Should You Use Performance Max For Your Google Ad Campaign?

Google Ads is always coming out with new types of campaigns. One of the newest types that is heavily promoted inside your Google Ads account is Performance Max.

Google says that it's "designed to complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you find more converting customers across all of Google's channels like YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps."

Is this something you should test out for your campaign?

I would tread cautiously with this new campaign type because it involves a lot of ad inventory outside of Google search results. Youtube and Display ads for example are generally better suited for retargeting campaigns and not "first touch" campaigns.

For the first touch, nothing beats having your ad shown in the Google SERPs still. Presenting your ad to a user who has shown intent via search is still king.

I've been keeping a close eye on other Google Advertiser's experience with Performance Max on Reddit and I haven't seen many positive case studies.

Some speculate that Performance Max is just a clever way for Google to sell their "unwanted" ad inventory. "Unwanted" because maybe they have historically performed poorly and advertisers veer away from them now.

I think Performance Max could work well with an e-commerce product that is an impulse purchase. Just like with Facebook Ads.

As with anything, it may be worth testing to see if it makes sense for your business, just be sure you're tracking conversions accurately so you can properly gauge performance.

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