Campaign types in Hero Marketer
"Campaign type" means two different things in Hero Marketer, and it helps to keep them apart:
- The channel. Search vs Performance Max. The wizard builds Search campaigns end to end. The wizard does not build Performance Max campaigns. But Hero AI can analyze and manage Performance Max campaigns that already exist in your Google Ads account.
- The intent type. The choice you make on the wizard's targeting step for a Search campaign: non branded, branded, or competitor. This setting steers keyword research and ad copy.
The three intent types in the wizard
When you start a Search campaign in the wizard, you pick one of three intent types on the targeting step. The choice changes which keywords the Keyword Research Agent prioritizes and the playbook the Ad Copy Agent writes from:
- Non branded. 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.
- Branded. People who already search your brand by name. Keyword research prioritizes brand bearing terms. Ad copy reinforces trust and your official brand voice.
- Competitor. People who search a competitor's brand. Hero Marketer targets the competitor's name as a bid keyword, but keeps it out of your ad text. Google's trademark policy disallows a competitor's trademark in visible ad copy.
For how each intent type shapes the generated headlines and descriptions, see How AI generates ad copy.
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: managed but not created
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 does not create PMax campaigns, because the wizard follows the keyword cluster copy flow, which does not apply to PMax. To run PMax with your Search campaigns, create it in Google Ads directly. 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.
What Hero AI does with each channel
Hero AI handles both Search and Performance Max, but the analysis tracks differ. When you ask Hero AI about a campaign, it detects the channel before drilling in, routes the analysis down the matching track, and calls out which track it is on. 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 intent 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 category |
| Recommendations | Ad group restructuring, negative keywords, search term mining, ad copy fixes | Asset group composition, asset coverage / ad strength fixes, placement themes, search intent category gaps |
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, retargeting, 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.
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 Hero Marketer does not handle
Hero Marketer does not analyze or manage other Google Ads campaign types: Display, Video, Shopping, Demand Gen, Discovery, or App. They are outside the product's scope today. If you run those campaigns with Hero Marketer's campaigns, you will see them in Google Ads. But Hero AI will not drill into them.