Google to move Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max

Google this week announced that all Smart Shopping and Local campaigns in Google Ads will move to Performance Max, from July through September.

Performance Max campaigns buy ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign. Google says these campaigns complement the keyword-based search campaigns.

According to Google, advertisers will no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping and Local campaigns once the existing campaigns are automatically moved.

Google is launching a “one-click” tool in Google Ads to move the Smart Shopping campaigns and the Local campaigns to Performance Max before this period. The launch of the “one-click” tool in Google Ads will happen in April for Shopping campaigns, and in June for Local campaigns.

Google recommends advertisers to wait to upgrade the existing Smart Shopping campaigns until the upgrade tool becomes available, in order that advertisers avoid overlapping targeting.

Google says that learnings from the existing campaigns will be used in the new Performance Max campaigns to ensure consistent performance.

According to Google, with Performance Max campaigns, advertisers get the same foundational features of Smart Shopping and Local campaigns while accessing brand new inventory and formats across YouTube, Search text ads and Discover.

From early testing, advertisers who moved the Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max see an average increase of 12% in conversion value at the same or better return-on-ad-spend (ROAS).

Google says it needs 2-3 days to reach the online sales or omnichannel goals and 3-4 weeks for campaigns with offline-only goals.