Upgrade Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max

The majority of Smart Shopping campaigns were upgraded in 2022. Remaining Smart Shopping campaigns will continue to be upgraded to Performance Max in 2023. With Performance Max, you’ll get all of the same foundational features you already have with Smart Shopping campaigns. Plus, you’ll gain access to new inventory and automation insights, all from a single campaign. This article will cover important details about the upgrade, including the timeline, benefits of Performance Max, and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Benefits of Performance Max campaigns

Goals-based campaign type maximizes your marketing objectives across all Google Ads inventory: Include your business goals as the primary target for Performance Max, and let Google Ads automation find your customers wherever they are across Google properties.
Serve on additional Google Ads inventory: Performance Max ads are eligible to serve on YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
Optimal machine learning for stronger performance: Performance Max uses the best of Google Ads machine learning and attribution technology to help deliver better performance.
Unlock time to focus on strategic performance drivers: Simplified campaign management and automation save you time, so you can focus on more strategic and impactful optimizations.
More robust reporting: The Insights report provides the audience and other insights not currently available in Smart Shopping reports.
Equivalent features as Smart Shopping campaigns: Performance Max has equivalent features as Smart Shopping campaigns, plus additional functionality and inventory.

Upgrade details

Upgrade timeline

You’ll be able to upgrade your Smart Shopping campaigns using our self-upgrade tool in Google Ads through June 2023. You’ll be notified in Google Ads once the upgrade tool becomes available to you.

If you choose not to upgrade early, your Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically upgraded starting September 2023. After your campaigns are automatically upgraded, you’ll no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping campaigns.

Your campaign settings, such as goals, budget, bid strategy, creative assets, and product targeting, will automatically transfer to Performance Max. You’ll also be able to add audience signals to speed up the machine learning optimization process.

After the upgrade, we recommend adding additional creative assets, such as text, images, and videos, to your Performance Max campaign to enable serving on additional inventory.

What happens after the upgrade to Performance Max

After you upgrade to Performance Max, your Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically changed to “Removed” status. You won’t be able to edit, reactivate, or copy your Smart Shopping campaigns, but you’ll still have access to the historical data for your Smart Shopping campaigns in your Google Ads account.

Self-upgrade

How to upgrade your Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max

Google Ads Tutorials: How to upgrade your Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max

You can upgrade your Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max directly from the “Campaigns” page, from the “Recommendations” page, or in one click from a notification in your account.

Upgrade from the “Campaigns” page

To upgrade a single campaign, multiple campaigns, or all campaigns in bulk, follow these steps.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
Click Campaigns.
Click the filter icon , then select Attributes.
Select Campaign type, then select Shopping + Campaign subtype: Smart.
Click Apply.
Click the checkbox next to each campaign you want to upgrade, or select the checkbox above the “Campaigns” table to select all campaigns.
Click Edit in the dropdown above the “Campaigns” table.
Select Upgrade to Performance Max.
Click Apply.

To upgrade a single campaign, follow these steps.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
Click Campaigns.
Click the filter icon , then select Attributes.
Select Campaign type, then select Shopping + Campaign subtype: Smart.
Click Apply.
Under “Campaign type”, roll over “Upgrade available”.
In the “Upgrade available” popup, click Apply.
In the next “Upgrade available” popup, click Upgrade to Performance Max.

Upgrade from the “Recommendations” page

To upgrade a single campaign, multiple campaigns, or all campaigns in bulk, follow these steps.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click Recommendations.
Click Apply all in the “Upgrade to Performance Max” recommendation to upgrade all campaigns in one click, or click View Recommendations and click the checkbox next to each campaign you want to upgrade.
In the confirmation modal, click Apply all to confirm.

Upgrade from a notification in Google Ads

To upgrade all campaigns in one click, follow these steps.

In your Google Ads account, click on the notifications icon in the top-right corner.
Click on the “Upgrade campaigns” notification.
In the notification, click Apply.
In the confirmation modal, click Apply all to confirm.

Make sure that your campaigns are eligible for an upgrade

Certain Smart Shopping campaigns may not be eligible for self-upgrade due to features or settings which aren't compatible with Performance Max campaigns. Below is a list of features and settings which may prevent a Smart Shopping campaign from being eligible for upgrade:

Campaigns that have an end date in the past

Your Smart Shopping campaign will not be eligible for upgrade if it has an End date in the past. To ensure your campaigns are successfully upgraded, adjust the end date to be a future date or remove the end date. You can set your campaign to ‘Pause’ if you don't want it to be active before the upgrade has been completed.

