Performance Max whether we want it or not is the future of Google Ads. The sooner you implement this type of campaign into your strategy, the better you will learn to optimize them. But what to pay attention to? What to keep in mind in PMax campaigns? I invite you to an article in which I discuss a Performance Max campaign based only on product feed.
What is a Performance Max campaign?
Performance Max campaign in Google Ads was a new type of campaign. It is designed to maximize performance across multiple Google properties, including Search, Display, YouTube, and Discover. It utilizes Google’s machine learning algorithms to automatically optimize your bids and ad placements. In real-time to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.
Key features of the Performance Max campaign include:
- Automated Optimization: The campaign leverages machine learning to automatically optimize your ads’ placements and bids based on your performance objectives.
- Wide Reach: Performance Max campaigns can appear across various Google networks, such as Search, Display, YouTube, and Discover, allowing you to reach a broad audience.
- Asset-based Advertising: Instead of creating individual ads, you provide a combination of headlines, descriptions, images, and videos, and Google dynamically generates ad combinations that perform best for each audience.
- Simplified Campaign Setup: Performance Max campaigns are designed to simplify the setup process for advertisers, making it easier to run multi-channel campaigns.
- Performance Reporting: Google provides performance reports to help you understand how your ads are performing across different networks and which combinations are driving the best results.

How to create a Performance Max campaign?
Here are the general steps to create a Performance Max campaign:
- Sign in to your Google Ads account: Access your Google Ads account using your login credentials. If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to create one.
- Create a new campaign: Once you’re logged in, click on the “+Campaign” button to create a new campaign.
- Select campaign type: Choose “Performance Max” as the campaign type from the available options. It might be listed under “Goals” or “Other” depending on the current organization of the Google Ads interface.
- Campaign settings: Set up your campaign by providing essential information like campaign name, budget, start and end dates, target location, and language settings.
- Choose assets and ad formats: In a Performance Max campaign, you’ll need to provide various creative assets, such as headlines, descriptions, images, videos, and other elements. Google will use these assets to dynamically create ad combinations that best match your target audience.
- Set performance goals: Specify your campaign objectives and performance goals, such as clicks, conversions, or impressions, depending on your advertising objectives.
- Bidding and budgeting: Decide on your bidding strategy and budget allocation. Performance Max campaigns typically use automated bidding strategies to optimize for your performance goals automatically.
- Review and launch: Double-check all your settings and configurations to ensure everything is accurate. Once you’ve confirmed the details, launch your Performance Max campaign.
Feed only with Google Merchant Center
Digital marketing is always evolving, and advertisers are constantly looking for new ways to improve campaign performance. One growing strategy is the use of feed-only campaigns, especially through Google Merchant Center. By focusing solely on product feeds and skipping extra assets, advertisers can uncover new opportunities to boost results. In this article, we’ll explore feed-only Performance Max campaigns and their potential impact.
What are Feed-Only Performance Max Campaigns?
Feed-only performance max campaigns are a specialized approach to advertising that relies solely on product feeds, without the need for additional creative assets. Traditionally, advertisers have used a combination of text, images, and videos to promote their products. However, with feed-only campaigns, the focus shifts entirely to the product feed data, allowing for more streamlined and efficient campaigns.
Leveraging Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center is a platform that allows advertisers to upload and manage product data feeds, making them accessible for Google Ads campaigns. By using product feeds as the core element of advertising, advertisers can maximize the visibility and effectiveness of their campaigns. Feed-only performance max campaigns take advantage of the rich data available in the product feed, making it the sole driver of campaign performance.

Benefits of Feed-Only Performance Max Campaigns
- Simplicity and Efficiency: With feed-only campaigns, advertisers can simplify their campaign setup and management process. By eliminating the need for additional assets, such as images or videos, advertisers can focus their efforts on optimizing the product feed data itself. This streamlined approach reduces complexity and allows for faster campaign implementation.
- Dynamic Product Display: Product feeds are highly dynamic, allowing for real-time updates and adjustments to product information. With feed-only campaigns, advertisers can ensure that their product data is always up to date, reflecting accurate prices, availability, and other key attributes. This dynamic product display enhances relevancy and can significantly improve click-through and conversion rates.
- Enhanced Targeting: Product feed data contains a wealth of information about each product, including attributes such as brand, color, size, and more. By utilizing this data in feed-only campaigns, advertisers can leverage advanced targeting options to reach highly specific audiences. This precision targeting can result in increased ad relevance, leading to improved campaign performance.
- Scalability: Feed-only campaigns offer scalability advantages, particularly for advertisers with large inventories. As the product feed serves as the primary creative asset, advertisers can efficiently create and manage campaigns for a vast array of products without the need for individual creative development. This scalability makes feed-only campaigns a cost-effective solution for businesses with extensive product catalogs.
- Optimize Product Feed: The quality and accuracy of the product feed data directly impact campaign performance. Advertisers should ensure that their product feed is well-structured, comprehensive, and regularly updated. Accurate product titles, descriptions, and relevant attributes will enhance the effectiveness of feed-only campaigns.
- Monitoring and Optimization: Like any advertising campaign, feed-only performance max campaigns require ongoing monitoring and optimization. Advertisers should regularly review campaign performance, analyze data, and make adjustments to maximize results. It’s crucial to track key metrics, such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS), to evaluate the campaign’s success.
- Audience Segmentation: Leverage the available product attributes in the feed to segment your target audience effectively. Advertisers can create audience segments based on attributes like brand preference, price range, or product category. This allows them to tailor campaigns with highly relevant ads for each group, boosting the chances of conversions.
Considerations for Successful Feed-Only Performance Max Campaigns
Having a successful ads campaign means achieving your desired objectives and obtaining positive results from your advertising efforts. The specific definition of a successful campaign can vary depending on your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs), which are the metrics you use to measure performance. Here are some common indicators of a successful ads campaign:
- Return on Investment (ROI): A successful campaign generates more revenue or profit than the amount spent on advertising. High ROI indicates that your advertising efforts are driving profitable outcomes.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it. A higher CTR generally indicates that your ad is relevant and engaging to your target audience.
- Conversion Rate: The conversion rate represents the percentage of users who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a newsletter. A higher conversion rate shows that your ad campaign is effectively driving actions you want users to take.
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): CPA measures how much it costs you to acquire a single customer or lead. A lower CPA means you are obtaining conversions at a more cost-effective rate.
- Ad Position and Impressions: Achieving a high ad position and generating a significant number of impressions can indicate that your ads are being displayed prominently and reaching a wide audience.
- Brand Awareness and Recall: For some campaigns, especially those focused on brand building, success may be measured by improvements in brand awareness, recall, or sentiment among your target audience.
- Engagement Metrics: Depending on your campaign goals, engagement metrics like likes, shares, comments, or video views can be essential indicators of success.
- Targeting and Relevance: If your ads are reaching the right audience and resonating with them, it suggests successful targeting and ad relevance.
- Cost Efficiency: A successful campaign not only achieves its objectives but also does so in a cost-effective manner, maximizing the impact of your advertising budget.
A successful ad campaign depends on your business goals and the metrics that match them. Set clear objectives and KPIs before you launch. Then, track performance regularly and use data-driven tweaks to improve your results over time.