Everything you need to know about Performance Max

What is Performance Max?

In short, Performance Max (also known as PMax) is a campaign type that allows you to use all Google Ads channels. When you create the campaign, you need to provide a number of assets. These mainly consist of ad copy and images. Video is also part of PMax. However, you can create the campaign without adding a video. In that case, Google creates a video based on multiple signals that can be used on YouTube. This can be a solution if you want to use Performance Max but do not have a video. However, using your own video is recommended, as this means you retain control over what is shown.

Performance Max is intended to complement search campaigns. Search campaigns can therefore continue running alongside Performance Max.

Machine learning is important

Performance Max is, among other things, a replacement for Smart Shopping. As Smart Shopping was a very important channel in terms of performance, Performance Max therefore needs to achieve equally good results. Google Ads uses machine learning for this purpose. You provide assets and audience signals, and Google uses these to find the users who are most likely to convert based on them. The more signals you provide and the longer the algorithm has had to learn, the better the results should become.

Our experience with Performance Max

At Aspen Digital, we have been using Performance Max for a large proportion of our clients for some time now. Initially, the campaigns had some difficulty during the start-up phase. Once the campaigns had accumulated data, we saw predominantly positive results. PMax can particularly help e-commerce clients achieve a better ROAS while maintaining conversion value.

We are also seeing improved results for accounts focused on lead generation. As PMax uses all channels, this campaign type is also suitable for lead-generation purposes.

There is still room for improvement

Although we have seen that Performance Max can achieve good results, there are a number of areas that could be improved. For example, the reporting of results is not particularly clear. In the results, you cannot distinguish between the campaign's different channels. It is therefore not possible to see how much of the budget is allocated to display ads or text ads, nor how many conversions have come from those channels. The results for all channels are combined, which makes assessing the results somewhat more difficult.

In addition, you cannot manage each channel separately. For example, if you do not have your own video and do not consider Google's video good enough, you cannot choose not to use video at all. You also cannot set a separate ROAS or a separate budget for each channel. You therefore give Google a specific budget and certain signals, but Google itself, rather than the advertiser, decides what happens next. This can be frustrating for these advertisers.

The key takeaways

For all advertisers dealing with Performance Max, here are some of the key takeaways:

• As Google takes a great deal of control, you should make sure that the assets and signals you provide are as good as possible. So take the time to provide good copy and images. Your own video is also recommended, but not required;
• In our experience, the initial results are predominantly positive, particularly for e-commerce clients. It is disappointing, however, that the results display is still not particularly detailed at this point (so there are no results per channel).

Whatever you think of Performance Max, there is no avoiding using it anymore. We believe that, if you use it properly, Performance Max can deliver results that are just as good as before, if not even better.