Google’s PMax: The Cat’s Outta The Bag 

By Logan Foster

At this year’s Google Marketing Live, Google unveiled the next generation of ads capabilities, including transparency within its Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, a years’ long-awaited update for all performance marketing advertisers.   And this was just the tip of the iceberg.  

Here’s what you missed about Google’s new AI products and more.

What’s PMax? 

Introduced in 2020, PMax is a popular campaign type in Google Ads designed to reach audiences across the entire Google ecosystem. (Think Google Search, YouTube, Display, Maps, and Discover. Those sneaky “emails” that are actually ads in your Gmail? That’s PMax, too.)  

You set the budget, campaign objective, targeting, and creative, and the platform allocates dollars across the placements based on where it sees the most opportunity between your inputs and the ad auction.  

If you don’t have enough budget to run full-funnel campaigns, it’s a solid option. PMax’s targeting capabilities allow you to use Google’s third-party signals, layer in keywords and topics, upload first-party data for lookalike audiences, and more. Historically, it’s been a strong driver of conversions. 

Yet, since its introduction, PMax has developed a reputation for being a “black box” because of its notorious “zero visibility” into which placements are driving results. That is, until now. 

Transparent Reporting 

Just recently, Google rolled out a new transparent reporting feature with PMax that has confirmed what I (and many paid search marketers) have long suspected: a significant proportion of reported conversions in PMax are from branded search queries (users searching specifically for your brand).  

This isn’t inherently bad, as capturing high-intent customers is important, especially if competitors are bidding on your terms. In theory, though, your branded search efforts should be shouldering the weight here, with PMax complimenting those efforts.  

Now that we have the receipts, if most of your conversions in PMax are coming from brand terms, it means that Google isn’t using your prospect targeting signals and you’re effectively running two branded search campaigns with the same goal. Not ideal. 

So, if we want Google to be more than demand capture, and trust me, we do — it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start testing.  

It’s Time To Get Generic 

Fortunately, suppressing keywords within PMax is a tool in our tool belts (as of about a year ago). So, if you’re looking to drive new, incremental traffic and conversions, say hello to PMax Generic. 

Start by putting those brand terms on as exclusions, then test, learn, and iterate. If you’re running Generic search campaigns, keep an eye their performance, too, as PMax should be complimenting them. 

Pro tip: Remember to manage everyone’s expectations. PMax Generic performance won’t look as high as PMax with Brand. That doesn’t mean it’s performing poorly; it just means the system is working harder to find net new customers.

Aren’t we all?