Performance Max as part of Google Ads advertising
What should an advertiser know about the maximum results campaign type?
Performance Max takes advantage of machine learning more than any other Google Adsin campaign type. This is made possible by the fact that in maximum results campaigns, the ads appear in all the different Google advertising channels, i.e. Hausa, On screen at, Discovery, Gmail, Shopping, On YouTube and on Google Maps). The high volume of different advertising channels and the use of audiences will help AI to work and provide a better starting point for conversion-oriented advertising.
How does maximum results campaign management differ from previous campaign types?
If AI is going to manage the campaign, why should I pay the agency separately? A client of mine recently asked me this question and it's a very good one.
Achieving the best results always requires continuous optimisation
While AI helps in many ways, it is not yet capable of performing all the tasks required for successful campaign management. For maximum results, the best results are achieved when ad content - text, images and video - is updated on a continuous basis.
The more material Google has available, the more effectively the AI can detect the content that will attract as many users as possible to click on the ad and convert on the site. After a monitoring period, Google provides good information on which content performed better and which performed worse.
This is where the consultant's role is often also that of a project leader, as getting the necessary materials often requires coordination between different actors. For example, if high quality videos are to be used in campaigns, a video production professional is often needed. If, on the other hand, you do not want to produce the videos yourself, you can use generic videos created by Google using images uploaded to the campaign. However, I do not recommend this option, as these videos and their music are usually quite poor quality.
Also available are Google Adsin a dedicated video editor that allows you to create videos from your images and edit the video to your liking.
For online advertisers again, the continuous updating of the Shopping-feed is part of the ongoing campaign management task list.
Continuous updating of audience signals is also part of the campaign management for maximum results, as is regular updating of images, as ads are displayed with images on both Display and Discovery networks.
So maximum results is not the type of campaign where you create a campaign once, put your feet up on the table and let the machine rattle off conversions. Again, the best results are achieved through constant monitoring and optimisation.
However, where AI certainly works better than humans is in managing budgets between different advertising channels and keywords, and targeting ads more effectively to audiences that are more likely to bring conversions.
Monitoring and interpretation of results
Maximum results are still in the development phase and the biggest challenge, in my opinion, is that information about the best performing keywords and which advertising channel will generate the most conversions is harder to come by than in the old campaign types. However, here are some tips to help you track results.
Tips tab
Behind the Tips tab, you can see the number of conversions, the price and the purchase price per action on a monthly or weekly basis. In addition to these key figures, the percentage changes in these figures can be viewed.
These are important metrics, but if you want to get more detailed data, you should scroll down a bit to: search terms grouped into categories, their results and associated growth opportunities, when you click on the header, you can see more detailed information on the conversion terms by category.
What to consider when launching a Maximum Results campaign?
As this is mainly a conversion-oriented type of campaign, it is important that conversion monitoring is done correctly and that the right conversions are chosen when setting up the campaign to achieve the business objectives.
For example, in the case of an online shop, the conversion must be set to e-commerce purchases. In the case of a service campaign, conversions can be selected as calls, forms, chat contacts, etc.
It is also important to bear in mind that maximum results take time and results are often best expected only a few months after the launch of a campaign. This is of course because it takes time for the machine to get enough data behind it to make effective use of AI.
Conversion rates
Different conversion types often have different values. For some advertisers, for example, phone calls may be much more valuable than forms or emails. When creating a maximum results campaign, it's important to assign a value to each conversion type, as this allows the AI to prioritise the conversions that are most important to your business.
For example, if calls are three times more important than forms, you can set the conversion value of a call to €30 and a form to €10.
Get your location settings right
However, when choosing location settings, it is advisable to limit the visibility of ads by selecting "People in or frequenting the target areas", especially if it is a local service." Otherwise, there is a risk that ads will be shown to people who are not potential customers based on their location.
You can also exclude locations from the location settings where you do not want ads to appear.
General signals as the basis for artificial intelligence
In order to use AI effectively, it is important that the campaign General signals is selected correctly. Audience signals do not mean audience targeting where one audience can be bid more or less than another, but different audiences to help the AI find the most potentially convertible customers.
Audience signals are therefore a more effective way to use AI, as they help the machine to better target specific audiences that are important to the business.
Generic signals can be selected according to, for example, the search terms used, different applications, different websites, interests, life events and demographic information such as age or gender.
It is important to create audiences for each content group and to select the right audience signals.
Product feed (product feed)
For e-commerce customers, the single most important thing is of course the input of the product feed or product input and its continuous optimisation.
As with standard Shopping advertising, we recommend that you send as much information as possible via the feed. These include.
● Label
● Photos (a few photos per product)
● Product title and description
● Price
● Product type
● Product category
● SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
Price bidding strategies for maximum results
As maximum results is a conversion-oriented campaign type, the price offer strategies are limited to conversion-oriented options.
These include:
● Maximise conversions (optional targeted ad revenue)
● Maximise conversions (optional activity-specific price target)
If you already have a large amount of historical data in your account, you can directly select each target ad revenue or target per-activity price target, allowing the engine to find as many conversions as possible at the target conversion rate or to use the ad budget as efficiently as possible in percentage terms.
For new accounts or accounts that have not yet advertised the products in question, I recommend starting the campaign without any optional options and once you have enough historical data, you should set either one of these as your target ad revenue or activity-specific price target.
For which products and services does Maximum Results work best?
I have found that the best results with maximum results have been achieved for products and services where click prices are normally high and competition for clicks has been fierce. Maximum results can achieve higher volumes than can be achieved with a single Search or Display campaign. As not all advertisers have yet adopted maximum results, it is still possible in many sectors to get valuable clicks and conversions at a slightly lower cost than traditional advertising such as search.
Pro tip
Especially for companies with a strong brand, I think there should always be a campaign for brand terms. One challenge for maximum results is that negative keywords cannot yet be entered directly into the campaign from the Google Ads interface. Google's press release however, this is set to change in the near future. However, the way to add negative search terms is to ask Google Account Strategist to manually enter the brand term as negative. We at Digiteam work closely with Google's account strategists and can easily ask them to do this for us.
The use of AI in digital marketing is here to stay and this trend will only get stronger in the future.
Find tomorrow's customers with maximum results today!
