On February 6, 2013, Google announced a fundamental update to its AdWords platform: the introduction of Enhanced Campaigns. This shift aimed to streamline campaign management across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices—allowing marketers to consolidate targeting and bidding into a single campaign.
After attending the initial training sessions, we’ve pulled together the key takeaways, benefits, drawbacks, and what advertisers need to plan for in this new era of AdWords.
What Are Enhanced Campaigns?
Enhanced Campaigns were designed for a cross-device digital landscape. Rather than managing multiple campaigns for mobile, desktop, and tablets separately, marketers can now:
Control bids by device, location, and time — For example, increase bids for mobile users within a 1km radius of a store during lunchtime.
Serve smarter creative based on context — Automatically show the right ad, sitelink, or app depending on the device and location.
Track more conversion types — Including phone calls, app downloads, and multi-device conversions.
This change means fewer campaigns to manage, but with more control baked into each.
Key Rollout Dates
February 12, 2013 – Enhanced Campaigns became available to all advertisers.
June 2013 – All campaigns were automatically upgraded to Enhanced Campaigns.
End of February 2013 – Updates to AdWords Editor and API released to support the transition.
Advertisers using third-party tracking tools should consult providers to ensure compatibility.
Pros of Enhanced Campaigns
1. Simplified Campaign Management
No more duplicating campaigns across devices. Bids and targeting can now be adjusted within a single campaign, streamlining account structures.
2. Mobile-Friendly by Default
Mobile setup becomes easier for new advertisers, with simplified configuration for mobile-specific ad copy, bids, and extensions.
3. Advanced Sitelink Control
Advertisers gain sitelink scheduling, individual performance reports, and faster approval processes—enabling more dynamic ad strategies.
4. New Conversion Metrics
Track conversions from app downloads, phone calls, and cross-device behaviour—helping marketers build more accurate attribution models.
5. Smarter Bidding
Set nuanced bid adjustments across time, location, and device—all from one dashboard.
6. Granular Ad Extensions
Ad extensions can now be assigned at the ad group level and scheduled based on time or location, making cross-device efficiencies easier to achieve.
Cons of Enhanced Campaigns
1. No Device-Specific Budgets
Advertisers can’t assign separate budgets for desktop, tablet, and mobile. This may result in budget imbalance across device types.
2. No True Mobile-Only Campaigns
Although it’s possible to reduce mobile targeting by -100%, creating campaigns exclusively for mobile is no longer an option.
3. Limited Mobile Strategy Flexibility
Advertisers lose the ability to target specific mobile OS (e.g., iOS vs Android) or create mobile-only bidding strategies based on device behaviour.
4. No Tablet-Only Targeting
Tablets are grouped with desktops by default. This assumes their usage patterns are similar, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
5. Complex Bid Multipliers
Layering bid adjustments across devices, times, and locations adds a steep learning curve. Some limitations remain in how granular these adjustments can be.
6. Third-Party Tracking Challenges
Since all devices use the same keyword and tracking string, keyword-level tracking by device becomes less accurate with third-party tools. Workarounds exist but still reduce tracking clarity.
Initial Industry Response
Enhanced Campaigns mark a step forward for integrating mobile into AdWords, but not without drawbacks.
Smaller businesses will benefit from easier mobile setup and smarter sitelink and extension management. However, losing control over device-specific strategies (especially for mobile and tablet) will frustrate more advanced advertisers who rely on that granularity.
Larger advertisers must rethink how they approach bidding, segmentation, and reporting. Enhanced Campaigns demand new workflows and planning, especially when transitioning from previously isolated device campaigns.
Recommendations
Audit your device-specific strategy — Understand what you’re losing and how to adjust.
Work with clients — Prepare a clear migration plan and review projected impact on bidding, conversion volume, and performance metrics.
Adopt early and experiment — Enhanced Campaigns offer new levers to pull. Early adopters will gain a competitive edge.
Stay informed — We’ll be publishing updates regularly. Bookmark our blog or contact us for guidance.
Enhanced Campaigns signal a shift in how we think about cross-device marketing. The flexibility they offer comes with complexity—but also opportunity. Embrace the change, and plan carefully to maximise performance.
