What is Performance Max?
Performance Max is a tool from Google Ads that helps businesses set up and show their ads in many places like YouTube, Google Search, and Gmail, all from one campaign.
“Could this be the start of companies managing ads internally rather than relying on Agencies with hefty management fees? Is Google making it a lot more accessible for new companies on limited budgets?”
Steve Irvine - CEO Lionsorbet
It uses smart technology to automatically make ads better and show them to the right people. Here are the main points:
Easier Management: Instead of creating separate ads for different platforms like YouTube, Search, and Gmail, you create one campaign that runs everywhere. This saves you time and effort.
Better Results: Performance Max uses smart technology to automatically adjust your ads and budget to get the best results. It’s like having an expert constantly fine-tune your ads.
Wider Reach: Your ads can appear in more places, like YouTube, Google Search, and Google Maps, helping you reach more potential customers.
Goal-Oriented: You tell Google your goal, like getting more sales or leads, and it works to achieve that goal for you, making your advertising more effective.
Detailed Insights: You get easy-to-understand reports that show you how well your ads are doing, so you know what’s working and what isn’t.
Smart Targeting: Google’s technology finds and shows your ads to people who are most likely to be interested in what you’re offering, which can lead to better results.
Overall, Performance Max helps businesses run more effective ads with less hassle.
Is Performance Max the New Google Ads?
Performance Max is not a replacement for Google Ads but rather a new advanced option within Google Ads. It’s a new type of campaign that offers additional features and benefits compared to traditional campaigns. Performance Max makes advertising simpler, more efficient, and more effective.
What Platforms does Performance Max Work on?
Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads are designed to work across multiple Google properties. These platforms include:
Google Search: Ads appear in Google search results.
YouTube: Ads can be displayed as video ads on YouTube.
Google Display Network: Ads are shown on websites and apps that are part of Google's Display Network.
Google Discover: Ads can appear in the Discover feed on the Google app.
Gmail: Ads are displayed in the Promotions and Social tabs in Gmail.
Google Maps: Ads appear in Google Maps search results and within the Maps app.
Performance Max campaigns utilise Google's machine learning to optimise ad performance across all these channels, aiming to achieve the advertiser's specified conversion goals.
Is Performance Max easier to set up than Google Ads?
Yes, Performance Max is generally easier to set up than traditional Google Ads campaigns, especially if you’re not a digital advertising expert.
One Campaign for Everything: With Performance Max, you only need to create one campaign that works on all Google platforms like YouTube, Search, and Gmail. You don’t have to make separate ads for each one, which makes things much simpler.
Automatic Adjustments: Performance Max uses smart technology to handle things like your budget and where your ads show up. It does a lot of the hard work for you, so you don’t have to worry about it.
Easy Ad Creation: You just upload a few things like text, pictures, and videos. Google takes these and automatically creates different versions of your ad to see which ones work best.
Focus on Your Goals: You just tell Google what you want to achieve, like getting more sales or leads, and it optimises your campaign to reach that goal.
Less Monitoring Needed: Traditional Google Ads often need a lot of checking and tweaking. Performance Max does most of this automatically, saving you time and effort.
Google Max works across Google Major platforms including Search, Maps, Youtube, Discover, Gmail and Display
How does Performance Max differ from Google Paid Ads?
Performance Max is a newer type of campaign from Google Ads that's designed to make advertising easier and more effective for businesses. Here’s a simple breakdown of how it differs from traditional Google paid ads:
All-in-One Solution: Traditional Google ads often require separate campaigns for different platforms, like Search, Display, YouTube, and Shopping. Performance Max combines all these into one campaign, allowing your ads to appear across all of Google's channels from a single setup.
Automation: With traditional ads, you manually set many parameters like targeting, bidding, and ad placements. Performance Max uses Google's advanced automation and machine learning to optimize these settings in real-time, aiming to get the best results for your goals.
Simplified Management: Managing traditional Google ads can be complex and time-consuming, with different strategies needed for each campaign type. Performance Max simplifies this by managing everything under one campaign, saving you time and effort.
Broader Reach: Performance Max can show your ads on a wider range of Google’s properties, including Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps, all within a single campaign. This increases your chances of reaching potential customers wherever they are.
Data-Driven Insights: Instead of relying solely on your own adjustments and insights, Performance Max leverages Google’s vast data and machine learning capabilities to identify and act on opportunities that might not be immediately obvious, helping to improve your campaign’s performance.
In essence, Performance Max aims to take the complexity out of running Google Ads by using automation and machine learning to manage and optimise campaigns, while reaching customers across all of Google’s platforms from a single, streamlined campaign.
