Get Weekly Marketing Tips
Join 30,000+ marketers and get the best marketing tips every week in your inbox
Are you tired of juggling multiple PPC campaigns and optimisations to get results in your Google Ads campaigns? Then it’s time to master the art of Performance Max, Google’s latest all-in-one super campaign.
Like a PPC Swiss army knife, Performance Max, also known as PMax, blends powerful automation with cross-channel reach.
But simply creating one won’t make you a Performance Max ninja overnight. To wield this weapon to its full potential, you need the right strategies and patience to outperform regular campaigns.
Read on to discover the pros, cons and top tips to level up your PMax skills from PPC novice to PPC master.
What Is Performance Max?
In simple terms, Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that lets you run ads across the Google display network, YouTube and Shopping with a single ad.
They’re designed to simplify Google Ads campaign management by having AI handle most of the targeting, bidding and budget allocation across Google’s ad channels.
PMax looks at the full conversion funnel, from view conversions to purchase conversions, and optimises to maximise overall conversion value.
You add a few different creative elements — video, images and text — and Performance Max decides which combination of these will be the most successful in converting the viewer.
Using Performance Max with our clients, we’ve found that it’s the best-performing campaign type for e-commerce, getting the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to other campaign types.
Image Source — Google
Setting up Performance Max
If you haven’t set up a Performance Max campaign before, Google has a fantastic guide on how to do just that.
Pros and Cons of Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max is great for some businesses and a poor fit for others. Our PPC team have put together a list of the pros and cons of PMax campaigns to help you see if they’re right for you.
Although we believe the pros outweigh the cons, it’s important to be aware of both.
Pros
As mentioned earlier, Performance Max is the highest-performing campaign type for eCommerce and gets the highest ROAS. But what else is great about it?
- The campaigns adapt fast to changes in user behaviour and trends thanks to their use of AI.
- It offers automated optimisation across multiple channels, meaning less time spent refining individual ads.
- PMax is easy to use, thanks to automated bidding and simplified campaign management.
- These campaigns let you have a hands-off approach, resulting in lower management overhead once set up.
- The ads test themselves automatically, trying different combinations of ad creative to see what resonates most with your audience and is most likely to turn into a conversion.
Cons
Of course, Performance Max isn’t perfect. Here are some things to look out for and reasons why it might not be a good fit for your goals.
- It’s difficult to see channel-specific performance. Reporting is aggregated at the campaign level rather than the keyword or placement level, meaning it provides less granular visibility than regular campaigns.
- The ability to add negatives/exclusions is limited compared to regular campaigns, meaning you can’t exclude specific placements or demographics. That said, we recommend running PMax campaigns to the widest audience possible to get the best results.
- You have no control over search vs display allocation — the algorithm handles the budget across channels based on where it thinks it will get the best conversions.
- It can take time for the algorithm to optimise effectively, so you need to be patient. It’s likely to get better results than other campaigns due to this, but it takes longer.
- There are limited customisation options beyond the basics.
- There’s currently no support for features like remarketing lists or custom intent audiences, but it’s a new-ish ad type, so this may change in the future.
Note on Lead Generation Campaigns
Performance Max is seen as a solution for eCommerce, but not so as much for lead generation.
Our client results tell a different story.
We saw the potential for PMax to help our lead-gen clients, and the results have been great.
The PMax campaigns our PPC team created and managed for a bathroom renovation company have achieved some of the best results out of any of our clients.
On average, we see higher impressions, more clicks and a 6% conversion rate compared to 5% for search ads.
Performance Max also offered cheaper CPCs. The PMax campaigns saw an average CPC of 0.17, whereas the search campaigns saw an average CPC of 3.33.
Search still performs decently, but Performance Max has, by far, beaten search campaign performance in every way.
Is your marketing underperforming?
Request a free website and marketing review and our team will tell you how to improve your marketing.
Ninja Performance Max Best Practices
Anyone can set up a PMax campaign, but just doing the basics isn’t enough to stand out from competitors. Our team follow a few Ninja best practices to get our clients the most from their Performance Max campaigns.
Use your insight to set budgets
Make sure you set a reasonable target cost-per-conversion or return on ad spend based on your business goals, margins and historical performance.
Don’t rely entirely on Google’s initial recommendations. They’re a good guide but aren’t a perfect fit for every business.
For example, you might know that historically, advertising during a certain season tends to cost you more than others. Google Ads won’t take this into account and might suggest you spend less, which you know won’t get the results you’re after.
Smart use of audience signals
Most ad campaigns work best by refining your audience, but this isn’t the case with PMax campaigns.
It’s better to give the algorithm fewer audience signals so it can test and find the best possible audience for you.
Track conversions accurately
Check you’re using accurate conversion tracking and value settings in your account.
Performance Max optimises based on conversion data, so it needs the right information.
Link with Google Analytics
Linking your Google Ads account with Google Analytics 4 can help you see more insights about your campaigns than what Google Ads shares with you.
It gives you a better idea of how your PMax campaigns are performing and offers insights into how you might want to tweak or change them.
Account for seasonal changes and don’t pause too early
If you know your target customers take a while to convert or that you have seasonal fluctuations, keep this in mind when evaluating the campaign over its initial learning period.
If you’re not getting the same results as you have for another campaign for a different service or product, then Performance Max might not be the issue; it might just be the time of year or that the product/service has a different lead time.
Be patient
We see lots of marketers give up on Performance Max because they feel they’re not getting results that are as good as their other Google Ads. You need to give the algorithm sufficient time (e.g. two to three months minimum) to collect data and optimise effectively for your business.
After that, you’ll see better ROAS from your PMax campaigns than your other Google Ads campaigns.
Add in assets
Make the most of assets like responsive display ads, call extensions and other optimisations to help improve CTR where possible.
By following these best practices, you’ll get better results from your Performance Max campaigns. Taking them to the next level is worth it — otherwise, you’ll be stuck at the same level as anyone who decides to run a PMax campaign. We know you can do better.
Get to the top of Google
Learn how to get your website to the very top of Google (and turn that traffic into revenue).
How to Run NINJA Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max campaigns offer simplified campaign management and automated optimisation to help e-commerce businesses get the highest return on ad spend.
However, to truly unlock their potential, you need to apply smart strategies like setting informed budgets, allowing time for the algorithm to optimise, tracking conversions accurately, and augmenting your ads with additional assets.
With the right approach, patience and optimisation, Performance Max can drive greater results than regular search and display campaigns.
Taking the time to set up and manage PMax campaigns the right way will elevate your PPC results to the next level. If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch with the team at Thinkplus, and we’ll point you in the right direction.
