If you’re looking to make the most of your Google Ads campaigns in 2024, I’ve got two words for you. Performance Max! This article will highlight why you should be seriously considering it for your account, and how it can improve your results.
Firstly, if you’re unsure as to what a performance max campaign is, do not worry here’s a quick explanation.
Performance Max campaigns were introduced to Google Ads in July of 2022, and they essentially enable you to show ads across all available Google channels. This includes, Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover & Gmail. Therefore, instead of using individual campaigns to target each channel, you can now do this all from one campaign!
Through the use of Google machine learning and AI, these campaigns can improve your Google Ads performance massively.
They are relatively straight forward to set up, just input your assets such as images, headlines, descriptions, videos along with some audiences and Google will generate several ads for each Google channel you are looking to advertise on.
Now there are some things you need to bear in mind! We conduct several free performance reviews every week for business owners seeking guidance on their Google Ads. The number of Performance Max campaigns we see that aren’t set up correctly is astonishing and results in the business owner missing out on potential conversions.
Here are a few best practices to help you when setting up a new Performance:
- Enable URL expansion – When setting up the campaign, tick the box that says, ‘Send traffic to the most relevant URLs on your site’. This will help you identify new, converting search terms that may not have been covered within your search campaigns.
- Include all asset types – Make sure you input as many different assets as you can including images, videos, long and short descriptions etc. The more assets that Google has to work with, the more effective the campaigns tend to be.
- Supply the campaign with your audience signals – Customer match lists work particularly well. The addition of audience signals allows the campaign to learn faster and get conversions quicker!
- Choose your objectives carefully – Determine which of the objectives are most important to your business and this will tailor your campaign to meet them. Some examples of the objectives available for selection include sales, app promotion and lead generation.
In September 2023, a business owner approached Pixal to ask for some help scaling their Google Ads. Their ads had been successful previously but felt there was some room for improvement to maximise their ROI.
The business was a local kitchen fitter, who was aware of the new Performance Max campaigns from Google but was unsure as to how to implement it in his account.
After gaining an understanding of the client’s goals and objectives for the Google Ads, we tailored the new Performance Max campaign to fit their goals. Now with Performance Max campaigns, it can take up to 6 weeks for the campaign to start working at its optimal efficiency and to start seeing meaningful results. So, hang in there, and don’t be too hasty to hit that pause button.
Before the introduction of our management, their average number of conversions per month was around 26 contacts including phone call enquiries and web contact forms with a monthly budget of £500. This equates to a cost per conversion of £19.23.
After 2 months of our Google Ads management and the implementation of a Performance Max campaign for their installations, they ended November 2023 with a total of 48 enquiries followed by 51 in December with a cost per conversion of £9.80. This is a conversion increase of 96% for this area of the business in just 3 months whilst still spending just £500 a month.
We were able to reduce the 6-week timeframe needed to get the performance max running and converting effectively by including customer match lists and other variations of audience signals.
So if you want to take your Google Ads to the next level in 2024 then give Performance Max campaigns a go, and see where they can take you.
Would you like a FREE Performance Review of your Google or Facebook Ads activity, from a multi-award-winning expert?
We’ll give you good, honest feedback on your paid ads performance, including what’s good, what’s not so good and the untapped potential in your account, to get more customers each day/week/month… without spending a penny more on clicks!
Just call us on 01420 408054 or email Steve on steve@pixal.co.uk