Campaigns that have a start date in the future

Your Smart Shopping campaign won't be eligible for upgrade if it has a Start date in the future. To ensure your campaigns are successfully upgraded, adjust the start date to be a current date. You can set your campaign to ‘Pause’ if you don't want it to be active before the upgrade has been completed. Learn how to Set automatic campaign start and end dates.

Campaigns that target a restricted region

Your Smart Shopping campaign won't be eligible for upgrade if the campaign location is currently targeting a restricted country or region or the country of sale is that of a restricted country or region. To ensure your campaigns are successfully upgraded, remove any restricted locations from your campaign settings. Learn more about Understanding Google Ads country restrictions.

Campaigns in suspended accounts

Your Smart Shopping campaign won't be eligible for upgrade if your Google Ads account is suspended. An account can be suspended for different reasons. Learn more About Google Ads account suspensions.

Campaigns in inactive or canceled accounts

Your Smart Shopping campaign won't be eligible for upgrade if your Google Ads account is currently inactive or canceled. Learn how to Reactivate a cancelled Google Ads account.

Campaigns that have an incompatible goal under Performance Max campaigns

Your Smart Shopping campaign won't be eligible for upgrade if your campaign is optimizing towards a goal type which is not supported under Performance Max campaigns. This includes, call-only goals, lead-only and new customer acquisition goals. To ensure your campaigns are successfully upgraded, remove any such goals from your campaign. Learn how to Create a Performance Max campaign.

Campaigns that have no active or paused ad groups

Your Smart Shopping campaign won't be eligible for upgrade if your campaign has no active or paused ad groups. Campaigns with no ad groups will be set to status "Removed".

Failure to make these changes before September will cause your Smart Shopping campaigns to have their statuses automatically changed to “Removed”. You won't be able to edit, reactivate, or copy your Smart Shopping campaigns, but you will still have access to the historical data for your Smart Shopping campaigns in your Google Ads account.

FAQs

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I am using SA360 to manage my Smart Shopping campaigns - do I need to take any additional steps to upgrade my campaigns?

Yes. If you're using SA360 to manage your Smart Shopping campaigns, you would first need to upgrade to the new SA360 experience. You can learn more about the new SA360 experience here. After you've upgraded to the new SA360 experience, you'll become eligible to upgrade your Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max campaigns.

Will all Smart Shopping campaigns be upgraded to Performance Max in 2023?

Smart Shopping campaigns will be upgraded to Performance Max campaigns in 2023. Because certain features available in Smart Shopping campaigns won't be compatible with Performance Max campaigns in 2023, some Smart Shopping campaigns may not be eligible for a self-upgrade or automatic upgrade. Advertisers are encouraged to take action and ensure that their campaigns don't have features or settings which prevent them from being eligible for an upgrade.

When will I be eligible to upgrade my Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max?

You’ll be able to upgrade your Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max through June 2023. Starting September 2023, your Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically upgraded for you.

You’ll no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping campaigns after your existing campaigns are automatically upgraded. The features activated in your Smart Shopping campaign will determine your eligibility to upgrade. If you’re unable to upgrade, no action is needed, and you’ll be notified when upgrade options are available.

How can I view historical data from my Smart Shopping campaign once it's been upgraded to Performance Max?

After you upgrade to Performance Max, your previous Smart Shopping campaigns will be set to “Removed” status and you won’t be able to edit or reactivate these campaigns. However, you can still access your campaigns’ historical data by hovering over the upgraded status of your upgraded Performance Max campaign, by filtering for "Removed" status in the campaigns page of Google Ads, or by clicking View Smart Shopping campaign from your upgraded Performance Max campaign's "Overview" page in the info bar at the top.

Do I have to manually upgrade my Smart Shopping campaigns?

No. You don’t have to manually upgrade your campaign, but your campaigns will eventually be upgraded to Performance Max automatically.

I’m only able to find some campaigns eligible for upgrade and not others. Why is that?

Eligibility for upgrade varies per campaign based on individual campaign feature usage. If you have some campaigns that use a feature that’s not yet eligible for upgrade, you can continue to check back and upgrade when they're eligible. You can upgrade any other eligible campaigns in the meantime.

I’m already using Performance Max and have paused or ended my Smart Shopping campaigns. What will happen to them?

