Your Guide to Google Performance Max Campaigns

Google Ads offers marketers several ways to reach their ideal audiences through an expansive ad inventory. For some, using Google Ads and understanding its myriad of functions makes it problematic to use; it’s a steep learning curve for anyone new to PPC and search advertising. Performance Max (Pmax) campaigns reduce those barriers with automated ad placements and make campaign adjustments on the fly.

Whether you’re just starting out or an industry pro, it’s worth learning more about Performance Max Campaigns, their pros and cons, and why automation isn’t always in your best interest.

What Is a Performance Max Campaign?

Performance Max campaigns are goal-based, paid ad campaigns run across all of Google’s advertising inventory. Your Max campaign ads run everywhere, including:

• Search
• Display
• YouTube
• Gmail
• Maps
• Discover (on mobile devices)
• Shopping

Google Ads uses content you provide (headlines, ad copy, images, video, keywords, shopping feed if applicable, and even content from your domain) to serve relevant ads across all these platforms.

How Do Performance Max Campaigns Work?

PMax campaigns use artificial intelligence (what doesn’t these days) to automate ad placement, bid settings, and ad formats based on a few criteria. When setting up your campaign, you give Google a few basics:

• Conversion goals: Define the action you want users to take, such as purchases, leads, or sign-ups.
• Your budget: The amount per day you’re willing to spend on the ad.
• The assets: Written text headlines, descriptions, images, and logos.
• Location: Limit your ads to a geographic area, if relevant.
• Audience: Give Google as much information as you can about your ideal audience, including demographics, interests, or existing customer lists.
• Listings: If using Performance Max for ecommerce the Listings Group allows you to select which items to advertise.

Read more: The Ultimate Paid Search Glossary

The Benefits of Performance Max Campaigns

The biggest advantage of PMax campaigns is the automation, which is managed by Google’s artificial intelligence. And since Google plans to spend $75 billion on AI in 2025, tools like Performance Max will only get smarter. Accessing all of Google’s inventory from one campaign, plus goal-based optimization, are differentiators that make PMax a great tool for the marketers’ toolbox.

The Limitations

It’s not all candy canes and Care Bears. There are some notable drawbacks to relying on Performance Max campaigns, too. A big issue is control. AI will do what it thinks is best, and sometimes that leads to ad placements that don’t make sense, which can lead to wasteful ad spend and putting your brand in places you’d rather not be, which often leads to conversions from people who are not a good fit for your product or service. It also has a significant learning period where results may be lackluster. Depending on your ad quality and the industry’s competitiveness, that learning period can be days or weeks, costing you time and budget.

Finally, Performance Max was initially a bit of a black box in that it was tough to track reporting basics like channel acquisition accurately, not to mention search term reporting, and showing performance by asset. Google is working on opening up this information as a part of its ongoing product development.

What’s Automatically Optimized with a Performance Max Campaign?

Once you create a Performance Max Campaign, Google will constantly tinker to improve results based on your pre-set goals.

The Ads algorithm will automatically optimize a few basic campaign elements, including:

• Bids – Using a range of signals, Performance Max adjusts your bid amounts across all ad auctions to maximize conversions.
• Placements – Performance Max decides where your ads are most effective across its inventory; sometimes that’s search, but can also include the display network, Gmail, YouTube, and even Google Maps
• Formats and Combination – Like other search campaigns, PMax tests different ad formats, text combinations, videos, and images.
• Audience testing – While using your pre-determined audience to start, PMax will also test new audiences that it thinks will most likely convert. This is where things can get a little iffy, leading to poor session quality and wasted budget.

There are a few more variables, but suffice it to say that these campaigns can make substantial changes to your assets and strategy, especially if you don’t monitor results closely.

How to Optimize Performance Max Campaigns Yourself

Think of Performance Max as the autopilot feature on a plane. You’re the captain, and it’s your job to give it as much relevant, useful information as possible to keep it on course.

The best way to optimize these campaigns is to give it quality everything:

Quality Creative – Arm your campaigns with an expansive library of high-quality ad creative, including great video and compelling images. Provide the campaign with as many headlines and descriptions as possible, and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Organize Assets Groups – Arrange Asset Groups by theme to make it easier for Google to pair and serve assets within these groups in a way that will resonate with the right users. For example, a bike shop might group all its road bike content into an Asset Group called “Road Cycling” to differentiate from e-bikes.

Use First-Party Data – Upload customer lists and website visitor lists, and audience segments from GA4 to provide Google with the most informative and relevant information possible. This provides your campaign with a clear picture of who has expressed interest, which will also inform you who might be interested.

Double-down – Not all conversions are created equal. For some businesses, creating different campaigns and using different bid settings based on different goals is worth it. Let’s say you run a pet boarding kennel. A one-night booking is good; a weekend or week-long booking is where the money’s at! Adjust your conversion value settings to put more budget on these higher-value returns.

How to Analyze Performance Max Campaigns

Like any PPC campaign, start with the key metrics. Compare your Performance Max Campaign against your traditional campaigns on conversions, cost per conversion (CPA), conversion rate (CVR), and return on ad spend (ROAS). Is Performance Max delivering more conversions, but at a higher cost? Are there specific days of the week when one campaign is performing better?

Next, look within your PMax campaign to compare asset performance at the individual and group levels. If certain ads or groups perform well, create similar content to add to the mix.

Remember, Performance Max results will fluctuate as they learn and improve, so don’t make any snap decisions until it’s had time to make adjustments.

Do Performance Max Campaigns Compete Against Each Other?

They can, and if not set up correctly, then you are paying for rock’em sock’em robots.. Creating multiple Performance Max campaigns can lead to overlapping goals and audiences, yet there are also situations when multiple Pmax campaigns make sense. While Google tries to avoid internal competition in a specific Ads account, when multiple PMax campaigns are active for the same conversion opportunity, it will increase costs, waste impressions, and lower ROAS.

There’s a lot to learn about Google Ads, which is why many business owners and internal marketing teams bring in a pro to keep everything running smoothly.

Anything with “Max” In the Name Is Cool…

…but getting real results from your Performance Max campaigns is even cooler. Work with an experienced team of paid marketing professionals, talented designers, and knowledgeable designers to spark your PPC efforts. Oneupweb is your dedicated marketing partner with over twenty-five years of experience and industry-leading expertise. Let’s get started; call (231) 922-9977 or drop us an (electronic) line today to speak with a PPC pro!