Performance Max is super easy.
Do these 3 things and your revenue and profits will skyrocket:
- Implement gtag.js on your site
- Add Google Ads conversion tracking code
- Set up dynamic remarketing
- Make sure the product id matched your feed id
- Include hashed email
- Add the new_customer parameter to your tag
- Customize ad_personalization_signals to comply with regulations
- Enable consent mode modeling
- Enable enhanced conversion tracking
- Set attribution to data-driven
- Make sure to have GA4 implemented and linked to your account
- Create Performance Max segment in GA4
- For lead gen: use UTM parameters at the asset group level so that (in your CRM) you can track the quality of the leads for individual asset groups
- For lead gen: track lead quality and automatically send value updates to Google
- Disable Auto-applied recommendations
- Connect merchant center
- Optimize product feed
- Add a short title in the product feed so that it will show in Discovery and Gmail ads
- Label products based on product margins
- Decide on campaign structure
- Make sure standard search campaigns are set up and working properly
- Make sure standard campaigns generate >30 conversions per month
- Create performance max campaigns
- Decide on realistic additional value for new customers
- Set advanced location targeting to ‘Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations’
- Create ad schedule
- Create assets groups
- Create headlines
- Create long headlines
- Create descriptions
- Create (lifestyle) images
- Create attention-grabbing videos
- Add call to action
- Add display path
- Add extensions
- Create a customer-match audience of existing customers
- Create a custom segment audience of converting search terms
- Test both ‘People with any of these interests or purchase intentions’ and ‘People who searched for any of these terms on Google’
- Create an in-market audience segment
- Test if you should disable url expansions
- Add a dedicated (dynamic) remarketing campaign next to PMax
- Make sure website is mobile-friendly
- Make sure landing page loads within 3 secs
- Make sure landing page includes social proof
- Make sure forms and/or checkouts work 100%
- Make sure your feed is updated frequently (more than default once per day)
- Exclude mobile app categories
- Exclude content keywords
- Exclude sensitive content
- Exclude parked domains
- Exclude YouTube live streams
- Add url exclusions
- Exclude brand from campaign
- Add account-wide negatives
- Ask Google rep to add a negative keyword list to the campaign
- Choose bidding strategy
- Determine target for bidding strategy
- Apply seasonality adjustment for short sales promotions
- Make sure no assets or extensions get disapproved
- Make sure no top-selling products are disapproved
- Make sure no top-selling products are out of stock
- Make sure prices remain competitive
- Make sure shipping cost and delivery times remain competitive
- Prevent extremely negative reviews
- For lead gen: prevent lead fraud by implementing lead fraud prevention tactics in your forms
- Monitor campaign insights like a hawk
- Monitor PMax networks’ performance via Mike Rhodes script
- Monitor user location report
- Monitor ‘new vs returning visitors’ segment
- Monitor new customers reporting column
- Add negative keywords
- Exclude placements
- Exclude low-performing products
- Exclude low-performing user locations
- Replace zero-click products to new campaigns
- Create new campaign for the product that spends >50% of budget
- Monitor audience insights
- Create new asset groups for best-performing audiences
- Monitor ‘suggested trends’
- Create new asset groups for relevant trends
- Check for cannibalization in GA4
- Gradually increase/decrease bidding targets
- Gradually increase/decrease budgets
- Improve poor assets
- Spend at least 3 times your avg CPA and over $100 per day
- Wait & pray
What other 3 things did I forget?
– Nils