Performance Max Campaigns vs Smart Shopping

Are you trying to decide between a performance max campaign and smart shopping for your online ad strategy? Both offer great advantages and can be effective in driving business, but which is right for you? This blog post will help you compare the two options and determine which is best for your needs.

What is Performance Max?

Performance Max is a goal-based campaign type that allows businesses to access all of their Google Ads inventory from a single campaign. It combines different ad formats, helping them to achieve greater reach with minimum effort. Performance Max also uses Google’s automation to help advertisers reach shoppers as they browse for things they love. As opposed to Smart Shopping, Performance Max is based on establishing goals and targets, and bidding is totally automated.

What is Smart Shopping?

Smart Shopping is a campaign type within Google Ads that uses automated bidding to maximize conversions and revenue. It combines the power of Shopping Ads and Display Ads to reach shoppers across different channels and devices. Smart Shopping campaigns use machine learning and data-driven insights to optimize bids, audiences, and budgets automatically. With Smart Shopping, you can set a target return on ad spend (ROAS) and the campaign will adjust bids and budgets to meet that goal.

How Does Performance Max Compare to Smart Shopping?

Performance Max is set to replace Google Smart Shopping in early 2023. offering a more comprehensive range of ad formats, automated optimization, and higher returns. On the one hand, Performance Max Campaigns combine different ad formats such as Search, 3P Display, O&O Display including Gmail and Youtube, Maps and Discover. This helps you achieve greater reach with minimum effort. On the other hand, Performance Max uses Smart Bidding to automatically optimize performance in real-time and across channels, and businesses can set their own target return on investment. During Beta testing, retail advertisers noticed an average increase of 12% in conversion value when upgrading Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max. As such, businesses should expect similar or better performance from their Performance Max campaigns.

Google Ads Replacing Smart Shopping with Performance Max

Google Ads is set to replace Smart Shopping with Performance Max in early 2023. Performance Max is a goal-based campaign type that offers greater reach and automation than Smart Shopping. It combines different ad formats and uses Smart Bidding to automatically optimize performance in real-time across channels. Performance Max also unlocks all of Google’s ad inventory from a single campaign, with a priority over Smart and Standard Shopping campaigns.

Performance Max Coverage

Performance Max Coverage extends to Search, 3P Display, O&O Display, Gmail, YouTube and Discover. Additionally, Performance Max has extended to Maps, unlike Smart Shopping. Moreover, Performance Max offers more insights into which “search themes” are being triggered by the campaigns than Smart Shopping. This allows Performance Max campaigns to be optimized to one or more goals such as online and in-store conversions from a single campaign. Retail advertisers using Performance Max have reported an average 12% increase in conversion value at the same or better return on ad spend (ROAS). As a result, businesses should take advantage of this opportunity and test Performance Max campaigns before the change occurs next year.

Performance Max Automation

Performance Max makes use of Google’s automation to help businesses reach customers more efficiently, by bidding on the right audience at the right time and in the right context. With Smart Bidding, automated bid adjustments are made in real-time to optimize performance across channels. Additionally, businesses can set their own target return on ad spend (ROAS) to ensure they stay within their budget.

Priority of Performance Max Over Smart and Standard Shopping

Performance Max will take priority over Smart & Standard Shopping campaigns for the same products, as Google Ads is replacing Smart Shopping with Performance Max. This provides businesses with greater reach and more insights into the “search themes” that are triggered by their campaigns. Additionally, Performance Max offers automated bidding and data on products and prices directly from the merchant’s website, allowing businesses to increase conversions with minimal effort. With these advantages, Performance Max is an ideal solution for retailers to maximize their ROAS and conversion value.

How to Optimize PMax and Smart Shopping Campaigns with Adsbot?

Adsbot is a next-generation analytics software that provides a single dashboard and complicated analysis simplified. With Adsbot, it is easier to analyze campaign performances, including Performance Max and Smart Shopping Campaigns. You can analyze your data in a simple way with custom reports built into a single dashboard. Quality score analysis, day time analysis, and match type breakdown analysis will give you a comprehensive analysis of your account. You will make more informed business decisions. KPI tracking helps you track your KPI in a simple way ,focus on what matters for you and show how close you are to your target. Try Adsbot now, start your free trial and optimize account in minutes!