Using an objective eases your decision-making when you create a campaign in Google Ads by guiding you to the specific features designed to help your campaign succeed. When you create a campaign, you can select an objective. The objective you select should align with the main thing you want to get from your campaign, for example, Sales or Website traffic. After selecting an objective, you'll view relevant, recommended features and settings to help you achieve the results that matter most to your business.
This article explains how objectives work and defines what each objective can do to help improve the performance of your campaigns.
Note:When you create a new Google Ads campaign, you may be asked to select your campaign objectives before the campaign type. As Google enhances the campaign creation experience in 2023, language may vary slightly based on account setup.
How objectives work
When you create a campaign, select an objective that corresponds to the main thing you want your campaign to achieve for your business.
For example, if after viewing your ads you want people to visit your website, you can select the "Website traffic" objective. As you set up your campaign after selecting this objective, you'll view recommended features and settings that can help generate visits to your website.
In some campaigns, you can add or remove an objective at any time and, if you want, choose to not use a goal and create a campaign without viewing an objective's recommendations. To view more information about each objective type and some of the highlighted features each objective recommends, simply place your cursor over an objective.
After you select campaign objectives, you can select the type of campaign you'd like to run, which determines where customers view your ads, as well as the settings and options available to you. Once you specify a campaign type, you go on to select the networks in which you’d like your ads to appear.
Learn more About ad formats available in different campaign types
Note: The Product and brand consideration campaign objective has been combined with Brand awareness and reach. You can now find all the same campaign subtypes from both objectives under Awareness and consideration. This merge helps to simplify advertisers goal selection experiences and offers a centralized place for all brand campaign subtypes.
Create a campaign with objectives
Objectives for Performance Max campaigns
Objective
When to use it
Types of features
Sales
- Drive sales or conversions online, in app, by phone, or in store
- Engage with customers who have already contacted you or are very close to making a purchase decision.
Features that start the purchasing or conversion process, such as bidding strategies aimed at clicks, assets, and ads that show to potential customers as they browse sites, videos and apps that partner with Google
Leads
- Encourage relevant customers to express interest in your products or services by signing up for a newsletter or providing their contact information
Features that start the conversion process, such as audience targeting, assets, and ads that show to people as they browse sites, videos, and apps that partner with Google
Note: You can’t edit marketing objectives for Performance Max campaigns after you create the campaign.
Objectives for Search campaigns
Objective
When to use it
Types of features
Sales
- Drive sales or conversions online, in app, by phone, or in store
- Engage with customers who've already contacted you or are close to making a purchase decision
Features that start the purchasing or conversion process, such as bidding strategies aimed at clicks, assets, and ads that show to potential customers as they browse sites, videos and apps that partner with Google
Leads
- Encourage relevant customers to express interest in your products or services by signing up for a newsletter or providing their contact information
Features that start the conversion process, such as audience targeting, assets, and ads that show to people as they browse sites, videos, and apps that partner with Google
Website traffic
- Drive potential customers to visit your website
Features that help researching customers find potential product options, such as ads with relevant, dynamically generated headlines, assets, and bidding strategies that can help increase visits to your site
Objectives for Display campaigns
Objective
When to use it
Types of features
Sales
- Drive sales or conversions from customers who are ready to act
- Engage with customers who've already contacted you or are very close to making a purchase decision
Features that start the purchasing or conversion process, such as visually striking ads, automated bidding and targeting, and other features that help you reach people who are actively browsing, researching, or comparing the products and services you sell
Leads
- Encourage relevant customers to express interest in your products or services by signing up for a newsletter or providing their contact information
Features that start the conversion process, such as automated bidding and targeting, visually striking ads, and other features that help you collect email addresses, newsletter signups, or other relevant contact information from people interested in your business
Website traffic
- Drive potential customers to visit your website
Features that help researching customers find potential product options, such as automated bidding, targeting, and ad creation, as well as features that can help you build a list of visitors you can later reconnect with
Awareness and consideration
- Increase awareness of your products or services.
- Introduce customers to what you offer when releasing a new product or expanding your business into a new area.
Features that help you build brand recognition, such as compelling visual ads, bid strategies that drive views, and other features that help attract new customers and capture their attention
Objectives for Demand Gen campaigns
Objective
When to use it
Types of features
Sales
- Drive sales or conversions from customers who are ready to act
- Engage with customers who've already contacted you or are very close to making a purchase decision
Features that start the purchasing or conversion process, such as visually striking ads, automated bidding and targeting, and other features that help you reach people who are actively browsing, researching, or comparing the products and services you sell
Leads
- Encourage relevant customers to express interest in your products or services by signing up for a newsletter or providing their contact information
Features that start the conversion process, such as automated bidding and targeting, visually striking ads, and other features that help you collect email addresses, newsletter signups, or other relevant contact information from people interested in your business
Website traffic
- Drive potential customers to visit your website
Features that help researching customers find potential product options, such as automated bidding, targeting, and ad creation, as well as features that can help you build a list of visitors you can later reconnect with
Awareness and consideration
- Increase awareness of your products or services.
- Introduce customers to what you offer when releasing a new product or expanding your business into a new area.
Features that help you build brand recognition, such as compelling visual ads, bid strategies that drive views, and other features that help attract new customers and capture their attention
Note: You can’t edit marketing objectives for Demand Gen campaigns after you create the campaign.
Objectives for Shopping campaigns
Objective
When to use it
Sales
- Drive sales or conversions online, in app, by phone, or in store
- Engage with customers who've already contacted you or are close to making a purchase decision
Leads
- Encourage relevant customers to express interest in your products or services by signing up for a newsletter or providing their contact information
Website traffic
- Drive potential customers to visit your website
Objectives for Video campaigns
Objective
When to use it
Sales
- Drive sales or conversions from customers who are ready to act
- Engage with customers who've already contacted you or are very close to making a purchase decisions
Leads
- Encourage relevant customers to express interest in your products or services by signing up for a newsletter or providing their contact information
Website traffic
- Drive potential customers to visit your website
Awareness and consideration
- Encourage potential customers to consider your brand or products when they're researching or shopping for products
- Engage with people who've demonstrated interest in your brand
- Encourage people to consider your brand or products in the future
- Reach a wide audience while using your brand efficiently
- Increase awareness among relevant audiences
- Use a variety of ad formats designed to get users to recognize your brand
- Reach audience at desired weekly Target frequency to increase brand recognition
Note: You can’t edit marketing objectives for Video campaigns after you create the campaign.
Objectives for App campaigns
Objective
When to use it
App promotion
- Drive app installs and engagement with an automated campaign showing ads on the Google Search Network, the Display Network, Google Play, within other apps, and on YouTube.
