Author Archives: Eduardo Indacochea

Upgrade to Performance Max to prepare for the holidays

Today’s consumers are always-on, where curiosity and inspiration can strike them anytime and anywhere. They’re also kicking off their holiday buying earlier than in previous years to find the best deals and avoid supply chain issues. As of June, 26% of shoppers in the US reported already having started their 2022 holiday shopping.[f657a2]The race is officially on to turn curiosity into customers this holiday season!

To win customers throughout the extended season, look no further than Performance Max campaigns. They find the right mix of inventory and formats across all of Google’s advertising channels to help you drive more sales both online and in-store.[347c82]

Earlier this year, we shared the timeline and process for upgrading your Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max using the “one-click” upgrade tool in Google Ads. The tool started rolling out in April for Smart Shopping campaigns and is available now for most advertisers. We strongly recommend using the tool to upgrade your campaigns as soon as you can to get a head start on the holiday season. The self-upgrade tool for Local campaigns will be available soon. More information is coming in the next few weeks, stay tuned for updates published to the Help Center.

Starting automatic upgrades for Smart Shopping campaigns

If you use Smart Shopping campaigns you’ll have advance access to the self-upgrade tool for two months on average to give you time to upgrade yourself before automatic upgrades begin. Automatic upgrades are happening on a rolling basis for Smart Shopping campaigns that have not already been self-upgraded using the tool. Keep these details in mind as automatic upgrades begin:

  • Automatic upgrades will gradually progress and finish in September for most advertisers. You’ll receive a notification in Google Ads two to three weeks before your campaigns are automatically upgraded. The notification will provide a specific date when your campaigns will start automatic upgrades.
  • Some Smart Shopping campaigns using features like vehicle ads that are not yet available in Performance Max will complete automatic upgrades in early 2023. For campaigns not yet eligible for upgrades, advertisers will receive more specific information later this year about their automatic upgrades coming in early 2023.
  • When your campaigns are self-upgraded using the tool or automatically upgraded, learnings from your previous Smart Shopping campaigns carry over to your new Performance Max campaigns to maintain consistent performance. Your campaign settings will also automatically transfer to Performance Max. Find more details in our Help Center.

Engage shoppers with new video formats on YouTube

YouTube has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users and attracts a generation that has grown up watching what they want, when they want, on any screen.[e93e4c]New video formats — powered by your product feed — make it easier for viewers to shop relevant products directly from your video ads across YouTube on Shorts, in-feed video and in-stream.

Once you’ve upgraded to Performance Max, upload your own video assets to drive better results on YouTube. It’s never been easier to create video ads! With video ad creation now available in Google Ads, you can build a high-quality video ad in a matter of minutes and then add it to your campaigns including Performance Max.

  • GIF demonstrating a mobile phone with an ad for c’Balm Natural Care in YouTube Shorts, including a person smelling different products.

    Reach customers that consume short-form video content on YouTube Shorts

  • Still image of mobile phone on YouTube in-feed video content with an ad shown for skincare. Images of different skincare products are shown below the ad with a prominent “Shop now” button.

    Connect with viewers while they’re discovering new or related content on in-feed video

  • Still image of desktop playing a YouTube in-stream video ad for c’Balm. Images of different skincare products are shown to the far right with a prominent “Shop now” button.

    Invite shoppers to experience your digital storefront while watching in-stream ads

See how retailers are succeeding with Performance Max

At first we were hesitant to use automation to make such important decisions. But the results spoke for themselves. Automation stays on top of customer trends and behavior faster than we can. Kate Barrow
VP of Growth, Rothy’s
Performance Max outperformed our existing Smart Shopping campaigns. We’ve increased our quality traffic and our overall efficiency. Horus Chan
Growth Marketing Manager, Casetify

Upgrade to Performance Max as soon as you can to make sure you’re well positioned for the holiday season. Visit the Help Center for best practices and mark your calendars for Think Retail on August 30. Join us at this virtual event to hear Google product leaders and industry experts share the latest holiday trends and ways you can get your business ready.

