Stop Making This MISTAKE with Performance Max Asset Groups

Since the introduction of performance max campaigns, so called Google Ads experts have been rushing to share their strategies for success on YouTube. But the problem is no one has tested these strategies for the long term. So we don't know whether they are just a thought bubble that has got a little bit of success for a couple of weeks, only to see the performance in the performance max campaigns drop significantly because the strategies which they are saying are successful just work at all. And there has been one strategy in particular in regards to performance max campaigns, which I've never understood and to be honest is just plain wrong. And over the past couple of months, I've been receiving a regular stream of emails of people reaching out and asking me to have a look at their performance max campaigns. And for the ones that I do have a look at, they all have one thing in common and that is that they're using the same strategy which is being pushed around on YouTube right now. They see a little uptick in results and then the performance of their campaigns drops away as quickly as they saw that little bit of success. And the One problem with YouTube is that especially in this space is that someone will share an idea which they think will work. Someone else will then copy that idea and then share it again, and then someone else comes along, copies that idea from the person that they copied the idea from, and then it just keeps growing and growing and growing until it becomes an accepted trend and kind of like an industry standard in something like Google Ads. And this makes it so hard for you, the user, when you're coming to YouTube to try and find answers, that you're just getting recycled strategies that don't have any real results behind them. So today I'm going to go on the hunt and I'm going to shoot down one of the biggest incorrect strategies that has been pushed around on YouTube at the moment for performance max campaigns. And the strategy that you need to stop using with your performance max campaigns is by creating multiple asset groups based around audiences and keywords. And this is where you're targeting the same collection of products and in multiple asset groups in the same campaign, with the only difference being that those asset groups have a different collection of keywords or websites or audiences. So the strategy goes like this is that you have a campaign which targets the same products or group of products. You then have an asset group targeting those products based on keyword search terms. You then have another asset group targeting those same products, but this time it's targeting competitors websites. And then you have another asset group which once again is targeting those same products, but this time you're targeting a different group of audiences. And then once you see some results start to roll in, you look to find the best performing audiences. And then you recreate another asset group once again targeting those same group of products. Now, the strategy may have been rolled out in different ways, but that is the core strategy that a lot of people are sharing around about performance max campaigns and how to set your asset groups. And let me make it very clear for why this strategy was will not work. And that's because Google says this. When you go through and set up an asset group, they give a big clear green box which says that Google will go beyond your selections to find more conversions. And let's take a look at that. And this is the section I'm talking about here. When you've gone through and set up your audience signal, you need to take note of this big green notice which says that your audience signal has been added. Performance max will go beyond your selections to find new conversions based on your goals. So please don't waste your time setting up these multiple asset groups targeting different bunches of keywords and different audiences that are all focused on the same group of products. Because you're just wasting your time. Because you can go through and set up all of those different asset groups. But remember, Google is saying very, very clearly that it will go beyond your selections to find the best converting traffic. So even if you set up an asset group which only has keywords and no audiences in it, you, Google will still assign audiences to that asset group. And that is the way that the performance max campaigns work. You only just need to have a look at any performance max campaigns that have been upgraded from smart shopping campaigns. And you can see that Google is automating in there the different audiences to target. So you're just wasting your time setting up different asset groups which are targeting the same products that only have the difference of you entering in some different keywords or custom segments to your asset groups. Because what will end up happening is the same thing that happened in smart shopping campaigns where you will have a small percentage of your products taking all of the spend. And that happens in performance max campaigns where a small percentage of your asset groups will take up the majority of your spend and then you're left looking at the wrong data because you're seeing that an asset group is underperforming and you think that that's aligned to the audiences. Whereas that is not 100% the case because the asset group which is performing the best may also targeting those same audiences in another asset group. It's just that you're not getting that data. And if you don't believe me, don't just take my word for it. Let's go and have a look at what Google says about this trend. And you have to remember that not only did Google create performance max campaigns, but they also are the only ones who know exactly how the algorithm and the automated learning works, which the performance max campaign types are based upon. So if you're going against what they are recommending, and you're not only arguing with me, but you're arguing with the creator of performance max campaigns, so good luck to you. Right now, we're on the Google Ads website, looking at their particular blog page where they've released information on how asset groups work. And if you scroll down, it gives some initial information about the text specifications, image and video specifications. But then there's this little section in here which says group asset groups by similar themes and audiences. And that seems to back up this strategy of what people