How to max out Google Performance Max campaigns

Google Performance Max ads are the next step toward promoting formats based on artificial intelligence and automation. One of the revolutions brought by Google in the early days of the Internet was the democratization of access to advertising on the Internet - even the smallest companies could launch their campaign and reach hundreds of consumers.

The Performance Max format develops this approach and makes it even easier to run your advertising campaigns.

How Google Performance Max ads work

Advertising in the Performance Max model works on all channels managed by Google, including AdWords, AdSense, and YouTube video ads. It then aggregates data from these campaigns and automatically selects the best-performing solutions. This means that marketing specialists no longer have to set up advertising campaigns with many tools and compare their actions to choose the optimal tool.

In practice, advertising in the Performance Max model is a kind of box offer - the ordering party buys the entire product, without the need to delve into the principles of its operation. This means greater ease of use and great power at the cost of giving you control over the more sophisticated aspects of your operations.

Advantages of the Performance Max

Google Performance Max can be perceived as a product aimed primarily at the e-commerce industry. However, these types of ads have many advantages that previous formats did not have.

• AI in action - in this case, artificial intelligence is not a support, but the heart of the whole process.
• Access to all Google channels at once - due to the use of artificial intelligence controlling the entire process, product promotion takes place in all channels at once. This means that the promotion specialist has much less manual work to set up ads.
• Easy to use - This type of ad is probably the simplest and easiest-to-use format Google has launched so far.
• Potentially big profits - according to information provided by Google, the tests so far have been "extremely promising" and the format, thanks to reaching the user in many channels at once and centrally managing the message, has great potential.

Downsides of Performance Max

Giving artificial intelligence control over advertising is associated with certain limitations that users must take into account before reaching for this format.

• Almost no specific information about the the campaign - the vast majority of decisions and actions are made by a fully automated system that takes into account dozens of variables. However, it does not share its analysis with the user. Therefore, the only solution is to simply trust the machine.
• Cannibalization - with the "total" reach of the campaign in this model and the lack of control over its course, there is a real risk that Performance Max ads will cannibalize activities carried out as part of other campaigns. This means that ads from the same entity will compete with each other, bidding up and pushing each other out.

How to get the most out of Google Performance Max

The new advertising format holds the promise of more effective campaigns with a huge reach and ease of use. At the same time, the model in which the tool works includes the risk of generating spam traffic at the beginning of learning the AI model and cannibalizing the effects of other campaigns.

Operating with this tool requires you to rethink your thinking and accept some key differences compared to the tools available before.

Trust the process

Performance Max ads allow the user much less interference and control than other formats. For this reason, the only thing left for companies is to trust the tool. Google provides artificial intelligence that sets ads - and that's the main guarantee of their effectiveness.

Avoid multiple groups in the campaign

Performance Max tries to find the peak of optimization available in all possible channels. Therefore, the goal of each action in this model is the same, and the campaigns will compete with each other. Moreover, the user will not be able to do anything about it, because he has given up control over the activities of artificial intelligence.

The effect of actions in line with old habits will only be chaos and a blown budget.

Send the campaign

To work effectively, a campaign in the Performance Max model requires many creations and variants that can be tested in various contexts. To maximize the effect, it is also worth adding video ads - the model also tests the presence in the YouTube channel, so this format will simply be needed there.

"Saturation" also refers to data collection. For the Performance Max ad to work properly and collect the right amount of data for the purposes of artificial intelligence, it is reasonable to set a budget of around $100 a day for a month.

Negative keywords must be reported via support

At the moment, the only way to report negative keywords in the tool is to contact the support department. This means that if the company has a list of such keywords, it is wise to submit them before launching the campaign.

Keep track of your conversion

With much less insight into ads in the Performance Max model, accurate conversion tracking is crucial and needs to be transferred to other tools, for example, CRM or analytics systems.

From the perspective of an online store operating in the B2C model, this is less of a challenge, because the end result is a purchase. However, for companies from the B2B sector or stores operating in this model, it may be a bigger problem, and obtaining leads of the highest possible quality may be difficult with this tool.

DO NOT use Merchant Center images

Advertising in the Performance Max model should have its own dedicated pictures. Google Merchant Center, in turn, is a specialized tool with restrictive guidelines regarding the images used.

Reusing the same illustrations will significantly reduce the advertising potential, which in turn will burn out the invested budget.

Use the data you already have

Online stores collect data about their users for years. Ads using Performance Max can take advantage of this fact, which saves many hours of training, and thus, the budget allocated for matching ads to the target group.

Summary

Ads in the Google Performance Max model allow users to outflank a potential buyer with an advertising message, constantly checking the effectiveness of messages in various channels and configurations. Potentially, this is a very powerful tool, but the barrier to entry can be a high barrier to entry and little control over your business.