?? New Ecomm Store: PMax or Standard Shopping? ??

?? The choice might not be an either/or. Experimentation will be key. Consider the unique needs and intricacies of your business. Stay flexible with your approach.

00:00 Introduction

00:31 Flavors of Performance Max

01:48 Advice For Most Advertisers

02:50 Deciding On Starting Bids Without Data

03:31 Bidding Strategy & Negative Keywords

04:15 Feed-Only PMax?

?? Differences in where your ads appear:

?? Standard Shopping: Google Shopping tab, Google Search (next to search results), Google Images, Google Search Partner Websites (if targeted), & Maps (via Local Inventory Ads)

?? Performance Max: Google Shopping tab, Google Search (next to search results), Google Search Text Ads, Google Images, Google Display Network, YouTube, GMail, Discovery, & Maps (via Local Inventory Ads)

?? Differences in ad formats:

?? Standard Shopping: Shopping Ads, Shopping Ads for local products (Local Inventory Ads)

?? Performance Max: Shopping Ads, Shopping Ads for local products (Local Inventory Ads), Display Ads, Text Ads, YouTube Ads

?? Differences in bidding strategies available:

?? Standard Shopping: Target ROAS, Maximize Clicks, Enhanced cost per click (until October 2023), Manual CPC

?? Performance Max: Maximize Conversion value (with an optional ROAS target), Maximize Conversions (with an optional CPA target)

?? Differences in features available:

?? Standard Shopping: Audience targeting to serve ads to specific audiences

?? Performance Max: Audience signals to help steer the campaign towards your audience, Final URL expansion, New customer acquisition goal

?? In other words: WAY different.

?? A note on campaign priorities:

"For the same product in the same account, Performance Max campaigns take priority over Standard Shopping and display remarketing campaigns."

Google Documentation: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454022?hl=en

?? "What About This Feed-Only PMax 'Hack' I've Heard About?"

Now, if you setup an asset group in a PMax campaign without adding assets (e.g. headlines, descriptions, images), you can mimic Standard Shopping in terms of ad formats.

Often referred to as PMax for Retail, Feed-Only PMax, or PMax Shopping.

However, as of August 2023, YouTube Shorts will now be eligible to serve with this setup. Advertisers also often see Search and Display ads getting served with this setup as well.

So it's slowly becoming a less viable solution for utilizing features for Shopping Ads only available in PMax campaigns, such as Maximize Conversions with or without a tCPA, Maximize Conversion Value without a tROAS, and new customer acquisition settings. Nonetheless, it's still a great option for many advertisers.

This option also might be worth trying, even for new ecommerce businesses without conversion data history, if the products being advertised are well recognized by Google and your product feed is well optimized.

??? "Full-Build" PMax

If you instead decide you'd like to try Performance Max campaigns as originally intended to include ad formats beyond mostly Shopping Ads, make sure you fully understand the implications of that type of campaign build.

For one, it's likely going to be a more expensive campaign to support as now we're talking about providing the campaign with a daily budget that supports advertising accross all applicable Google Ads inventory.

Another consideration is that, because of this omni-inventory campaign type, the predictive signals baked into the bidding strategies used by this campaign will usually take longer to adjust to changes you make.

Also keep in mind that your business or the products you advertise in a PMax campaign may or may not work well within this omni-inventory approach.

?? With these and other considerations in mind, I don't usually recommend most new ecommerce stores start with a full-build PMax campaign. Excepetions to this might be if you have very aggressive acquisition goals with a high tolerance for risk, such as when, for example, you're VC-backed.

?? Only Standard Shopping

This would be my most common recommendation for a new ecommerce store just starting out on Google Ads.

This will allow you more control over the performance of your campaign, such as having the ability to add negative keywords as you see fit, manually controlling bids, and limiting the ad formats you pay for clicks from.

You'll also have the ability to utilize the most aggressive bidding strategy available in Google Ads: manual CPC. Use with caution.

If you've never run Google Ads before you'll be making a lot of rough-estimates when deciding on starting bids. Use keyword research tools like Google's Keyword Planner, Keywords Everywhere, SEMrush to help in the process.

Be ready to update your bids very quickly as you get data flowing through these campaigns - and don't forget to add negative keywords pre and post-launch!

You might also decide it's best to have some of your products inside a PMax campaign and other in a Standard Shopping campaign.

?? PMax + Standard Shopping

Another option that is quickly gaining popularity is to have Standard Shopping running alongside a PMax targeting the same products.

As mentioned earlier, PMax will take priority over Standard Shopping campaigns.

However, PMax will not always prioritize the use of Shopping Ads.

Therefore, your Standard Shopping campaign can help you keep the foot on the pedal for products that are a priority for your business and that you want aggressively advertised via Shopping Ads at all times.

You may be able to discover incremental gains with this approach.

There are also studies being conducted on the potential benefits of

?? Pro Tip: Use a query-filtering approach to your Standard Shopping campaign strategy. Don't just set up one Standard Shopping campaign. More info from Kirk Williams of ZATO here: https://zatomarketing.com/blog/does-google-shopping-query-filtering-still-work-in-2020

?? Always keep in mind: your mileage may vary. Don't take anyone's word for what is the "best" choice. Your business, your goals, your market, etc. will determine the most suitable starting approach. Be ready to change your approach as business dynamics change and you gather more data from testing.

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