4 things to pay special attention to when working with Google Performance Max automated advertising campaigns

Google has made PPC advertising easier than ever . But beware of these pitfalls.

While Google 's annual advertising revenue exceeds $200 billion, companies that are not yet advertising online should consider the prospects for developing their business with Google Ads . Although Google advertising campaigns have recently become more automated , the number of campaign types , sales strategies , and targeting options continues to grow .

In an effort to simplify them , Google recently introduced a new optimized universal type of automated advertising campaign called Performance Max. It requires minimal setup and will show the advertising campaign on the platforms of six Google services : Google Search, Google Maps , Google Display, Gmail, Discover and YouTube.

However, Performance Max, like any other automation tool, should not be viewed as a set-and-forget campaign. As has been proven time and again, the best PPC results can be achieved when humans and automation work together. As Frederic Valleis noted in his first book, Digital Marketing in an AI World, machines can achieve more together with humans than they can on their own.

To get started with Google automated ads , you need to provide the following information:

▣ Your marketing campaign goals and objectives

▣ Budget

▣ Creative materials (text, images, video (optional, as it will be generated automatically))

▣ Targets

▣ Channels ( Google My Business , Google Merchant Center , Dynamic Ads Channel , Business Data Channels )

▣ Audience message ( optional ) ( main audience including remarketing lists, Google audience including custom audience)

From this point on, the automation you've started will show your ads when it expects you to get a conversion.

To find the conversions that match your goals, Performance Max will automatically show your ads across six channels when needed: Google Search, Google Maps, Google Display, Gmail, Discover, and YouTube. Performance Max can replace Smart Shopping and Local Shopping campaigns, but it’s designed to complement, rather than replace, other campaign types, including Search and Display.

Performance Max makes it much easier for new advertisers, as previously achieving the same level of reach required creating separate campaigns for each channel. It’s worth noting that advertisers new to Google Ads may not have the time, experience , or expertise to properly set up each of these campaigns to achieve success. Now , with just one campaign, advertisers can see results right away and focus on optimizing the parts of the campaign with the greatest growth potential.

What could go wrong?

It is important to remember that the capabilities of each automation are limited, so to achieve optimal results, they should not be overestimated.

A good analogy is the 5 levels of automation for self-driving cars defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

◆◆ Level 0 “no automation” : the driver drives the vehicle completely independently.

◆◆ Level 1 “driver assistance” : the driver drives the vehicle, but his model includes separate driving assistance functions.

◆◆ Level 2 “partial automation” : The vehicle has some automated functions, such as acceleration and steering, but the driver must continue to drive and constantly monitor the traffic situation.

◆◆ Level 3 “conditional automation” : the driver is needed, but not to monitor the traffic situation, but to be ready to take over control of the vehicle at any time if the system notifies.

◆◆ Level 4 “high automation” : The vehicle can fully drive itself under certain conditions. The driver can take control of the vehicle if necessary.

◆◆ Level 5 “full automation” : The vehicle can fully drive itself under all conditions. The driver can take control of the vehicle if necessary.

What happens if a self-driving car gets into an accident? As IBM noted in 1979, “a computer cannot be held accountable, and therefore should never make a management decision.” For example, in Los Angeles, a driver was charged with involuntary manslaughter when his self-driving car ran a red light, killing two people. The driver considered his car’s capabilities to be Level 5 automation, when in reality it was about Level 2 automation.

Similarly, Performance Max campaigns are not at level 5 of full automation, but rather at level 2 or 3, performing support functions. Performance Max is quite good at a narrowly defined task, but it lacks the context to execute it completely independently. As an advertiser, you need to provide this context by stating your business goals. Imagine yourself as an account or campaign manager in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Google Automation cannot be held responsible if problems arise.

Think of PPC automation as a new member of your team. When a new person joins your team, such as a hired consultant or full-time employee, you need to tell them as much as possible about your business, your goals, and how you’re going to make money. If you don’t share enough information (for example, if you don’t specify that you want leads that convert into sales, not just leads that convert into sales), the automation won’t be able to accomplish its goals.

The same goes for contextual advertising automation. For example, if you tell Google Ads automation that you want to generate leads, you’ll likely get them. But what you really want are leads that convert to customers. Remember , it’s important to have a way to pass goal-related data back to Google so they can deliver on your goals. Tools like Optmyzr help advertisers create “value rules” to guide Google automation toward better conversion quality .

If you sell things or have multiple locations, you can provide this data to Google through one of many structured data formats. In the case of products , this is the Google Merchant Feed .

Google then uses the data from your feed to determine which search queries are relevant to your offer and show the best image, title , and price in each ad. If your feed has incomplete data or if your headline text is not optimized enough, your ads will look worse than your competitors' ads and you will get more expensive or fewer conversions.

While seasoned PPC pros emphasize the importance of keywords, marketing strategies, and ads, Performance Max gives you the ability to control almost none of it. In his recently published second book, Unlevel the Playing Field: The Biggest Mindshift in PPC History, Frederick Valleis explains that today’s PPC managers shouldn’t be managing every detail, but rather knowing how to manage Google Ads at the edge , where they interact with the automated system.

A prime example of this is knowing how to optimize your feed. It plugs into your advertising strategy, and Google ’s automation takes over and turns it into keywords, targeting , and actual ads. If you want more control, PPC software can help you turn your feed into keywords, ads , and campaigns from a template you manage.

As privacy concerns grow, there’s a big shift away from third-party data in online advertising. That means that your own data is becoming increasingly important. If you have a list of existing customers, feed that data into your Google Ads campaigns to help you better target your messages. Yes, over time , Google ’s AI will likely learn which audiences are best to target. But why let a system potentially spend thousands of dollars trying to understand something you could have told it from the start? With more advanced PPC tools, you can use almost any input data in a rules engine to automate your PPC decision-making process.

If you have experience advertising on social media or similar platforms, you may be used to writing ads and posts that are primarily intended to attract attention. So, the best way to grab the attention of a user who is quickly scrolling through their social media feed is to create an ad with a controversial headline or a striking image.

With Google , the situation is a little different. Users are searching for things they need on Google , so it ’s better for you to help them by answering their questions and convincing them that your product/service will best meet their needs. This can be done by including unique offers and clear calls to action in the ad text components, which will then make up different parts of responsive search ads (RSA).

Want to learn more about the principles of creating effective RSAs? We recommend reading the RSA 2021 study and the RSA presentation at SMX Next.

These level automation tools will help you avoid these mistakes!

While Google makes it easy to create automated PPC ads, they will perform much better with control and optimization on your part. You can do this yourself or get help from automation tools you manage, such as those offered in PPC management software packages like Optmyzr.

Level automation forms a system of checks and balances for Google automation. Simply put, it is automation that you , as the manager in the driver's seat , insert into the interface between you and the Google Ads system . This means you do n't have to spend a lot of time and effort tracking all the details of how the advertising system works. Instead , use simple rules and scripts to get the job done for you. Then you can focus on the strategic elements that are most useful when you, as the human driver, install them into the system.

PPC software for tiered automation is inexpensive. Optmyzr recently introduced Optmyzr Lite. This is a free trial version of the service designed specifically for new Google advertisers with single business advertising budgets of up to $10K per month. Advertisers get access to a dashboard, reports, audits , and optimization suggestions that are separate and independent from those provided by Google . It’s a great way to monitor and correct Google ’s AI when it inevitably needs your help sometimes.

Many advertisers will note: do n't let the auctioneer tell you how and when to bid. Optmyzr Lite is a reliable third - party tool that can offer other ways to optimize your Google Ads account so you can focus on growing your business.

You can learn more here.

More details