ormance Max for Business to Business: Four best practices

Google pushed ecommerce marketers to Performance Maximum campaigns in 2022. They removed Smart Shopping and Local campaigns and replaced them with fewer levers and more AI driven results.

In a column I wrote about Google’s 2022 biggest moves, the majority of search marketers are not happy with this direction. More controls give good marketers more freedom to compete against their peers and give their brands a competitive edge.

The move to Performance Max didn’t have a significant impact on B2B marketers, as their existing campaign structures were not changed by Google.

It’s not difficult to see that the signs are there. Google is making big moves toward machine learning and AI. Performance Max could be the future of Google search.

How should B2B marketers approach Performance Max as we enter the year 2023?

Planning to fail might mean you are not planning.

If I was a gambler, I would bet some money that Google will steer B2B campaigns towards Performance Max in the coming year.

Marketers who take the time to learn all the details will be able to gain an advantage when Google removes other campaign options.

I recommend that you test Performance Max as soon as possible if your search campaigns are capable of doing so.

These are the conditions that I highly recommend before you spend any money on testing.

• To justify moving some discretionary funds to Performance Max, you must have fully funded search campaigns. This means you have identified and developed all relevant keyword themes, and gained solid market share. This means that even if you don’t have the budget to test Performance Max campaigns, you shouldn’t let your search opportunities go unexplored.
• You account has plenty of search data that converts to conversion data.
• You must have offline conversion data that can be synced to your account for reasons we’ll discuss in a moment.
• You must have a rich, diverse audience list and a clear definition of your ICP in order to engage the right people.

You’re fine if you meet these conditions. I’ll explain some caveats and best practice here.

1. Stay skeptical

Performance Max delivers your ads wherever you are: Discover, Gmail and Maps.

You are using automatic bidding, and you trust that Google’s algorithm will detect valuable levels of intent.

Google’s algorithm is still in its learning phase, but it has a history of optimizing for efficiency over spend.

You can use Performance Max to force the algorithm to do what you want.

2. Make sure you have your first-party data prepared

Performance Max campaigns require CRM data for two reasons. These are audience quality and offline converts.

Let’s start with offline conversions. We’ll fail if we rely only on pixels that fire off leads as Performance Max signals,

Take a look at the lead spam that most B2B campaigns must sort through and then realize that Performance Max will follow the path of least resistance in order to achieve the desired action.

Performance Max will not integrate a layer of CRM data without telling it to optimize towards MQLs and SQLs.

Performance Max will use the signals you provide to locate the right audience members. Signals could include audience lists such as current customers or closed/won opportunities.

Like Similar Audiences Performance Max is not restricted to the audience lists that you provide Google. You might find it a bit more broad than Similar Audiences due to its coverage of GDN, Gmail and YouTube.

Make sure you have a good list and that Performance Max can easily read them.

What does this mean? Google doesn’t have a lot of B2B targeting built in, so avoid using their audiences. Give it enough volume and clarity to use.

3. Experiment

Keep in mind that experiments can be done when approaching Performance Max setup.

However, you can only see campaign results at the campaign level. To find out which campaign is more effective, I recommend at least two Performance Max campaigns that rely on different audience signals.

Note – To make this two-experiment setup possible, you will need to have enough money to allow for clear and concrete results.

4. Learn about reporting and then act quickly on the results

Custom Columns is one of Google’s best releases in 2022. It allows advertisers to see offline conversions at campaign level even for Performance Max campaigns.

Performance Max reporting is different from the usual ad-group-level reporting. It breaks down everything into asset categories, giving a view of all assets and possible combinations.

We found that the campaign-level view was most useful. Therefore, I recommend at least two campaigns-level experiments.

To improve efficiency, once you are comfortable with the reporting structure, pay attention to quality and potential negatives.

B2B: Making Performance Max work

Performance Max has not yet been able to make the product useful for lead generation or B2B.

Keep an eye on quality and results, and use any levers you have to ensure that Google is focused on the best possible user. Set clear goals and standards that will guide you when to pull the plug.

Performance Max is a pleasant surprise that will allow you to access more valuable users for a reasonable CPL.

However, even the worst case scenario with no spend will provide valuable insight into the future of Google B2B.

The post Performance Maximum for B2B: Four best practices was first published on Search Engine Land.