Joan PorioIf your Performance Max campaign isn’t working despite your weekly optimization hacks, it may be time to take a step back.
Your frequent tweaks, helpful as they may seem, might be causing more harm than good.
Sometimes, less is more.
And our Google Ads strategists learned (the hard way) that the saying applies to Performance Max campaigns.
Here’s why you should stop touching your Performance Max campaign, how this understanding can help you get more conversions, and when you should be making changes in your PMax campaigns for optimization.
Content:
What exactly does Less is More mean for Performance Max?
With Performance Max, you’re not just dealing with one but seven networks: YouTube, Display, Search, Apps, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
It’s seven times the size of any other campaign, which means it will take a lot more time to learn.
Less is more for PMax means leaving your account alone to allow Google’s algorithm to learn.
And we don’t mean waiting for 1-3 days.
According to Google, you need to wait at least 14 days plus your conversion lag for Google’s algorithm to learn.
If you’re not familiar with your conversion lag, find your conversion lag reporting data by following these steps.
This means, that every time you make changes, you’re resetting that timeline.
In other words, it sends Google into the learning phase again.
So stop touching your Performance Max campaign.
This way, Google can get accurate data which will enable it to know how to get you the results you want.
What changes resets the Performance Max learning phase?
Now that you’re aware that being patient and doing less equals better Performance Max campaigns, let’s dive into the specific changes that reset the learning phase.
The changes that reset the learning phase can include but are not limited to the following:
- Adding asset groups
- Changing image assets
- Changing the budget
You read that right, changing the budget also resets the learning phase.
So again, stop touching your Performance Max campaign. 😉
You might think that Google already has your entire ad budget allocated for a whole month and resetting your budget now would only affect the next month’s ad spend.
It’s not the case. Aside from the fact that Google overspends on a daily basis, it’s evident that it’s difficult to manage budgets inside Google Ads.
Your budget can also dictate how fast and how effective the learning phase would be.
The more adequate your budget is, the faster and more effective Google learns.
While there isn’t a one-size fits all approach when it comes to determining your budget, we recommend running PMax at the same budget you would allocate on a traditional search campaign.
Read our ultimate guide for more general rules and best practices when creating your Performance Max campaign.
Does this mean I don’t need a Google Ads agency to run my Performance Max campaigns?
After discovering you can just sit back and relax after creating your campaigns, you may be thinking:
Automation is great! I just have to wait so I don’t need a Google Ads agency to run my Performance Max campaigns anymore!
As we mentioned earlier, you need to wait at least 14 days plus your conversion lag for Google’s algorithm to learn.
But waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing.
Your Google Ads specialists aren’t there to just sit back and relax, they’re there to monitor your Performance Max campaign even if it’s still in the learning phase.
Knowing when to touch your account is equally as important as knowing when NOT to touch it.
Plus, since the learning phase is longer now with PMax, you have to make sure you wouldn’t just throw money and three weeks of waiting because the campaign wasn’t built correctly in the first place.
Building, monitoring, and scaling a Google Ads Performance Max campaign requires knowledge and expertise.
Automation is cool, being able to build a campaign starting from a goal is great, but that doesn’t make it easy.
Performance Max is actually harder to build and scale, not to mention that you have to keep up with all the frequent changes being rolled out.
We’re not saying that you can’t run your own Performance Max campaigns, we’re saying that our team of experts here at Solutions 8 is here to help scale your business.
