Main Differences Between AdWords and AdWords Express

As you probably know Google AdWords is Google’s main advertising tool, but after its success, Google launched AdWords Express in 2011 which was specifically designed for small businesses that aren’t willing to put too much time into their managing of Google PPC ads. Why is it for these people? Very simple, because it’s Google AdWords’ automated alternative to Google AdWords.
However, there are some disadvantages, such as the fact that you cannot do keyword analysis or research bid prices on AdWords Express, which means that your resulting PPC campaign won’t be as good as a well-researched campaign.
Another disadvantage AdWords Express has when comparing it to AdWords is that Google sets your campaign’s local reach based on your location, and it does it automatically, meaning that your reach can be too broad or too narrow.

If we are to determine the main differences between both tools, we’ll say that Google AdWords allows you to target ads geographically anywhere while Google Adwords Express only lets you do it locally. Campaign management is customized by users in the case of Google Adwords, and automated when it comes to Adwords Express.
Other differences we might find are the different form of tracking and reporting (by phone or form in the case of Google Adwords and by clicks or impressions in the case of Google Adwords Express).
Also, as you’ll find out if you check out this post on our blog, some of the main disadvantages if you use Google AdWords Express are the fact that you’re only allowed a limited amount of keywords (limiting the traffic on your site), you cannot mark specific keywords as inappropriate, you can’t define exact matches or use other tools to improve your campaign’s performance.
Finally, the last difference is that owning a website is compulsory for Google Adwords, but not for the Adwords express version.