In case you missed it, Google Smart Shopping campaigns are about to switch to the new Performance Max (PMax for short) campaign format through the end of Q3 2022. PMax campaigns promise greater outreach to more customers across Google Ads channels, including Search, Discover, YouTube, and more. The upgrade has already begun for some accounts, and will continue throughout August and September. New campaigns will automatically become PMax campaigns, while existing Smart Shopping campaigns, with all their attendant settings and budgets, will automatically upgrade to PMax.
Is your company ready? If you’re an LP customer, the answer is yes. Since 2022’s first quarter, LP has prepared for the conversion. If this is new information to you, however, this article will cover what’s happening, why, and how to ensure your campaigns prosper. Here are the basics on the Google ads shift to Performance Max and what you need to know.
What’s the Difference?
For starters, it’s not a matter of pros and cons, it’s about improvement of service. PMax does everything Smart Shopping does, but adds a few extra elements. Your ads will run on more networks. On top of showing up more frequently in Search and Shopping, they’ll also turn up more often on YouTube, Display Ads, Google’s Discover feed, Gmail, and Google Maps. PMax’s algorithm has been slightly tweaked as well. All six networks have been optimized to find the best placements for your ads based on the goals you set for your campaign. Thus far, retail advertisers have seen an average increase of 12% for conversion with PMax campaigns.
What Will Logical Position Do?
Honestly, it’s not a question of what LP will do, but what we’ve already done! We are already transitioning our clients’ accounts on the back end. Many companies are dragging their feet and waiting till the last minute, or are leaving it to Google to automatically switch over their account with no supervision or adjustments. That’s a bad move. Left alone to change automatically, a campaign won’t run nearly as well, and poses a major liability to budget management. The massive potential to scale with Performance Max comes with an associated risk, particularly under poor guidance where features are left in default settings and not closely monitored. A single change in an automated campaign is equivalent to thousands of modifications in a manual account build. In these scenarios, advertisers can spend wildly, with little recourse to correct. Most smaller and medium-sized businesses that run their own campaigns may feel a little lost in the face of the new technical changes. We’re still learning the ins and outs of PMax too, but we’ve studied it longer and are using our marketing expertise to ensure our clients get that extra 12% in conversions and more!
Here Come the Holidays
PMax Campaigns will be fully implemented for all users by September’s end. That’s a scant few weeks before the holiday season begins. Logical Position already has cut-off dates in place for building campaigns before Black Friday (November 25, 2022), and that’s also the case for PMax. As mentioned, Google saw an average increase of 12% in revenue for PMax accounts. We can’t guarantee an exact increase, but LP can transition and optimize your campaigns before the holiday season, putting you in a better position to capitalize on early holiday shopping trends.
How Can Logical Position Help You?
That’s a quick summary about the Google ads shift to Performance Max and what you need to know. The change from Smart Shopping to PMax is inevitable, and those who don’t prepare will be left behind. LP has remained on top of the situation since April 2022, making the transition from Smart Shopping to PMax for our clients while conducting performance reviews. When you work with LP, we’ll assign a specialist to your account to smooth the transition, making adjustments to bidding, budgeting, and naming conventions, and sending findings to your account manager to keep you in the loop.
If you’d like to meet to discuss the transition, please contact us. We’ll review your Google Ads account and performance and provide pointers on increasing efficiency and profitability. We can also discuss if our management services make sense for your business!
