When it comes to what to know about Performance Max there are several articles about how to set it up and what it does. There are some things to consider though when thinking about using Performance Max in your Google Ads campaign, the dark side of Performance Max. In this article we'll discuss:
How Performance Max cannibalizes other forms of campaigns.
Poor performance in lead generation
Only being able to use account level negative keywords
Affinity towards company name
How Performance Max Cannibalizes
So one of the selling points of Performance Max is its essentially one campaign to rule them all. It can handle your display, search, video, etc. all in one campaign and Google will decide what happens when. The problem with this is when you want to put more emphasis on a certain type of marketing through a campaign.
For instance we had a client who we found had a significant drop in foot traffic after we turned off a display campaign when switching to Performance Max. When we determined that display campaign might have had a major influence on driving people to the store we decided to turn it back on. Unfortunately a display campaign that was spending about $10/day now spends zero. Performance Max is providing some level of display within its campaign but it's not doing enough to cover the deficit.
While the easy answer is to turn off Performance Max, we are seeing great results from it in other areas outside display. We are seeing a large amount of store visits from our Performance Max campaign but more on that later.
Poor Lead Generation
So another contention that many marketers in the industry are having is generating leads while using Performance Max. Specifically in the area of form fills. There are two routes you can go when it comes to form fills:
Google provided lead forms
Website lead forms
So the lead form from Google is frankly not the best. The customization is not very robust and many of our clients have not found them to be very fruitful. On the other side in theory a website form fill would be better. However without proper set up this turns into junk too. You get to many people saying they didn't even know they filled out a form, true or not, and just don't get much traction.
Because Performance Max is trying to get your Cost Per Acquisition as low as possible, it will lean more towards driving leads from say display or video and not so much from traditional search. While this is a lower CPA, the quality of that person is much lower. Think about a form you filled out from a display ad. Your expectation may not be to buy but to perhaps get more information about a product. Then think about searching for a "vet near me" in your Google search. You are looking to get service now, the CPA is higher, but well worth it to the vet.
Account Level Negative Keywords
Most people have been trained in Google Ads to go to a specific campaign or ad group and add negative keywords for terms you don't want to show up for. Competitors or perhaps services you don't offer. For Performance Max specifically it can only be influenced by account level negative keywords, another what to know about Performance Max.
The biggest issue with this most people don't even know how to do that. It's in the Account Settings in case your wondering. But also it's for the account! This isn't always the case but maybe you want to show up for a keyword in a particular campaign but not in Performance Max, you can't do that because the keyword will go at the account level and no campaign gets to show for that keyword. This is especially troublesome for my last point.
Affinity Towards Company Name
So by utilizing some scripts in Google Ads we were able to get a glimpse as to what keywords Performance Max was showing up. The number one term - company name. This makes sense since your brand name will drive the lowest CPA but the fact that the company name was showing up so often was alarming. The variations of the company name in the keywords accounted for about 80% of the impressions and clicks and over 90% of the conversions.
So now you have to make a choice. Put your company name as a negative keyword at the account level, essentially never showing up for your brand name in paid, or basically wasting budget. We believe in spending some money on your brand name, 10% of your budget just in case someone is accidentally bidding on your name and stealing your customers. To have nothing though would be tough.
You could do it if you have two things in place:
If you are comfortable with those then you should be find and then we would put the company name as a negative keyword but only if you understand the repercussions.
If you have any questions about anything you've read or would like to know more about all RAB Consulting has to offer please feel free to call or text and we'll be happy to help.
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