“Always deliver more than expected”
– Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet Inc.
Google Performance Max campaigns upgrade, widely referred to as pMax, was announced by Google a little more than a year ago, and today, it is already becoming an integral part of businesses’ digital advertising strategies.
It is an extremely powerful yet simple and effective ad format that allows the promotion of products and services throughout Google and its partner networks. It is automatic, and once you create your campaign – messages, feed, headlines, display, ads, and video, Google’s algorithm begins its selection process of where, when, and to whom to show what.
As the world moves towards simplicity and more efficiency, so do we at Canesta. We are always on track with Google’s new trends and major updates, such as Google’s Helpful Content Update. And we constantly improve and move forward toward creating result-based campaigns that exponentially increase conversion rates and generate better ROI. Our digital marketing strategists and SEO experts are constantly on track with the newest advancements by Google, and we want to share with you more about one of the newest functionalities by Google.
What exactly is Performance Max?
Google’s Performance Max is described as “the new goal-based campaign type that allows performance-reporting advertisers to access all of their Google Ads inventory from a single campaign.” It’s designed to complement your keyword-based search campaigns to help you find more customers to convert across all Google channels like YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
Once created, the campaign works much more effectively than before as you set your assets (assets: feed if applicable), messages, headlines, display ads, and video.
Performance Max campaigns are much simpler in terms of settings, but our experts advise you to approach them with a strategy as you do with your other ad campaigns. Although pMax is much more straightforward in terms of functionality, you would still have to choose the right options for optimal results.
How does it work?
Campaigns can be divided into several asset groups or groups by assets, which is practically a collection of creatives around a given topic or corresponding ones with a given target audience.
It’s one of the simplest ways to reach consumers in different environments, across multiple channels, all in one campaign.
This format has the potential to improve the user experience by having simplified campaign management separately.
Instead of creating separate campaigns for the different channels, you can do it with Performance Max by setting a daily budget and location and continuing to “the next” settings.
With all these assets uploaded in one place, you’ll be able to see how your ads will be viewed on each channel.
It’s also a great way to see how your assets interact with each other and if and how they convey the message you want to deliver to your audience.
How Is pMax Different from Google Ads Campaigns?
Performance Max is a completely result-oriented format. Although it is an automatic upgrade to Smart Shopping campaigns, it is much more than that. It’s designed to drive more traffic and sales and reach your customers much more effectively than before. Performance Max will show up across all Google’s ad inventory and formats, improve your campaign’s performance, and help you find unexpected audiences.
With its URL expansion, pMax will choose a landing page based on customer intent, and with its assets groups, it will include a set of assets that relate to a single audience. With its audience signals, it will alert Google that there are more segment visitors ready to convert. And with its Reporting and Insights feature, pMax will provide new reports explaining how machine learning is accomplishing the results and the signals in use, so you can also adjust your strategy.
With Google ads campaigns targeting conversions, you can optimize for direct sales, maximum conversion value, or add Target ROAS* (the average conversion value (revenue) for each dollar spent). If you plan to use the shopping-like format, make sure your feed is ready to use in Google Merchant Center first.
Of course, the main advantage of pMax is the simplicity and ease when working with it. And unlike other campaigns, it can be many times more effective.
Is Performance Max Going to Offset the Other Ad Campaigns?
The short answer would be “No.” Running Performance Max is not meant to offset your other campaigns. On the contrary, it is meant to complement them. You can continue to invest in your keyword search campaigns and run them alongside Performance Max for optimal results.
Although pMax doesn’t utilize keyword search, it doesn’t mean it isn’t as effective. On the contrary, the Performance Max campaigns are meant to scale over time and improve your reach.
To Sum it Up…
Performance Max is an automatic and extremely interesting, simple and effective format that allows the promotion of products and services throughout the Google network, including their partner network.
In a nutshell, Performance Max allows businesses to manage their ads across the entire Google ecosystem and its partner networks within a single campaign. Why is this so important? Because, with a small budget, you can achieve much higher results, exponentially increase revenue and even find unexpected audiences.
Performance Max will also save time because now you won’t have to spend it on managing and setting up campaigns in different channels. You can use this precious time to focus on your overall marketing strategy and reach your business goals faster.
Finally…
Although Performance Max is simple to manage, you’d want to have the maximum results. So, it is best to hire a digital marketing agency to do an in-depth analysis of your audience, business, and market and incorporate it into your advertising efforts.
A reputable agency will manage your campaigns diligently with one goal: boosted conversions and exponential growth for your business.
