Half the guides ranking for this question describe a product catalogue Google retired years ago. Discovery campaigns have not been selectable since March 2024, Video Action Campaigns finished migrating in April 2026, and standalone Display is on its way out. If you are choosing between types of Google Ads from a list written in 2023, you are planning around options that no longer appear in the interface.
This is the current roster, what each one is genuinely for, what has been retired or renamed and when, the Australian catch that trips up local businesses reading American advice, and the short list of campaign types a business your size actually needs.
Campaign types versus ad formats
One quick distinction, because the confusion causes real mistakes. A campaign type is the container: it decides where your ads can appear, what Google uses to match them, and which objectives you can optimise toward. An ad format is what sits inside it.
Search is a campaign type. Responsive search ads and call ads are formats within it. Choosing the wrong format costs you some performance; choosing the wrong campaign type changes the economics of your entire budget, and it does not self-correct.
The Google Ads campaign types in 2026
| Type | Where it shows | Best for | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search | Google results and search partners | Capturing existing demand | Active |
| AI Max for Search | Google results | Keywordless coverage; DSA replacement | Active since April 2026 |
| Performance Max | Every Google surface | Ecommerce and mature accounts | Active |
| Shopping | Search, Shopping tab, Images | Physical products | Active |
| Demand Gen | YouTube, Discover, Gmail | Demand creation, visual products | Active |
| Display | Display Network | Remarketing, cheap reach | Migrating to Demand Gen |
| Video | YouTube and partners | Awareness and reach only | Active |
| App | Search, Play Store, YouTube, Display | App installs and in-app actions | Active |
| Smart | Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube | Almost nobody, honestly | Active |
Google’s own overview of choosing a campaign type is worth a look when the interface changes, because it changes often.
Search campaigns
Search campaigns are text ads that appear when someone types a query. They remain the highest-intent inventory Google sells, and for most Australian service businesses they are where the money is made. Someone searching “emergency electrician Gosford” has already decided; you are competing for who answers.
Three formats live here. Responsive search ads rotate up to 15 headlines and four descriptions, letting Google assemble the best combination per query. Call ads make a clickable phone number the main event, which suits trades and clinics where the enquiry is a phone call. Dynamic Search Ads generate headlines from your site content, and they are on the way out.
A copy tip that pays immediately: mirror the searcher’s exact phrase in a headline. An ad reading “Emergency Electrician Gosford” against that exact query lifts click-through rate and ad relevance, both of which feed Quality Score, which lowers what you pay per click. Pin your location or service headline if you need it in every impression, and let Google test the rest.
AI Max for Search
AI Max for Search came out of beta in April 2026 and is Google’s replacement for Dynamic Search Ads. It is not simply smarter broad match. It crawls your landing pages and ad assets to find queries your keyword list never covered, rewrites ad copy to match intent, and routes users to the most relevant page on your site rather than the one you nominated.
Google begins auto-upgrading Dynamic Search Ads campaigns to AI Max from September 2026, after which new DSA campaigns cannot be created. If you rely on DSA for long-tail coverage, test AI Max on your own terms before that happens.
Treat it the way you would treat Performance Max: the keywordless expansion needs disciplined negative keywords, and the copy rewriting needs a decent asset library to work with. Thin ad copy plus automation produces expensive nonsense.
Performance Max
Performance Max runs your assets across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign. You supply an asset group and audience signals, set a conversion goal, and Google’s automation allocates everything else.
It scales well for ecommerce with clean conversion data. It is a poor first campaign for a lead-generation business, because the algorithm needs volume before it can learn, and diagnosing a misfire is genuinely hard when reporting hides much of the placement detail.
The rule of thumb is roughly 30 conversions in 30 days before automated bidding earns its keep. Our guide on how much you should spend on Google Ads covers that threshold and the budget it implies.
Two things worth knowing. Performance Max does not replace Search; run a brand Search campaign alongside it or PMax will absorb your branded queries at open-market prices while hiding the impression share data that tells you a competitor is bidding on your name. And negative keywords are fully available in PMax now, so use them.