How does Performance Max work?
A simple explanation of how Google Performance Max works:
You Set Your Goal: First, you decide what you want to achieve with your ads. This could be more sales, leads, website visits, or any other goal.
Provide Ad Materials: You give Google some basic materials like text, images, and videos. These are called assets.
Google Creates Ads: Using your assets, Google automatically creates different versions of your ads. It mixes and matches your text, images, and videos to see what works best.
Ads Appear Everywhere: Your ads are shown across all of Google’s platforms, including YouTube, Search, Display Network, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. This means more people can see your ads in more places.
Smart Optimisation: Google uses advanced technology (machine learning) to show your ads to the right people at the right time. It continuously tests and learns which combinations of your assets perform best to get the results you want.
Automatic Adjustments: As your campaign runs, Google automatically adjusts things like your budget and bids (how much you’re willing to pay for clicks or impressions) to maximise your results.
Easy Reports: You get simple reports that show you how your ads are performing. You can see which ads are working best and how close you are to reaching your goal.
In short, you provide the goal and the materials, and Google does the heavy lifting by creating, optimising, and showing your ads to help you achieve that goal. This makes advertising easier and more effective.
Does Performance Max rely on Keywords?
No, Performance Max does not rely on keywords in the same way that traditional Google Search campaigns do. Instead, it uses a broader range of signals to determine where and when your ads should appear. It works differently by:
Using Audience Signals: Performance Max uses audience signals rather than keywords to target potential customers. These signals include information about user behavior, interests, demographics, and other data points that Google has about its users.
Relying on Automated Targeting: Instead of bidding on specific keywords, Performance Max automatically identifies the best opportunities to show your ads based on your campaign goals and the data it collects.
Utilising your Marketing Asset: You provide various assets like headlines, descriptions, images, and videos. Google’s machine learning then combines these assets to create and display ads across different channels, without you needing to specify keywords.
Focussing on Goals: Performance Max focuses on your specific marketing goals, such as driving conversions or increasing online sales, rather than targeting searches based on keywords. The system optimizes towards these goals by analyzing user data and behavior.
While traditional Google Ads rely heavily on keywords to target users, Performance Max uses a combination of user data, machine learning, and your provided assets to find the best placements for your ads across all Google platforms.
What are the best use cases for Performance max?
Google Performance Max campaigns can be used in various scenarios to achieve different marketing objectives. Here are some common use cases:
Boost Online Sales: Ideal for online stores aiming to increase sales across multiple platforms. By reaching potential customers on Google Search, YouTube, Display Network, and more, you can drive more traffic to your product pages.
Promote New Products: Launch new products and reach a wide audience quickly, ensuring maximum visibility.
Capture Leads: Useful for businesses that need to generate leads, such as service providers, educational institutions, and B2B companies. Performance Max can target potential customers who are more likely to fill out a contact form or sign up for a newsletter.
Performance Max is versatile and can be adapted to fit various marketing goals, making it a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes and industries.
How much should I spend on Performance Max?
Google recommend an “average daily budget of at least three times your CPA” - Naturally this requires a little knowledge and understanding of your website conversion rates and cost to acquire a customer. So if you work out that it costs you £15 to acquire a new customer through your channels then a starting point would be £45 per day based on this logic. This however results in a monthly spend of around £1350. Personally we would recommend a minimum budget of £500 pcm and scale up from there based on the results of your campaign. At the time of writing, if you set up Performance Max through Shopify’s sales channel, Google are offering £400 credit if you spend £400 in your first 60 days. That would indicate a budget of £200 per month combined with their credits.
Google are offering free credit for new customers when advertising through Performance Max Shopify Sales Channel.
Setting up Performance Max in Google Ads
To set up a Google Performance Max campaign, you'll do it through your Google Ads account. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get started:
Log In to Google Ads:
Go to the Google Ads website and log in with your Google account.
Create a New Campaign:
Click on the "+" button to create a new campaign.
Choose Your Goal:
Select the goal for your campaign. This could be Sales, Leads, Website Traffic, or another objective.
Select Campaign Type:
Choose "Performance Max" from the list of campaign types.
Set Up Your Campaign:
Campaign Settings: Enter basic details like your campaign name, budget, and bidding strategy.
Targeting: Set your target locations and languages.
Audience Signals: Define who you want to reach by adding audience signals (optional but recommended).
Add Assets:
Text: Provide headlines and descriptions for your ads.
Images and Videos: Upload any images and videos you want to use.
