Smart Display campaigns

Page Summary

• New Smart Display campaigns cannot be created.

• Standard Display campaigns should be used as an alternative.

Warning: Smart Display campaigns can no longer be created in the Google Ads API. Use standard Display campaigns or Performance Max campaigns instead.

Migrate to standard Display or Performance Max

Attempting to create a new campaign with advertising_channel_sub_type set to DISPLAY_SMART_CAMPAIGN returns a ContextError.OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT (when advertising_channel_type is DISPLAY) or CampaignError.INVALID_ADVERTISING_CHANNEL_SUB_TYPE (when paired with another channel type) error. Instead, use one of the following supported campaign configurations using CampaignService:

• Standard Display campaigns: Set advertising_channel_type to DISPLAY without setting advertising_channel_sub_type to DISPLAY_SMART_CAMPAIGN, and create ads using responsive display ads.
• Performance Max campaigns: Set advertising_channel_type to PERFORMANCE_MAX to access automated bidding, targeting, and asset optimization across Google channels. See the Performance Max overview for implementation details.

Audit and manage existing Smart Display campaigns

Existing historical Smart Display campaigns remain accessible for reporting and lifecycle management:

• Reporting: Query existing campaigns using GoogleAdsService.SearchStream or GoogleAdsService.Search.
• Pausing: Send a CampaignOperation.update (with update_mask set to status) using CampaignService.MutateCampaigns (or GoogleAdsService.Mutate) to set campaign.status to PAUSED.
• Removing: Send a CampaignOperation.remove set to the campaign's resource_name (customers/{customer_id}/campaigns/{campaign_id}). Don't set campaign.status to REMOVED in an update operation, which returns RequestError.INVALID_ENUM_VALUE.

You can locate and audit your existing DISPLAY_SMART_CAMPAIGN campaigns that need migration using the following Google Ads Query Language query:

SELECT
  campaign.id,
  campaign.name,
  campaign.status,
  campaign.advertising_channel_type,
  campaign.advertising_channel_sub_type,
  metrics.impressions,
  metrics.clicks,
  metrics.conversions
FROM campaign
WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type = 'DISPLAY'
  AND campaign.advertising_channel_sub_type = 'DISPLAY_SMART_CAMPAIGN'