Performance Max: Channel Performance Reporting

Performance Max: Enhanced Reporting for Better Campaign Insights

Google’s Performance Max is set to introduce new reporting features in 2024, providing advertisers with deeper insights into channel performance, search terms, and asset effectiveness. This update aims to enhance campaign optimization by leveraging Google’s channels and AI within a single campaign. Over one million advertisers are already utilizing Performance Max, and the upcoming changes promise to improve conversions and conversion value by over 10%.

The new features include channel-level reporting, full search terms reporting, and more detailed asset reporting. These updates will offer advertisers greater visibility into their campaign performance and provide actionable data to optimize their strategies. The open beta for channel performance reporting will begin in a few weeks, with more details to be shared at Google Marketing Live on May 21.

Channel Performance Reporting: A Closer Look

Channel performance reporting is designed to help advertisers understand how their Performance Max campaigns are performing across Google’s various channels and inventory. The new "Channel performance" page will provide a campaign-level performance summary and data visualizations to highlight which channels are driving customer engagement and contributing to conversion goals.

For instance, a home and garden retailer might discover that their YouTube ads are performing exceptionally well. With this insight, they can invest in additional video assets to drive more conversions. The page will also feature placement reports that delve into Display and YouTube results, allowing advertisers to see how their channels perform against their conversion goals. By clicking into a specific channel, advertisers can gain deeper insights and identify areas for improvement.

The channel distribution table offers a granular view of Performance Max results, including metrics such as clicks, conversions, and cost. This data is downloadable, enabling advertisers to share and analyze it further. The table provides a detailed breakdown of metrics for all channels, including Search, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Display Network, Search partners, and Maps. Additionally, format-level breakdowns are available, offering insights into video ads and ads with product feeds.

Diagnostics and Optimization

Diagnostics will play a crucial role in helping advertisers identify potential issues on specific channels. For example, a business might find that they are not serving ads on Maps due to missing store locations or that their Search performance is limited by irrelevant landing pages. By addressing these issues, such as activating the final URL expansion feature and using Google AI to choose better-matching landing pages, advertisers can significantly improve their campaign performance.

It is essential for advertisers to balance overall Performance Max results with specific channel performance. Performance Max focuses on achieving main conversion goals by constantly evaluating all channels to find the most valuable conversions in real time. Since customers are not tied to a single channel as they search, shop, scroll, and stream, the "best" channel for a customer may vary depending on the context.

Additional Reporting Features

Search terms reporting is now rolling out, providing the same level of granularity as existing search terms insights. Advertisers can use this information to create new text assets tailored to their highest-performing search terms. If certain search terms are not relevant to their business, they can apply campaign-level negative keywords or brand exclusions while monitoring their performance to ensure they are not limiting their reach.

Asset-level reporting will show which assets are driving the most conversions for a business. Metrics such as impressions, clicks, and cost will be added to provide a comprehensive view of asset performance. This reporting will extend beyond Performance Max to Search and Display campaigns, helping advertisers understand which asset types and themes are most effective. New metrics like clicks, cost, impressions, conversion value/cost, average CPC, and more will be included in asset reporting.

Register and watch Google Marketing Live on May 21 to stay updated on the latest news and developments in Performance Max reporting.