Do you think Google’s Performance Max is actually better than the regular Search campaigns?

[potatodrinker]

Thanks for making my week with that one!
It’s better in terms of visual appeal with some of the ad mockups.. that’s about it

[TrumpisaRussianCuck]

At the moment, no. Thats not necessarily a fault of Performance Max. It’s just that most advertisers aren’t equipped to use it properly and Google does a poor job of explaining the nuances.

To make PMax hum you need:

* Enough conversion volume – I’d argue over 100 events a month per campaign
* A conversion event that passes through an accurate reflection of the value to Google in a timely manner (within 7-10 days, closer to the click the better)
* Using maximise conversion values and/or target ROAS to tell Google what ROI you want to achieve
* A willingness to give up some level of control
* Passing through audiences from your CRM to let Google know new vs returning customers
* Brand exclusions in place (if you’re running a search campaign for brand terms which you should)
* A proper attribution set up.
* If you’re using final URL expansion – a well set up page feed so Google isn’t wasting money sending visitors to your unoptimised blog posts or help centre.

[Madismas]

For lead gen, absolutely not.

[KiriativeJenius]

What I have observed with PMax so far, it’s a wild horse, if directed in the right direction (conversion data), can do wonders for you.

Think about it, a campaign that can target your target market everywhere i.e., youtube, gmail, android, everything that Google owns. I have seen people generating 7x ROAS with PMax, and I have worked myself as well.

IMO it’s about developing a good media buying strategy. Otherwise just think about it, If PMax had not been performing, it would have been discontinued.

[zodwallopp]

No.

[ben_bgtDigital]

Nope

[0cchi0lism]

Definitely not.

[Madismas]

The problem with PMAX is the partner network and most businesses inability to pass back offline sales conversion data. You might get 50 leads with PMAX, but if they are crap leads, i.e. people looking for jobs etc then it’s wasted spend.

[fathom53]

For ecom, search campaign can already be hit or miss,… if they are even going to work. That is not to say PMax (the search part pf it) is better for ecom but just that search campaign don’t work as well for ecom like they used too. I wish the channel performance report broke out search ads and shopping ads when telling us what worked or did not work.

[kn_119]

Depends on so many factors – did amazing during my stint at a much bigger e-commerce company, now it’s majorly flopping after amazon left shopping auctions

[benilla]

If you can set your conversion action/signal to the highest quality signal (sales) then yes

If you cannot and you’re doing lead gen then no

[Aeneidian]

Sometimes. Especially in extremely competitive markets (high CPC/High CPL), taking a multi ad-product approach (which PMax natively does), beats search. You just have to ensure the assets you run are actually of high quality, so no auto-generated videos.

[Single-Sea-7804]

No – I say that because PMAX is a tool to use once you have the conversion volume and data to spend on it. Search can be used by advertisers spending as little as $500 to generate results (depending on your industry’s cpc). On top of that, you can’t choose a single placement like search on PMAX. PMAX kind of chooses for you.

[Alternative_Ad5101]

Better for what? Depends on what goal we’re talking about here.

I wouldn’t compare 1:1 because they inhabit different parts of the marketing funnel.

For instance PMAX is much better at remarketing than Search. But Search is much better at getting that 1st click from high-intent potential buyers.

So I think they’re necessary complements to each other.