to track Performance Max campaign with Google Apps script //
You probably have been using Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads since the mid-2022. You know the reporting and insights are limited.
We don’t have control over how much money we spend on top-of funnel strategies such as video, display or discovery campaigns.
Google’s automated system does not allow us to see the breakdown of our spending.
You can overcome this obstacle by using Google Apps Script. It will allow you to extract data about campaign spending and gain insights that will help improve your performance, impress clients, and wow your team.
Why use Apps script in Google Ads Performance Max?
Apps script allows you to automate Google Ads actions using JavaScript in your account. This guide does not require any coding knowledge. This will save you time and simplify management.
Some advertisers choose to use standard Shopping Campaigns due to the lack of insights and control from Performance Max.
The Insights tab of Google Ads displays audience insights, search terms insights, and general performance. However, it does exclude the breakdown of impressions or spend by campaign type.
You can assume, if you see that a campaign has high impressions and similar clicks as other campaigns or assets groups, that the video or display campaigns were used over search ads or Shopping ads.
The script for monitoring performance
Mike Rhodes has been kind enough to share his script with the community of digital marketers via GitHub. The 24th version was released in April 2023.
Copy this template into Google Sheets to begin the installation instructions.
Enter the URL for in the line below that begins with . The URL should be enclosed in single quotes.
Next, name your script “YOUR CLIENT”.
Name your sheet: “YOUR CLIENT” – pMax charts v24 (updates daily)
Google will ask you to allow the script access to your Google Ads Account. This script will not change your ads or update them in any way. It will only send the data into Google Sheets.
Save and run the script once it has been authorized!
Set up your script so that it runs every day. It’s best to run it in the morning, when you aren’t using Google Ads.
Report insights
You can now use the report to gain insights. The report only shows the last 30 days.
It’s interesting to note how Google ranks the different types of campaigns.
You can see in the example that this campaign consistently spent 100% of its budget on Shopping ads. Please note that the “Other category” is primarily search ads.
This is a sign that Shopping ads are always the first page results for products in this category.
You can see in the example below that on the same account the campaign displays a majority Shopping ads, with a budget. It also displays search and video.
Test searches can be done to determine if there are consistent Shopping results on the top of SERPs for products from this campaign or if they are more often Search ads. This could explain the lower shopping distribution.
ROAS is another thing that could indicate this. Google will try to change your campaign type if you’re consistently falling short of the target tROAS.
Optimizing from insights
Tests can be run using these predictions and insights!
Try increasing your target ROAS incrementally.
Try decreasing your Target ROAS bidding in the second example to see if you can increase the Shopping Ad Spend Distribution.
I would recommend increasing by increments of only 25-50% in order to avoid a sudden decrease in performance.
You can see in the example that we exceeded our ROAS goal too dramatically during the week of 7 May.
Our performance plummeted, as evidenced by the sharp rise in impressions caused by Video ads.
We were able, using this tool to track daily the allocation and restore our ROAS goal to its original target.
There are tabs that show data by asset and campaign groups.
There are also tabs that show asset performance by:
- Impressions
- Cost
- Conversion Value
The following is a report of Impressions by Asset Group from a campaign that had four asset groups. The In Market/Affinity audience received many more impressions than their counterparts.
The first chart is worth a second look. Is this campaign spending a lot on video or display? Could this explain the high impressions of that asset group?
Check out the asset group chart. The In Market/Affinity campaign has the highest impressions, but also the lowest cost-per-acquisition of any asset group!
Use this information to update audience signaling across other campaigns matching this asset group and do the exact same thing with your assets.
Filling in the gaps with scripts
Learn Google Apps Script and build your own scripts.
There are scripts that can be used to fill in the data gaps as Google takes back control and data from marketers.
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