Smart campaigns: Is switching to Expert Mode right for you?

Compare smart campaigns with other Microsoft Advertising campaign types.

Note

Not everyone has this feature yet. If you don't, don't worry—it's coming soon!

When you first get started with smart campaigns in Microsoft Advertising, you're in Smart Mode. Smart Mode is a streamlined, simple experience that lets Microsoft Advertising's AI take care of most of the nuts and bolts of ad campaign management. It's a great way for small businesses and novice advertisers to start off advertising on the Microsoft Search Network.

Expert Mode is the full-feature Microsoft Advertising experience. It gives you more control over campaign management, lets you add more content to your ads, and provides much more in the way of performance reporting and tracking.

People starting out in Microsoft Advertising can take three different paths:

Path 1	Path 2	Path 3
Some people who are already familiar with online marketing will opt to start off in Expert Mode.	Some people will start off in Smart Mode, learn more about online advertising, and at some point decide to switch from Smart Mode to Expert Mode.	Some people will choose to stay in Smart Mode.

Each path leads to success! Which you choose depends on what features are important to you and how much time you're willing and able to devote to advertising.

Let's compare Smart Mode and Expert Mode

Smart Mode:

Screenshot of a smart campaign's details page

Expert Mode:

	Smart Mode	Expert Mode
Content you can have in your ads	Text, phone number	Text, phone number, images, maps, links to different parts of your website, reviews, dynamic text and information (such as prices) customized for the person looking at your ad
Ad campaign types you can use	Text ad search campaigns	Text ad search campaigns, shopping campaigns, audience campaigns
What determines how much you pay for each click	Bidding (setting how much each click is worth) is completely handled by Microsoft Advertising	You can set bids manually or choose from several different automated bid strategies, based on your budget and business goals
How you can target your ads	By customer location, your business category, products/services	By customer location, day of the week or time of day, device type, age, gender, LinkedIn profile information, past interaction with your website (remarketing), and more
What campaign performance metrics are available	Spend, clicks, impressions, search phrases, phone calls, device type—each in a separate module	Dozens of additional metrics, and the ability to run reports (automatically, if you choose) on any combination of them

Switching from Smart Mode to Expert Mode

Important

Once you switch from Smart Mode to Expert Mode, you can't switch back.
However, any smart campaigns you have created will continue working and you can continue to create smart campaigns in Expert Mode.

To switch from Smart Mode to Expert Mode:

Choose Tools > Switch to Expert Mode from the top menu.
Choose Switch to Expert Mode when prompted to confirm if you are sure you want to switch to Expert mode.

Choose the gear icon from the top menu.
Select Switch to Expert Mode.