Campaign types in Hero Marketer
"Campaign type" means two different things in Hero Marketer, and it helps to keep them apart:
- The channel. Search, Performance Max, or Demand Gen. The wizard builds Search campaigns end to end. The wizard can also build a Performance Max or a Demand Gen campaign: set Campaign type on the Choose what to target step. For a retargeting campaign on Search or on Demand Gen, also set Audience type to Only people on my lists. Performance Max and Demand Gen use Category search only. See Create a Demand Gen campaign and Create a retargeting campaign. Hero AI can analyze existing Performance Max campaigns and change their status, budget, and bidding. It cannot edit asset groups or assets. For those fixes, it gives you the steps to follow in Google Ads.
- The search type. The Search type menu on the wizard's Choose what to target step: Category search, Brand search, or Competitor search. This setting steers keyword research and ad copy.
The three search types in the wizard
When you start a Search campaign in the wizard, you pick one of three options in the Search type menu on the Choose what to target step. The choice changes which keywords Hero Marketer keeps and the playbook the Ad Copy Agent writes from:
- Category search. People who search the category. They have the problem but do not know you yet. Keyword research stays on bottom of funnel category and solution terms. Ad copy leads with category language and product value. This is the default.
- Brand search. People who already search your brand by name. Keyword research prioritizes brand bearing terms. Ad copy reinforces trust and your official brand voice.
- Competitor search. People who search a competitor's brand. You type the competitor's brand name as the search term. Hero Marketer targets keywords that pair the competitor's name with a buying word, such as pricing, alternative, or vs, but keeps the name out of your ad text. Google's trademark policy disallows a competitor's trademark in visible ad copy.
The campaign name keeps older labels for the search type: Non branded for Category search, Branded for Brand search, and Competitor for Competitor search. For example, a Category search campaign gets a name like Search | Non branded | Project management tool | Tools for engineering teams | US: the search type, the search term, the keyword cluster, and the country code.
For how each search type shapes the generated headlines and descriptions, see How AI generates ad copy.
The Competitor search type versus a competitor campaign brief in Hero AI
The Competitor search type in the wizard and the competitor campaign brief in Hero AI chat are two different things. In Hero AI chat, you paste the page URL of a competitor. Hero AI then writes a brief with angles and keyword themes. With a target country and a connected account, the brief also adds a keyword plan and draft ad copy that does not name the competitor. The brief does not create a campaign in Google Ads, and it does not fill in the wizard. To launch a competitor campaign, open Create campaign and set Search type to Competitor search. See Plan a competitor campaign.
Search: what the wizard creates
The wizard builds Search campaigns, which run on Google's search results page and are the right default for most B2B SaaS demand capture:
- Triggered by keywords. You target the queries you care about. People who search those queries see your ad.
- Reporting for each keyword. You see exactly which keywords drove which clicks, conversions, and spend, granular enough to act on.
- Ad group structure. Each campaign holds one or more ad groups. The wizard maps one keyword cluster to one ad group.
- Full text ad control. The Ad Copy Agent writes headlines and descriptions from your product context and keywords. You review and edit them before launch.
The same hierarchy (campaign, ad group, ad, keyword, search term) shows up in two places. The dashboard drilldown lets you browse it visually. Hero AI walks the same structure when you ask about a campaign in chat. See Drill into a campaign.
Performance Max: analyzed, and created from the wizard
Performance Max (PMax) is Google's automated campaign type. One PMax campaign serves ads across all Google surfaces (Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps). It uses the assets you provide. Google's system decides where, when, and to whom your ads show. A few things make PMax different from Search:
- No keywords or ad groups. PMax uses asset groups instead, bundles of headlines, descriptions, images, videos, and logos that Google mixes into ads on the fly.
- Less granular reporting. The placement view (where your ads showed) exposes impressions only, not clicks or cost. Google also aggregates search intent insights into its own categories, not raw queries. This is a Google decision, not a Hero Marketer one.
