In Standard Shopping campaign versus Performance Max experiments, you can compare one of your existing standard Shopping campaigns against another existing or brand new Performance Max campaign with similar settings. This comparison can help you determine which campaign type drives better results for your business.
Learn more About Performance Max experiments.
On this page
- Create a campaign for me
- Create a campaign manually
- Select existing campaign
- Review or edit a campaign comparable to an existing Performance Max campaign
To set up the experiment, follow the steps outlined below:
- Go to Experiments within the Campaigns menu
.
- Select the plus button
.
- Under âWhat do you want to test?â, select the Campaign types card.
- Under âChoose a variable to testâ, select the Performance Max vs Search, Display, or Shopping card.
- Under âCampaign typeâ, select Shopping.
- Alternatively, you can also go to Performance Max Experiments, and select the plus button
- Click Select campaign.
- Select a Standard Shopping campaign thatâs not part of an existing experiment.
- Select Next.
- From the âTraffic splitâ section, select the traffic split percentage as âTreatment groupâ and âControl groupâ.
Create a campaign for me
Note: The option to create a new campaign automatically may not be available if the selected Shopping campaign has:
- More than 100 ad groups
- An ad group with more than 1000 product groups
- Select Create campaign for me.
- Click the metric to test under âWhat do you want to focus on?â drop down to optimize for either max conversions or conversion value.
- If you intend to optimize for max conversions, select Conversions from the drop down menu. You can also click the "Set a target cost per actionâ check box to indicate your Target CPA.
- If you intend to optimize for conversion value, select Conversion value from the drop down menu. You also have an option to click the âSet a target return on ad spendâ checkbox to indicate your Target ROAS. Ensure that you set the same Target ROAS as the one in the standard Shopping campaign that youâre testing against.
- Select Next.
- Set the "Start date" and "End date" for the experiment under "Experiment dates".
- Give your experiment a name by entering text in the âExperiment nameâ field.
- Select Schedule.
Create a campaign manually
- Select Create campaign manually.
- Under âChoose your objectiveâ, select your campaign objective.
- If you select âSalesâ as your objective, youâll have to select whether youâll be sending your traffic to your own website or a partnerâs website.
- Review your conversion goals and if required, remove goals by clicking on the 3-dot icon. If you want to add more goals, select Add goal, then select Continue.
- Add your campaign name and select Continue.
- A recommended budget will populate the âBiddingâ section based on the standard Shopping campaign's budget and the traffic split percentage chosen.
- Select whether you want to optimize Performance Max towards Conversion value or Conversions.
- Set an optional target return on ad spend or uncheck the box above if you donât want to set a target return on ad spend, then select Next.
- Note: We recommend you set the same target return on ad spend as the one in the standard Shopping campaign you'll be testing against.
- Under âCustomer acquisitionâ, you can click the âAdjust your bidding to help you gain new customersâ checkbox, then select the "Only bid for new customersâ option if you want to refine your target audience, regardless of bid strategy. Learn more About the new customer acquisition goal.
- Note: To bid for new customers, you'll need to include an audience segment with at least 1,000 active members in at least one network.
- Configure your campaign settings.
- Under âLocationsâ, select a target location.
- Under âLanguagesâ, you can select specific languages or select the âAll languagesâ checkbox.
- Select a start date and an optional end date. If you choose to have an end date, the end date will automatically be set to 12 weeks from the selected start date.
- Select More settings to adjust âAd scheduleâ and âCampaign URL optionsâ.
- Select Next to set up your asset group.
- Add asset group name, assets, and audience signal. Under âAssetsâ, set the âFinal URL expansionâ, then click Next. Itâs recommended to keep âFinal URL expansionâ on to view maximum performance benefits from your Performance Max campaign.
- Set any required assets by setting up âCall assetsâ, âLoad form assetsâ, and âSitelink assetsâ. Select Next.
- Review the summary of your experiment and click Publish campaign when ready.
- After publishing your campaign, youâll be taken back to the page where you set up the experiment. Scroll down and click Next.
- Review your experiment settings again then select Schedule.
Select existing campaign
- Click Select existing campaign from the list of available Performance Max campaigns. Click the pencil icon
to reselect your campaign.
- Select Next.
- Set the "Start date" and "End date" for the experiment under "Experiment dates".
- Give your experiment a name by entering the text in the âExperiment nameâ field.
- Select Schedule.
Review or edit a campaign comparable to an existing Performance Max campaign
By default, comparable campaigns are excluded from reporting. Your Report page wonât show comparable Performance Max campaigns unless you enable comparable campaign reporting in Google Ads.
During the experiment, youâll need to manually edit comparable campaigns, otherwise Google will choose the comparable campaigns for you. After the experiment has ended, youâll be unable to add or remove your comparable campaigns.
- View results alongside comparable campaigns: To determine how your experiment performs compared to similar campaigns, enable the "View Results with Comparable Campaigns" toggle in Google Ads reporting.
- Edit comparable campaigns (until experiment ends): You have complete control over which campaigns are considered "comparable" throughout the experiment. Simply edit your selections within your Performance Max experiments. If you don't manually choose comparable campaigns, Google will automatically select them for you. When the experiment ends, you won't be able to add or remove comparable campaigns from the results.
It will take one day after the experiment starts to populate the list of comparable campaigns that were automatically chosen for the experiment. After the list is populated, youâll get an option to edit the comparable campaign list, and add or remove any campaigns from your experiment. You can make these changes until the experiment concludes. Learn more about comparable campaigns.
