Google's New AdWords Express Takes the Work Out of Creating Ad Campaigns

It’s no secret that AdWords ads are still responsible for the vast majority of Google’s revenue and that local ads in particular are a major growth area for the company. Today, Google launched AdWords Express, a new product that will make it even easier for local businesses to launch AdWords campaigns. AdWords Express boils the relatively complex AdWords interface down to the basics and makes setting up a new campaign as easy as filling out a basic web form.

What also makes AdWords express very different from the regular AdWords experience is that Google automatically manages most aspects of a campaign. Users, for example, don’t have to select specific keywords that will trigger the ad or manage the details of the bidding process. Instead, advertisers simply select a monthly budget, decide whether ads should be linked to their place pages or websites and come up with the copy for the ad (the last one is probably the hardest task).

Chances are, many AdWords professionals and consultants won’t like this new approach, as it makes setting up campaigns almost too easy.

For advanced users with a good understanding of how Google’s advertising products work, though, digging deeper into the system and being able to manipulate which keywords trigger ads and how much they want to pay for them is still a worthwhile undertaking. AdWwords Express, after all, looks like it will be a bit of a black box.