New tools to make collaboration and ad creation easier

We want to make it easier to create effective ads for any Google Ads campaign. That starts with improving how images and videos are organized, accessed and created. With assets available in a central place, you can create ads and campaigns faster or swap content more easily when you need to make a change. And, if you’re missing a video needed to reach an important audience or business objective, you can now make one directly in Google Ads.

A new home for asset storage and organization

When you’re working with a team supporting several different campaigns, it’s important that everyone can access the content they need. With the asset library, images and videos are available to users across your Google Ads account in a visual-first experience. You and your colleagues can view, import and organize creative assets from both past and present campaigns. This makes sharing, collaboration and consistency easy.

A mock of the asset library in Google Ads.

When it’s time to create or edit a campaign, you can access the library directly while building an ad. There’s no need to re-upload assets that you’re using across multiple campaigns. This experience is currently available in Performance Max, Discovery, App, Local, Display campaigns and some ad extensions.

If you use Google Ads Editor for campaign management, you’ll find an asset library there too. Similar to Google Ads, you can view and select content from your library to construct ads. And, you’ll soon be able to import images and videos to Google Ads directly from your Google Drive account.

We hope the asset library will help you spend less time managing or hunting down assets and more time developing creative ideas.

An easy, fast way to create video ads that work on YouTube

Video has a unique ability to captivate and influence people, especially on YouTube where billions of people come to watch content they love. Yet, many businesses struggle to unlock the full potential of video advertising because the creation process can often be lengthy, resource-intensive and complex. But, it doesn’t have to be!

With video ad creation now available in Google Ads, anyone can create a high-quality video ad in a matter of minutes. Start by selecting a template from our catalog and populating it with your brand colors, logo, images and text. Then, pick a music track from our audio library. Finally, use the video in any campaign that includes video, like a Video action campaign or a Performance Max campaign.

The templates are made for YouTube, meaning they have optimal pacing, brand and product placements and prominent calls to action. They are designed to help your ad stand out and drive results. With templates guiding you, the complexity of creating a video disappears and you can spend more time developing your messaging, audience insights or campaign strategy.

A mock of video ad template selection in Google Ads.

Invertironline is an Argentinian fintech company that turned to video creation in Google Ads for its efficiency and flexibility. “We always thought about YouTube, but we didn’t want to enter in the design loop until video creation in Google Ads appeared,” says Ariel Peralta, acquisition marketing lead of the financial technology company. With the help of templates, Invertironline reduced the time to produce video ads from two days to just 15 minutes. Compared to previous video ads, conversion rates doubled and the cost per acquisition was cut almost in half.[39b95e]

Another aspect of video creation we’d like to simplify is adding voice-over to videos. Audio is a critical factor in driving creative effectiveness on YouTube. The ABCD guidelines for effective video ads consistently show that videos with voice-over drive better performance. That’s why we’ve launched an easy way to generate a voice-over for YouTube videos, powered by Google’s industry-leading text-to-speech technology. This feature is accessible directly from the asset library.

Simply type in your script, select your preferred voice and with one click we’ll overlay your voice-over onto your video. We currently offer 7 voices in English (US) that are specifically created with advertising in mind. We also offer general text-to-speech voices in the following languages: Filipino, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Malaysian, Mandarin, Spanish and Swedish. We plan to add more ad voices and languages in the future.

In studies, creative is often the most significant driver of advertising return on investment. That’s why we’re so focused on helping you create and curate great assets for all of your Google Ads campaigns. We hope the asset library fosters more collaboration and smooth campaign deployment for your teams, freeing up time for you to develop creative ideas. With easier video ad creation and voice-over in Google Ads, we’d like to help you fully unlock the benefits of video advertising.

Learn more about the asset library, video creation and voice-over in the Google Ads Help Center.

Source: The Keyword


New tools to make collaboration and ad creation easier

We want to make it easier to create effective ads for any Google Ads campaign. That starts with improving how images and videos are organized, accessed and created. With assets available in a central place, you can create ads and campaigns faster or swap content more easily when you need to make a change. And, if you’re missing a video needed to reach an important audience or business objective, you can now make one directly in Google Ads.

A new home for asset storage and organization

When you’re working with a team supporting several different campaigns, it’s important that everyone can access the content they need. With the asset library, images and videos are available to users across your Google Ads account in a visual-first experience. You and your colleagues can view, import and organize creative assets from both past and present campaigns. This makes sharing, collaboration and consistency easy.