have been pushing. And then it says this first line here. Many advertisers find it helpful to base their asset groups on the sections, categories or themes that appear on their website. But then they clarify this statement by saying it's recommended to base your asset groups on the sections or categories of the products that appear on your website. So in the documentation that Google has released about their recommendations for how you should set up your performance max campaigns, they make it very clear that asset groups should be based on products, not on different audiences and keywords. The reason for that is because Google will be using that product data to generate its own list of keywords and audiences to target. So when you're adding in your audience signal, you need to see it that this is not you telling Google what to do. This is you giving Google a little nudge or a little recommendation. But Google come over the top of that and say, regardless of the information you give us, we're still going to go beyond these selections. So given now that we know that you should no longer be setting up asset groups based on different keywords or different audiences, what should you be basing your asset groups on? They should be based on individual groups of products. And the reason for that is because one of the great features with performance max campaigns is that inside of those asset groups, you can tailor them to a small section of products. And then further than that, you can create specific ad copy images and YouTube videos which relate to that individual product. Say, for example, you're a women's fitness brand and you're selling different versions of women's tights, you could have a performance Max campaign based around running tights, but then when you go into those different asset groups, you could have an asset group that was based around 3/4 Capri running pants and then another asset group based around shorter running shorts and then another one based around full length running tights. So you can see it's still the same product category, but then you're using the individual different asset groups to then give specific ad copy and also images and YouTube videos which relate back to that individual product. And the reason for why this is possible is because not only can you create individual assets for those asset groups, but inside that asset group Google gives the ability to set up an individual listing group. So a list of individual products which are not targeted in other asset groups. Now we do know with the URL expansion that there will be some bleed over between those asset groups. But if someone is giving a specific search for Capri or three quarter length running tights, it is much more likely that they will be served those individual images and ad copy that you've set in the asset group targeting that group of products. So now that we know the strategy that you should be using for your asset groups in your performance max campaigns, let me show you an overview of what your campaign should be looking like. Now, inside your individual performance max campaign you should have your individual asset groups. And once again, these need to be based on individual groups of products. And then from there you have your product or your listing groups with Google assigning the keywords or you can add those in as well. And then you've got your individual individual ad copies and your images and your videos falling underneath each of these asset groups. So using that example I gave before, this campaign for performance max may be based on women's tights. You then might have two core different versions of women's tights. So you might have a three quarter length or Capri version and then a full length version so they fit under the same campaign. But you've got an asset group for three quarter length or Capri and then you've got another asset group for full length women's tights and those listing groups. So you've got your three quarters only in here and your full in this one with the assigned keywords and the ones that you enter in falling underneath. And then you can also add in those individual ad copies, images and videos relating to those individual asset groups or products. And what I want to show you right now is what happened when we changed over a performance max campaign from it having multiple asset groups targeting the same products, just with those different keyword features and audiences to one where we had it now, where we actually broke it out into separate performance max campaigns, then created new asset groups which were only focused on those related subcategories of the main category product. And the reason for why there's a difference between September through to June is because this client was fast seeing reducing results in their performance max campaign. So when they had come to us, they'd actually stopped their performance max campaigns. We then restructured and restarted them and you can see that we got immediate results with conversion value cost increasing by over 30% within nearly halved their cost per conversion. And we've got that conversion rate up above average 5% for a performance max campaign. And you can see as well we got that click through ratio nearly up to one and a half. So on all of these core metrics we saw an instant increase in results because we restructured this performance max campaign to be using the correct structure. So if you really want to see success with your performance max campaigns, I want you to right now go review your performance max campaigns to make sure that your asset groups are based on different sets of products and they've got assigned listing groups with different products that then has individualized ad copy images and videos targeting and relating those products that you have in your listing groups. And to help you with this and to make sure that you've got your performance max campaigns set up correctly, all you need to do is to follow the link in the description below and you can get free access to my Performance Max setup guide right now. Once again, thank you for joining me. My name is Aaron Young from Define Digital Academy and I'm your 15,000 hour Google Ads Master. It's been my pleasure to teach you and so that you can stay up to date for whenever I release a new video where make sure you subscribe and also turn on that notification bell. And if you would like to know more about how to optimize your performance max campaigns, just go through and watch this video right here. See ya.