Campaigns that are paused will be eligible for upgrade and eventually auto-upgraded, but kept in the same paused state. This is so you can easily restart your periodic and seasonal campaigns. If you don’t want your campaigns upgraded, you can set them to "Removed" status. Campaigns which have past end dates will be automatically set to “Removed” status.

My campaign was initially eligible for upgrade, but upgrade isn’t an option anymore. Why is that?

Eligibility for upgrade varies per campaign based on campaign feature usage. If you've recently edited your campaign to use a feature that’s not yet eligible, it's possible that your campaign eligibility will change. You can continue to check back to find out when your campaign becomes eligible again.

Will multiple Smart Shopping campaigns be combined into a single Performance Max campaign during the upgrade?

No. Campaigns won’t be combined. A new Performance Max campaign will be created for each Smart Shopping campaign. Your active or paused Smart Shopping campaigns will be set to “Removed” status after they're upgraded. Each new Performance Max campaign will optimize to the same goals as the original Smart Shopping campaigns.

How long will it take for the upgrade to complete?

Depending on how many campaigns you try to upgrade at once, it may take a few minutes or up to a day to complete the upgrade for each campaign. During the upgrade, you won’t be able to make any changes to your Smart Shopping campaign. Your Smart Shopping campaigns will continue running until the upgrade to Performance Max is complete. You’ll receive a notification after the upgrade is complete, or you can check on the status of the upgrade on the “Campaigns” page in your Google Ads account. After your upgrade is complete, your original campaigns will be set to “Removed” status.

How can I check upgrade eligibility and progress for my campaign?

You can check the eligibility and progress of your upgrade from the “Campaign type” column on the “Campaigns” page. You’ll notice one of 4 different message types for each of your Smart Shopping campaigns:

Upgrade available: The upgrade to Performance Max hasn’t yet started. This is informing you of the option to upgrade.
Upgrading to Performance Max: Your campaign is being upgraded to Performance Max and will continue running until the upgrade is complete. Edits to your original campaign won't be reflected in your newly created Performance Max campaign. You’ll be notified when the upgrade is complete.
Upgraded to Performance Max: Your campaign was upgraded to Performance Max. To edit or manage it, go to the Performance Max campaign.
Upgrade failed: If the upgrade to Performance Max is initially unsuccessful, you’ll be shown a failed message. No action is required on your part, and you’ll be notified once the upgrade is successful.

After the upgrade is complete, you’ll notice a new Performance Max campaign in your account, which will have a status of “Upgraded”. If you hover over the status, you’ll have the option to be taken back to the original upgraded Smart Shopping campaign.

How will I know when the upgrade is complete?

If you upgrade to Performance Max is complete, you’ll notice a “Campaigns upgraded” notification. To find the notification, click the notifications icon

in the top-right corner of your Google Ads account. Click on the notification, then click View to go directly to the “Campaigns” page, where you can view the campaigns that are “Performance Max Upgraded”.

How long will it take for my Performance Max campaign to ramp up?

We use learnings from your original Smart Shopping campaigns to minimize the time it takes your Performance Max campaign to ramp up. We recommend waiting 1-2 weeks to judge the performance of your new Performance Max campaign. Actual performance time will depend on many factors, such as whether you've other campaign history in your account, what your conversion goal is, and how many conversions you can get with your daily budget.

Once I’ve upgraded Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max, can I switch it back if I’m not happy with performance?

No. After you upgrade, you won’t be able to switch back.

The migration tool allows you to migrate one campaign at a time or multiple campaigns at once. You can choose to test migration with a few campaigns.

However, if you have multiple Smart Shopping campaigns targeting the same or overlapping products, we strongly recommend you upgrade them all to Performance Max at the same time to not disrupt performance in the remaining Smart Shopping campaigns. Performance Max takes priority over Smart Shopping campaigns with overlapping products. You can check this by going to “All Campaigns”, then the “Products” tab to check which of your Smart Shopping campaigns have overlapping products and should be upgraded at the same time.

Can I upgrade multiple campaigns at one time using bulk edit functionality?

Yes, you can upgrade multiple campaigns at the same time. To do so, select the checkbox next to each eligible Smart Shopping campaign and click the Edit dropdown in the bar above the table. Select Upgrade to Performance Max and then Confirm.

Similar to other bulk edit functionality, if you select campaigns that aren't eligible for upgrade to Performance Max, only those that are eligible will be upgraded. A message might show saying "None of your selected campaigns are eligible for upgrade at this point."