Shopping campaigns
Shopping campaigns show a product image, price and store name, drawn from a product feed in Merchant Center rather than from keywords you choose. Because there is no keyword list, your feed quality is the optimisation surface: titles, images, categories and identifiers.
Standard Shopping still exists alongside Performance Max, and plenty of serious retailers run both. Standard gives you product-level visibility that PMax’s reporting does not expose, which matters when one category is quietly dragging your blended return down.
Demand Gen: what replaced Discovery
Demand Gen is the current home for visual, feed-native advertising across YouTube, YouTube Shorts, the Discover feed and Gmail. It absorbed Discovery campaigns in March 2024 and Video Action Campaigns in April 2026.
It is not a rename. Demand Gen kept Discovery’s placements and added YouTube video inventory, carousel formats, lookalike audiences and product feeds. Clicks are considerably cheaper than Search because you are reaching people before intent forms, which is the point rather than a bargain.
For a service business, Demand Gen is a layer you add once Search is profitable, not a starting position.
Display campaigns
Display puts image ads across millions of sites and apps. Cheap clicks, low conversion rates, and a reliable way to waste money if you treat it as your primary acquisition channel.
Where it earns its place is remarketing to people who already showed intent, and category exclusions matter enormously. Without them, a meaningful share of spend disappears into mobile game apps.
Standalone Display began migrating into Demand Gen from mid-2026 and is expected to retire fully by 2027. If Display is your only campaign, plan the move now rather than being moved.
Video campaigns
Video campaigns run on YouTube and partner sites, priced per view or per thousand impressions rather than per click. Formats include skippable and non-skippable in-stream, six-second bumpers, in-feed and Shorts placements.
Since Video Action Campaigns retired, Video is an awareness and reach product. Conversion-focused video now runs through Demand Gen. Good for businesses whose work is best shown rather than described; expensive if the creative is weak.
App campaigns
App campaigns drive installs and in-app actions across Search, the Play Store, YouTube and Display, built automatically from your store listing. It is the only type that can place ads in the Play Store, and it optimises for nothing else. If you do not have an app, skip it entirely.
Smart campaigns
Smart campaigns are what Google suggests when you first open an account. They are fully automated, use keyword themes rather than keywords, and give you very little control.
They exist for owners with no time and no intention of learning the platform. The trade-off is that you cannot see or fix what is going wrong, and the wasted spend usually exceeds what proper setup would have cost. If you are choosing between a Smart campaign and a tightly built Search campaign, build the Search campaign.
Local Services Ads: the Australian answer
Local Services Ads are the pay-per-lead format that sits above everything else with a verification badge, and they are the single biggest source of confusion for Australian businesses reading overseas advice.
They have never launched in Australia. Google’s sign-up covers the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and a group of European markets. If someone has offered to set up “Google Guaranteed” for your Australian business, they were selling a product that does not exist here.
It is also worth knowing where the format is heading. Google is retiring the standalone Local Services platform and converting those campaigns into Performance Max with pay-per-lead goals, starting with the United States from August 2026 and other markets in 2027. Under that model the campaign is assembled from the business’s Google Business Profile, which cannot be edited inside the campaign at all.
The practical takeaway for an Australian business is unglamorous and useful: your Business Profile is already the deciding factor in the Map Pack, and if pay-per-lead ever arrives here it becomes the ad itself. Building it properly now is the same work either way, which is why Google Maps and local SEO sits alongside paid search rather than after it.
What has been retired or renamed
| Type | What happened | When |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Shopping | Absorbed into Performance Max | 2022 |
| Local campaigns | Absorbed into Performance Max | 2022 to 2023 |
| Discovery | Auto-upgraded to Demand Gen | March 2024 |
| Video Action Campaigns | Auto-upgraded to Demand Gen | April 2026 |
| Standalone Display | Migrating into Demand Gen | From mid-2026 |
| Dynamic Search Ads | Auto-upgrading to AI Max | From September 2026 |
The pattern is consistent. Google keeps folding action-oriented campaign types into higher-automation products. What survives as distinct is where manual control still produces value: Search, Standard Shopping, awareness Video and App.
Which types you actually need
Nine options is a catalogue, not a strategy. Here is the realistic stack by business type.
