A Hammer isn’t a Swiss Army Knife
A tool is only as effective as the person using it. Granted, it doesn’t take a deep level of insight to understand this. And while entertaining as it might be watching someone use a hammer to open a can, it’s not the hammer’s fault for doing an awful job. While nothing like a hammer, Performance Max can often find itself in a similar situation, sans can, of course.
Aside from using PMax for 3+ years now, we’re still learning new tricks, with a few do’s and don’ts sprinkled all over the place. And one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is AI is only as good as the information you feed it.
Fortunately for us, no one has the insight we do.
Here’s a bit of our story with Performance Max (story still in progress).
Set It, But Don’t Forget It
Let’s start with a definition: Performance Max (PMax) campaigns in Google Ads are cross-channel marketing campaigns that automate placements across search, display, video, shopping, and discovery inventory. These campaigns use provided creative and audience lists to automatically optimize advertisements using Google’s AI.
While the promise of hands-off AI optimization sounds appealing, many marketers quickly learn to truly maximize the potential of PMax, ongoing data monitoring and analysis is essential.
At Brado, we don’t just set it and forget it. We engage. We optimize. And we use our insight work to massage the algorithm to get the most out of every ad dollar.
Let’s talk more about that.
The Importance of Data Monitoring
Monitoring performance metrics and making bidding adjustments based on campaign trends is vital to ensuring that your campaign stays aligned with your goals.
To achieve optimal performance, we regularly check metrics like clicks, impressions, conversions, conversion value, cost-per-conversion, and return on ad spend. Monitoring metrics at a campaign, asset group, and product level (if using a product feed), ensures we’re maximizing every dollar of our clients’ budgets. We then use these metrics and the information from the insight feature to find opportunities to split apart campaigns by audience signal, creative, or product.
Accurate conversion tracking is the backbone of performance measurement. Without proper set up and conversion tracking, data can be incomplete or misleading. Ideally, there is a hard conversion point that isn’t vulnerable to bot traffic, such as a purchase. On a lead generation campaign, offline conversion tracking should be set up so that only the best leads are optimized. This requires collaborating with clients to establish conversion points for each important step along the journey. We can even set values to these conversions related to their importance in the customer journey and then bid using a target ROAS strategy. This type of first party data integration helps fuel the AI to optimize towards the best quality customers
We also review conversion tracking setup to ensure all goals (such as form submissions, purchases, or phone calls) are being correctly attributed to the campaign. A small tracking error can skew an entire campaign’s performance data and cause AI to optimize towards the wrong information.
It’s also important to monitor competitors. Auction insights allow us to view which advertisers are competing at an auction for the same audience. Monitoring auction insight allows us to adjust bidding strategies to stay on top of the market.
Acting on Trends
Reviewing trends over time helps spot needed performance shifts. Whether it’s the seasonal increase in demand, changes in consumer behavior, or fluctuations in competition, understanding trends is key to adapting strategies for our clients.
For example, if conversion value starts dropping during certain months, there might be a seasonal effect that leads to adjusting budgets or targeting. If performance drops over time on ALL campaigns, they may be reaching creative wear-out and fatigue. Analyzing and acting on this data will improve the customer’s experience and the client’s bottom line.
Segmentation and Creative
Even though PMax uses automation to optimize creatives, it’s beneficial to have human oversight in assessing which ad assets — headlines, descriptions, images, videos — are performing best. Periodically reviewing creative performance allows us to refresh, or retire, assets that aren’t resonating and experiment with new ideas. Focusing on real results like ROAS and CPA are vital. We choose to take ad strength recommendations with a grain of salt. It can be an arbitrary measure and not reflective of actual results.
Performance Max campaigns require continuous optimization to drive better results over time. Regular analysis ensures you’re not just reacting to problems but proactively improving campaign performance.
A/B testing ad elements — such as headlines, descriptions, images, or videos — and audience signal can provide valuable insight into what resonates with each segment of your audience. At Brado, we have our in-house Creative Studio, that allows us easy access to adjust elements as needed and work together on versions and optimizations. By continually testing, learning, and iterating, you can fine-tune your creative for optimal performance.
Don’t Forget It
Like we said above, Brado’s story with PMax is still being written. In today’s competitive market, PMax offers incredible automation and machine learning features, but they still require active management.
In wrapping up our PMax adventure, remember that while automation can handle some heavy lifting, it’s the human touch (the data you feed AI) that adds the magic to your campaigns. Combine that with continuous optimization, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for Pmax success.