A mock of the asset library in Google Ads.

When it’s time to create or edit a campaign, you can access the library directly while building an ad. There’s no need to re-upload assets that you’re using across multiple campaigns. This experience is currently available in Performance Max, Discovery, App, Local, Display campaigns and some ad extensions.

If you use Google Ads Editor for campaign management, you’ll find an asset library there too. Similar to Google Ads, you can view and select content from your library to construct ads. And, you’ll soon be able to import images and videos to Google Ads directly from your Google Drive account.

We hope the asset library will help you spend less time managing or hunting down assets and more time developing creative ideas.

An easy, fast way to create video ads that work on YouTube

Video has a unique ability to captivate and influence people, especially on YouTube where billions of people come to watch content they love. Yet, many businesses struggle to unlock the full potential of video advertising because the creation process can often be lengthy, resource-intensive and complex. But, it doesn’t have to be!

With video ad creation now available in Google Ads, anyone can create a high-quality video ad in a matter of minutes. Start by selecting a template from our catalog and populating it with your brand colors, logo, images and text. Then, pick a music track from our audio library. Finally, use the video in any campaign that includes video, like a Video action campaign or a Performance Max campaign.

The templates are made for YouTube, meaning they have optimal pacing, brand and product placements and prominent calls to action. They are designed to help your ad stand out and drive results. With templates guiding you, the complexity of creating a video disappears and you can spend more time developing your messaging, audience insights or campaign strategy.

A mock of video ad template selection in Google Ads.

Invertironline is an Argentinian fintech company that turned to video creation in Google Ads for its efficiency and flexibility. “We always thought about YouTube, but we didn’t want to enter in the design loop until video creation in Google Ads appeared,” says Ariel Peralta, acquisition marketing lead of the financial technology company. With the help of templates, Invertironline reduced the time to produce video ads from two days to just 15 minutes. Compared to previous video ads, conversion rates doubled and the cost per acquisition was cut almost in half.[39b95e]

Another aspect of video creation we’d like to simplify is adding voice-over to videos. Audio is a critical factor in driving creative effectiveness on YouTube. The ABCD guidelines for effective video ads consistently show that videos with voice-over drive better performance. That’s why we’ve launched an easy way to generate a voice-over for YouTube videos, powered by Google’s industry-leading text-to-speech technology. This feature is accessible directly from the asset library.

Simply type in your script, select your preferred voice and with one click we’ll overlay your voice-over onto your video. We currently offer 7 voices in English (US) that are specifically created with advertising in mind. We also offer general text-to-speech voices in the following languages: Filipino, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Malaysian, Mandarin, Spanish and Swedish. We plan to add more ad voices and languages in the future.

In studies, creative is often the most significant driver of advertising return on investment. That’s why we’re so focused on helping you create and curate great assets for all of your Google Ads campaigns. We hope the asset library fosters more collaboration and smooth campaign deployment for your teams, freeing up time for you to develop creative ideas. With easier video ad creation and voice-over in Google Ads, we’d like to help you fully unlock the benefits of video advertising.

Learn more about the asset library, video creation and voice-over in the Google Ads Help Center.

Source: The Keyword


New features to grow your business with Performance Max

As people move quickly between channels and devices, today’s consumer journey is always-on and rarely straightforward. Automation is helping businesses meet their customers at the right moment along this complex journey. Whether you’re looking to stay ahead of shifting consumer behavior or unlock incremental conversions from new places, Performance Max finds the optimal mix of Google Ads inventory and formats to help you drive better results.[3a6511]

In the coming weeks, we’re introducing new features to help you acquire new customers, better understand performance and start upgrading your Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max in just one click.

Focus on new customers

Performance Max optimizes results based on your conversion goals and looks for the highest-ROI conversion opportunities — regardless of channel. The new customer acquisition goal in Performance Max is rolling out over the next few weeks for all advertisers looking to generate leads or increase online sales. This was previously available for retailers using Smart Shopping campaigns and is now expanding to more advertiser goals in Performance Max.