Can I upgrade my Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max into a different account?

This isn’t currently possible. If you have a Google representative, you can contact them to get help from our implementation team to replicate Performance Max campaigns in a different customer ID (and pause the upgraded ones in the original customer ID). However, this may cause your Performance Max campaign to take longer to ramp up and isn’t advised.

How will settings from my original Smart Shopping campaign be mapped to Performance Max campaign settings?

All of your Smart Shopping campaigns settings will automatically transfer to Performance Max with the same or comparable functionality. Differences between Smart Shopping and Performance Max campaigns settings are listed in the table below. A

means that this setting or feature is available and will be migrated with no changes.

Setting	Smart Shopping campaigns	Performance Max
Conversion goals
Campaign type	Smart Shopping	Performance Max
Google Merchant Center
Google My Business	N/A
Locations	N/A
Feeds	N/A
Country of sale
Campaign name		Original campaign name will be appended with “PMax “.
Local products (on/off)		Turned on by default if local inventory is available. You can set an inventory filter for “Channel” using listing groups.
Regional availability and pricing, Show products across multiple countries
Budget
Bid strategy	Maximum conversion value (optional Target ROAS)	Maximum conversion value (optional Target ROAS) Maximum conversions (optional Target CPA)
Geo targeting
Languages	N/A	Language targeting available Formats that use Merchant Center data may expand to all languages supported on the feed.
Ad schedule
Start date, End date	Smart Shopping campaign start date Date of upgrade end date	Date of upgrade start date Smart Shopping campaign end date (if after start date), or Date of upgrade end date
Ad destination (final URL)
Final URL expansion	N/A	Default On (This is the default if the original Smart Shopping campaign subdivides product inventory using listing groups. URL expansion will only send users to relevant landing pages for the selected product inventory.)
Campaign URL options	N/A
Asset group name	N/A
Product groups		Listing groups is the equivalent of product groups.
Ad group	Ad group: One headline One long headline One description Final URL One logo (optional) One landscape image One video One custom HTML5 ad call-to-action (automated)	Asset group:* 3 headlines One long headline 2 descriptions Final URL One logo One landscape image 1-5 videos (optional, may be created automatically for you if not supplied) One HTML5 file Call-to-action (automated) One square image Business name Display path (optional) Tracking template (optional) Final URL suffix (optional) Mobile-specific final URL (optional) *In order for Performance Max to serve maximally across channels, it’s recommended that Smart Shopping campaign advertisers add the assets listed above to their Smart Shopping campaigns before initiating the upgrade to Performance Max. Assets can also be added after the upgrade.
Audience signals	N/A	Positive audience targets in Smart Shopping campaigns will be added as audience signals.
Assets
Seasonality adjustments and Data Exclusions		Campaign level events will be directly carried over to the Performance Max campaign. Events that contain “Shopping” campaign type events will expand to include the “Performance Max” campaign type when the first campaign is upgraded. These Performance Max events will affect all existing campaigns of that type in the account.

Will my Performance Max campaign perform similarly to my Smart Shopping campaigns?

Performance Max campaigns should perform similarly or better than your Smart Shopping campaigns. We recommend waiting 1-2 weeks to judge the performance of your new Performance Max campaign. Actual performance time will depend on many factors, such as whether you've other campaign history in your account, what your conversion goal action is, and how many conversions you can get with your daily budget.

Are there brand new features for Performance Max?

Yes. Performance Max offers new features that aren’t available with Smart Shopping campaigns, which include the following:

Asset groups
Audience signals
Expanded inventory for retail advertisers
Expanded set of goals and new bidding features
Final URL expansion
Insights report

In the table below, you’ll find the additional reach and new features that Performance Max provides.

Campaign type being upgraded

Additional reach with Performance Max

New features with Performance Max

Smart Shopping campaigns

YouTube In-Stream, Text (via DSA), Discover Feed

Goals:

Offline sales only
Lead generation

Bidding:

Audience signals to inform bidding
Maximum conversions (with optional target cost per action) bid strategy

Reporting and insights:

Audience insights

Where do Performance Max campaigns show ads, and what types of ads will be available?

Performance Max campaigns show ads across all Google Ads inventory. Examples include Search results, the “Shopping'' tab on search results, websites, YouTube, feeds on the YouTube homepage and “What to watch next”, Gmail inboxes, and Discover. Types of ads include text ads, image ads, video ads, multi-image carousel ads, and product listing ads.

