Performance Max campaigns launch to all advertisers

In an unpredictable year, change has been a reliable constant. And we’ve seen this clearly in online consumer behavior. For example, Google Image searches for "yard landscaping ideas" have grown globally by over 80% YoY¹ as people look for more ways to spruce up their homes. Meanwhile, searches for "best all-inclusive resorts" have grown globally by over 200% YoY² as people get inspired to travel again.

Thankfully, advertisers don’t have to predict the future to be ready for it. If change is the challenge, automation is the solution businesses and agencies are using to stay ahead of ongoing shifts in consumer demand. Last year, we introduced Performance Max campaigns as a new way to buy Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign. They complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you grow performance across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

After strong beta results, Performance Max campaigns will roll out to all advertisers around the world starting today. They will also become the next generation of Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, which will both upgrade to Performance Max next year.³

Performance Max campaigns help you increase conversions across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

Find more customers where they are

Consumers are moving seamlessly between online experiences to find buying inspiration. 70% of U.S. shoppers report buying from a brand after seeing it on YouTube,⁴ and 91% of Google feed users say they took some kind of shopping or product-related action immediately after discovering new products, services or brands on their feed.⁵

Performance Max allows you to promote your business across all Google Ads inventory. As a result, you can show up for more customers and drive more conversions based on your goals. In fact, advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.⁶ Whether you’re focused on increasing online sales, generating leads, or growing offline sales, Performance Max helps you achieve your goals in four main ways:

1. Increasing conversions and value: Automation optimizes your budget and bids across channels to help you capture new conversion opportunities in real time.

Performance Max has helped us activate a complementary, full-funnel strategy. Thanks to advanced machine learning capabilities, we’ve been able to gain incremental reach and conversions very efficiently. Inmaculada Lestayo Campos
Digital Marketing Manager, Allianz

2. Finding new customers: Unlock new audience segments by using Google’s real-time understanding of user intent, behavior and context to show up in the right moments with more relevant ads.

Performance Max can be activated quickly and at scale to optimize the web journey and drive more subscriptions. It delivers strong targeting signals for a more competitive CPA and dynamic budget optimization by channel. Guylain Meykiechel
Head of Global Media Strategy, Deezer

3. Gaining richer insights: Performance Max campaigns are now part of the Insights page to help you understand how automation is working and how you can improve your campaign. Using the Combinations report, you can also see how your top-performing assets are being combined to build creatives.

• Image of the Insights page in Google Ads. The first section shows a line graph in the center with red and blue trend lines going up. There are additional sections titled “Top insights” and “Zoom in on conversion changes within your campaign.”

  Explore the Insights page to understand what’s driving performance.

• Image of the Insights page in Google Ads. The top of the image includes two cards, each labeled “Audience Insight.” Below the cards is a chart titled “Top audience segments,” with columns for “Audience segment,” “Type,” “Share of conversions” and “Index.” The first three rows of audience segments have a green “Optimized” label next to them, while the last two rows have a blue “Signal” label next to them.

  See which audiences are influencing performance the most — including new audience segments you might not have expected or known about before.

• Image of the Combinations report in the Google Ads interface, titled “Top image combinations.” Below are six cards, each with a colorful illustration, including a woman with her cat and dog, a dog being examined at the vet, and a dog and cat sleeping on the couch next to each other. An example illustrated logo shows an animal paw superimposed on a shield. Text headlines are: “Get top-rated coverage”, “Pet insurance”, “Protect your pet with trusted insurance” and “Low deductible, includes a 24/6 chat line.” At the bottom right of each card is a blue link to preview each ad.

  See which assets perform the best together in the Combinations report and get ideas for future assets to upload.

4. Working together with automation: Steer automation by providing high-quality creative assets and sharing your expertise about which audiences are most likely to convert.

The results from Performance Max campaigns were amazing. They helped us enter a new market to grow potential customers in a short period. We’d like to roll out Performance Max to other markets as well! Evelyn Zhao
SEA Regional Marketing Manager, SAIC-MG Motors

Get new features designed for retailers and local marketers

Performance Max campaigns allow retailers and local marketers to access new ad inventory and formats not currently available with Smart Shopping or Local campaigns — including on channels like YouTube, Search and Discover. To help you increase sales, Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will both upgrade to Performance Max in 2022. We’ll work closely with you and your partners to get feedback and build the right tools to help you easily transition your campaigns. Stay tuned for more information early next year.

We know the holidays are a critical time of year for your business. You should continue using Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to reach more shoppers across online and in-store experiences this holiday season. However, when the time is right for your business, you can start testing Performance Max campaigns before next year’s campaign upgrades.

Not only did Performance Max outperform our previous Smart Shopping campaigns, but it also took our efficiency to the next level, and allowed us to grow our revenue in a more profitable way. Eric Tsai
VP of Marketing and Business Development, Joybird

Performance Max became such a significant contributor towards our marketing objectives that we are now planning to roll it out across all of our accounts. Simon Achermann
Head of Online, microspot.ch

In the next few months, we’ll introduce new features in Performance Max specifically for retailers and businesses with store locations. For example, you’ll have the option to focus your campaigns to exclusively optimize for new customer acquisition. If you’re a retailer with a local inventory feed, you’ll also see new Search and Maps ad formats powered by your products to help drive more foot traffic to your stores.

Upgrading Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max next year will help you get more value from Google Ads while simplifying the number of campaigns you use to achieve your goals. We’ll continue investing in Performance Max and improving our automation technology over time to help you get better results.

To set your Performance Max campaigns up for success, check out our new best practices guide and video. You can also take the Skillshop e-learning course for Performance Max campaigns to get more tips on how to use them to their full potential. And explore the Demystifying Automation interactive demo to learn how different automation technologies can supercharge your marketing capabilities.

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<sup>1. Google Data, Global English, Jun 22, 2021 - Aug 20, 2021 vs Jun 22, 2020 - Aug 20, 2020
2. Google Data, Global English, Jun 22, 2021 - Aug 20, 2021 vs Jun 22, 2020 - Aug 20, 2020
3. In Europe, Performance Max campaigns can be used with any Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) you work with. The ads will show on general search results pages and on any other surfaces the CSS has opted in to.
4. Google/Talkshoppe, US, whyVideo study, n=2000 A18-64 Genpop video users, Feb 2020
5. Google/Ipsos, Google Feed Consumer Insights, June 2020, Online survey. Americans 18+ who made a discovery on at least one Google feed (feeds defined as Google app, Chrome app, YouTube, Gmail) on a mobile device. Base: Feed users n=1,053
6. Google Data, Global, Ads, July - September 2021</sup>

by Eduardo Indacochea via The Keyword