Google’s automated campaigns, like Performance Max, can be a great way to save time and effort while increasing performance, but they have one big drawback: Google decides which products to promote, and it’s not always the best performers.
This means that advertisers are spending money on products that are not generating sales. Additionally, Google doesn’t provide much transparency into how PMax decides which products to promote—which, in turn, can make it difficult for advertisers to identify which products are performing well and which are not.
The solution? Set up your Performance Max campaigns correctly. A well-structured campaign will help Google to understand your goals and objectives, and to choose the right products and audiences to promote.
A poorly structured campaign, on the other hand, can lead to Google making poor decisions about which products to promote, and to your budget being wasted on underperforming products.
Here are a few tips for setting up a successful Performance Max campaign.
How To Segment Your PMax Campaigns?
Segmenting your Performance Max campaigns allows you to have more control over your budget and helps you target your ads to specific audiences.
By grouping your products into different segments, you can create more tailored ad campaigns for each group. Here are a few segments to gain more control and scalability.
- Bestsellers: Target products that sell the most.
- New products: Target products that have been recently added to your catalogue.
- Products on sale: Target products that are currently on sale.
- Seasonal products: Target products that are popular during certain times of the year.
- Single-product campaigns: Focus on a single product.
- Products to test lower prices: Target products with low price points to see if that increases sales.
- Products with low impressions: Target products that are not getting many impressions.
- Products with no traffic: Target products that have not received any clicks. These may be new, low volume, or not well-optimised for search. Also, Google’s algorithm may choose not to serve these products as they do not have insights or data on how they will perform compared to the ROAS.
- Product type: Broadly target products by categories. This will ensure that you have separate budgets for each product category.
- Brand specific: Do you resell products from other brands? Create tailored ad campaigns for each brand you sell, or for specific product categories within each brand. This way, you can target your ads to customers who are already interested in those brands or products.
- Products with low or high stock: Target products that are either low or high in stock.
- Products with poor performance: Target products that are specifically not performing well to have a greater control performance and budget.
- Loss Leaders: Target products that you are willing to sell at a loss in order to attract customers and sell other products.
- Clearance: Specifically target products which are meant for clearance. Allocate dedicated budgets and bidding strategies for selected products to clear inventory and generate cash flow.
In addition to the segmentations listed above, here are some other segmentations that you may want to consider using for your Performance Max campaigns:
- Audience: Segment your campaigns by audience, such as new customers, returning customers, or customers who have abandoned their shopping carts.
- Location: Segment your campaigns by location, such as country, region, or city.
Layering segmentations on top of your existing campaign structure allows you to create very granular campaigns that are tailored to specific needs. For example, you could create a campaign for new customers in the United States who have visited your website and searched for the keyword “red shoes”.
Keep it simple. Consolidate as much data as possible. And, only segment your campaigns when you have a good reason to do so.
Performance-Based Bucketing Strategies For PMax Campaigns
Performance-Based Bucketing is one of the most effective ways to optimise your PMax campaigns. It involves dividing your product feed into different buckets based on performance, such as heroes, sidekicks, villains, and zombies. You can then set different budget and bidding strategies for each bucket to ensure that you’re spending your money on the products that are most likely to drive results.
It is a great tactic to spend more on the products that are performing well, and less on the products that aren’t. Here is a brief look at each performance label and campaign:
Heroes: Your best-performing products.
Budget: +/- 50% of daily budget
Bid strategy: Optionally lower tROAS to push harder
Main goal: Maximise spending on your best products.
Sidekicks: Products that perform near the target.
Budget: +/- 20% of daily budget
Bid strategy: Variable ROAS target
Main goal: Dedicate a portion of your daily budget to products with high potential.
Villains: Your worst-performing products.
Budget: +/- 10% of daily budget
Bid strategy: Optionally higher tROAS to scale down
Main goal: Decrease spend on worst-performing products.
Zombies: Products with low impressions.
Budget: +/- 20% of daily budget
Bid strategy: Variable ROAS target
Main goal: Increase visibility on products with low impressions to find new winners.
ProductHero Labeliser is an easy-to-use tool to test Performance-Based Bucketing and it can help you set up the strategy quickly.
Here are some other Performance-Based Bucketing strategies that you may want to consider:
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) bucketing: If you segment your campaigns by ROAS, you can spend more on campaigns that are generating a higher ROAS and less on campaigns that are generating a lower ROAS.
- Conversion rate bucketing: Segmenting your campaign by conversion rate allows you to spend more on campaigns that are converting at a higher rate and less on campaigns that are converting at a lower rate.
- Profit bucketing: If you segment your campaigns by profit, you spend more on campaigns that are generating more profit and less on campaigns that are generating less profit.
Want more assistance with Performance Max Campaign Segmentation? Let’s talk.
At 360 OM, we specialise in helping businesses take their marketing efforts to the next level. Our team stays on top of industry trends, makes data-informed decisions to maximise your ROI, and provides full transparency through comprehensive reports.
