Your ultimate guide to Performance Max campaigns
Article topics
- What are Performance Max campaigns?
- Are Performance Max campaigns exclusive to Google Ads?
- What are the advantages of Performance Max?
- What are the disadvantages of Performance Max?
- Why should I use Performance Max over other ad types?
- How do you get started with Performance Max campaigns?
- What can you do to ensure your Performance Max ads get the best results?
- Get your Google Ads in check with Xigen
You’ve decided that you want to promote your business on Google Ads.
The next step… working out which type of advertisement you want to use. Google Ads offers many different ad types, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.
With Performance Max campaigns, you don’t have to choose between the different ad formats, which can make marketing your business to customers a lot easier!
Not sure if Performance Max campaigns are right for you? In this guide we’ll look at what Performance Max campaigns are, the pros and cons of using them, and how to get started.
What are Performance Max campaigns?
Performance Max (PMax) campaigns allow you to access multiple advertising channels from one campaign.
You can serve ads across:
- Google Search
- Google Search Display Network
- YouTube
- Google Discover
- Gmail
- Google Maps
- Google Shopping
Before Performance Max, if you wanted to use all these channels, you’d have to set up and manage individual campaigns.
Performance Max uses artificial intelligence (AI) to manage your campaigns based on the goals you decide on. It uses automated bidding to set bids depending on how likely your ad is to convert and creates ads from a combination of assets you upload.
Are Performance Max campaigns exclusive to Google Ads?
No. You can also use Performance Max campaigns in Microsoft Advertising.
While getting started with Performance Max ads in Microsoft Advertising is similar to Google Ads, there are differences. For example, you can’t advertise on YouTube with Microsoft Advertising.
What are the advantages of Performance Max?
What makes Performance Max campaigns popular with Google Ads users? Let’s take a look.
It’s easy to get started
The key advantage of Performance Max campaigns is that they’re easy to set up and manage. You can get up and running in ten minutes, and as the campaigns are automated, you don’t have to spend hours optimising them.
This makes Performance Max ideal for businesses that are new to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to running ads.
It appeals to a broad range of people
Performance Max campaigns let you reach people no matter which platforms they use.
Let’s say you want to make people aware of your business. You can show ads to them on YouTube, Gmail, and Google, as well as the websites they visit.
The more ads people see, the sooner they become familiar with your brand.
While Performance Max is great for reaching people wherever they are, bear in mind that it does this regardless of customer intent. This means that if you have a specific aim (for example, to attract people at the bottom of the sales funnel), you may not see optimal results.
It adapts to changes
PPC advertising can be volatile.
If the Google algorithm changes, if your target audience’s behaviour changes, or if there are significant changes in your industry, your perfectly planned ad campaign can fall out of alignment.
Performance Max campaigns constantly analyse data and user interactions and adjust your ads accordingly, meaning you always stay on top of the latest trends.
What are the disadvantages of Performance Max?
When Google launched Performance Max in 2021, users heavily criticised it as not being user-friendly. For example, if you wanted to add negative keywords to your Performance Max campaigns, you had to do this through a Google Ads rep.
In Google’s defence, many of the issues surrounding Performance Max have been ironed out and it’s a lot easier to use – you can add negative keywords yourself now. However, Performance Max still draws a lot of ire from some Google Ads users.
It’s heavily automated
The main disadvantage of Performance Max is that it uses automation to run campaigns, meaning you have less control.
While this might be an advantage if you trust Google to run your ads for you, it can be frustrating if you prefer to manage your campaigns manually.
There’s less transparent reporting
While you can get statistics to see how your Performance Max campaign is doing, reporting is very high-level.
This means it can be hard to see which channels are performing best. If you want more granular analytics, you may be better off creating individual campaigns.
It can be more expensive
As your ads are shown across a wider range of platforms, you can end up spending more with Performance Max.
We’ve also found that costs can be higher in the first few weeks of using Performance Max. This is because it takes a while for the AI behind Performance Max to understand your campaign and see what works best.
Why should I use Performance Max over other ad types?
Let’s say you run an eCommerce store, and you have the option of using Performance Max or a Google Shopping campaign. Which should you go for?
It depends on your goals and who you want to reach.
Performance Max is best if you want to reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness at the top of the sales funnel. Meanwhile Google Shopping is ideal if you want to promote your products to a clearly defined target audience that is ready to buy your products.
Don’t forget that you can run standard ad campaigns and Performance Max campaigns together to appeal to customers no matter where they are in the sales process.
How do you get started with Performance Max campaigns?
It’s easy to get started with Performance Max in Google Ads. Go to your dashboard and click the plus button to create a new campaign.
Choose your objective. If you select ‘sales,’ ‘leads,’ ‘website traffic’, ‘local store visits’, or ‘create a campaign’, you can pick Performance Max as a campaign type.
Depending on the objective you choose, you’ll need to add a tracking tag on your website. Google Ads will send you an email telling you how to do this.
Follow the instructions, choose your bidding model, and state which countries you want to target.
Next you’ll upload assets for your ads, including headlines, images, videos, and descriptions.
You can also use AI to generate assets. Just provide a link to your website and Google will create ad copy and images.
You can add audience signals, like customer or purchase data, to help Google Ads show your ads to the right target customers.
Set your budget, publish your campaign, and you’re ready to go live!
What can you do to ensure your Performance Max ads get the best results?
While Performance Max ads are easy to set up and run, this doesn’t mean you can ‘set and forget’ them. It’s vital to optimise your campaigns to get the best results.
Here are some of our top tips.
Pay close attention to your other ad campaigns
As Performance Max covers a wide range of ads, it’s important to make sure there’s no overlap with your existing Google Ads campaigns.
Otherwise, Performance Max could compete with your other campaigns for sales, leading to a higher cost per click and confusion over which campaign results in a conversion.
You can reduce the risk of this happening by using negative keywords, running exact match keywords, and regularly reviewing all of your ad campaigns.
Group similar assets together
With Performance Max campaigns, you upload images and videos and add your ad copy. Google Ads then chooses assets that work well together.
However, in our experience, this doesn’t always work as it should. Google Ads can sometimes combine assets that might confuse your customers or send the wrong message.
It’s best to bundle similar assets together in different groups. You can have as many asset groups as you want, so think strategically about how you want your ads to look.
Get your Google Ads in check with Xigen
Performance Max isn’t the right choice for everyone. If you want tight control over your ads and to see detailed analytics, you may find yourself getting frustrated very quickly!
However if you want to dive right in and get in front of many prospective customers as possible, it could be a great way of getting conversions.
Remember that while automation is a big part of Performance Max, it’s still important to manually check your campaigns regularly to ensure they deliver results.
Do you want to give Performance Max a try but aren’t sure if it’s ideal for your business? You can rely on our expert team. We specialise in building, implementing, and managing PPC campaigns that deliver a solid return on ad spend and boost brand awareness.
Whether you want a Performance Max campaign that gets people’s attention wherever they are in the sales funnel, or search ads that compel people to buy, we can help.
Get in touch today, and let’s create PPC campaigns that deliver results for your business.
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