Local service business, trades and clinics. Brand Search plus tightly targeted non-brand Search. That is it, until you are consistently profitable. Add remarketing next, and Demand Gen only if you have budget spare after Search is capped out.
Ecommerce. Standard Shopping plus Performance Max plus a brand Search campaign to protect your own name. Demand Gen once conversion data is solid.
Professional services and B2B. Search first, because the buying cycle is long and the intent signal is everything. Demand Gen later for consideration, if the budget is genuinely surplus.
Registered not-for-profits. Before spending your own money, use the free ad credit available to you. Our guide on making a Google Ad Grant account work covers eligibility and the compliance rules that get accounts suspended.
Mistakes when choosing a campaign type
Starting with Performance Max. No conversion history means the algorithm is guessing with your money, and you cannot see where it went.
Running Display for cold conversions. Cheap clicks that rarely convert produce a worse cost per acquisition than expensive clicks that do.
Letting PMax run without a brand Search campaign. You end up paying market rate for people searching your own business name.
Accepting the Smart campaign Google suggests at signup. Convenient, opaque, and usually more expensive than doing it properly.
Turning on four types at once with one budget. Nothing gets enough data to learn from, and you cannot attribute the results you do get.
Frequently asked questions
How many types of Google Ads are there in 2026?
Nine campaign types are selectable: Search, AI Max for Search, Performance Max, Shopping, Demand Gen, Display, Video, App and Smart. Display is mid-migration into Demand Gen and Dynamic Search Ads is being upgraded into AI Max, so the practical list is shorter than it looks. Local Services Ads exist as a tenth type in some markets, but not in Australia.
What replaced Discovery campaigns?
Demand Gen replaced Discovery, with all remaining campaigns auto-upgraded by March 2024. It kept the Discover feed and Gmail placements and added YouTube video, Shorts, carousel formats, lookalike audiences and product feeds. Any guide still listing Discovery as an option is describing something that has not been selectable for over two years.
Does Performance Max replace Search campaigns?
No. Performance Max serves on Search inventory but without keyword control or branded query guardrails, so running it alone means paying open-market prices for people searching your business name and losing the impression share data that flags competitors bidding on your brand. The standard structure is brand Search plus non-brand Search plus Performance Max, each with its own budget and negatives.
Are Local Services Ads available in Australia?
No. Google’s Local Services sign-up covers the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and several European markets, and Australia has never been included. The standalone platform is also being retired into Performance Max with pay-per-lead goals, beginning in the United States from August 2026. The closest Australian equivalent is a well-maintained Google Business Profile plus Search campaigns with tight geographic targeting.
Which campaign type is best for a small service business?
Search, almost every time. It reaches people who have already decided they need what you sell, it gives you keyword-level control over spend, and it produces conversion data within days rather than months. Add remarketing once Search is profitable, and treat everything else as optional.
Should I use Smart campaigns to get started?
Generally no. Smart campaigns are quick to launch but give you almost no visibility into which searches consumed your budget, which makes improvement guesswork. A single tightly built Search campaign with proper conversion tracking takes a few more hours to set up and will usually outperform it within the first month.
Not sure which types belong in your account?
Better Leads builds Google Ads accounts around what a business actually needs, which is usually fewer campaign types run properly rather than more run badly. That means Search built tightly first, automation added only once there is enough conversion data to justify it.
You work directly with the senior strategist building the campaigns, not a junior account manager, and there are no lock-in contracts, so we earn the month. You also get real-time reporting showing every click, conversion and dollar, including which campaign type produced what.
We hold exclusive territory as well, so we will not run the same campaigns for your direct competitor. Based in Gosford, we work across the Central Coast, Newcastle and Sydney.
Book a free 30-minute strategy session and we will audit your current campaign structure and tell you which types are earning their budget. Call 0451 665 363 or get in touch here.
Final thoughts
Google’s direction of travel is obvious: fewer campaign types, more automation, less visibility into where your money goes. Every consolidation since 2022 has moved the same way, and there is no sign of it reversing.
That makes the choice simpler than the nine-item list suggests. Own the types that still give you control, feed the automated ones clean conversion data before you trust them, and ignore anything that does not match how your customers actually buy.