Starting the year with a bang, Google announced on Thursday (27th January 2021) that they will be automatically transitioning Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max from July 2022. Local campaigns will not go untouched, as they suffer the same fate.
So, what does that mean for Smart Shopping / Local campaigns?
Beginning April 2022, advertisers will be able to upgrade their Smart Shopping campaigns. Google has announced a solution to upgrading with an easy one-click tool. This tool can upgrade any Smart Shopping campaign to Performance Max, either, one at a time or all at once.
Local campaigns will be eligible to start upgrading to Performance Max in June 2022. If you decide not to upgrade using this tool, Google will take a site-wide approach and upgrade all Smart Shopping and Local campaigns for you (how kind). Unfortunately, this can’t be avoided.
What do Green Ginger recommend?
- Test Performance Max as soon as possible. The new campaign format allows advertisers to access all of the Google Ads Inventory from a single campaign. It’s a positive in the sense that you can access a lot more traffic from one campaign, but, it opens a campaign up to a lot of potentially irrelevant audiences which can be a challenge when working to a tight ROI
- Performance Max will take priority over any existing Smart Shopping campaigns. It’s important to pick a lower priority category to test initially so as not to cannibalise traffic
- Test different creative formats and styles. The more creatives the better as Google is able to learn which ad formats and placements work the best
- Get ahead of competitors by running Performance Max now. The algorithm will take time to learn, so getting a head start is essential – the more data the better
- Automation is here to stay and will beat a manually optimised campaign every time. Make the most of the elements you can control such as messaging, bidding, budget and audiences
If you need support or advice on anything Performance Max-related. Get in touch with the team today!
