Google Performance Max: Things to know if you are planning to try it

Performance Max has some undeniable benefits to offer to online marketers. It is different from Google Ads in various ways. Therefore, the mindset needs to be changed if the maximum performance from this tool is sought after. Let’s dive deep into the basics of Performance Max and familiarize ourselves with its characteristics, pros and cons and other features.

What is Performance Max?

Performance Max is the collective outcome of all the learning one has gathered from using Google over the years. It is a campaign management tool that works on the findings from the study of people’s browsing patterns and online shopping behavior. Using this data, the marketers can design a multi-faceted ad campaign that is focused on not a single aspect but includes all consumables such as images, videos, feeds and texts. Thus, Performance Max leverages the pluses of machine learning and algorithms and helps design an all-in-one campaign. However, it requires the marketers to be more research-oriented and sophisticated in approach, else the results can be different from expectations.

Top features of Performance Max

Every advertiser has a different approach for reaching the target audience. Performance Max offers an ultimate tool that complements the needs of all types of advertisers. Its versatility is attributed to the following features:

Targeting efficiency

The success of a marketing campaign depends upon the efficiency of targeting. Performance Max considers the following features to add more teeth to the targeting ability and deliver better results.

1. Product feed: When it comes to the success of e-commerce campaigns, the need is to build a data feed that is sensitive to query inputs. Performance Max adds to the robustness of the product feed and ensures that the feed corresponds perfectly to the query made. It does so by boosting the keyword-based search.
2. Keywords: Performance Max fills the gap of the keyword search and helps establish clearer user intent from the queries usually made by the target audience. The only downside is that it does not cover negative keywords, still the user intent becomes easier to understand with this tool owing to its ability to target broad queries.
3. Audience Signals: What marketers considered the end point is the starting signal for Performance Max. Usually, marketers think that uploading the customer list is the indication of the type of people targeted. It is where the Performance Max differs. This campaign tailoring support takes into consideration the audience signals but only to refine the prospective buyers’ list and design the campaign accordingly.

Intent matching

Performance Max excels in intent matching by using the strength of smart bidding. On an average, the smart bidding can analyze about 70 million signals within a second. How the analysis takes place is not feasible to find as there can be several data points.

The Performance Max system can filter the data and pick the prospects who are most likely to buy. Thus, the improvement in RoAS is one of the benefits one can savor on wielding this tool intelligently.

Numerous people make queries at the same time. But not all are serious shoppers. Some enquire only for comparing prices or quality of products. The Performance Max traces the enquirer’s history and does the filtering for the businesses and gives them the most prospective leads that will surely convert. It helps make the advertising campaign more objective in approach as well as result-oriented.

Bid Management

Performance Max leverages smart bidding to achieve profitable cost-per-click bids limit. The marketers use two bid strategies – maximize conversions keeping CPA, and maximization of conversions keeping RoAS in view. The success of these strategies depends upon the study of historical data sampling. The size of the historical data should be big enough to help find the strategies that have worked previously.

It is recommended that the new Performance Max users should use Search or Standard Shopping first to collect data and then switch over to this tool to achieve conversions regularly and constantly.

New customer acquisitions

The success of any campaign becomes evident with the increase in number of new customers acquired. Performance Max allows higher bids for targeting new customers, also it helps the businesses gain better control over results when the brands-based queries are made.

Control over ads coming as result works well when the businesses or brands need to scale up their advertising efforts. The system offers a good way of focusing on pricier opportunities. As a result, scaling can be done both profitably and speedily.

Another important statistic available for assessment is group-level reporting. This allows effective segmentation that helps find the poorly performing brand, category or products revenue-wise. The system puts them in new Performance Max campaign and offers the option of going back to Standard Shopping.

Testing Dynamic Search

Another feature of Performance Max is the Dynamic Search option. Google recently included the Dynamic Search feature in Performance Max campaigns. However, the Dynamic Search option is likely to go off the radar very soon, and so, the marketers must test this feature using Performance Max right away and get some good news to deliver to the clients.

Factors that make Performance Max Superior to Google Ads Campaign

Google Ads campaigns are more placement-specific and the focus is more on appearance as a result at the higher rank when the queries are made. Performance Max goes a few steps ahead and delivers results such as:

• Lowering down of ad spend

Performance Max may seem tricky to deal with at the start as it focuses on data collection which is a costly process. Initially, the marketers may not know how the money was used, but this is set off with the profits that the system generates with the passage of time. Once the learning period is over, the system allows more spending on bids or to target conversions. It reduces the ad spend overall and maximizes conversions and subsequently, RoAS.

• Sooner access to reporting

The reporting process takes place at the campaign and web asset group level, which can be accessed using the Reporting tab. The quality of reporting is enhanced as the user gets to know about the demarcation of results as data-driven and creativity-driven. Further, the Insights tab is not show reports of only up to 28 days; the marketers can choose wider timeframe and get the information needed.

• Transparency of results

The marketers can simply run third-party scripts and find where the ads are displayed. However, it may not be agreeable to all. It is where the Performance Max differs. Instead of talking about the site of display, it focuses more on giving information about account-level placement reports. Thus, you get actionable data and have better strategies to try.

• Better control

Performance Max allows you to entrust the job of execution to machine-learning-based algorithm and focus on decisions that require human thinking. With this system, the marketer has better control over the campaign as they can make decisions regarding ad copy, data feed, audience signals, creatives, bid strategies, structure of campaign and budget, and so on. Thus, marketers have a bigger picture to look at by simply giving away the execution control.

• Limited involvement

While the older systems demanded marketers to make changes in the creatives or ad copy every two months, Performance Max requires making changes only when needed. The marketers’ job is reduced to setting the parameters, nudge the system and sit back and view the results. So, a little more planning at the beginning offers more free time at the later stage, which allows to plan better and review the system and its results to make changes at the right time and in right amount. The system allows paying attention to more important things like integration of CRM, and improvement of landing page content – which are more likely to yield profits and efficiency.

Pros of Performance Max

Taking cue from the features and comparison with Google Ads campaign, Performance Max is found to deliver the following benefits:

• It allows get results beyond merely getting the intent

Using data signals, the system finds out the people who are most likely to get convert. It tells what to do with intent, and not stop merely at understanding the intent. By setting the campaign with RoAS as the ultimate target, the marketers are able to deliver more far-reaching results.

• Suitable for new campaign types

Not only for Google, the campaigns for new platforms like YouTube can also be designed. Performance Max helps know how new platform yields results and contributes to conversions.

• Helps reach wider audience

Since the marketing priorities are well-defined, the PPC managers can get results from various platforms other than Google. It clearly means reaching a wider audience at limited budget and get more returns.

To sum up,

At Media Challengers Performance Max is a happening addition and can make Google Ads campaigns more result-driven with its algorithmic working and machine-learning abilities. It allows easy scaling up of campaigns when needed. ROAS is the prime objective and it can be achieved from various platforms other than Google. So, consider it for improvising your ad campaign and get the best from the marketing efforts.