Google’s Performance Max: Is This For You?
The Ultimate Guide for Content Marketers
Google’s big announcement at the Google Marketing Livestream event for content marketers and advertising professionals notably recognized their new Performance Max campaign. This new type of campaign in the Google Ads platform is called a game-changer in the marketing and advertising world for businesses. The new campaign type maximizes your performance across all Google inventory using machine learning. It is fully automated and requires marketers/advertisers only to provide copy, a call to action, images, and videos. In turn, this activates Google’s Smart Bidding process across different channels, all based on the goal of the marketer or advertiser.
Performance Max Process and Functions
This new campaign type was created to be a straightforward way to get ads across multiple channels. Let’s take a look at the process and functions of Performance Max.
When setting up a Performance Max campaign, you will choose your objective and goals. After, you will set your budget and choose your bidding strategy. This bidding strategy includes the following options:
Max Conversions
Max Value
Max CPA
Target Value/Conversions
Next is setting your location, language, and ad scheduling. If you have a lot of different areas, you can easily import the bulk of locations. Choose ‘enter another location, then use the ‘advanced search’ link to import them. Then easily choose the language you need, when you want it scheduled and campaign run dates.
Now, you’ll need to set up the URL options. Google will define its final URL unless you toggle the option off. If you keep it on, Google will send traffic to whatever link it sees fit.
After that, you will set up an asset group. You can also create multiple asset groups, which is effectively an ad. You will input your videos, photos, logos, and copy.
Now it’s time to set your ad targets. Each campaign will only have one set of targets. You will select audiences that will help give insight into who and where Google should target your ad. Google will look at the audiences you provide and take that data to identify similar consumers.
The last part of Google’s Performance Max process is setting up your ad extensions. You can either use existing account-level site link extensions or create specific ones for the campaigns. The campaign does function to make suggestions for you based on the goals you provided. You can also add a promotion, price, callouts, and call extensions.
Its overall process and function are easy, and that’s the purpose of it. Performance Max was created to bring one campaign across all of Google’s owned and operated properties instead of creating specialized ads for specific channels.
How It Benefits You
Google’s new Performance Max campaign was created to benefit content marketers and dealers. If you use Google ads, it’s time to use this. If you haven’t yet, it’s time to jump on the train. Google is such a powerful search engine, utilizing the tools they give you will allow your business to prosper. Let’s take a look at four main benefits when using Performance Max.
Better Customer Reach: By complementing your keyword-based search campaigns, it creates a solution to helping you increase your conversions and revenue by unifying Google’s ad inventory.
Reaching business goals: Eventually, you will choose from different marketing objectives, including; online sales, offline sales, new customer acquisition. You will also be able to drive new leads across Google from only one campaign while machine learning automatically optimizes your most valued customers across multiple channels. When first setting up your goals, it will make it easier to define your conversion goals.
Brand New Reporting and Insights: You’ll be able to see which audiences and asset combinations are performing the best through the new reporting and insight tools. A new Insights page will allow you to understand what is going on with your performance entirely.
Brand New Campaign Inputs: Now, you have the opportunity to control how machine learning performs. Quickly speed up the campaign learning process by choosing which audiences are most likely to convert. Then, combine these inputs with value rules to indicate which ones are most worth it to your business and ads.
What Networks will be Included?
The great thing about the new Performance Max was that it was created because Google wanted one single campaign to run across all of its inventory. The Performance Max campaigns will serve in any placements filled by Search, Display, Gmail, YouTube, Discovery campaigns.
Performance Max Reports
We want to highlight the new reporting feature for Google’s Performance max. This type of tool is essential to content markets and advertisers alike. Usually, it’s known as somewhat of a ‘shortfall.’ Google acknowledged this and took necessary steps to improve transparency within this campaign type.
Advertisers can report on any top-level campaign performance
Reporting on location performance, including a store report if based upon location extensions
Performance reports by hour-of-day, day-of-week, and day and hour combined
It is important to note one of the things you cannot report on, and that’s the multiple asset groups, otherwise known as ads. You can report on performance by responsive display ad, but you cannot break down that performance by an individual asset.
Is This For Me?
If you are a content marketer, advertiser, or digital marketer, the answer is simple; yes! The future of automation is here, and you must utilize the tools Google gives you. Seeing data on your audiences, how they are converting, trending searches, top-performing creative assets are all valuable pieces of information to run your ad campaigns and overall business better.
How Do You Get It?
Announced at Advertising Week back in October 2020, the Performance Max campaigns are still in their beta mode. You can complete this form if you are interested in joining. It’s currently expanding to thousands of advertisements, and you are allowed to participate if your goal is to generate leads or grow online sales without using Google Merchant Center’s product feed.