Oleamo.sk | Testing a new campaign type Performance Max
I really appreciate Managino's patient approach, because I don't understand a lot of things in this field perfectly, and they helped me a lot with setting up campaigns and also with setting up Analytics.
Ing. Michal Kucharovič
Oleamo.sk is the first Slovak independent oil producer. Other than Slovakia, the e-shop also sells on the Czech market and every gourmet chef finds what they’re looking for there. Oleamo offers quality olive and balsamic oils from all over the world that will elevate your dish to the next level. Find out for yourself and discover the love for olive oil.
What is a Performance Max campaign?
This type of campaign gives advertisers the possibility to cover all available platforms in one campaign. You can advertise throughout the whole Google inventory that contains search engines, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Discovery and more. We can say that Performance Max resembles smart shopping campaigns because the creation and targeting of ads is fully automated and the system works based on the data you give it whilst creating the campaign.
What are the options when creating a Performance Max campaign?
Let’s try to look more closely on how the creation of the campaign works and what are the users options. The first step is to choose a campaign goal and the option to connect a channel (from a connected Merchant Center) or a physical store (from Google My Business). Then you will set the budget and bidding strategy, which is also fully automated. You will choose the location, language or even schedule your ads.
Creating a base
for the automated targeting of campaigns
The basis of Performance Max campaigns resemble responsive ads in a display campaign. You have the ability to upload files of different types – from titles and descriptions through images and logos to videos. If you don’t have a promotional video available, the system automatically generates it from uploaded images and texts. You can easily view them in the overview to see how your ads will be shown on individual platforms.
Get your landing pages under control
While creating the base for an ad you set the target URL address where your ad should lead a user after clicking on it. Nevertheless, you have to keep in mind that although the landing page can be preferred by the system, Google can define its own target web addresses. To prevent your ads being shown in blog articles or other unwanted web addresses, in setting up your campaign, go to the targeting web extension and either turn it off completely or add a list of unwanted URL addresses where you do not want your ad to be shown (similarly to a DSA campaign).
Where does a Performance Max campaign lack and how to subjectively evaluate it after testing on clients?
The biggest disadvantage of this type of campaign is the lack of transparency. The advertiser has no control over the statistics of targeted audiences, can not determine where ads are shown, which keywords are performing the best and can’t exude search terms. Based on our subjective review we compiled an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of this campaign type.
MINUSES
- you have no search terms available
- negative keywords cannot be applied
- you don't know which websites/apps/portals your ad appeared on the content network
- data on audience performance, demographics, etc. are not available
- basically extended (optimized) targeting is used without the possibility of control
- the possibility of evaluating the performance of individual creative materials is absent
- Performance Max can reduce the performance of DSA campaigns, brand campaigns or Shopping campaigns and "steal" their conversions
- no possibility of optimization, you have to fully rely on system learning
PLUSES
- view over the performance of products implemented from the informational channel
- possibility to exude URL addresses you do not want to show up on
- covering all platforms only in one campaign
- easy set up only taking a few minutes
We launched the Performance Max campaign on 18th November 2021 and it has been running for 20 days now. Based on the recommendation from Google, the campaign should run for at least 30 days before you evaluate it, but we want to give you the most up to date info possible, that’ why we are doing it sooner.
Search and Discovery campaigns were launched in the client's account concurrently with the Performance Max campaign. Although they had a low volume of conversions, they had a favorable PNO value, which we had to stick to. Absent in the account were the Shopping campaigns, which have not yet proven to be effective, and also the Brand campaign, which the client did not want included in the account. As soon as we launched Performance Max, it started generating conversions (mostly in Google Shopping). After a few days, however, the ad began to appear in searches for brand terms (which was not the desired state and, unfortunately, this circumstance cannot be influenced in any way). PNO also increased
