Recently, Google Ads has brought out a new experimental feature for Performance Max campaigns. This new feature has been in the pipeline for a while now and is a welcome addition to the platform.
Before we dive into the most recent and highly-anticipated Performance Max update. Letâs explore what a Performance Max campaign is, how it works and how it can benefit your business.
What is a Performance Max Campaign?
Performance Max campaigns, also known as PMax campaigns are one of the most recent examples of how Googleâs automation can be used successfully in campaigns. Within this automation, you find a combination of campaign types that are familiar to longstanding accounts.
A Performance Max campaign can be made up of search, display, shopping, video and more. With all of these advert types, you can create a unique asset that showcases your businessâs offering in a creative way.
How does it work?
Automation is a large factor in Performance Max campaigns. However, initially, when creating a campaign, automation does not play a part as you have a good level of control over the headlines, images and descriptions within your asset.
You also create your own extensions (or use account-level extensions) and you can create your own âaudience signal. An audience signal can be generated by using data on your website, or data through Googleâs platform. This signal is then used to help reach your target market.
How can a Performance Max campaign benefit your business?
As Performance Max campaigns cover more channels and formats, offer more sophistication, and supports more asset groups, youâre also able to reach more audiences with a range of creatives. With that being said, Google optimising your campaigns can be seen as both helpful and limiting.
By having a campaign mainly driven by Google, youâll find that Google selects strategies and routes similar to others on the platform. Meaning you could be following a strategy similar to your competitors. Therefore, youâll want to make a few creative decisions when it comes to the set-up and optimisation of your campaign.
Performance Max Optimisations
Segment your campaigns and products
A good way to ensure youâre correctly using your Performance Max campaigns is to segment your campaigns and products if relevant. By separating your campaigns into granular categories, you can be more confident in your day-to-day running of the account. The overall goal is to create a strong structure that can be optimised by Googleâs automation.
Strategic Audience Signals
When creating your audience signal, you want to get into the mind of your customer. Think about their online interactions and intent, and zone in on their day-to-day interests. You can also create multiple assets to test your audience signals, meaning you can test people’s online interactions. Of course, if youâre testing a lot of different audiences, you may want to follow the above-mentioned segmentation advice and separate your campaigns.
Letâs talk updates and experiments
Moving on to the new update, Googleâs Performance Max update will allow you to run experiments and monitor your performance before you decide to apply changes to your account.
Additionally, last year, Google announced that you would be able to use recommendations as experiments. Then in October of 2022, they announced that additional experiments were coming âin the following months.â With these announcements, you can see the real step forward that they have made by introducing recommendation experiments to their Performance Max campaigns.
Where can I find the Google Ads experiments section?
Similar to other experiments and tools, you can find the experiments section down the left-hand side of your desktop screen once you click on your Performance Max campaign.
When you want to utilise this tool, you will click the â+â sign either at the top or middle of the screen and experiment away!
Final overview
This update is a welcomed addition to the platform and will allow users to learn more from their Performance Max campaigns. As Marketing Managers, we can imagine that there will be many more updates from Google in terms of Performance Max campaigns, and we are looking forward to seeing what experiments people come up with.