Final URL: Enter the URL of the landing page you want users to visit.
Extensions:
Add any ad extensions you want, like sitelinks, callouts, or structured snippets. These can provide additional information and encourage users to click on your ad.
Review and Launch:
Review all your settings and assets to make sure everything looks good.
Click "Publish" to launch your campaign.
Google will then take over, using its smart technology to optimise your ads across all its platforms, helping you reach your goal efficiently.
Setting up Performance Max in Shopify
Setting up a Google Performance Max campaign in Shopify involves integrating your Shopify store with Google Ads and then configuring the campaign. Here’s a step-by-step guide to connecting Shopify to Google Ads:
1.Install Google Channel App:
Log In to Shopify:
Go to your Shopify admin panel and log in.
Add Google & Youtube Sales Channel:
Go to the Shopify App Store and search for the "Google & Youtube" app.
Click "Add app" and follow the instructions to install it.
Set Up Google Channel:
Once installed, open the Google Channel app in your Shopify admin.
Connect your Google account and link your Google Ads account.
Follow the prompts to complete the setup, including linking your Merchant Center account if you have one.
2. Create a Performance Max Campaign
From Google Channel in Shopify:
Navigate to Google Channel:
In your Shopify admin, go to the Google Channel app.
Start Campaign Setup:
In the Google Channel app, look for the option to create a new Google Ads campaign.
Select "Performance Max" as the campaign type.
Set Campaign Goals:
Choose your campaign objective, such as driving sales or increasing website traffic.
Configure Campaign Settings:
Set your daily budget, targeting preferences (like locations and languages), and bidding strategy.
Add Assets:
Text: Write headlines and descriptions for your ads.
Images and Videos: Upload product images and any promotional videos.
URLs: Ensure the landing page URLs are set correctly to direct traffic to your Shopify store.
Review and Publish:
Review all your campaign details.
Click "Publish" to launch your Performance Max campaign.
3. Monitor and Optimise
Monitor Performance:
Use the Google Channel app in Shopify to monitor your campaign’s performance.
You can also check detailed insights and reports in your Google Ads account.
Optimise:
Adjust your assets, budget, and targeting as needed based on performance data.
Google’s machine learning will continuously optimise your campaign, but periodic reviews and tweaks can help improve results.
By following these steps, you can effectively set up and manage a Google Performance Max campaign directly from your Shopify store, leveraging Google’s powerful advertising tools to drive traffic and sales.
What are the downsides to Performance Max?
Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads are great for reaching people across many different Google platforms, but they do have some downsides:
You have less control: Google makes a lot of decisions for you, like where and how to show your ads. You don’t have as much say in these choices. You won’t get as detailed information about how each specific platform (like YouTube or Gmail) is performing.
It can be hard to track conversions: It’s difficult to see exactly how each platform contributes to sales or leads, making it tricky to understand the customer journey.
Budget Use & Spending: Google decides how to split your budget across different platforms, which might not always match your preferences or what you think works best.
Creative Work and Ad Materials: You need to create a variety of ads (like images, videos, and text), which can take more time and resources.
Learning to Use It: It takes time to understand how Google’s automation works and to adjust your strategies accordingly.
Initial Performance and Adjustments: At first, your results might be inconsistent as Google learns what works best for your campaign.
Dependence on Google Algorithm: You’re relying heavily on Google’s system to make the right choices for your ads, which might not always align perfectly with your business needs.
Cost and Efficiency: Without as much control, you might spend more money without seeing the best possible results.
While Performance Max can help you reach a wide audience with less manual effort, it comes with trade-offs in control, transparency, and the need for a variety of ad materials.
Conclusion: Is Performance Max worth it?
Performance Max is a tool from Google Ads that simplifies ad management by allowing businesses to create one campaign that runs across multiple platforms like YouTube, Google Search, and Gmail. It uses smart technology to automatically improve ads and target the right audience. This results in easier management, better performance, and a wider reach.
You set your goals, provide basic ad materials, and Google handles the rest, optimising your ads to achieve your desired outcomes. However, there are some downsides, such as less control over specific targeting and spending, a need for various creative assets, and an initial learning phase where performance may fluctuate. Despite these drawbacks, Performance Max is designed to make advertising more effective and less time-consuming for businesses.
Shopify have taken steps to integrate Google and Youtube as a sales channel into their admin, which as simplified the user interface for Shop Owners and Admins to be introduced and manage Google ads themselves. Could this be the start of companies managing ads internally rather than relying on Agencies with hefty management fees, making it a lot more accessible for new companies on limited budgets? Only time will tell.
