Brands embrace omnichannel marketing for two main reasons: to meet customers wherever they are in the digital landscape and to drive valuable outcomes for their business. According to Google, omnichannel strategies drive an 80% higher rate of incremental store visits. This finding consequently accelerated the need for agile campaign management, including performance monitoring and in-flight optimizations. This is no easy feat for today’s time-constrained marketers. Whether you’re a seasoned Google Ads manager or just getting started, Google Ads’ Performance Max (PMax) has emerged as a valuable tool for digital marketers. PMax is a new goal-based campaign type that allows performance advertisers to access all of Google Ads inventory for a single campaign. PMax optimizes performance in real-time using Smart Bidding, powered by AI, to deliver more conversions for your business. Here, we outline everything you need to know to start with PMax.
What Makes Performance Max Different From Standard Campaigns?
Marketers can choose between several campaign types: Search, Demand Gen, and Performance. Below, we outline key differences to help you decide whether Performance Max meets your needs:
- Placement: PMax ads are served across all of Google’s inventory, including Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps. Search and Demand Gen are limited by ad format.
- Targeting: PMax targets prospects at all stages of the customer journey, whereas Demand Gen focuses on early-stage buyers, and Search focuses on higher-intent prospects.
- Automation: PMax uses Google AI across bidding, budget optimization, audiences, creatives, attribution, and more, whereas Search and Demand Gen are more limited.
Is Performance Max Right for My Campaign?
The decision to opt for Performance Max depends entirely on your unique campaign needs. We’ve outlined several key questions to ask yourself as you consider options:
- Do I have a specific conversion goal like lead generation or online sales?
- Do I have flexibility in channel placements?
- Do I want my content to appear across the breadth of Google Ads inventory?
- Do I want (and need) to go beyond traditional Search-based campaigns?
If you’ve answered “yes” to the majority of these questions, Performance Max is likely a great opportunity for you to maximize performance.
How Do I Get Started?
Below are key steps to get your first Performance Max campaign off the ground.
- Access PMax campaigns under “New Campaign” in your Google Ads account.
- Choose your unique campaign and conversion goals.
- Set your budget and bidding strategy.
- Refine your campaign settings, including priority URLs.
- Input campaign assets, including images, videos, logos, and descriptions.
- Manage targeting (custom segments, retargeting, interests, etc.).
What Do I Need to Know to Maximize Success?
Beyond getting your campaign set up, several key features of Performance Max will help you make the most of your investments, including:
- A/B Testing: Conduct A/B experiments to see how Performance Max drives additional conversion value compared to other campaigns.
- Creative Features: Leverage generative AI tools to create customized text and image ads, ensuring they are aligned with targeted audiences.
- Page Feeds: Implement Page Feeds to refine results when using the final URL expansion feature.
- Search Themes: Analyze assets, feeds, and landing pages to predict which placements perform best for your campaign.
- Brand Restrictions & Exclusions: Take advantage of broad match value while only reaching the brand traffic you want. Exclude brands on Search and Shopping.
- Reporting: Understand what’s working or not at the asset group level through extensive insights and metrics.
Benefits of Performance Max Campaigns
- Save Time & Resources: Responding to dynamic shifts in consumer attitudes and behaviors is table stakes in today’s digital landscape, but it has also never been more challenging or time-consuming. The automation of Performance Max campaigns will ensure your campaigns shift along with the marketplace to drive maximum impact across channels.
- Increase Cross-Platform Reach: Unlike traditional media buying, Performance Max adjusts your budget dynamically to ensure it’s allocated to the highest-performing channels, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. This not only allows you to experiment with new ad formats but also introduces your content to new audiences that you might have never gotten in front of before.
- Maximize Conversions: Maximizing the ROI of your advertising investments has never been more important. Performance Max offers guidance on your creative strategy and delivers increasingly valuable campaign impact to ensure you maximize conversions based on your unique goals.
Master Performance Max With TenStrat Agency!
Given Performance Max’s novelty, it’s likely that the product will continue to evolve, and Google will introduce new features to help streamline campaign management. If you’re thinking about diving into the world of Performance Max, TenStrat Agency can help you navigate the process with confidence — and develop complementary strategies to supercharge your performance. Contact us today for a quote.
