Google confirms Standard Shopping campaigns will remain available

Standard Shopping campaigns will be supported for the foreseeable future, Ginny Marvin, ads product liaison at Google, confirmed during PPC Chat (on February 17) and via Twitter. 

Here is a table comparing Smart Shopping and Standard Shopping campaigns.

Why we care. Standard Shopping campaigns offer a set of capabilities, controls and data that many advertisers rely on, and knowing that they’ll continue to be available will come as a relief, especially since Google has been taking away manual controls in so many areas.

In a sense, Smart Shopping campaigns are going away — they’ll be transitioned into Performance Max campaigns sometime between July and September. The continued availability of Standard Shopping campaigns means advertisers will still have this shopping-specific campaign type, even after Smart Shopping goes away.

Performance Max to absorb Smart Shopping and Local campaigns. As mentioned above, Performance Max is set to absorb Smart Shopping campaigns this summer. Local campaigns will also be rolled into Performance Max sometime between August and September. Once that occurs, advertisers will no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping or Local campaigns.

To facilitate the transition, Google Ads will offer a self-service tool for advertisers that want to move their campaigns over to Performance Max ahead of the transition window, which could give them more time for testing. The tool will be available for Smart Shopping campaigns starting in April, with support for Local campaigns starting in June.