Countless companies use Google Ads for increased brand visibility and rapid results. With nine different ad types to choose from and multiple subtypes, businesses can streamline their campaigns to perfectly suit the interests and needs of their audiences and the nuances of their offerings. Flexible, adaptable, and reasonably affordable, it’s one of the best tools for lead generation. However, as your certified Google Partner, our specialists advise that when you have specific conversion and advertising goals, Performance Max is the way to go.
What is a Performance Max Campaign?
Performance Max is a machine learning-based ad service that functions as an amalgamation of nearly all nine Google Ad types. With a single campaign, you can reach consumers across multiple Google channels, including:
- Search
- Gmail
- Google Maps
- Discover
- Display
- YouTube
Artificial Intelligence combines digital assets to get the best and most relevant content in front of each viewer. With Performance Max, advertisers set their goals and this goal-oriented solution optimizes itself to achieve them.
The Benefits of a Performance Max Ad Campaign
How does Performance Max measure up to other campaign types? The answer is simple: in most cases, it far exceeds them by offering a simple, all-in-one solution. If you’re starting a Google Ad campaign and can’t seem to decide whether Local Services, Shopping, Video, or Discovery is right for you, Performance Max will give you the chance to test the waters of each. Using Performance Max is a great way to allocate your advertising budget while ensuring excellent returns.
How to Start a Performance Max Ad Campaign
The setup process for a Performance Max ad campaign is different from the setup process for other Google Ad types. If you’re new to online marketing and advertising or new to Google services, it’s definitely in your best interest to get help from our expert paid media specialists.
Link Your Google Ads Account to Your Google Merchant Account
If you haven’t done so already, link your Google Ad and Google Merchant accounts. When it comes to product feeds, Performance Max functions similarly to Google Shopping. Linking these accounts allows Performance Max to access your product data to produce high-relevance ads across all your targeted channels.
Optimize Your Data Feed
Increase the number of properties in your data feed to give Performance Max more information to draw upon. As you’re able, include:
- Product_type
- Product_category
- Brands
- Title
- Custom labels
- Price
Determine Your Campaign Goals and Select Your Objectives
Not every ad campaign is about garnering more sales. You might be interested in introducing a brand, rebranding, remarketing, or improving your company’s image. Whether you want to drive more traffic to your store or highlight forthcoming sales and promotions, take the time to determine what the goal of your campaign is and then define measurable objectives.
You don’t have to enter your goals to start your Performance Max campaign. However, having well-defined goals will make it easier to choose your targets for conversion which must be entered to get your campaign off the ground.
Choose Your Conversion Goals
To choose your conversion goals, you must select from the pre-established conversion goals that are already in your Google Ads account. Although you may be tempted to select all, less is more. Highlighting those that are most important to your business will focus your marketing dollars on the goals that are guaranteed to yield the best returns.
Establish Your Budget and Boundaries by Setting Up Bidding
Setting up bidding defines your budget and the related boundaries so that your Performance Max campaign helps rather than harms your bottom line. The only bidding strategies allowed on Performance Max are automated bidding strategies. Smart Bidding will optimize your target return on ad spend (tROAS). Otherwise, you can experiment with different automated bidding options to learn which strategies work best. For instance, you can maximize your converted value with or without a selected tROAS. You can alternatively maximize your conversion rate and set a target cost-per-acquisition (tCPA).
Location and Language
Visit the Campaign Settings page. Enter the location and name of each place that you wish to target. For micro-targeting, select “Nearby” and then manually include or exclude individual areas. Under languages, simply select all of the languages that you want your ads to appear in for each geolocation.
Generate and Add Digital Assets
Finally, collect or generate digital assets and add them to Performance Max. At a minimum, you will need:
- Three headlines
- Five lengthy headings
- One landscape picture
- One square picture
- One square logo
Your Performance Max campaign should also have at least one YouTube video of 10 seconds or less. Although this isn’t mandatory, if you don’t create and upload your own, Google will design one for you. Providing this asset gives you total control over how your brand is presented.
Adding a sufficient number of high-quality digital assets helps Performance Max streamline your outreach to fit individual platforms, channels, and consumer interests and needs. While you can always refine your campaign and add more, it’s best to start with a generous sampling of options across videos, images, texts, and ad extensions.
Manually Define Your Budget
After you’ve provided your digital assets, you’ll be asked by Performance Max to manually enter your budget. This is far simpler than choosing a bidding strategy. Simply enter the fixed dollar amount for your campaign.
How to Get the Most From Your Performance Max Ad Campaign
Performance Max has its own reporting and management tools. The same data that you see via these tools is the same data that Performance Max uses to optimize itself. You can assess the strength of your ads and individual ad performance based on Performance Max scores. However, like all online advertising, even largely “set-it-and-forget-it campaigns” work best when they’re designed, implemented, and managed by seasoned marketing professionals. To find out how we can help you get the most from Performance Max, get in touch with V Digital Services today!