Tug’s Best Practices for Performance Max

By Rhian Biggs

Once the new kid on the block, Performance Max is now a PPC powerhouse, helping marketers keep up with the speed and unpredictability of today’s consumers. 

For those unfamiliar, Performance Max provides a framework. You set your CPA or ROAS goals, supply the creative assets, audience signals, and data feeds and Google AI takes the wheel, optimising delivery across its vast network to maximise your return.

Although they’re relatively easy to set up, navigating these campaigns can feel like a guessing game. Sure, Google offers “best practices”, but are these truly the best approach for all?

In this post, we’ll dissect two of Google’s recommendations and provide our own Tug Tips to help you make the most of your Performance Max campaigns.

Google’s stance: Performance Max campaigns need a minimum of 6 weeks to optimise and learn.

Google advises waiting 6 weeks for a Performance Max campaign to hit peak performance. However, our experience tells a different story. Looking across a 9-week timeframe, we’ve seen campaign conversions peak as early as week 2, followed by the lowest CPA (cost-per-acquisition) results by week 4. In other cases, campaigns showed steady growth until week 6, but fluctuated the following weeks.

The takeaway? The “6-week success story” isn’t guaranteed. 

 

Tug’s Tips

• Don’t feel tied to a 6-week benchmark. 

Performance can peak earlier or take longer depending on factors like industry competitiveness and conversion complexity, but there’s no reason to wait until week 6 to address subpar performance. If you’re not seeing results close to your targets by week 4, it’s time to dive into the data you have and optimise.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Review Your Assets: Swap out underperforming creatives and copy for fresh, high-quality alternatives. We recommend replacing any assets labelled as a ‘Low’ Ad strength. 
2. Fine-Tune Audience Signals: Leverage existing customer lists, in-market audiences, and user interests. Ask yourself: is your targeting too broad? Could it be more specific? Too much or too little could be holding you back from success.
3. Ensure Accurate Conversion Tracking: Constantly monitor this. Double-check setups, consider conversion delays, and ensure you track valuable conversion metrics.

 

• Early signs of success are a good thing. 

If you see strong results before 6 weeks, don’t be afraid to adjust your budget or bidding strategy to capitalise on this momentum. This could involve increasing your budget to give Google’s AI more room to scale and learn, or consider a “Target CPA” or “Target ROAS” strategy if you have enough clear conversion data.

Google’s stance: Discourages adding brand names as negatives, claiming their system prioritises user intent and avoids competing with your branded efforts.

Annoyingly, the truth is, it depends. 

If your branded search campaigns are already robust, adding brand terms as negatives might be a good call, especially if you’re looking to bid and expand your reach on more generic terms. 

However, if your brand awareness is low, excluding them could hinder PMax’s ability to maximise learning and reach potential customers who search for variations of your brand name.

 

Tug Tips

• Adopt a test-and-learn approach.

Experiment with both scenarios – including and excluding brand terms – to determine what works best for you. A previous test we ran found that negating brand terms reduced search volume, causing budgets to shift more toward YouTube and display ads. While this increased impressions, it had little impact on website traffic volume. So instead, we revised our strategy and uploaded competitor website URLs to reach users already familiar with the industry, but potentially open to alternatives. As a result, we’ve seen performance improve. 

This approach isn’t a one-size-fits-all. That said, it can be beneficial when your brand awareness is strong and you want to capture users actively considering similar products or services.

 

• Stay updated

Recommendations on brand name negatives might evolve along with Performance Max updates. Remember to monitor any platform changes and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Ultimately, there’s no doubt Performance Max campaigns are an effective way to optimise your advertising efforts across Google’s vast network. However, achieving the best results requires a flexible and proactive approach tailored to your specific campaign needs.