This goal will allow you to either bid more for new customers compared to existing customers, or focus your optimizations on new customers only while maintaining your cost efficiency. You’ll also have more flexible ways to identify new customers, like providing your own first-party data through Customer Match lists, setting up conversion tags and using Google’s autodetection method.

Guide your campaigns with helpful insights

The Insights page helps you understand decisions guided by automation and find levers to improve results in your campaigns. In the coming weeks, we’re rolling out consumer interest insights to all advertisers to help you uncover search themes that are delivering conversions. Two new types of insights are also arriving for Performance Max.

With asset audience insights, you’ll be able to better understand how your text, image and video assets resonate with specific customer segments. For instance, if you’re an outdoor retailer running a campaign for bikes, you may find that exercise enthusiasts engage more with images of people mountain biking rather than product images of the bike itself. Using these insights, you can tailor your creative and influence your broader marketing strategy.

After you create your Performance Max campaigns, diagnostic insights will provide a snapshot of outstanding setup issues preventing your ads from showing. Each issue will include suggestions to resolve them, so you can easily and quickly get your campaign up and running. For example, if your creative assets are disapproved, you’ll be prompted to fix them so you can start serving your ads and avoid missing out on conversion opportunities.

  • The Insights page in Google Ads. The top header says “Discover top audiences responding to your assets” and the main section shows ad images of bikes and people riding bikes. Underneath each ad image are audience segments that engaged with the ad.

    Asset audience insights will show how your creative assets resonate with specific customer segments.

  • The Insights page in Google Ads. The main section says “Your campaign can’t run ads” and “Review issues that are preventing people from seeing your ads.” There is a blue button labeled “Fix it” on the page.

    Diagnostic insights will help you easily identify and fix campaign setup issues.

  • The Insights page in Google Ads. The page reads “Consumer spotlight” with search query themes that are related to an advertiser’s campaigns.

    Consumer interest insights will surface top-performing search query themes that are relevant to your campaigns.

Start upgrading your Smart Shopping campaigns

In January, we shared a preview of how to upgrade your Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max to access additional inventory and formats across YouTube, Search text ads and Discover.[235f18]Over the coming weeks, you’ll see a notification in your Google Ads account when the “one-click” upgrade tool is ready for your Smart Shopping campaigns. You’ll also be able to access the tool from the Recommendations page and the Campaigns page. You can start upgrading your Local campaigns in June.

When you upgrade your Smart Shopping or Local campaign, it will become a new, separate Performance Max campaign that keeps the learnings from your previous campaign to maintain consistent performance. The campaign budget and settings from your previous campaign will also be carried over. Visit our Help Center for more details on the upgrade experience.

Retailers across the globe are seeing continued success with Performance Max. In fact, advertisers who upgrade Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max see an average increase of 12% in conversion value at the same or better ROAS.[bd1e6d]

Upgrading your existing Smart Shopping and Local campaigns helps ensure you can take advantage of expanded inventory and get your campaigns ready for the holiday season. You’ll be able to choose when to upgrade your campaigns until the automatic upgrade process begins. Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically upgraded from July through September, and Local campaigns will be automatically upgraded from August through September. You’ll also be able to create new Performance Max campaigns through Google Ads, the Google Ads API, or starting in early summer, through e-commerce partners like WooCommerce and BigCommerce.

Check out our upgrade video tutorial and best practices to set up your Performance Max campaigns, and follow @AdsLiasion to stay informed throughout the upgrade process. On May 24, join us at Google Marketing Live where we’ll share what’s ahead for Performance Max.

Get ready for Smart Shopping and Local campaign upgrades

New year, same trend: Consumers continue to tap into an ever-growing number of places to get inspiration and find what they need. This past holiday season, 54% of shoppers used five or more channels, like video and social media, to shop over a two-day period.[ec0303]

Performance Max uses Google’s automation to help advertisers reach shoppers as they browse for things they love — online and in stores.[053cc9]It builds on Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to deliver the same foundational features, while adding brand new inventory and automation insights. Starting in April, you can begin upgrading your Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max to access additional inventory and formats across YouTube, Search text ads and Discover.[d34fff]Based on early testing, advertisers who upgrade Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max see an average increase of 12% in conversion value at the same or better return on ad spend (ROAS).[7cb4f9]

Performance Max allows you to grow online, offline or omnichannel sales by unlocking all of Google’s ad inventory from a single campaign with a product feed. For example, you can transform your Video ads into your digital storefront and highlight your top products on YouTube — right where valuable customers are watching relevant video content every day.

