Performance Max Campaigns What are they and how to implement them?

Performance Max campaigns were released last July 2021. Since then, as Google Partners, at Rocket Digital we have been implementing them from the Beta version with success in several of our clients, observing a better performance. Below, we explain what these campaigns consist of and how they work.

What are Performance Max campaigns?

According to Google, Performance Max campaigns are: "A new type of goal-based campaign that allows advertisers to access their entire Google Ads inventory from a single campaign. It is designed to complement your keyword-based search campaigns to help you find more converting customers across all Google channels such as YouTube, Display, Search, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps."

This basically means that they are campaigns that, with a single configuration, allow you to generate impressions across the entire Google inventory. They are fully automated campaigns, since they apply all of Google's automation technology to bidding, budget optimization, audiences, creatives and attribution.

When it is interesting to use Performance Max campaigns 

It is interesting to implement Performance Max when:

1. We have a small account and we don't have budget for all types of campaigns.

2. We want to test a new product vertical or a new lead category.

3. We only have search campaigns and we want to expand, but we don't know which network will work.

4. We want to expand to another country and see first if it is profitable or at least there is projection.

5. We want to get ahead of the demise of Smart Shopping and Local Campaigns.

6. We want to test if it improves the overall performance of the account.

Campaign requirements

Being such automated campaigns and so dependent on algorithm information, Performance Max requires a minimum set of requirements to get up and running: 

1. Conversions set up

2. Budget of 3 times the daily CPA history

3. Time (As any campaign that uses smart bidding, these campaigns need a minimum period of time to start working stably, between 3 weeks and a month).

As extra tips that can help the performance of Performance Max campaigns, it is recommended: 

1. Complete as many extensions as possible

2. Add vertical videos

3. Fill in all ad fields

4. Using creatives that work well on social channels

Minimum Ad Requirements 

The minimum requirements for ads using Performance Max campaigns are as follows:

Asset Groups

An Asset Group is a collection of creatives focused on a theme or related to a target audience. Asset Group creatives are used to bring together all your ads and create an inventory for all ad formats.

How audiences work in these campaigns is very interesting: instead of providing a target audience, we provide some base audiences from which Google Ads will take a series of signals and start looking for lookalike audiences. This is what Google Ads calls "Audience Signals." Basically, it works like a Facebook Lookalike Audience, to which we provide a base, and Google itself starts looking for similar audiences.

We can also choose not to provide any audience, but in that case, it will take longer for the system to start attracting conversions.

Final URL Expansion

This is another important new feature of this type of campaign. This feature allows Google to dispense with the titles and the final url that we have provided and generates, just like a DSA, titles that it considers more suitable for conversion and redirects users to the landing pages that it considers most appropriate.

But be careful! This can be a double-edged sword, as we may be referring traffic to landing pages that are not transactional. Fortunately, we have an exclusion method that allows us to eliminate pages that we do not consider appropriate.

Interaction with other campaigns

Since Performance Max is eligible to serve across all Google inventory, it is likely to overlap with one or more existing campaigns that are already running.

Therefore, we must be careful and choose well when to activate these campaigns, as they can can cannibalize the results of others.  

The relevant factor in most campaigns is the AdRank, the campaign with the highest Ad Rank will be the one that will be auctioned. If you plan to run a Max performance campaign and you do not want to see how your performance drops, check your ads very well. In Search campaigns, Exact Keywords will always predominate.

Why work with us?

Rocket has a multidisciplinary team, expert in all aspects necessary to carefully plan and carry out a complete and effective online campaign in order to boost your business sales on all digital platforms. With a team with extensive experience in leading companies in the digital sector, Rocket adapts to the needs of each client to design a plan focused on improving the conversion rate of their campaigns.

If you are thinking about improving the digital strategy of your business and you want Rocket Digital experts to help you achieve your goals, do not hesitate to contact us!