As we have covered previously, Google’s paid search advertising can often be one of the most cost effective tactics on an advertiser’s media plan. However, keyword-based advertising isn’t the only digital format that Google offers—between their display ad network, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps, Google is more than just a platform for search ads.
But what if someone was looking to take advantage of all of the ad inventory that Google offers? You could set up search, display, YouTube, etc campaigns up individually—or, you could try out Google’s all-in-one, AI-powered Performance Max campaign.
What is Google Performance Max?
Google Performance Max, or PMax as it’s often referred to, combines Google’s main ad products into a single campaign type in Google Ads. PMax allows advertisers to tap into inventory across search, YouTube, display, Gmail, and Maps without needing to manage multiple campaigns, each with their own budgets and goals.
Performance Max campaigns incorporate your campaign goals and first-party data into Google AI in order to seek out potential conversions across all of their ad inventory. Advertisers are encouraged to provide Google with high-quality creative assets, including logo, responsive text, and banner/video ads. As part of the Google AI campaign optimization, assets will be mixed and matched in the various ad placements based on anticipated performance.
The Benefits of PMax
The most compelling benefit of PMax for marketers is the ease of managing a single campaign across all of Google’s ad inventory. The obvious benefit of time aside, Performance Max campaigns are powered by an AI, theoretically optimizing it for efficiency Google-wide, instead of individually, on a network-by-network basis.
This condensing of ad types enables advertisers to tap into inventory they likely wouldn’t otherwise, particularly across the Google Display Network and Gmail, where ad sizes can change and become responsive.
As with other Google campaign types, PMax campaigns are optimized against your defined goals (often, an onsite purchase or contact submission) through the use of cookie tracking. Optimization on PMax is done in real-time via Google AI.
For nonprofits taking advantage of a Google Ad Grant, Performance Max is available to you, too! According to Google, there may be limitations to the inventory for Google Grants advertisers, though the company doesn’t go on to define these terms.
A Word of Caution ⚠️
Performance Max is not meant to be a replacement for your paid search campaign. As Google themselves states, PMax campaigns are intended to be a compliment to your keyword-based search campaigns. Running only the Performance Max campaign type alone would mean likely missing out on valuable branded and category-based search traffic.
There is also the danger of placing too much confidence in an AI, leading to a “set it and forget it” approach. Like any other digital media campaign, optimization takes time, and still requires human oversight both for setup and continued management.
Getting Started with Google Performance Max
Google Ads is a self-serve ad platform offered to anyone with a Google account. In order to create a Performance Max campaign, advertisers will need:
- Banner, video, and logo files in high quality
- Headlines & description text (character limits apply)
- Online and/or offline conversion goals
- Cookie tracking through the Google Tag and/or Google Ads conversion pixels.
If all of this is sounding a little daunting, Screechy Cat Media is here to help! Send us an email and we will set up a free consultation to discuss how your business can access Google PMax campaigns.
