Performance Max for trades: does it really work?

Google launched Performance Max in 2021, as the successor to Smart Shopping and Local Campaigns. The idea is simple: one campaign type that advertises automatically on all Google channels at once. Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and Shopping. You supply a budget, some copy and photographs, and Google's AI handles the rest.

That sounds attractive, and that is exactly the intention. In every new dashboard and every Google Ads presentation pMax sits there as the default recommendation. What Google does not add: who that advice is actually for.

With pMax you have little control as an advertiser. You set a goal, upload your material, and Google decides itself which channel gets which advert. With a service area of ten miles and a limited budget, that convenience is not always an advantage.

Performance Max learns from your conversion data. The system looks for people who resemble your earlier customers and optimises who sees which advert. That learning only works when there are enough conversions to learn from.

The stubborn story is that Google works internally with a minimum of 30 to 50 conversions a month. Google writes that nowhere, and it is not how it works either: you can start with target CPA with no conversion history. What Google does advise is to judge performance over the last 30 days with at least 30 conversions in them (Google on target CPA). For an online shop with hundreds of purchases a month that is easy. A painter who wants five good callers a month cannot say anything sensible about whether it works until months later, and by then the budget is gone.

Most trades get three to six serious enquiries a month out of Google Ads. Excellent for the diary, too few for pMax. The system then has too little data to learn from and guesses, and that guessing costs your money.

Note: Google also counts clicks on your telephone number or visits to your contact page as conversions. Those micro conversions are less reliable and do not always steer pMax the right way.

Performance Max spreads your budget across six channels at once, and Google decides which channel gets which share. For a trade, Search is really the only channel the money comes back from: somebody types "roofer Bristol" or "builder wanted" and clicks through with direct buying intent.

On YouTube that same person is perhaps watching a video about football. On Display they see a banner while reading the news. The chance that they ring about a job at that moment is small, but pMax puts budget behind it anyway. Anyone who does want to use video deliberately picks a separate video campaign: there you can steer how often the same person sees you with a frequency goal across several campaigns. Inside pMax that lever does not exist.

A worked example with assumptions we chose ourselves, not a measurement: say Search gets half of 300 pounds a month, so 150 pounds, and say a click costs 3 pounds. That is fifty clicks. Put your own conversion rate from Google Ads in and you see immediately how many enquiries that produces in your case. For most trades it is a handful, and then you understand why the month is over without the telephone glowing.

On top of that comes the learning period. On a small budget that easily takes several weeks, and in those weeks the campaign spends money while it is still working out who your audience is. We put no percentage on it: what the learning period cost you can only be read afterwards, by putting the spend of the first weeks next to the conversions of those same weeks.

For some businesses pMax works excellently: online shops with hundreds or thousands of products, national brands wanting visibility on every channel, and companies with more than 2,000 pounds a month of budget and dozens of conversions a month. For them pMax does the split across channels better than a person with a spreadsheet.

You advertise within a radius of ten miles and want to reach people who are looking for a trade now, not somebody who might one day have a window painted. Those are different goals, and pMax was not built for them.

Rule of thumb: if you consistently get 30 conversions a month or more, pMax is worth a conversation. Until then there are better choices.

Start simply with an ordinary Search campaign. That gives you direct control: you see which search terms your money goes on and can steer as soon as a term produces clicks but no callers.

The build up looks like this:

• Start with Manual CPC or Maximise Clicks and build conversion data.
• Getting more than ten conversions a month after two to three months? Then move to Maximise Conversions.
• Target CPA you can switch on with no conversion history. To judge whether it works, Google itself advises a period of thirty days with at least thirty conversions in it. If you do not reach that, your judgement is a guess and not a measurement, and for pMax that counts even more strongly.

Your keywords make a difference as well. Without a list of negative keywords you pay for clicks from people who are not looking for what you offer, such as somebody searching for "painter film" or "builder jobs".

One question sits underneath all of this and deserves answering before you choose a campaign type at all: can advertising pay for itself on your margin and your conversion rate? That sum, with the break even click price in it, is in does Google Ads really work. And if you want the sixth channel that pMax reaches for without handing over the steering, Maps is getting its own paid format, described in Google Maps is getting adverts.

Not sure whether your campaign is set up properly, or do you want to hire a Google Ads specialist to look at it with you? Our paid search specialists would rather set up a targeted Search campaign than scatter your budget across six channels with nothing to show for it.

Do you want to know what does work in your situation? We look at your current campaigns for free, or set up a new one that suits your budget and your service area. No pMax unless it makes sense, just honest advice.

Recognise this and would you rather hand your Google Ads over to specialists who know when pMax works and when it does not? Book a call and we will work out together what suits your budget and your service area.

Should I switch Performance Max off if I am already using it?

Not by definition, but it is worth checking what it produces. Compare your conversions per month with your cost per conversion. If the figures disappoint and you get fewer than ten conversions a month, it is worth testing pMax alongside an ordinary Search campaign.

Can I run pMax and a normal Search campaign at the same time?

Yes, you can. Watch the relationship with your search campaign. If a search matches an exact keyword in your Search campaign, that campaign takes priority over Performance Max. With broader match types Ad Rank decides, and then Performance Max can take the impression. If your search campaign hits its budget, Performance Max takes it over anyway; that is how it is set out in Google's explanation of Performance Max. If you combine the two, keep the results per campaign type separate.

What does pMax do when I have too little conversion data?

The system stays stuck in the learning period or works below par. You see swinging results: plenty of clicks one week, hardly any the next. Without enough conversion data you never reach the real optimisation phase.

Does pMax affect my Google Business Profile?

Yes, pMax can advertise on Google Maps as well if you add a local campaign component. Useful if you want to draw more people to your premises, though this too works better once there is conversion data.

When is it time to try pMax after all?

Google names no conversion threshold for being allowed to start Performance Max. What does count is whether you measure enough conversions to build a judgement on: to assess a target strategy, Google advises a period of thirty days with at least thirty conversions in it. If you have that, plus a budget you can test on several channels at once with, pMax is worth trying. Until then a well built Search campaign is almost always more effective for a trade.