Many advertisers are already in the process of testing Performance Max, and smart shopping and local campaigns will be automatically converted to this new format. So it's worthwhile for PPC professionals to understand the intricacies and functions of Google Ads' newest campaign type. And here are 5 useful tips on how to do it.
1: Implement accurate conversion tracking, including advanced conversion tracking.
Performance Max, like its predecessors (smart media ads, local campaigns, in-app campaigns), depends entirely on rate automation and targeting.
By intelligently assigning rates, these campaigns optimize performance in real time based on set conversion goals. Thus, traditionally important for Google Ads accounts, conversion tracking in PMax becomes especially important. Advanced tracking allows you to record conversions more accurately and manage rate attribution more efficiently.
In addition, browsers are increasingly blocking cookies, which means you're not getting the data you need. Advanced conversion tracking will help PMax account for post-display conversions in optimization.
Implementing conversion tracking for e-commerce is fairly easy. But if your business deals with lead generation, it can be a challenge. The user path in lead generation can be more complex than in standard e-commerce projects, where visitors arrive at a site and go through the steps of the conversion path to purchase.
Therefore, the importance of additional tools should not be overlooked. This is the already mentioned advanced conversion tracking, but also offline conversion tracking, integration with CRM, etc. In this case, a Performance Max campaign will receive a full range of data and can become even more effective.
2: Properly determining budgets for PMax campaigns
Performance Max campaigns are as automated as possible, but budgets need to be managed effectively to make them work best. If you limit campaigns to a budget, you won't generate enough statistics. As a result, they will not be able to learn and deliver the expected results.
At the same time, if you have a small budget, you can intelligently reallocate it to cover all Google Ads resources in a single campaign. For example, turn off RCs where destinations are duplicated with Performance Max. In that case, PMax can and should be tested.
Some recommendations for working with budgets:
- set a sufficient daily budget (the minimum can be calculated from the formula CPA x 10);
- in ROAS-targeted campaigns, do not allow a limited budget. Google assigns this status under certain conditions. If the corresponding system warning "Limited by budget" appears, increase it until the limitation disappears;
- set the ROAS target to the average profitability of the account over the past 30 days.
3: Use conversion value rules
If you can't import offline conversions and optimize campaigns based on them, alternatively configure conversion value rules. In this case, the system will assign a higher value to certain types of customers than others. Conversion value rules can be set based on the location of the user, device or audience group.
The campaign will automatically prioritize those conversions to which you assign a higher value. For example, a call from a customer is three times more important to you than filling out a form for potential customers. So assign a value of 120 PLN for a call and 40 PLN for filling out a form.
For some conversion goals, such as store visits, there is an option to set "No condition", which allows you to set a static value at the campaign level.
4: Use conversion value rules
With the launch of Performance Max, Google Advertising has introduced us to a seemingly new concept of audience signposting.
Normally, when you add audiences to your campaign, you tell the system exactly what type of users you want to display ads to. In this way, you control targeting.
When you create a signal audience in Performance Max, the specialist also tells Google which users it wants to display ads to. However, PMax will only use these segments as information for analysis. Once the campaign starts collecting data, it will go beyond the preset settings and display ads to those it thinks are most likely to convert.
To speed up the adaptation of the machine learning algorithm and provide the system with the maximum amount of information about potential customers, add:
a customer list;
if it doesn't exist, remarketing audiences on the site will suffice;
special audience segments;
interest-based audiences;
Customise the demographics available. If you know the exact age of your target audience, you can set an appropriate range, e.g. women aged between 25 and 45.
All audience signals in your Google Ads account are set up in Audience Manager separately from the data segments. Even if you set them up when you create an object group when setting up a Performance Max campaign, they will be available at account level for use in other RCs. This suggests that Google has plans for audience signals beyond PMax, so be on the catch.
5: Add high quality creations
One of the hardest parts of setting up PMax is ensuring there is enough content for this creative format. RC covers so many different sets that you will need to provide it with a lot of text, image and video creatives.
As with contextual media networks, in PMax, if you don't provide video creatives, Google Ads will create them on its own. Perhaps the templates will get better over time, but for now the automatically generated videos leave a lot to be desired.
If you don't have video creatives, use free tools such as Canva for Performance Max to animate images into short videos.
As with all Google Ads campaigns, the video must be uploaded to YouTube before it can be used in the campaign.
Information on the effectiveness of the creative and evaluation of the automatically generated videos can be found here:
Object groups - View details - Objects
On the adjacent tab "Combinations", you can also view the most popular text and creative combinations.
Remember
Opinions vary on Performance Max campaigns, but I generally recommend that e-commerce projects use the new format. Lead generation projects should only test PMax if they have conversion tracking set up properly.
In summary, 5 tips on the important points for a Performance Max campaign:
- Implement accurate conversion tracking.
- Select budgets correctly.
- Use conversion value rules.
- Create broad audience signals.
- Add high-quality creatives and test automatically generated videos.
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