You’ve doubtless heard the buzz about Google’s new Pay Per Click upgrade, Performance Max. Earlier this year, Google announced that its Local and Smart Shopping are about to be superseded with this new tool, which for some, began to roll out in late summer. Essentially, Performance Max is designed to deliver what its name promises – more bang for your PPC buck. Goal-based, Google Performance Max allows access to every performance ad in your Google Ads arsenal, all from a single campaign. This means it works in tandem with all your keyword-based Search initiatives to locate and convert more customers across every Google channel including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and of course, Maps. Just precede each term with ‘Google’ and you’ll soon realize just how big that realm is – and Performance Max’ powerful potential!
Based on each of your client’s specific conversion goals, the objective is to deliver more quality conversion and increased value through real-time performance optimization via Smart Bidding. Combining Google’s superior automation bidding technologies across bidding, budget optimization, targeted audiences, creatives, attribution, etc. Performance Max is slated to empower these technologies by your specified advertising objective, such as a targeted Cost Per Conversion (CPA) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)- the two chief performance KPIs. Remember, these two metrics allow PPC managers to gauge account health from a broad perspective, but also to make campaign decisions at the keyword level as well. With Performance Max Google Ads you’ll be able to judge campaign performance more readily using creative assets, audience signals, and optional data feeds as desired.
How can you get started using the Google Ads Performance Max Self Upgrade Tool? It’s easily accessed from the Recommendations or Campaigns page. Upgrading takes just one click. See below:
Image Credit: Screenshot from https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/upgrade-to-performance-max/, August 2022.
A new user interface may cause some hesitation. Do not be concerned about data losses. All historical campaign performance from Local campaigns carries over to your new Performance Max initiatives. Setting such as conversion goals, budget, creative assets, and bid strategy will also transfer without any data loss. Once upgraded, Local will not vanish. But these campaigns can no longer be reactivated nor edited in their initial configuration.
What if you do not want to jump-start your Performance Max adventure? No worries! If you were not part of the automatic rollover that began recently, the second round of Google Performance Max upgrades will start in 2023. The goal was to minimize any disruption during the holiday season. And no, Performance Max Google Ads will not be sprung upon users. A notification of the upcoming automatic upgrade will be sent in advance, so there will be no surprises.
You might be concerned as to how Performance Max will ‘work’ with each campaign. Here’s an overview:
Search Campaign/Keyword Integration: Remember, Google Performance Max is designed to work with existing Search campaigns and respects current keyword targeting. If a user query matches an eligible keyword, that search campaign will be honored over Performance Max. Know that there are built-in safeguards to prevent ‘wild spending’:
- Should the query not match an eligible keyword, the campaign or ad with the highest ad rank relative to creative relevance and performance will be selected.
- To control this process, irrelevant keywords will not trigger an ad if the campaign has budget limitations, the search term has low search volume, all creatives/landing pages are disapproved, or all campaign/ad group targeting criteria are not met.
How Will Google Performance Max Work for Advertisers with Online Sales goals Using a Merchant Center Feed?
- Advertisers with online sales goals using a Merchant Center feed can also create a Google Performance Max campaign.
- Up to 100 Performance Max campaigns may be created in your Performance Max Google Ads account. For the best performance, however, it is advised that you consolidate your Performance Max campaigns wherever possible.
- For optimal results, while Advertisers with a Merchant Center feed don’t need to supply any creative assets to launch a Performance Max campaign, it is advised that you do to maximize results across campaigns for optimal performance. Remember, Performance Max Google Ads may auto-generate so for best results, you’ll want to provide the creative assets needed for the best ROI.
- Performance Max integrates with third-party platforms and allows you to create and manage Smart Shopping campaigns using Shopify, WooCommerce, GoDaddy, and BigCommerce as desired.
There you have it. Active Web Group’s overview of Google’s exciting new Performance Max initiative. If the details of this rollout have your head spinning, yet you realize it is a ‘get on board or stay behind at home’ moment, give our professionals a call. We’ll be glad to take the reins of your PPC campaigns and manage them to bring you new heights of success! Call us today at (631) 846-2063!
