At the beginning of 2022 it was announced that Google’s Smart Shopping campaigns would be replaced by their new and improved Performance Max Campaigns. With this decision leaving many people confused as to why, it is important to remember that this change will bring many benefits and is likely to improve results for the majority of advertisers that use it, but you can get more detail about that later in the blog.
What Is Google Smart Shopping?
Google’s Smart Shopping campaigns, use machine learning for your product feed to create and show a variety of ads across different networks, including the Google Search Network, Google Display Network etc. This is really helpful as it is likely to increase the amount of quality traffic that they get to their website and products. Smart shopping campaigns need only light touch management, meaning it is an easy and passive way of increasing the potential success of your campaigns.
A major reason why people favoured Google Smart Shopping is it would reach far and wide, this is great as it could potentially help you get customers that you wouldn’t ordinarily market towards and aim for their custom.
Another benefit is how Google Smart Shopping would take over the bidding, automating the process. This is great as you can then spend time doing other things that would help improve your performance. Google Smart Shopping would do this through the use of Smart Bidding which uses machine learning!
Overall it was a great way to improve the performance of your advertising easily having to invest minimal time or effort.
Why and When is it Changing?
Google announced that changes to Google Smart Shopping would be happening as they believe Performance Max will improve the performances to advertisers across the board, Google have been quoted in saying ‘Based on early testing, advertisers who upgrade Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max see an average increase of 12% in conversion value at the same or better return on ad spend (ROAS)’. When initially hearing this quote it will bring marketers joy and a high sense of optimism about the change however, it should be noted that it has been more successful for some businesses than others. This has to be kept in mind as you can’t just assume that your business will see an increase of 12% in conversions as in reality you could only experience a 2% increase.
The transition from Google Smart Shopping to Performance Max Campaigns will be taking place from July to September 2022 and for local campaigns it will be August to September 2022 so there is still time for you and your business to prepare for these changes however, the sooner you prepare the much better position your business will be in.
What is Performance Max Campaign?
Google’s new introduction, Performance Max Campaign, is an automated goal based campaign type that uses machine learning to serve relevant audiences with an optimal bid to maximise campaign performance. As well as this, it builds on Smart Shopping & Local campaigns to deliver the same foundation features, whilst adding brand new inventory and automation insights.
Another thing that Performance Max will allow you to do is access additional inventory formats across YouTube, Search Text Ads and Discover! It allows you to grow online, offline and omni-channel sales by unlocking all of Google Ads inventory from a single campaign with a product feed.
What are the Differences?
There are two main differences between Google’s Smart Shopping and Performance Max with these being, more campaign types are covered and also asset group are the centre of all activities and will replace ad & product groups.
Performance Max campaigns feature a broad range of different ad formats like Display Ads, Text Ads etc. This is great if you are wanting to promote your products or a special offer across several channels in various forms.
Final Thoughts
It will definitely be a change and one that we all have to adapt to. However, it has the potential to help your business grow by leaps and bounds. Although, it can be debated as to whether or not the change was needed I am sure we can agree that the new changes could truly change the performance of our businesses for the better! If you need help with the Performance Max changes then get in touch with us today or check out the PPC section of our website for extra information.
