Performance Max campaigns are about as transparent as a window painted over with chalkboard paint.
The Google Ads interface gives us little to nothing when you want to analyze the results from your PMax campaign.
Luckily, we can use Analytics to do some more analysis on the audience PMax attracts and its post-click behavior on our website.
You can create a segment of users for whom the acquisition campaign name contains Performance Max, or whichever naming convention you use (see image 1 below).
Now, you can use this segment (and compare it to other segments) to see how these users are interacting with your website (see images 2 and 3 below).
For example, you can use this new segment on the Landing Page Report to see what landing pages your PMax campaign is sending traffic to, and whether you need to add URL exclusions or turn off URL expansion in PMax.
Or, you can go to the Geo Location report to have a look at the geo-locations from where your audience is originating, and decide whether or not you should exclude some based on the behavior on your website.
Or, compare the Mobile devices your PMax audience is using compared to other users.
Or …
Happy analyzing!
– Nils
(Below are the images, you can click them to enlarge.)
