What is a Google Performance Max Campaign?

Google Performance Max is an advertising campaign that leverages automation and machine learning to maximise performance. It uses all of Google’s advertising channels and Google AI in a single campaign.

Google Performance Max was introduced in 2021 and we have been trialling it with our eCommerce clients over the years. It’s a great tool for advertisers who want to utilise all of Google’s advertising channels in a single campaign to achieve their conversion goals. However, it’s highly automated. Since it uses AI to maximise and enhance advertisers’ placements, it needs to be given strategic inputs to work in the right direction for each individual business.

Let’s explore how you can make the most out of Google Performance Max, an AI-driven tool.

What is a Google Performance Max campaign?

According to Google, “Performance Max is a new goal-based campaign type that allows performance advertisers to access all of their Google Ads inventory from a single campaign.”

Rather than replacing traditional keyword-based search campaigns, it can be used to complement them.

Advertisers can use it to find more converting customers across all of Google’s channels, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. You set a specific conversion (or conversion value) goal and Google will optimise your campaign in real-time using Smart Bidding.

What are the benefits of Google Performance Max?

Provided that you feed your Performance Max campaigns with the right inputs, it can help you to engage new audiences across all of Google’s channels and networks in one consolidated campaign. Google’s AI also helps to streamline campaign management and drive better performance based on your goals (for example, target cost-per-acquisition or return-on-ad-spend).

When can you use a Google Performance Max campaign?

Anyone with specific advertising goals, such as driving online sales and generating leads can use Performance Max. It’s also useful for advertisers who are using keyword-based search campaigns and want to drive additional reach and conversion value.

However, if you are limited by which channels your ads can appear on, you may need to consider if Google Performance Max is right for you.

If you are an eCommerce brand, your campaigns will optimise for conversions. However, if you are focused on lead generation, your campaigns will need to be optimised to deliver conversion value.

How does Google Performance Max compare to Google Discovery?

Google Discovery mostly focuses on delivering visually engaging ads across Google’s Discovery feeds, such as the YouTube home feed, Gmail Promotions tab, and Google Discover. It’s a great way for advertisers to showcase their brand stories, products, and services in a visually captivating way.

However, Google Performance Max is focused on generating conversions and maximising performance across all Google properties, such as Search, Display, YouTube, and Discover.

How does Google Performance Max compare to Google Shopping?

Smart Shopping campaigns used to pull a brand’s product data from a feed to create Shopping ads. If you were previously running Smart Shopping campaigns, these would have been automatically upgraded to Performance Max in 2022.

That’s because Performance Max campaigns offer the same foundational features such as Smart Shopping, as well as access to additional Google Ads inventory, such as YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps.

How do you create and optimise Google Performance Max campaigns?

If you want your Performance Max campaigns to perform, then you need to provide useful data inputs.

Performance Max will use AI to drive conversions through optimised bids and placements. However, it’s up to you to give the algorithm the right information to work with. When you are creating and optimising your campaigns, you can provide helpful inputs, such as audience signals, high-quality text, images, and video. You can also provide context about the conversions that are most valuable to your business.

It’s also important to utilise the brand safety settings available so that you can tell Google Ads about any content where you don’t want your ads to appear.

Like any other type of digital advertising campaign, you should also:

Set clear objectives:

Select the conversion goals that matter to your business, then clearly define and measure them in your Performance Max campaigns.

Choose the right bidding strategy:

Performance Max is designed to boost your conversions. So, select “maximise conversion value” or “maximise conversions” as your bidding strategy. You can also set cost-per-acquisition and return-on-ad-spend targets to make sure that your campaigns are profitable.

Leverage automation where appropriate:

Performance Max campaigns can also automatically create assets for you using content from your landing pages and text-based search ads. There is also a URL expansion feature that uses landing pages on our website to match your ads to relevant queries. The level of automation you can use will depend on your business, offering, and industry. Remember that you only want your content and ads to be displayed in places that make sense for your business.

Use a variety of creative assets:

Performance Max needs a lot of creative to perform, so make sure you upload lots of text, image, and video assets. Keep in mind that if you don’t upload any videos, Performance Max will create videos for you. Diverse creative assets also give Google’s AI more material to work with. It can present the most relevant assets to each user and their intent, prevent creative fatigue, and help you identify the top performers.

Refine your targeting:

You can point Google’s AI in the right direction using audience signals and search themes. For example, uploading customer lists with your customer data will help Google match your campaigns with the right audiences. Search themes are also important because they allow you to target the queries that you know your customers are using to find your solutions.

Monitor performance metrics:

Keep track of your conversion performance and check if you are hitting your goals. This will help you monitor trends and identify opportunities for improvement.

Optimise your website:

Performance Max campaigns rely on the content of your website to dynamically generate highly relevant ads. The user experience on your website also has a big impact on your conversion rate.

Are Google Performance Max Campaigns Good?

Performance Max is a powerful Google Ads campaign. It helps advertisers maximise their placements in one consolidated campaign and uses sophisticated AI to enhance conversions.

However, like any AI tool, it needs the right strategic inputs to succeed. When campaigns become more automated, advertisers need to put more energy into supplying the right strategic inputs, reaching the right audiences, and ensuring brand safety.