Is Google Performance Max Any Good?
Performance Max Campaigns Can Be Great
Performance Max campaigns can be good. We’ve been using them almost since before they were generally available. They are heavily reliant on machine learning but are dependent on the quality of audiences you target as well as the assets you provide it. Simply throwing together some images, ad copy and video do not guarantee success.
Use Google’s capabilities to their full potential and the results can be stunning. This requires you to put a lot of thought into how you want to target your audience but also how a variety of assets will help machine learning experiment with ad variety.
You Can't Set It And Forget It
Machine learning is simply finding correlating patterns among thousands of data points. By exploiting those patterns, it can find those most likely to complete a conversion event. But patterns change and machine and human need to adapt to changes.
Take the current inflationary environment. Increased cost of products causes people to rethink behavior. As a result, old patterns break down and new patterns form. Performance Max can and will find them and provide feedback. It’s up to us humans to process what PMAX is telling us and update our strategy & ad assets to help it.
Sometimes Performance Max Results Can Surprise
Here’s a retail example of where building the right audience signals, combined with the right ad assets can drive exceptional results. A situation where machine learning and human understanding of customers work in concert with each other to deliver a marketing manager’s dream report. Spending $1,900 on a Performance Max campaign generated $57,300 in online sales for a Return On Ad Spend of 3,000%.
With Performance Max One Size Does Not Fit All
Copy and paste a strategy from one campaign to another does not guarantee success. Nor does slotting all retail into the same assumptions. There are thousands of variables that will affect performance. Understanding the information and insights that PMAX can surface is valuable. Understanding variables that only a business knows helps too.
A machine learning algorithm may not understand supply chain constraints, shipping challenges, or, why someone is willing to buy from a competitor. When we know these things and can communicate them to Google’s Performance Max, either through audience signals or ad assets, then good things can happen.
Not understanding this can cause Performance Max to underperform in its objectives. So to answer the question “Is Google Performance Max Any Good?” we believe it can be!
Think Performance Max Could Work For You?
Curious to know if Performance Max Campaigns could work for your business? Just contact us and set up a meeting and we can discuss the possibilities for your company. Our team wants to know more about your business and how we can be a valuable part of your marketing team.
