We asked John, our resident Google Ads expert, for tips and tricks that you can deploy today to boost your Google Ads Performance Max campaign results over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend & beyond. Here’s what he had to say.

(Side note: Most of these ideas should be applied to existing Performance Max campaigns to give yourself the best chance of success)

Performance Max (Asset Groups & Audience Signals)

Asset Groups - Option 1

Scale your Performance Max campaigns by creating multiple asset groups targeting just one audience signal in each, rather than lumping them all together in one asset group. You can have up to 100 asset groups per campaign.

This will allow you to see which signals are producing results. You can then kill those that aren’t performing, keep those that have a positive ROAS and CPA and continue to test new signals to find more winners.

Signals to try…

• Keyword Groups (i.e. proven to convert search keywords)
  
• Competitor URLs
  
• In-Market Audiences
• Affinity Audiences
• Shopping Cart Abandoners and Past Buyers
• Customer Match Lists (i.e. email subscribers)

Asset Groups - Option 2

Create individual asset groups for product categories that you really want to push during the BFCM weekend. Make sure each category has a relevant image and video creatives that align with the products being promoted. Unlike the previous strategy, you can have multiple signals in one asset group.

I would advise making new asset groups well in advance of BFCM to give the algorithm time to learn and to give yourself the best chance of having a successful campaign.

If that isn’t possible, then you can add new asset groups and creatives to existing Performance Max campaigns.

Ad Copy & Creatives

You can see examples here of ad copy headlines clearly calling out the Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion.

Make sure you’ve filled out all the available ad copy and creative fields in your campaigns to capitalise on sales.

You can have up to 20 images, 5 logos, 5 videos, 10 headlines, and 5 descriptions, plus ad extensions and a CTA so make the most of this.

I’ve seen accounts where very little effort or thought has gone into this and that is a big mistake.

Promotion Extensions

Add details about your BFCM sale to existing search campaigns using the promotion extension and also to Google Merchant Centre (GMC) using the promotions tab. Potential customers will then see sale items highlighted in your shopping ads and the promo link in your search ads. This should encourage them to click and buy.

Another great thing to have in your ads is customer review ratings from approved aggregators like Trustpilot.

This is a huge trust signal and can really help to push people over the line during Q4 and BFCM in particular.

Bidding

This is very relevant for new Performance Max campaigns that you create rather than existing campaigns which have been running for a couple of months.

Bidding can Maximise Conversions with a Target CPA or Maximise Conversion Value with a Target ROAS.

I would recommend NOT setting a Target CPA or Target ROAS initially, give the algorithm some time to breathe and see what it can do on its own. You can always change this later after you have a good amount of data and conversions.

P. Max campaigns typically take at least 4 weeks to get moving and optimised. I wouldn’t advise making any changes during this time, just let them run. If you do make changes, this can throw the algorithm off course, effectively going back to square one each time and that isn’t good.

Another idea worth testing…

No Assets

Try running a P. Max campaign without any assets at all, just the GMC datafeed. This forces the algorithm to
function like its predecessor (the Smart Shopping campaign type) which was very much liked by media buyers.

The advantage of this strategy is that your products should have much greater visibility because there are more product placement spots available.

This final idea can also be super effective…

No Datafeed

Create a P. Max campaign without a datafeed connection to GMC.

By doing this, you will exclude shopping placements completely and force the algorithm to show your products on other Google properties (i.e. Display, Youtube, Gmail & Discover).

The ideas I’ve shared here can work extremely well and are definitely worth testing prior to the build-up to BFCM and all the way through to Christmas. They have the potential to boost product sales in a big way.

If you want to find out how we can help you with scale your business with Google Ads - Here’s a link to Joe, Dom, or Freddie's calendar to book a discovery call now.