What are Performance Max campaigns on Google all about? Key information

The world has been abuzz with the news that Google is changing from Smart Shopping Campaigns to Performance Max campaigns. Not everyone liked this sudden change, but as always, Google does not act blindly, but adapts its services to the behaviour of web users. It regularly conducts market analyses, explores the new technology environment and provides solutions to improve the running of online ads, among other things. Read on to find out exactly what the Performance Max campaigns introduced by Google are about and what to look out for when setting them up.

Performance Max campaigns - what are they?

Performance Max is a campaign type that appeared in the Google Ads system relatively recently and is based on self-learning algorithms. However, it is not a novel solution in this respect. It has already been used in intelligent product campaigns and responsive ads. So, what is the main difference that makes Performance Max campaigns allow advertisers to reach an even larger audience? With a single Performance Max campaign, you can advertise and optimise your campaign across all Google-owned channels such as YouTube, Gmail, Discover or Google Maps.

As you can read in Google materials:

Performance Max is a new type of targeting campaign that allows advertisers focused on performance marketing to access all of Google Ads' advertising inventory in a single campaign.

Performance Max are fully automatic campaigns. This means that, based on the resources added by the advertiser, they aim to reach a set target. The aforementioned self-learning algorithms are responsible for targeting the ads, and rate setting is based on intelligent strategies. The choice is between maximising the number of conversions or maximising the value of conversions.

What are the benefits of the Performance Max campaign?

Before you learn how to create your own Performance Max campaign, it is time to know the advantages of such a solution. First and foremost, it points to accelerated time to reach advertising targets. This is because when optimising an ad manually, we work by trial and error. By contrast, by choosing a Performance Max campaign, we place optimisation in the "hands" of artificial intelligence, which adjusts the adverts in such a way as to achieve the expected results as quickly as possible.

Secondly, precise targeting of campaigns translates into reduction of advertising costs. It should also not be forgotten that, as advertisers, you have constant access to reports, and in these you will not only find information about the number of audiences acquired, but also about changes in the optimisation of the campaign.

Creating a Performance Max campaign step by step

Setting the objective and choosing the type of campaign

Log on to Google Ads and in the menu on the left, click on "Campaigns", followed by the plus button and "New campaign". Now it's time to select the advertising objective of the campaign this can be e.g. sales, site traffic, acquisition of potential customers. If none of the Google Ads prompts suit you, select the option "Create campaign without using the target prompts".

Once you have confirmed the campaign objective, a list of campaign types to choose from will appear. Select Performance Max and proceed to the next step.

Setting budgets and rates

The next stage is to determine the average daily budget and choose a rate-setting strategy. As already mentioned, you can choose between:

• maximising the number of conversions (automatic rate setting in order to get the most conversions for a given campaign within a given budget)

• maximising conversion value (maximising the total conversion value of a campaign within a given budget)

Of course, the choice of strategy depends on the specific campaign, industry etc. However, it can be stated in a nutshell that maximising the number of conversions will work better for online shops and maximising the value of conversions for services.

Completion of campaign settings

It is time to move on to the campaign settings. At this stage, the options familiar from the other campaign types such as:

• locations 
• languages
• advertising schedule
• start and end dates
• address options URL campaign

There is one new option - development of the final URL. By enabling it, the final URL can be replaced by a tailored landing page with a corresponding dynamic header. Whether you enable this option is, of course, up to you, but Google encourages it and points out that it serves to increase the number of conversions achieved through relevant searches.

Adding a resource group

Before launching a Performance Max campaign, you have the option of adding one resource group, i.e. the base on which the adverts will be displayed. Once you have set up your campaign, you can add further groups, the resources from which will be automatically linked to your audience, subject matter and matched to the various Google advertising channels.

What should be included in the resource group?

• images
• logo
• films
• headings
• long headings
• advertising texts
• call to action (CTA)
• advertising URL options

Detailed guidelines for resource groups can be found HERE.

There is also a new setting in the resource settings, which is signal concerning recipients. At this point, it is a good idea to add the lists of users created in your Google Ads account (e.g. remarketing, custom) who have converted in previous campaigns. In this way, you will help the campaign learn faster.

Adding an ad extension

Google recommends the use of extensions in Performance Max campaigns because they increase the possibilities of the ads and are attractive from the audience's point of view. Extensions in Performance Max campaigns are linked to specific marketing objectives.

For example, one can distinguish between extensions: connections, contact forms, prices, locations or explanations.

Performance Max campaign optimisation

Algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) play a key role in a solution such as Performance Max. With these, Google continuously collects and analyses data in order to optimise a specific ad. This is an indisputable advantage of the new type of campaign, but some point out that advertisers or specialists are thus limited in their ability to 'manually' optimise.

But what is worth doing?

• Test the "Audience Signals" option - if you have a number of different defined audiences, test which statements are most effective in meeting your objectives

• Analyse the ad schedule - if the effectiveness of the ads is particularly low on particular days/at particular times, exclude the range in question in the campaign settings.

• Test different groups of resources - Performance Max allows you to add multiple groups of resources, so test different creations to choose the ones that are most effective

Performance Max - harness the power of artificial intelligence and automation

Automation and massive reach - these are the two terms that best describe Google's new ad type, Performance Max. With it, you can increase your conversions by displaying your ad in all Google services simultaneously! For some people, the automatic, automated and fully automated performance is a big advantage for others. optimisation campaigns. If you opt for Performance Max adverts, however, this does not mean that you have to do absolutely nothing! You need to add as many creative assets as possible so that the artificial intelligence can achieve its marketing objectives with maximum effectiveness!