Learn how to upgrade Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max

Here’s a preview of the upgrade process so you know what to expect and how to plan ahead to set your campaigns up for success.[c7f14c]

Keep these key milestones in mind as you prepare for the upgrade:

  • Create new campaigns with Performance Max: You can continue using your existing Smart Shopping and Local campaigns until you’ve upgraded them to Performance Max later this year. For any new campaigns you create in Google Ads, start using Performance Max. You’ll access ad inventory that’s already available in Smart Shopping and Local campaigns plus new inventory and formats — including across YouTube, Search text ads and Discover.[d34fff]
  • Upgrade with a one-click tool: Starting in April, you can easily upgrade your Smart Shopping campaigns with a new “one-click” tool in Google Ads. You’ll be able to upgrade your Local campaigns with the tool starting in June. The tool gives you flexibility to upgrade specific campaigns or all of your campaigns at once.[076e64]Learnings from your existing campaigns will be used in your new Performance Max campaigns to maintain consistent performance.
  • Upgrade automatically: From July through September, your Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically upgraded for you. Your Local campaigns will be automatically upgraded from August through September. You will no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping and Local campaigns once your existing campaigns are automatically upgraded. The automatic upgrade process will conclude by the end of September to ensure you’re well prepared to use Performance Max for the 2022 holiday season.

Leading e-commerce partners like Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce are already working to support Performance Max so more merchants can benefit from new inventory and formats to connect with their customers. All merchants and partners will be able to upgrade their Smart Shopping and Local campaigns through the Google Ads API later this year. Learn more about the process in our developer blog.

Prepare for campaign upgrades with new resources

Tune in to our upcoming webinar in February, where product experts will demonstrate the one-click upgrade tool and dive into best practices for creating new Performance Max campaigns. They’ll also explain the new technology used in your campaign upgrades to help you get better results, faster.

Meanwhile, our updated Performance Max best practices guide has new recommendations geared towards achieving your online and offline goals. You can also explore the infographic below to understand how to use Performance Max with other Google Ads campaigns.

Infographic of how to use Performance Max together with other campaign types based on advertiser objectives: Lead Generation, Online Sales, Offline Sales (omnichannel) or Offline Sales (offline-only). The guidance is for advertisers to maximize performance in their Search campaigns first. At the bottom, it shows three options for how to grow performance across other channels. Advertisers can test Performance Max to access all Google Ads inventory from a single campaign, upgrade to Performance Max later this year if they’re currently using Smart Shopping or Local campaigns, and/or use Video, Display or Discovery campaigns if they want to increase performance on specific channels or reach specific audiences.

In the coming months, we’ll share tools and tips to help you at each milestone and make your upgrade process as smooth as possible. In the meantime, share your questions and comments and we’ll address them in our upcoming webinar. You can also follow @AdsLiasion to stay updated throughout the process.

Performance Max campaigns launch to all advertisers

In an unpredictable year, change has been a reliable constant. And we’ve seen this clearly in online consumer behavior. For example, Google Image searches for "yard landscaping ideas" have grown globally by over 80% YoY1 as people look for more ways to spruce up their homes. Meanwhile, searches for "best all-inclusive resorts" have grown globally by over 200% YoY2 as people get inspired to travel again.

Thankfully, advertisers don’t have to predict the future to be ready for it. If change is the challenge, automation is the solution businesses and agencies are using to stay ahead of ongoing shifts in consumer demand. Last year, we introduced Performance Max campaigns as a new way to buy Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign. They complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you grow performance across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

After strong beta results, Performance Max campaigns will roll out to all advertisers around the world starting today. They will also become the next generation of Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, which will both upgrade to Performance Max next year.3

Illustration of six mobile devices lined up next to each other, each showing a different ad example across Google’s channels. From left to right, they show ads on YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Google Maps. Above the phones are the logos for each.

