After months of anticipation Google finally delivered long-awaited improvements to its Performance Max (PMax) reporting capabilities.
It would be fair to say that when PMax first launched in November 2021 there was frustration from many marketers (including myself) about its ‘black box’ nature. We expected more.
Which is no doubt why, over the last couple of years, Google released a plethora of updates, including brand exclusion, search terms and asset-level reporting and negative keywords. But these enhancements didn’t go far enough. Advertisers and agencies running PMax campaigns still had very limited visibility as to where their impressions were being served, which isn’t the ideal formula for clear and transparent measurement and reporting.
It also raised the question: How could PMax achieve its ambition to help agencies and advertisers ‘drive better results across all Google ad channels and inventory’, especially if it wasn’t one hundred per cent accurate? That is, apparently, until now. After months of waiting, the improvements to PMax reporting are finally available.
I am going to be fair here — the new placement report for PMax is a step in the right direction. It finally offers a basic view into what’s really happening inside the ‘black box’.
PMax now provides advertisers and their agencies with unprecedented visibility into campaign performance across channels. This allows marketers to begin identifying which placements are driving performance, enabling them to make more informed decisions by, for example, optimising Google Ad campaigns to ensure they are performing as they should, and driving as much return on Ad spend (ROAS) as is humanly, or technically, possible.
The PMax updates have also enabled more advanced advertisers and agencies to go further. By using custom scripts — such as the one developed by Mike Rhodes — they’ve been able to extract even more granular PMax placement data.
But there are still niggles that need to be ironed out.
While the new tools are extremely helpful, they still rely on Google’s data-driven attribution model. This means advertisers are unable to isolate true impact, making it difficult to take action that will genuinely improve results. Which is why a number of savvy agencies are adapting PMax to suit their and their clients’ specific measurement and reporting needs. They are feeding granular placement data into Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM), to measure the true incrementality of each PMax placement.
By offering a complete 360-degree view of performance, this goes far beyond what native reporting or scripts can offer. For example, it can uncover invaluable patterns, such as for ecommerce, where shopping and search typically drive the highest incremental value; or how Google Network Display (GDN) and YouTube can be used in lead generation to deliver surprisingly incremental results.
Actionable strategies can then be developed and implemented based on this ad placement performance.
This allows agencies and advertisers to make better informed and evidence-based decisions, which will have a positive impact on ad performance and, ultimately, brand growth.
For example: testing new creative, switching to feed-only campaigns, or reallocating budget where it will deliver the greatest return. Or if YouTube spend is limited, then advertisers and agencies can check their video assets (16:9 format is essential). Their target CPA/ROAS may be too restrictive for upper-funnel placements. Where GDN shows strong results for demand generations, additional asset groups can be created with fresh creative.
And if shopping placements are underperforming, an audit of the product feed quality can be undertaken, with a focus on improving product titles, descriptions, and imagery, alongside ensuring a competitive pricing structure. And let’s not forget about search performance analysis. Strong search? Great! Especially if using broad matches in standard campaigns. But a weak search? That requires a clean up of search terms, and for the agency and advertiser to consider dedicated competitor campaigns.
Of course, it’s important to note that there’s no universal solution. Each business requires a customised approach. This is the most advanced PMax optimisation available today, but I’d argue this is what Google should be providing to agencies and advertisers.
I applaud the enhancements Google has made already. They are a step (if a slightly tardy one) in the right direction for accurate, meaningful and timely reporting. However, PMax does need to offer more advanced reporting capabilities for it to be truly attractive. What’s missing is:
- Brand versus non-brand reporting — to enable performance breakdowns to manage brand bidding within PMax, and avoid non-incremental spend
- DSA (dynamic search ads) transparency for visibility into DSA volume, and performance within PMax to compare with standard search DSA
- Placement insights that would improve visibility and control over placements beyond the ‘Google owned & operated’ category
- Providing YouTube ad format performance breakdown (Shorts, in-stream, in-feed) for better creative optimisation
- Audience signals reporting on prospecting versus re-targeting performance, as well as ad copy reporting to identify top-converting headlines and descriptions directly in Google Ads, not just via scripts.
Maybe I’m asking too much, but these updates need to continue. This is really only the beginning of a journey.
If PMax is going to offer a level of measurement that’s needed by advertisers and digital marketers across sectors, then further enhancements are not a nice to have, they are vital.
Featured image: Milad Fakurian / Unsplash