- Creative completeness signals. Asset coverage and ad strength tell you whether you have given Google enough creative to work with, closer to structural diagnostics than performance variance.
The wizard can create a PMax campaign with Category search. It writes the ad copy with long headlines and takes at least 5 images of each size from Create images or from your uploads. It makes one search theme from each keyword of the cluster, up to 25, at any monthly budget. 25 is the most that the wizard sends, not always Google's limit. Google's automatic text and enhanced YouTube videos are off, so the campaign shows only the lines on the Check your ad step. It also adds one audience signal, from the parts that you pick on the Extras tab of the Check your ad step. The parts are the people who search on Google for those keywords, your website visitor lists, and your customer lists. You must pick at least one part. See Create a Performance Max campaign. The wizard does not add video, interests, demographics, exclusions, a second audience signal, or a second asset group. Make those changes in Google Ads. Once a PMax campaign exists in the account, Hero Marketer's dashboard reads it. When you click the campaign in the campaign table, Hero Marketer opens a PMax specific view, with tabs for asset groups, assets, search term insights, placements, and networks.
Demand Gen: created from the wizard
Demand Gen is Google's campaign type for image and video ads on YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Display. The wizard can create a Demand Gen campaign with Category search, one ad group, one audience, and one image ad. The audience always holds the people who search on Google for the keywords of the cluster, and you can add your lists on the Extras tab of the Check your ad step. See Create a Demand Gen campaign. A Demand Gen campaign has ad groups but no keywords. The dashboard reads Demand Gen campaigns, and the campaign type filter has a Demand Gen option. When you click a Demand Gen campaign in the campaign table, Hero Marketer opens a view with tabs for ad groups, ads, and networks. The view has no keywords and no search terms.
What Hero AI does with each channel
Hero AI reads both Search and Performance Max campaigns, but the analysis differs. When you ask Hero AI about a campaign, it finds the channel first. Then it uses the checks that fit that channel. You do not have to specify Search vs PMax.
| Topic | Search campaign | Performance Max campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Top level reports | Campaign performance, segmentation, change history, billing | Campaign performance, segmentation, change history, billing |
| Drill in | Ad group → keyword → search term | Asset group → placement → search term insight category |
| Metrics per element | Cost, clicks, conversions, CPA, ROAS at every level | Cost / clicks / conversions at the asset group level; impressions only at the placement level; volume and conversions for each search term insight category |
| Recommendations | Ad group restructuring, negative keywords, search term mining, ad copy fixes | Budget and bidding changes that Hero AI can apply. Asset group, asset coverage, and ad strength fixes, given as steps to do in Google Ads |
When to use Search versus Performance Max
- Use Search when intent is clear. People type exactly what your product does, and you want full control over which queries trigger your ads. Most B2B SaaS demand capture campaigns are Search.
- Use Performance Max when intent is broader and you have the creative. Brand awareness or top of funnel work where Google's automation finds audiences across surfaces. PMax needs a meaningful library of headlines, descriptions, images, and ideally videos to perform.
- Use Demand Gen to reach people before they search. Image ads on YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Display, for the people who search for your keywords, your lists if you add them, and people like them.
- Use retargeting to bring back people who know you. Search retargeting and Demand Gen retargeting show ads only to your website visitor lists and customer lists. To make one, set Audience type to Only people on my lists, then pick your lists on the Extras tab of the Check your ad step.
If you are early in paid search, start with Search. Add PMax later, if the use case fits and you have the creative budget.
Campaign types the wizard does not create
The wizard does not build Display, Video, Shopping, or App campaigns. If you run them, they still appear on your dashboard and on the All campaigns page. In the campaign type filter, Display has its own option, and Video, Shopping, and App campaigns are under Other. You can click each campaign to open its drill-down page. Hero AI can read their campaign, ad group, and ad performance, and change their status and budget. Hero AI cannot read their placements, video metrics, or Shopping product data.
The Search terms wasting budget alert covers Search campaigns only. The automations that add negative keywords, pause keywords, or change targets also cover Search campaigns only.