Performance Max campaigns help you increase conversions across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

Find more customers where they are

Consumers are moving seamlessly between online experiences to find buying inspiration. 70% of U.S. shoppers report buying from a brand after seeing it on YouTube,4 and 91% of Google feed users say they took some kind of shopping or product-related action immediately after discovering new products, services or brands on their feed.5

Performance Max allows you to promote your business across all Google Ads inventory. As a result, you can show up for more customers and drive more conversions based on your goals. In fact, advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.6 Whether you’re focused on increasing online sales, generating leads, or growing offline sales, Performance Max helps you achieve your goals in four main ways:

1. Increasing conversions and value: Automation optimizes your budget and bids across channels to help you capture new conversion opportunities in real time.

Performance Max has helped us activate a complementary, full-funnel strategy. Thanks to advanced machine learning capabilities, we’ve been able to gain incremental reach and conversions very efficiently. Inmaculada Lestayo Campos
Digital Marketing Manager, Allianz

2. Finding new customers: Unlock new audience segments by using Google’s real-time understanding of user intent, behavior and context to show up in the right moments with more relevant ads.

Performance Max can be activated quickly and at scale to optimize the web journey and drive more subscriptions. It delivers strong targeting signals for a more competitive CPA and dynamic budget optimization by channel. Guylain Meykiechel
Head of Global Media Strategy, Deezer

3. Gaining richer insights: Performance Max campaigns are now part of the Insights page to help you understand how automation is working and how you can improve your campaign. Using the Combinations report, you can also see how your top-performing assets are being combined to build creatives.

  • Image of the Insights page in Google Ads. The first section shows a line graph in the center with red and blue trend lines going up. There are additional sections titled “Top insights” and “Zoom in on conversion changes within your campaign.”

    Explore the Insights page to understand what’s driving performance.

  • Image of the Insights page in Google Ads. The top of the image includes two cards, each labeled “Audience Insight.” Below the cards is a chart titled “Top audience segments,” with columns for “Audience segment,” “Type,” “Share of conversions” and “Index.” The first three rows of audience segments have a green “Optimized” label next to them, while the last two rows have a blue “Signal” label next to them.

    See which audiences are influencing performance the most — including new audience segments you might not have expected or known about before.

  • Image of the Combinations report in the Google Ads interface, titled “Top image combinations.” Below are six cards, each with a colorful illustration, including a woman with her cat and dog, a dog being examined at the vet, and a dog and cat sleeping on the couch next to each other. An example illustrated logo shows an animal paw superimposed on a shield. Text headlines are: “Get top-rated coverage”, “Pet insurance”, “Protect your pet with trusted insurance” and “Low deductible, includes a 24/6 chat line.” At the bottom right of each card is a blue link to preview each ad.

    See which assets perform the best together in the Combinations report and get ideas for future assets to upload.

4. Working together with automation: Steer automation by providing high-quality creative assets and sharing your expertise about which audiences are most likely to convert.

The results from Performance Max campaigns were amazing. They helped us enter a new market to grow potential customers in a short period. We’d like to roll out Performance Max to other markets as well! Evelyn Zhao
SEA Regional Marketing Manager, SAIC-MG Motors

Get new features designed for retailers and local marketers

Performance Max campaigns allow retailers and local marketers to access new ad inventory and formats not currently available with Smart Shopping or Local campaigns — including on channels like YouTube, Search and Discover. To help you increase sales, Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will both upgrade to Performance Max in 2022. We’ll work closely with you and your partners to get feedback and build the right tools to help you easily transition your campaigns. Stay tuned for more information early next year.

We know the holidays are a critical time of year for your business. You should continue using Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to reach more shoppers across online and in-store experiences this holiday season. However, when the time is right for your business, you can start testing Performance Max campaigns before next year’s campaign upgrades.

Not only did Performance Max outperform our previous Smart Shopping campaigns, but it also took our efficiency to the next level, and allowed us to grow our revenue in a more profitable way. Eric Tsai
VP of Marketing and Business Development, Joybird
Performance Max became such a significant contributor towards our marketing objectives that we are now planning to roll it out across all of our accounts. Simon Achermann
Head of Online, microspot.ch

In the next few months, we’ll introduce new features in Performance Max specifically for retailers and businesses with store locations. For example, you’ll have the option to focus your campaigns to exclusively optimize for new customer acquisition. If you’re a retailer with a local inventory feed, you’ll also see new Search and Maps ad formats powered by your products to help drive more foot traffic to your stores.

