the right type automatically guarantees success. Execution matters way more than selection.
Just get started somewhere. You'll learn more from two weeks of running ads than from two months of researching which campaign type to use.
