If you’re like me and have been using Google Ads for a while, then you’ve probably gone through the normal phases of optimisation. Starting with naivety to then understanding how it all works and finally realising that there are some limitations. But have you tried Performance Max campaigns?
If you’re new to Google ads, then this is a great place to start advertising your business. It provides a lot of features that allow you to get creative with your marketing strategy. If you’re just starting out it can be overwhelming but don’t worry; this guide will help you get started with setting up your first performance-based campaign!
In this article we will discuss what Performance Max campaigns are and how they can benefit your e-commerce. Let’s take a closer look!
What Are Performance Max Campaigns?
If you want more automation in your Google Ads but still want a degree of control over the optimisation process, Performance Max campaigns are a good fit. Performance Max campaigns are a new type of campaign in Google Ads that primarily use automation to strengthen the overall success of your advert.
These are not a replacement of ‘Standard Shopping’ or ‘Responsive Search Ads’. They technically should be used to work in synergy with your existing campaigns.
- Smart Shopping no longer exists so if you’re looking to automate your campaigns then you need to follow the route of Performance Max.
Performance Max campaigns allow for automated bidding based on performance metrics that you choose. Because these campaigns use sophisticated machine learning algorithms to optimise your ads, they tend to perform better than other types of campaigns. However, they don’t offer as much flexibility as standard shopping or manual bidding options (for example, there is no option to set cost per click).
The audience of these campaigns is for:
- New advertisers or experienced ads managers with limited time.
- Agencies with multiple accounts.
Promote Across The Entirety of Google
This unique campaign will allow Google Ads users to promote their offering across the entire Google universe. You will be able to advertise through Google search, Google Mail, YouTube and the Display Network.
Unlike Smart Shopping, aka the predecessor, Performance Max brings a new feature to the advertising process. Performance Max allows your business to combine the advertising of both shopping and search into one campaign. This makes managing your campaigns so much easier, however, it is still recommended by Google to run these in addition to responsive search ads and NOT instead of.
In Summary, What You Can Expect
- Combine the advertising of both shopping and search into one campaign.
- Easier management of Google Ads campaigns.
- Limited optimisation, processes are automated.
- Less control of your campaigns.
- More free time, log into Google Ads weekly or monthly with no worry.
Performance Max campaigns are good for advertisers looking to shift their attention away from daily ad optimisations and focus more heavily on other areas like product development and sales.
How to Set Up Your Performance Max Campaign
In order to create a campaign, you’ll need to enter the following information:
- The name of your campaign. This is a required field; it’s how Google Ads will recognise and distinguish your ad groups from each other.
- The budget for your campaign, which includes any money you want to spend on clicks and conversions. Keep in mind that all budgets are automatically divided evenly between your products or asset groups.
- Dates when you want this ad group or ad to run. When it starts and ends and when it stops showing up on a user’s screen as an eligible advertisement (in other words, as part of their rotation).
- Next, select which conversion action you would like to optimise for. The conversion action is the thing that happens when someone clicks on your ad and then performs a specific action. If it’s a form fill then the value may be drastically different to a product sale.
- Now choose your location and language settings, as well as any additional targeting settings such as age, gender, and device type.
- Next, to help you better manage your ads, Google Ads lets you set a performance target other than return on ad spend (ROAS). These targets differ from ROAS in that they count different metrics such as conversions or CPA. ROAS is conversion value divided by cost of the advert (times 100 for percentage). CPA is the amount you are willing to spend per sale.
- Now you’re all done, simply add the desired products, headlines and descriptions into the campaign and it will begin running immediately.
Performance Max Campaign Structure
Performance Max campaigns are a type of campaign that automatically sets the bids for your ads. Additionally, it creates keywords and focuses on the best options entirely based on your target cost per acquisition.
Compared to regular campaigns, Performance Max campaigns are entirely automated. Once created they can only be configured based on whether you run the ads in either target CPA or Target ROAS mode.
- There is no manual CPC or maximise clicks option at present.
- It’s possible for you to adjust the CPA or ROAS at any time based on desired results.
- Focus on trying to create some structure within your ad groups (based on each goal).
- Set up different bid strategies based on factors like predicted ROAS and account history data.
- Split your campaigns based on either brand, high performers or desired ROAS.
Performance Max Campaign Targets
Once you have created your Performance Max campaign, the targeting options are:
- Audience (included audience, excluded audience)
- Location (geo-targeting)
- Device (desktop only, mobile only, both desktop and mobile)
- Language (if you want to geo-target for languages other than English)
You can also use device bid adjustments and day parting. This means that you can increase or decrease the bids based on factors such as time of day or device. You may want to increase the bid during rush hour when people are likely to be visiting your website and decrease it later in the evening after most people have gone to sleep.
Conclusion
If you want more automation in your Google Ads but still want a degree of control over the optimisation process, Performance Max campaigns are a good fit.
If you’re looking to automate some or all of your Google Ads campaigns, we recommend Performance Max. You can set it up in just a few minutes and start automating your ads right away. If you want more control over the optimization process, though, it might be better to use a Manual campaign type instead.