Upgrading Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max next year will help you get more value from Google Ads while simplifying the number of campaigns you use to achieve your goals. We’ll continue investing in Performance Max and improving our automation technology over time to help you get better results.

To set your Performance Max campaigns up for success, check out our new best practices guide and video. You can also take the Skillshop e-learning course for Performance Max campaigns to get more tips on how to use them to their full potential. And explore the Demystifying Automation interactive demo to learn how different automation technologies can supercharge your marketing capabilities.

1. Google Data, Global English, Jun 22, 2021 - Aug 20, 2021 vs Jun 22, 2020 - Aug 20, 2020
2. Google Data, Global English, Jun 22, 2021 - Aug 20, 2021 vs Jun 22, 2020 - Aug 20, 2020
3. In Europe, Performance Max campaigns can be used with any Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) you work with. The ads will show on general search results pages and on any other surfaces the CSS has opted in to.
4. Google/Talkshoppe, US, whyVideo study, n=2000 A18-64 Genpop video users, Feb 2020
5. Google/Ipsos, Google Feed Consumer Insights, June 2020, Online survey. Americans 18+ who made a discovery on at least one Google feed (feeds defined as Google app, Chrome app, YouTube, Gmail) on a mobile device. Base: Feed users n=1,053
6. Google Data, Global, Ads, July - September 2021

Performance Max campaigns launch to all advertisers

In an unpredictable year, change has been a reliable constant. And we’ve seen this clearly in online consumer behavior. For example, Google Image searches for "yard landscaping ideas" have grown globally by over 80% YoY1 as people look for more ways to spruce up their homes. Meanwhile, searches for "best all-inclusive resorts" have grown globally by over 200% YoY2 as people get inspired to travel again.

Thankfully, advertisers don’t have to predict the future to be ready for it. If change is the challenge, automation is the solution businesses and agencies are using to stay ahead of ongoing shifts in consumer demand. Last year, we introduced Performance Max campaigns as a new way to buy Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign. They complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you grow performance across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

After strong beta results, Performance Max campaigns will roll out to all advertisers around the world starting today. They will also become the next generation of Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, which will both upgrade to Performance Max next year.3

Illustration of six mobile devices lined up next to each other, each showing a different ad example across Google’s channels. From left to right, they show ads on YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Google Maps. Above the phones are the logos for each.

Performance Max campaigns help you increase conversions across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

Find more customers where they are

Consumers are moving seamlessly between online experiences to find buying inspiration. 70% of U.S. shoppers report buying from a brand after seeing it on YouTube,4 and 91% of Google feed users say they took some kind of shopping or product-related action immediately after discovering new products, services or brands on their feed.5

Performance Max allows you to promote your business across all Google Ads inventory. As a result, you can show up for more customers and drive more conversions based on your goals. In fact, advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.6 Whether you’re focused on increasing online sales, generating leads, or growing offline sales, Performance Max helps you achieve your goals in four main ways:

1. Increasing conversions and value: Automation optimizes your budget and bids across channels to help you capture new conversion opportunities in real time.

Performance Max has helped us activate a complementary, full-funnel strategy. Thanks to advanced machine learning capabilities, we’ve been able to gain incremental reach and conversions very efficiently. Inmaculada Lestayo Campos
Digital Marketing Manager, Allianz

2. Finding new customers: Unlock new audience segments by using Google’s real-time understanding of user intent, behavior and context to show up in the right moments with more relevant ads.

Performance Max can be activated quickly and at scale to optimize the web journey and drive more subscriptions. It delivers strong targeting signals for a more competitive CPA and dynamic budget optimization by channel. Guylain Meykiechel
Head of Global Media Strategy, Deezer

3. Gaining richer insights: Performance Max campaigns are now part of the Insights page to help you understand how automation is working and how you can improve your campaign. Using the Combinations report, you can also see how your top-performing assets are being combined to build creatives.

