By Nicola Agius
July 25, 2023
Source: Search Engine Land
Photo Source: Unsplash, The voluntary upgrades enable advertisers to fully optimize performance across channels with the aim of improving campaign ROI.
Google is rolling out two new upgrades to Performance Max. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) and Google Display Ads (GDA) campaign upgrades are now available to all advertisers. Opting in is voluntary.
If you decide to upgrade, you can do so via a self-serve tool that will appear in their accounts.
A new, separate PMax campaign will be created for each upgraded campaign, using a combination of settings and learnings from existing campaigns to maintain consistent performance, Google said.
Why we care. The DSA and GDA upgrades give advertisers the tools they need to shift single-channel campaigns to a unified campaign strategy in PMax. This should in turn help improve ROI and give marketers the ability to fully optimize performance across channels.
What’s new. Advertisers who decide to opt into the upgrades will have access to a range of tools and capabilities aimed at improving campaign performance and user experience. This includes:
Inventory-aware ad serving: This feature ensures that out-of-stock product pages do not appear in Search by automatically factoring in product inventory, with no work required on your end.
More converting search queries: PMax’s AI uses a campaign’s creative assets as a helpful signal to detect more converting search queries. This is particularly beneficial for brands that may have landing pages with thin or minimal content.
Enhanced control: Google has confirmed that created text assets are about to begin appearing in the asset reporting table. This is beneficial to advertisers as they will have the ability to delete text assets as they so wish.
Serving user intent more effectively: Using automatically created assets, PMax can customize Search ads to better match consumer intent.
Better insights: Google is introducing more search categories and the ability to apply date ranges. Advertisers will also soon be able to download these insights via the Google Ads API.
What Google has said. Google announced the PMax upgrades via a statement on its blog. A spokesperson said:
"To help you guide Google AI, we want to make it easy for you to provide inputs that tell Performance Max what matters – or doesn’t matter – to your business."
"Today, we’re introducing additional ways to multiply your results across channels. With these improvements, more advertisers are shifting single-channel campaigns to a unified campaign strategy in Performance Max to improve ROI and fully optimize performance across channels."
"For advertisers who are interested and eligible, self-upgrade tools are also rolling out now to easily upgrade Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns and Google Display campaigns to Performance Max."
"Performance Max will help you reach valuable audiences more effectively across channels – including Display and beyond. You can fine-tune performance by using audience signals to share your understanding of the most important audiences to engage, while still allowing Google AI to expand beyond these to help you find new audiences."
The reaction. Menachem Ani, founder and CEO of boutique digital marketing agency JXT Group, told Search Engine Land that although these upgrades are voluntary now, it's unlikely this is permanent. He said:
"I think DSA will be depreciated eventually, and all campaigns will be upgraded to Performance Max."
"The primary difference between Performance Max and Dynamic Search is that optimization is more algorithmic. There are no negative keywords or direct audience targeting. Instead, the algorithm optimizes based on your bid strategy and audience signals."
"Additionally, I believe Discovery campaigns will eventually be rolled into Demand Gen campaigns which are currently in beta."
By the numbers. Advertisers who upgrade DSA campaigns to PMax see an average increase of more than 15% in conversions and conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS, Google said.
Advertisers who upgrade Google Display campaigns to PMax see an average increase of over 20% in conversions, Google said. This performance holds even if a brand already has an existing PMax campaign.
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