Should you be migrating to Performance Max?
I'm sorry.
I'm a day late in getting this week's newsletter out to you.
I had a site visit with a client for the first time since the pandemic.
Loved it, but it was weird to be out amongst "people" again.
On my way back I saw the price of petrol (gas) at ￡2.03 a litre.
For my American friends that translates to about $11.50 a gallon.
Ouch!
Glad I am doing a lot more walking these days.
These are the sort of factors I wish more media buyers considered.
These are the sort of factors that will impact user/buyer behaviour.
Blindly comparing your stats week over week (WoW), month over month (MoM), quarter over quarter (QoQ) or year over year (YoY) is something all established businesses should do.
But just comparing one set of data against another without considering extraneous circumstances that might have led to a rise or a fall is folly.
Which leads me to this week's big item I wanted to address.
We all know that Google are pushing Performance Max as a campaign type.
The drum beaters talk about how great their performance has been.
If you did a poor job in running Smart Shopping Campaigns (SSC), Google Display Network (GDN) Campaigns, Discovery Campaigns, YouTube Campaigns then absolutely I would expect you to get better results from a Performance Max campaign.
But what if you were already doing OK on SSC, GDN, YT? (gotta love the acronyms)
I would then expect the uplift to be minimal.
You'd lose a ton of visibility into data on performance, assuming you had a robust tracking solution in place (we find most advertisers don't)
As an agency, if we are not taking steps to migrate accounts, we'll be seen as not delivering for clients if someone else audits the account.
I've been picking up more enquiries for audits, due in no small part to my increased visibility here on LinkedIn.
Who knew creating content on LinkedIn would lead to more leads and sales.
So, what should you do if you are running Google Ads now and you keep being told you should run Performance Max campaigns or mocked for not running them?
My advice would be to start formulating a plan for doing it, NOW.
Don't just wait for the 1-click button that will eventually be offered to you for migration.
Accounts that I have audited that ran PMax (cool abbreviation, right?) didn't perform that well.
They were not featured as case studies or asked to talk at Google Marketing Live 2022. Surprising right?
When I looked at their accounts, it was clear to see why.
They had just created a few campaigns with not much thought, zero best practise, zero optimization.
It's easy to set them up but not so easy to get decent results.
The same can be said for any campaign type in Google Ads.
There are a ton of agencies going all in on Performance Max.
I've been clipping merrily away in Evernote all about Performance Max trying to assimilate what we must do and what we might want to not do.
So many differing views on what to do for the best, as there always is with the new shiny things.
I've been reading blog posts and watching the "official" Google video tutorials.
It is useful to learn the way that Google want you to do it, then find the better way that works for you.
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Google best practise is what works for them as a business in line with their commercial goals.
Your best practise won't always align the same way.
You do you.
Performance Max is going to "work" whether you are B2B or B2C.
If you are B2C, it will depend on how many Stock Keeping Unit (SKU's) you have as to how you should divvy the products up.
I've been able to get remarkable success from Smart Shopping Campaigns by using custom labels.
Use a business logic for your business type to divide up the products.
Don't use one campaign or one collection.
Unless you sell one product or have one SKU.
I'm always amazed when auditing Google Merchant Center (GMC) accounts how few agencies and advertisers use custom labels.
We prefer to use custom labels to segment products based on actual ROAS performance.
Products can be relabelled and moved between campaigns if their performance increases or decreases.
Whereas if it is in a "collection" of hair dryers (assuming you sell hair dryers that is), then your worst seller could hinder your best seller.
The "blended" performance might make Google smile but shouldn't put a smile on yours.
Don't settle for mediocrity.
Make sure the maximum budget is being spent on the products that you have the most of and make the highest ROAS.
Some things you need to watch for :
Performance Max is an entirely automated campaign type.
Many PPC practitioners still want to get their hands on data.
Unless the data is actionable, it's meaningless to have it.
If a driverless car is completely automatic you can't override it.
The brake pedal, gas pedal and steering wheel are completely redundant but they are left in for reassurance.
I don't know many people that would get in the car and trust it to do what it is designed to do.
I only want to see the data if the performance isn't doing what it should be doing. So I can decide to manage the items I do have control over.
Interestingly, there was a conversation about brands bidding on their own brand terms on Google when they rank organically.
If you let the machine control everything, this is one of the scenarios when I think your human logic would win over AI.
Google will happily charge you $25 a click when you should be able to pick the click up for 10 cents.
Automation - 1
Dumb Human Advertiser who dares to challenge the mighty Google - 0
Under PMax you won't be able to impose your logic.
I'm biting the bullet and creating my first PMax campaigns this week.
Wish me luck.
I'll keep you updated on progress, learnings and guide your transition.
I'm curious to hear from B2B advertisers who are running PMax campaigns and how they have fared.
Let me know in the comments if you are running them and what your experience has been.