  • Image of the Insights page in Google Ads. The first section shows a line graph in the center with red and blue trend lines going up. There are additional sections titled “Top insights” and “Zoom in on conversion changes within your campaign.”

    Explore the Insights page to understand what’s driving performance.

  • Image of the Insights page in Google Ads. The top of the image includes two cards, each labeled “Audience Insight.” Below the cards is a chart titled “Top audience segments,” with columns for “Audience segment,” “Type,” “Share of conversions” and “Index.” The first three rows of audience segments have a green “Optimized” label next to them, while the last two rows have a blue “Signal” label next to them.

    See which audiences are influencing performance the most — including new audience segments you might not have expected or known about before.

  • Image of the Combinations report in the Google Ads interface, titled “Top image combinations.” Below are six cards, each with a colorful illustration, including a woman with her cat and dog, a dog being examined at the vet, and a dog and cat sleeping on the couch next to each other. An example illustrated logo shows an animal paw superimposed on a shield. Text headlines are: “Get top-rated coverage”, “Pet insurance”, “Protect your pet with trusted insurance” and “Low deductible, includes a 24/6 chat line.” At the bottom right of each card is a blue link to preview each ad.

    See which assets perform the best together in the Combinations report and get ideas for future assets to upload.

4. Working together with automation: Steer automation by providing high-quality creative assets and sharing your expertise about which audiences are most likely to convert.

The results from Performance Max campaigns were amazing. They helped us enter a new market to grow potential customers in a short period. We’d like to roll out Performance Max to other markets as well! Evelyn Zhao
SEA Regional Marketing Manager, SAIC-MG Motors

Get new features designed for retailers and local marketers

Performance Max campaigns allow retailers and local marketers to access new ad inventory and formats not currently available with Smart Shopping or Local campaigns — including on channels like YouTube, Search and Discover. To help you increase sales, Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will both upgrade to Performance Max in 2022. We’ll work closely with you and your partners to get feedback and build the right tools to help you easily transition your campaigns. Stay tuned for more information early next year.

We know the holidays are a critical time of year for your business. You should continue using Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to reach more shoppers across online and in-store experiences this holiday season. However, when the time is right for your business, you can start testing Performance Max campaigns before next year’s campaign upgrades.

Not only did Performance Max outperform our previous Smart Shopping campaigns, but it also took our efficiency to the next level, and allowed us to grow our revenue in a more profitable way. Eric Tsai
VP of Marketing and Business Development, Joybird
Performance Max became such a significant contributor towards our marketing objectives that we are now planning to roll it out across all of our accounts. Simon Achermann
Head of Online, microspot.ch

In the next few months, we’ll introduce new features in Performance Max specifically for retailers and businesses with store locations. For example, you’ll have the option to focus your campaigns to exclusively optimize for new customer acquisition. If you’re a retailer with a local inventory feed, you’ll also see new Search and Maps ad formats powered by your products to help drive more foot traffic to your stores.

Upgrading Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max next year will help you get more value from Google Ads while simplifying the number of campaigns you use to achieve your goals. We’ll continue investing in Performance Max and improving our automation technology over time to help you get better results.

To set your Performance Max campaigns up for success, check out our new best practices guide and video. You can also take the Skillshop e-learning course for Performance Max campaigns to get more tips on how to use them to their full potential. And explore the Demystifying Automation interactive demo to learn how different automation technologies can supercharge your marketing capabilities.

1. Google Data, Global English, Jun 22, 2021 - Aug 20, 2021 vs Jun 22, 2020 - Aug 20, 2020
2. Google Data, Global English, Jun 22, 2021 - Aug 20, 2021 vs Jun 22, 2020 - Aug 20, 2020
3. In Europe, Performance Max campaigns can be used with any Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) you work with. The ads will show on general search results pages and on any other surfaces the CSS has opted in to.
4. Google/Talkshoppe, US, whyVideo study, n=2000 A18-64 Genpop video users, Feb 2020
5. Google/Ipsos, Google Feed Consumer Insights, June 2020, Online survey. Americans 18+ who made a discovery on at least one Google feed (feeds defined as Google app, Chrome app, YouTube, Gmail) on a mobile device. Base: Feed users n=1,053
6. Google Data, Global, Ads, July - September 2021