The new Performance Max campaigns have been available to all Google Ads advertisers since November 2021. Google promises higher performance than traditional campaigns. Performance Max campaigns are played out in various Google services: YouTube, the Google Display network , search, Google Discover, Gmail and Google Maps.
Performance Max is a so-called smart campaign. This means that Google makes most decisions for advertisers. For example, whether an ad is displayed for additional search queries.
However, this does not only have advantages, but can actually lead to Performance Max campaigns achieving worse results than conventional campaigns. Below are three disadvantages of Performance Max campaigns.
unpaid billsPrioritizing Performance Max even at lower performance
If a Google Ads account has both traditional campaigns such as search or display campaigns and a Performance Max campaign, Google may give preference to the Performance Max campaign even though it performs worse than the other campaigns in important criteria. This means that more budget may flow into the Performance Max campaign than into the search campaign, even though the search campaign offers a much lower CPA (cost per action) or a higher ROAS (return on advertising spend).
This has been confirmed by several advertisers, so it's important to take a close look at the metrics of each campaign in Google Ads accounts that have Performance Max campaigns and other campaigns.
ValuesLack of coordination of the individual play points
Classic Google Ads campaigns can be coordinated very well with each other. For example, search campaigns can be used for initial contact, while display campaigns can be used for retargeting until the conversion is finally completed and even beyond.
Another proven combination is to use Shopping campaigns to generate impressions and Search Ads as a backup to convey various USPs that were not addressed in the Shopping campaign.
This proven interaction can be seriously disrupted by a Performance Max campaign, which covers various areas and is prioritized by Google over the other campaigns. This, in turn, can worsen the overall result of all campaigns compared to the situation without a Performance Max campaign.
monitoringLack of intervention options
Another and certainly particularly serious disadvantage of Performance Argentina Phone Number Resource Max campaigns is the limited control and intervention options available to advertisers. For example, it has only been possible to set negative keywords since February 2023 to prevent ads from being displayed for certain search queries.
Campaigns that have not been adjusted accordingly often show a lot of conversions because, thanks to automation, they rely heavily on brand terms, which naturally trigger conversions but hardly bring in new customers. Depending on the goals, this can do more harm than good to sales. This is especially true if previous campaigns were aimed at sales or new customers and the budget is now being used primarily for brand terms, which many advertisers are not even aware of.
In addition, there is less transparency compared to classic campaigns because Performance Max campaigns lack complete data on the keywords for which the ads were displayed.
Google also reserves the right to display ads for additional keywords in Performance Max campaigns that are expected to generate additional conversions. This cannot be prevented. Ads can also appear for undesirable keywords such as "free".