How will Performance Max interact with other campaign types in my account?

Since Performance Max can serve on all of Google’s inventory, it may overlap with one or more existing campaigns in your account. If this is the case, it will interact with campaigns (for example, a Display campaign) similarly to how existing campaigns that show ads on that inventory would interact. For example, if you add another Display campaign, ad rank will determine which campaign serves the impression to help you achieve a better return on investment (ROI). Assuming these campaigns are in the same account, or the accounts are marked as equivalent (contact support for help with this), the campaigns won’t compete to drive bids higher. Below are additional details about how Performance Max may interact with your other campaign types.

On Search, for campaigns eligible for the same auctions, Performance Max will be selected based on ad rank.
A Search campaign with a keyword that exactly matches or is spell-corrected to the user query will be preferred over Performance Max (for example, if the search term is "plumbrs", and your account includes the exact match keyword [plumbers] and the broad match keyword plumbrs, then the exact match keyword is preferred). If there are no keywords that exactly match the user query across keyword match types, the campaign with the higher ad rank will serve. Learn more About similar keywords in a Google Ads account.
Performance Max doesn’t cover Hotel campaign inventory (Hotel ads and property promotion ads).
Performance Max doesn’t support App installs as a goal, so we recommend that you continue to run App campaigns for install.
Performance Max will be prioritized over Smart Shopping campaigns, standard Shopping campaigns, and Display campaigns with a Merchant Center feed in your account if they’re targeting the same product inventory. Learn more about Performance Max.

Why are impressions and conversions not showing up in my migrated Performance Max campaign?

You may notice a 1-2 hour delay between when your campaign is migrated and when performance statistics start populating in your Performance Max campaign. During this period, statistics will continue to populate in the original Smart Shopping campaign.

Can I still run regular shopping campaigns?

Yes. You’ll still be able to run regular shopping campaigns after this upgrade, and existing regular shopping campaigns in your account won’t be upgraded.

Do I have to upload assets in my Performance Max campaign for online sales with a product feed?

No assets are required to launch a retail Performance Max campaign (as long as you add your Google Merchant Center account). However, additional creative assets will allow your campaign to serve on all available Performance Max inventory and improve your campaign’s performance. Therefore, we recommend adding creatives to your Performance Max asset groups once your Smart Shopping campaign upgrade is completed.

Some assets (such as video) may be generated automatically if you don’t provide them in your Performance Max campaign.

Can I prevent my Performance Max campaign from serving on a specific channel, or exclude placements?

No. Currently, you can’t choose which channels your Performance Max campaign will serve on. Performance Max will continuously optimize based on achieved performance to bring you the best possible performance across all channels.

How will this upgrade affect application programming interface (API) users?

Campaigns created or modified via API will be migrated along with all other campaigns.

What if I had higher limits for the number of Smart Shopping campaigns and/or product groups in my account?

If your account had a higher allowed limit of Smart Shopping campaigns or product groups within your Smart Shopping campaign, you will have the same limits for Performance Max.

What happens if my upgrade fails?

We expect these cases to be rare, but should your upgrade fail we will continue to retry and will notify you once your campaign is successfully upgrade or if additional action is needed on your side. Your existing campaign should continue to serve as usual until the upgrade is successful.

I'm using a third party to manage my campaigns. What steps should I take to upgrade my campaigns?

If you're using a third-party platform to manage your campaigns, you'll be informed directly by your provider about the upgrade timeline and required actions, if any.

Can I make changes to my campaign after my upgrade is in progress?

No. After your upgrade has started, any changes made to the original Smart Shopping campaign will not be reflected in the newly created Performance Max campaign. Make any desired changes in the Performance Max campaign directly after it's been upgraded successfully, or before clicking to upgrade.

What geotargeting settings will be available in Performance Max?

When creating a Performance Max campaign, you can specify or exclude locations based on country, city/state, and other geo settings like radius distance around a ZIP code. A new setting is coming to Performance Max settings (after a campaign is set up) to indicate whether you want to target users who are located in a specific geo ("Presence") or also those who have expressed interest in it ("Presence or Interest").

Customers with a Google Merchant Center attached to their campaign will also be able to exclude targeting users based on "Presence" or "Presence or Interest" to achieve parity with what was available for Smart Shopping campaigns.