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[AMA] Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Product Liaison, on Performance Max campaigns
Hi [r/PPC](https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC)!
Thanks for having me for this AMA on Performance Max campaigns. My name is Ginny Marvin. I’m the ads product liaison at Google, which means I act as a bridge between the advertising community and Google. My job is to bring marketers’ insights & perspectives back to Google ads teams and to help improve understanding about how Google’s ad products & policies work. I’m [@AdsLiaison](https://twitter.com/adsliaison) on Twitter.
Before joining Google in 2021, I reported on paid media and was editor in chief at Search Engine Land. I got started in digital marketing in 2005 and have held agency and in-house management roles and been a consultant working with lead gen and commerce clients, advising and managing campaigns.
OK, let’s talk Performance Max campaigns. I’m looking forward to answering your questions and want to share some helpful resources, whether you’re just getting started or have been running Performance Max already:
* The [best practice guide for Performance Max](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11189316) is worth reading, bookmarking and revisiting periodically. (Accessible from “Best practice guides” under the “Optimize performance” tab in the Help Center)
* The [top-level Help Center page for Performance Max campaigns](https://support.google.com/google-ads/topic/11335698?hl=en&ref_topic=10287124,3181080,3126923,) is also a good one to bookmark because it links to the resources below and many others. (Accessible from the “Campaigns” tab in the Help Center.)
* [Optimization tips for Performance Max](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11385582?hl=en) has general tips and specifics based on your goal, such as [lead generation](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11385582?hl=en#zippy=%2Cbest-practices-for-online-sales-non-shopping%2Cbest-practices-for-lead-generation) or [store goals](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11385582?hl=en#zippy=%2Cbest-practices-for-store-goals).
* [Fix issues with Performance Max campaigns](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10732484) can be a go-to resource for diagnosing and addressing common issues, such as tips for [improving lead quality](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10732484#lead_quality) and for [advertisers using a Merchant Feed](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10732484#MC_feed).Ask your Performance Max questions and I’ll respond from my personal Reddit account [u/ginnymarvin](https://www.reddit.com/u/ginnymarvin/) starting at 1pm ET today. \*\*And if you already posted a question in the [preview post](https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/w7nz90/upcoming_ama_ama_with_googles_ginny_marvin_talk/), I’ll be answering those as well.\*\*
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1 Reply
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Are there any current plans to share search terms (an actual search term report, you know what I mean – not the samples we get in the overview page) from Pmax campaigns?
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Are there any current plans to allow users to add negative keyword campaigns to Pmax without the aid of a Google rep?
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Performance Max is trash for anything that’s not ecommerce. Any plans on improving B2B/services/local retail or brick and mortar?
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We’ve been trying out Pmax for almost 4 months now. We have our shopped feed, a couple asset groups with various videos, pics, text, etc, as well customer list and other audience signals. And I’ve given 4+ weeks at a time to allow it to learn without making more changes.
Our cost per conversion has tripled since our Smart Shopping campaigns got switched to Pmax. So this is very disappointing, especially as we can no longer run Smart Shopping campaigns anymore. We’ve had to slash our ad budget on Google ads.
Our product is a higher end, higher price item (several hundred dollars). So my question is, are you seeing certain types of products or industries or price points not jive as well with Pmax?
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When will I be able to block devices and ad types? I’m tired of mobile click farms spamming display ads.
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The auto-generated assets for Performance Max are quite bad (especially video) and at the beginning, we were really embarrassed when clients saw these generated ads and asked us who made the crappy slideshows.
Now, we don’t run PMax campaigns unless we have actual professional video assets from the client to run.
Are there any plans to either improve the auto generated assets, or enable users to disable them completely? Not all accounts have professionally produced spots/video to utilize, so it basically means we can’t use PMax for many small business accounts.
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Currently my performance max campaigns are underspending considerably as well as no display advertising/retargeting spend. Reports come up empty.
Is there a way to force the p.max campaign to spend more?
Is it normal for display marketing to take over 4 weeks to begin offering ads?
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Why is it impossible to have a more granular reporting within the campaign? It would be amazing if we could see the KPIs by asset group.
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I currently have a client that I’ve run PMax for and it drove amazing performance for them. However, one of their senior leadership saw a display unit (remarketing I think) and wanted it removed ASAP because they’re a design first company.
Are there plans to control any ad units in any way? (I’m currently working on getting HTML5 assets as a stop gap because I’d love to be able to re-enable those campaigns)
Thanks ?
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Why is the placement report such a black box? Almost all traffic is “Google owned & operated”.
I find this just as painful as not seeing search terms. There’s so much fraud on GDN that it’s dangerous to just let it run everywhere.
Also, why can we still not get a report on spend and performance metrics (conversions, CPA, ROAS etc.) per channel?
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Does setting up a p max campaign and not giving it any assets / audience signals mean that it will focus on shopping as a result of not having any assets to work with outside of what’s in the merchant centre? Or will it automatically create and use its own assets across the rest of the advertising ecosystem? Thanks.
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Behind the PR-speak, Google appears to be doing everything they can to rob advertisers in front of their eyes. Fewer controls, more automation. No growth in search network, just higher CPCs. No questions, just a comment that I don’t like Pmax and it would be best left to self-serve advertisers.
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What’s the best way to a/b test ad copy or creative assets in Pmax? Would there be any control or visibility into different placements?
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With the oversimplification of SEM via Performance Max, do you think there will be another generation of specialized Search Engine Marketers?
Or are we the last generation to conduct keyword research, organize in SKAGs, and pulling levers to optimize performance? -
How long/how much volume does it take for PMax to optimize? I’ve been running a PMax campaign for about 2 weeks now ($750/day) and it is significantly underperforming the previous Smart Shopping campaign. It is unrealistic to assume it will eventually perform as well as Smart Shopping?
For more context, this is an ecommerce campaign, I’ve built out asset groups by category, and have a professionally created video.
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