Google has rolled out Performance Max to all advertisers. It is a new type of campaign. You create a single campaign and Google shows your ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. The system decides for itself where your ad appears and to whom.
That sounds appealing, especially if you are short on time. But you are also giving up control. The system is only as smart as the signals you give it. In this article you will learn how to get started without your budget draining away to the wrong places.
What Performance Max is and is not
A standard Google Ads campaign usually runs on one channel. A search campaign shows text ads in the search results. A display campaign shows banners on websites. With Performance Max, everything comes together in one campaign.
You supply the building blocks: text, images, video and a goal. Google automatically combines these into ads and tests which mix works best. The system uses machine learning to do this, which is software that learns from past results.
Performance Max is not a replacement for your search campaigns. It is a complement to them. You also get less insight than you are used to. For example, you cannot see exactly which channel your money was spent on. That makes good preparation all the more important.
Measure first, then start
Performance Max steers on your conversions. A conversion is an action that has value for your business, such as an enquiry, a phone call or a purchase. The system looks for people who are likely to take such an action.
If you measure the wrong things, it will also optimise for the wrong things. Are you counting page views or clicks on a button as conversions? Then the campaign will mainly bring in cheap traffic. That looks good in your report, but it does not produce customers.
So check these points beforehand:
- Set only genuine enquiries and sales as a primary conversion.
- Test that each conversion is counted only once.
- Assign values to conversions if you know what an enquiry or sale is worth on average.
- Link your phone number or form to your tracking if they are important to your business.
- Remove conversions that say nothing about revenue from your campaign goal.
As a rule of thumb, the more genuine conversions you have per month, the faster the system learns. Around thirty per month works well. If you have far fewer, build up more data with other campaigns first.
Provide strong building blocks
Google calls the components of your ad assets. The better your assets, the more good combinations the system can create. Weak assets produce weak ads, across all channels at once.
Consider the following:
- Text: write multiple headlines and descriptions. Let each variant emphasise something different, such as price, service or speed.
- Images: supply landscape, square and portrait formats. Use real photos of your product or team, not generic stock images.
- Video: ideally, make a short video, even if it is a simple one.
- Logo and company name: make sure they look sharp and recognisable.
A word more on video. If you do not supply one, Google will make one itself from your images and text. It is rarely attractive. Your own video of half a minute, with a clear message, is almost always better. That way you keep control over how your brand looks on YouTube.
Do you have an online shop? Then your product feed is just as important. This is the file containing your products in Google Merchant Center. Poor titles or missing photos in the feed carry through to your ads.
Budget and signals: give direction
Performance Max needs room to learn. A budget that is too small provides too little data. A rule of thumb is a daily budget of at least three to five times the amount you are willing to pay per conversion. If you want to win an enquiry for around fifty euros, a daily budget of a few hundred euros puts you on the safe side. If that does not suit you, start with a smaller goal or a more clearly defined campaign.
You can also nudge the system in the right direction with audience signals. These are pointers about who is likely to be interested. Examples include:
- a list of existing customers;
- visitors to your website;
- people who search for specific search terms.
A signal is not a hard boundary. Google may also look beyond that group. It simply gives the campaign a better start.
Also pay attention to your existing campaigns. Performance Max can overlap with your search campaigns and so piggyback on searches you were already covering. Keep an eye on this, and do not simply exclude your most important search campaigns.
Give it time and keep visibility
For the first few weeks, the campaign is learning. Results will fluctuate during this time. That is normal. Do not change something every day in this period, because it will restart the learning. Assess the campaign after roughly a month, not after a week.
Look beyond the Google Ads screen as well. The system is happy to credit conversions to itself. So compare the outcomes with your own revenue and enquiries. That shows you whether it is extra income or sales you would have made anyway.
A common scenario: a garden furniture online shop starts with Performance Max and launches the campaign with "viewed product page" as the conversion. After two weeks, the report looks fine. There are plenty of clicks and the cost per conversion is low. But revenue stays the same. On closer inspection, the campaign turns out to be mainly reaching people who are simply browsing. A large share of the visitors are also searching for the shop's brand name. Those people would have come anyway.
The owner makes adjustments. Only genuine orders now count as a conversion, with the order value included. A video is added and the product feed is cleaned up. After a month, the campaign shows fewer conversions, but revenue does grow. That is the difference between figures that look good and figures that are accurate.
Frequently asked questions
Is Performance Max suitable for small budgets?
Sometimes, but it is harder. The system needs enough conversions to learn. With a small budget and few conversions, that takes a long time. It is better to start with a search campaign and add Performance Max later.
Can I see where my money is going?
Only to a limited extent. You can see the results of the whole campaign and how well your assets perform. You do not get a detailed breakdown by channel. That is why it is so important that your conversion tracking is accurate and that you set the outcome alongside your own revenue.
Should I stop my other campaigns?
No. Performance Max works best alongside your existing campaigns. So do not simply switch off your search campaigns. After a few weeks, compare what each campaign delivers and only then adjust your budget allocation.
Book a free 30-minute introductory call
Are you unsure whether Performance Max suits your business? Or do you want to be certain that your tracking and your building blocks are in order before your budget starts running? Then book a free 30-minute introductory call with Adventio Marketing in Amersfoort.
Together we will look at your current campaigns, your conversion tracking and your goals. You will receive honest advice on whether and how you can get started. Get in touch with us and we will arrange a time that suits you.
