Google Shopping · focused work
Performance Max for ecommerce
Performance Max serves one campaign across Shopping, Search, Display, YouTube, Discover and Gmail inventory from a product feed and a set of assets. For a store that means the feed is most of the campaign, and the remaining levers are how the catalog is divided, what the campaign is told about the buyer, which traffic is kept out, and what value it is asked to bid toward.
This is the right work if
- The catalog is approved in Merchant Center but nothing separates the products that earn from the ones that do not
- A single campaign carries the whole range and reporting cannot say where the budget went
- Branded searches are being absorbed by the campaign and counted as newly created demand
- Asset groups hold one image, a single set of headlines and no video at all
What it is
What running Performance Max involves
The work starts in Merchant Center, because listing groups in a retail Performance Max campaign are built from feed attributes and the ad that shows is assembled from feed data. Titles, images, identifiers, product type, price and availability all decide what can be matched and shown, so feed work precedes campaign work rather than following it. Once the data is sound, the campaign layer is structure: how many campaigns exist, which slice of the catalog each one holds, what asset groups sit inside them, and which audience signals and search themes describe the person the campaign should find.
The rest is operating it. Budgets and target return figures are set against contribution margin rather than revenue, brand traffic is handled on purpose so prospecting can be read separately, account level negatives keep out the queries a store never wants, and a new customer goal is used where acquisition is the point rather than total sales. Reporting is deliberately built, because the campaign type reports less by default than a Search campaign does: product and listing group reports, asset performance, search category data and the store's own revenue by product all have to be pulled together before anyone can say what the spend did.
How it is done
The work, in order
What changes
- Budget follows product groups that differ in margin instead of spreading across the catalog
- Existing brand demand is separated from prospecting, so the return figure can be trusted
- Every placement the campaign can use has an asset in the right format
- Reporting names the products and asset groups behind the numbers
Prepare the feed first
Correct titles, primary images, brand and identifier fields, product type and price and availability accuracy before any budget moves. Add the custom labels the campaign structure will need, because a slice of the catalog can only be separated later if an attribute already describes it.
Divide the catalog on purpose
Group products by the thing that should change the bid: margin band, price band, seasonality, or the difference between core range and clearance. Give each group its own campaign or asset group so budget and target return can be set independently instead of averaged.
Decide where brand demand goes
Apply brand exclusions or account level negative keywords so searches for the store's own name are handled where you can see them. Keep the decision written down, because a campaign that quietly harvests existing demand will always look more efficient than one finding new buyers.
Build asset groups that can serve everywhere
Supply the full range of headlines, long headlines and descriptions, square and landscape images, a logo and at least one video, since a missing format simply removes placements. Add search themes and audience signals drawn from customer lists and real site behaviour.
Send value, not just conversion counts
Pass purchase value with currency on every conversion, set the target from contribution margin rather than gross revenue, and switch on a new customer goal where the objective is acquisition. Then leave the target alone long enough for the bidding to gather data.
Read what actually ran
Pull the product and listing group reports, asset ratings and search category data each period, and join them to the store's own revenue by item. Move products between groups on evidence, retire assets rated low, and refresh creative on a schedule rather than when performance drops.
Platform notes
Shopify
The Google and YouTube channel supplies the feed and can install conversion tracking, so check that purchase value and currency are sent and that custom labels created in the admin are actually reaching Merchant Center.
WooCommerce
Feed and tag usually come from the Google plugin or a dedicated feed plugin, and where a caching layer sits in front of the store the price and stock in the feed can lag the site unless the export runs against live data.
Can Performance Max and Standard Shopping run for the same products?
They can both exist in an account, but where the same product is eligible in both, Performance Max is served ahead of the Standard Shopping campaign. That makes overlap a decision rather than an accident: either exclude products from one campaign or accept which of them will serve.
How much budget does a retail Performance Max campaign need?
Enough to collect conversions steadily rather than in occasional bursts, which depends entirely on the store's order value and cost per acquisition. A useful test is whether the campaign gathers a meaningful number of conversions inside its conversion window. If it cannot, fewer campaigns is the fix.
Should a store exclude its own brand from the campaign?
Exclude it when you need prospecting measured honestly, or when a separate campaign already covers brand searches at a bid you control. Include it when total efficiency is the only goal and nobody will misread the result. What matters is that somebody chose, and the reporting reflects the choice.
How long should a new campaign run before it is judged?
Give the bidding a settling period measured in weeks, not days, and avoid changing the target during it, because every material edit restarts the process. Judge on conversion volume and value once the daily figures stop swinging, then adjust in small steps.
Related work and answers
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