-
Performance Max Problems
Hey all, I’m wondering if anyone has any similar experiences or tips about performance max.
I run PPC ads at a higher price point eCommerce company with AOVs around the $1,000 mark. Since the switch to PMax we’ve seen account-wide performance decline like crazy. We’ve been talking with our contacts at Google multiple times a week and they seem lost and cannot provide any helpful suggestions. We’ve implemented numerous changes to try to improve performance and none of them have worked.
If I compare performance of Pmax this year to Smart Shopping + Display + Video + Gmail Ads + Discovery YoY we’re seeing efficiency (i.e. conv value / cost) drop to half of what it was a year ago. Our conversion volume is well over 200 conversions per month. Below is a list of the changes we’ve made in an attempt to improve performance:
* Removing/minimizing assets to force it to behave similar to Smart Shopping
* Consolidated product categories into one campaign
* Not run multiple PMax campaigns with overlapping product categories
* Removed ROAS targets
* Reduced the amount of audience signals per Google’s suggestions
* Removed URL Expansion
* Added new creatives per Google’s guidelines
* Removed optimization for new customersAt the end of the day, the campaigns are performing no differently than they were prior to making any changes.
Thanks!
-
1 Reply
-
[quote]Removing/minimizing assets to force it to behave similar to Smart Shopping[/quote]
you created new campaigns right? When you say you have lost performance, do you mean your ROAS is the same but you are getting less conversion volume?
-
PMax is horrible for advertisers. That’s ok though, because it isn’t designed to help advertisers. It’s designed to help google stock price.
-
Smart shopping vs PMAX Shopping only has performed in the same way for me. Essentially we all needed to adopt it because they were pushing Smart Shopping deprecation, but gains in performance….nope.
I want to test PMAX Shopping vs PMAX All Asset (brand excluded) now to see if there’s an uplift or anything like the +12% Conv value they suggest.
-
Looking at the changes you’ve made, a couple of things jump out that I’d probably have another look at.
Removing assets – if you cut out display/video creative from the campaigns, Google is just going to create content for you using your feed/website. It invariably looks/performs worse than any actual creative you have, so, if you have it, get it back in the campaign.
Removed ROAS targets – if you’ve found that ROAS is where you’ve taken the biggest hit, I’d probably reintroduce a target somewhere just above what you’re currently achieving and look to incrementally increase this as the campaign begins to perform better.
Removed audience signals – I’ve seen these be the difference maker with PMax campaigns for products which have quite vague search intent. If that applies to you in any way, I’d suggest adding these in with the most relevant in-market and custom audiences possible.
I can’t say any of this is guaranteed to help, but from what I’ve seen it’s rare that PMax is solely responsible for results tanking so badly. Depending on the market you’re in, it wouldn’t surprise me if contextual factors (recession, cost of living) are having just as much of an impact, so squeezing everything you can out of the campaigns may be the best you can do
-
I disagree with some of the people here saying PMAX doesn’t work. I’ve spent over $1 million on PMAX alone and across the board it works well more often than not.
However, there are cases where you are better off **without it** and it seems that you are such a case.
PMAX optimization only goes so far, and it seems that you have pretty much tried everything. Since we don’t have full control over channel and asset allocation, ultimately we can’t fine tune everything. Therefore, there is always a remaining risk that it simply won’t work.
My recommendation in that case is to consider pausing PMAX and getting back to your old setup. Most likely you will take a short term hit, because PMAX effectively turns your account upside down due to highest priority etc. Also, Google will probably try to convince you to get back to PMAX all the time (I manage a lot of high-volume accounts and have someone at Google contact me like 2-3 times a week), but eventually you may get back to previous performance that way.
Good luck!
-
The Pmax has been running 4 weeks minimum?
We have been experienced a drop hard in search performance in pmax due to the crossnetwork!
Your conversions are target to sells right? If you have in primary some events or something Pmax is including so bad performance in search partners that just bring shit but if there is something telling the system visualization or somethint is good with a conversion value could be performance very bad!
Did you compare with search? Since performance max also play there? -
Shot in the dark here, but have you tried looking at which products are taking up the most impressions/clicks and then removing them (excluding them) if they aren’t converting? I had products taking up huge amounts of budget but with 0 conversions and I have excluded them from my catch-all PMAX and it has improved performance.
I know it is standard procedure but thought I’d list it because I haven’t seen it in the tips you added.
-
If you run P-Max without asset groups it’ll behave exactly as SS did before. If you’re seeing lower performance than last year you can blame something else:
* lower consumer interest – true for most products/brands, particularly luxury goods
* more competition
* changes to your own brand or products
* changes to the campaign such as your product feed or SKU mix, bids, etc.It could also be that if your competitors have nailed how to use P-Max and are enjoying better performance through more upper-funnel activity.
-
Same for us. After switching to Pmax, we see a significant decline in performance. The return on ad spend is horrible. The ad/revenue was less than 10% before and now it is over 20%. We get a lot of clicks but the traffic aren’t converting.
It almost seems like PMAX was designed to suck as much budget from you as possible until you put a stop to it.
We are focusing more on Organic and other ads right now.
-
You should also review the conversion goals you have set up in your account. Are they performing well? Should you add micro conversions? Should you review with goals are your pmax campaign aiming to?
Log in to reply.