Have you ever wondered why Google is continually improving the service it provides? The answer is simple — to earn more money. The best way to do this is to offer more targeted ad options that the search engines can use to find more people online and then sell them products and services.
As Google AdWords evolves into a “ holistic” platform for advertisers to find more business, it might seem like it’s impossible to keep up when it comes to changing from one method of advertising to another. But, thanks to technology and automation advances, many businesses can now easily adjust their tactics for success in several different stages of their campaign lifecycle.
In November 2021 Google rolled out a new goal-based campaign type called Performance Max. PMC is the newest type of automated Google Ads campaign that uses Artificial Intelligence to display responsive ads across all Google’s properties like Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discovery, and Shopping Performance Max Campaigns combine Google’s automation technologies across bidding, budget optimization, audiences, creatives, attribution, and more thus to help target more relevant keywords, assess and measure better, and even automate conversions for profitable customers.
Being an AI-driven Ad type, PMax provides advertisers with less control over optimization. But there are always a few things that you can focus on to optimize. So, In this post, we look at some tips for improving your performance on the campaign level when you are running a Performance Max campaign.
MUST HAVE CLEAR GOALS
Your marketing goals are at the centre of your strategy . You have to carefully understand your campaign objectives as Performance max campaigns are only available for Sales, Leads, Website Traffic, Local Store Visit & Promotion or No goals
- Sales: drive online, phone, or in-store sales.
- Leads: get leads and other conversions by encouraging customers to take action.
- Website traffic: get qualified traffic to visit your website.
- Local Store Visit/ Promotion : Get users to visit your store in person.
- No Goal : Create a campaign without a primary objective
You should also have to define specific conversion goals for your campaign, e.g. calls, form submissions, or purchases.If you notice any irrelevant goals, use the 3-dot icon to “Edit” or “Remove” the goal. Incase If your goal does not fit into these categories, don’t try to rethink your goal, Consider another type of campaign.
Focus On Bidding Strategy and Budget
Based on your specified performance goal, Performance Max will help set the right bids for every auction and optimize the campaign. The bid strategy and budget for a Performance Max campaign should be in line with your overall business objectives.
Here are the main options available for bidding in performance max :
- Conversion value: This strategy is most appropriate if you want to maximize conversions that have different values for your business.
- Conversions: This strategy is most appropriate if you want to maximize conversions and they all have approximately the same value for your business.
You can also include a cost per action (CPA) or return on ad spend (ROAS) in your bidding strategy as if this helps you better measure your marketing results. To calculate your CPA or Target ROAS, You can use the average CPA or ROAS of the last 30 days in other campaigns as a starting point. We recommend you to go with this option if you are running P-MAX for more than 30 days.
According to google For Performance Max, you should try an average daily budget of at least 3 times your CPA or cost/conv.
Choose Additional Campaign Settings
You will then need to select these settings:
Location and Language
- Check out from which cities/state/region you are getting regular conversions aur higher clicks, Exclude all those region from where you are getting low CTR and no conversion.
we recommend you to go with all language option as this will broden your add reach and open a door for more potential customer.
The schedule and dates.
As scheduling you ads might save a lot of money drainage based on previous campaigns results you can schedule your ads
The tracking template :
Do not forget to use tracking template in your campaign as this helps you to track the performance of your campaign. Always have a close look on UTM parameters you are using in your tracking template.
Choose The end URL suffix.
As Google Ads recommends enabling end URL expansion to expand coverage on relevant search queries. This feature allows you to appear in other searches with the possibility of generating conversions.
Always Excluding URLs
If you have specific URLs that you don’t want to include in your Performance Max Campaigns.
you can enter these URLs individually and they will not be served in ads
Create Theme Based Asset Group
Before you jump into creating and launching your performance max campaign, ensure you have all your performance max assets prepared. This would include images, videos, ad copies, and call-to-actions. Google’s machine learning algorithms will automatically create ads with the assets you provide, so the more assets it has access to, the more it can test and work out . So Try to use as many asset as possible, but always remember all assets should be related to a single theme or audience.
Number of assets should be :
5 Headlines
5 Long headlines
5 Descriptions
20 Landscape images
20 Square images
5 Logos: at least 1 square logo, others are optional
5 YouTube videos ( min. 10 seconds)
Although quality and variety of your creatives is important when it comes to the success of your campaign. Recently Google give an option to check the performance of your asset group via “view details link” You can get a report on what does and doesn’t work. To see your asset report, follow these instructions:
Go to Performance MAx > Click on Assest Group > Choose the Assest Group & Click on View Details > Check out the Performance Column
Audience Signal and Targeting
Ensure that you have as much information about your audience as possible. From their location to languages, you need to give Google all the inputs about who you want to target.
Try to explore and fill (if needed) the optional requirements as well, during campaign setup. Dynamic retargeting, signals, Google My Business feeds are some of these options that you can fill and select.
Google will also target your ads beyond the audience signals you provide, but again, the signals you provide will guide Google’s machine learning.
Signals you can (and should add) to your campaign include
1. Custom segments
2. Your data
3. Interests & detailed demographics
4. Demographics
5. Additional segments
You can use the ‘Demographics’ section and the ‘Additional segments’ option to further customise your audience. To enhance machine learning, use search term based custom segments.
Also Try adding data from these sources as well
- Website visitor lists
- App user lists
- Customer lists (for example, email and subscription lists)
- Video viewer lists
Feed optimization
In case if you are running ads for ecommerce stores then you should have to optimise your feed. Like standard shopping campaigns, PMax will rely on product feed quality to determine targeting.
Once your Performance Max Campaign is up and running, you should pause your Google Shopping ads campaign. If your Shopping campaign and Performance Max campaigns continue to run at the same time , the Shopping campaign may continue spending on some surfaces and not allow Performance Max to optimise fully.
Add Extensions
Include ad extensions such as site links, featured text, callouts, or lead forms. This makes your ads stand out more and provides additional information to your potential customers
Data Collection
Automation depends on accurate data collection to make decisions. Run the duration of the campaign for at least 6 weeks for enough data to compare. To drive the best results, feed the best data possible back into Google
Use a first-party Google global site tag to collect conversion information
Assign values to your conversion actions so you can use value-based bid strategies like Target ROAS.
Set up micro conversion actions to send more signals to Google that users are engaging and likely to convert.
Set up enhanced conversions to ensure you are collecting the most accurate data you can.
If you want to take advantage of the new Google Ads campaign types like Performance Max and you need constant updates and optimization, you need skilled professionals who can work with you at every stage of your campaign.
At Ecom Conversion, we provide our clients with unmatched expertise, experience, and creative solutions for a wide range of advertising needs across all industry verticals.
