The world of digital advertising is constantly evolving, and Google is keeping pace with Performance Max: an automated campaign format designed to boost results. To find out what this means for the advertising world, we’re turning to our Associate Director of Digital Strategy, Chelsea Cepicky.
In a few sentences, can you describe what Google Performance Max is?
Performance Max is a new Google ad type that allows you to combine your Google inventory to create better results. This includes headlines and body copy historically from search ads, imagery from display ads and video assets which are typically used for YouTube. Performance Max complements keyword-based search campaigns to help grow performance across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.
How is this different from what we’ve been doing previously?
Historically, you had to run Google ad types as separate campaigns with separate budgets. For example, Google search, display and YouTube were separate. Now, you can set a budget and a campaign with all these assets and allow the algorithm to decide what assets to show to who and when.
What should writers and art directors watch out for?
Similar to dynamic display ads, it's important for writers to ensure that headlines and body copy go well together. With Performance Max, you add a variety of headlines and body copy, so you never know what combination will show up in the ads. For art directors, the key thing to remember is to stick with the recommended sizing and pixels to ensure images and logos show up clearly and represent your business well.
Do you anticipate these campaigns will be more successful than other Google campaigns? Why?
Because Google is placing such a high emphasis on Performance Max Ads, I anticipate they will eventually push to make these the primary ad type as they have been relying more in automation the past several years. The one change with Performance Max ads is that because they are so heavily automated, you have fewer adjustments and levers you can modify with more traditional ad formats. We will have to monitor performance over time to get a clearer picture of how this impacts results.
Read to learn more about this transition here.