7 Mistakes That Destroy Performance Max Campaigns

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Learn how you can avoid repeating some of the common mistakes advertisers make with Performance Max campaigns.
Imagine a small business owner who relies on Google Ads PPC to drive sales on his Shopify store . Performance Max has destroyed his livelihood in two months. Sales have virtually stopped, and his cost per conversion has increased 20x (from $6 to $120). Yet his campaign optimization score is 100%.

It's a real and unfortunate situation that runs counter to Google's stance that their automation makes online advertising easier .

In fact, it illustrates how desperately the PPC advertising community needs better education on ad platform automation, especially when it comes to something as significant as Performance Max .

This business owner did everything Google advised him to do, and in the process, he nearly ruined his online business, and it's unlikely he would have recovered without the help of an experienced Google Ads expert.

Google's automation was supposed to prevent this kind of future , but instead we're still struggling to understand the basics of a campaign type that is largely a black box.

Let’s fix it. Here are seven mistakes I’ve seen people make with Performance Max campaigns that you can avoid repeating.

Mistake 1: You think that audiences and audience signals work the same way
Audience signals don't work the same way as audience segments in other campaigns because you can't target specific audiences in Performance Max. Instead, you provide signals that tell Google who to start showing your ads to, and Google uses the initial data to expand your audience .

Many account managers underestimate the importance of audience signals (I’ve seen some skip them entirely), but anything that relies so heavily on automation won’t work as well as it should if you don’t pr india mobile database ovide the strongest possible input.

Therefore, my main recommendation is to make sure you start every Performance Max campaign with strong audience signals . These can include:

Everyone who converted on your website.
Email subscriber lists.
Historical customer data.
Repeat or high-spending customers.
Everyone else you know has value for your business.
When you import these audiences at the start of your campaign, Google analyzes them based on the millions of signals it tracks. And your campaign can start with a strong and relevant inbound audience, instead of wasting money on guesswork.

Mistake 2: Neglecting data input
Since Retail Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns rely on data feeds for keyword targeting , an incomplete feed means you're missing out on potential opportunities. It's tempting to get started in Google Ads right away, but take a step back in Merchant Center and optimize your data feed for the best results.

Some of the things our agency checks include ensuring that:

All products are correctly categorized.
UPC codes are provided where necessary.
The names and descriptions are fully populated.
Titles and descriptions contain keywords and search terms related to the product.
Provide quality input to Google systems and monitor shared data to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date.