Most Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will be upgraded to Performance Max in 2022. With Performance Max, you’ll get all of the same foundational features you already have with Smart Shopping and Local 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.
- Increase conversions: Retail advertisers using Performance Max have an average 12% increase in conversion value at the same or better return on ad spend (ROAS) when upgrading from Smart Shopping campaigns. Advertisers with an offline-only conversion goal will have comparable performance with their Local campaigns.
- More robust reporting: The Insights report provides audience and other insights not currently available in Smart Shopping and Local campaigns reports.
- Equivalent features as Smart Shopping and Local campaigns: Performance Max has equivalent features as Smart Shopping and Local 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 starting in April. You’ll be able to upgrade your Local campaigns starting in July or August. The tool gives you options to upgrade specific campaigns or all of your campaigns at once. You’ll be notified in Google Ads once the upgrade tool becomes available to you.
If you choose not to upgrade early, most Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically upgraded between July and September, and your Local campaigns will be automatically upgraded between August and September. Once your campaigns are automatically upgraded, you’ll no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping or Local 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 or Local campaigns will be automatically changed to “Removed” status. You won’t be able to edit or reactivate your Smart Shopping or Local campaigns, but you’ll still have access to the historical data for your Smart Shopping or Local campaigns in your Google Ads account.
Self-upgrade
How to upgrade your Smart Shopping or Local campaigns to Performance Max
Google Ads Tutorials: How to upgrade your Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max
Upgrade from the “Campaigns” page
- 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 Local (or 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.
, then select Attributes.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
- Select Campaign type, then select Local (or 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
- 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
- In the confirmation modal, click Apply all to confirm.
Upgrade from a notification in Google Ads
- 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.
Automatic upgrade
Advertisers will have access to the 1-click self-upgrade tool for approximately 1—2 months before their campaigns are auto-upgraded. Advertisers will be notified when they have access to the self-upgrade tool, and they will receive another notification within their Google Ads account before their campaigns are auto-upgraded. Some advertisers, like the ones working with third-party partners or using Smart Shopping and Local campaign features that are not yet available in Performance Max, will conclude automatic upgrades by early 2023. You can expect more information about the timeline of your auto-upgrade later this year. All other campaigns will be auto-upgraded by the end of September to cause minimal disruptions prior to the busy retail and holiday season.
You will still have the option to self-upgrade your Performance Max campaigns if you’d like more control over the timing of when this happens, until the automatic upgrade process begins.
FAQs
Will all Smart Shopping campaigns be upgraded to Performance Max in 2022?Because some features available in Smart Shopping campaigns will not be compatible with Performance Max campaigns in 2022, some Smart Shopping campaigns will not be automatically upgraded to Performance Max until early 2023. This includes some advertisers working with third-party partners or using Smart Shopping or Local campaign features that are not yet available in Performance Max. All campaigns in a customer’s account will be auto-upgraded at the same time, and at that point you will no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping campaigns.
You’ll be able to upgrade your Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max starting in April 2022. You’ll be able to upgrade your Local campaigns starting in July or August 2022. You’ll be notified in Google Ads once you’re eligible to upgrade your campaigns.
Between July and September, your Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically upgraded for you. Your Local campaigns will be automatically upgraded between August and September. You’ll no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping and Local campaigns once your existing campaigns are automatically upgraded. The features activated in your Smart Shopping or Local 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.
After you upgrade to Performance Max, your previous Smart Shopping or Local 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 or filtering for "Removed" status in the campaigns page of Google Ads, or by clicking "View Smart Shopping campaign" (or Local campaign) from your upgraded Performance Max campaign's "Overview" page in the info bar at the top.
Active and paused Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will be eligible for upgrade and eventually auto-upgraded, except for those active and paused campaigns with end dates in the past. If you'd like an active or paused Smart Shopping or Local campaign with end dates in the past to be upgraded, you should extend the end date to be in the future, but can leave it in Paused state so it won't serve.
There are a few other types of campaigns that will not be eligible for upgrade to Performance Max:
- If your Smart Shopping campaign has multiple product ad groups, it will also not be upgraded. Remove extraneous product ad groups from your Smart Shopping campaign if you'd like it to be upgraded, and you can use the one-click upgrade tool or wait for your campaign to be auto-upgraded later this year.
- Smart Shopping or Local campaigns using ad customizers will not be upgraded. Since ad customizers are being deprecated, Smart Shopping or Local campaigns using ad customizers will not be upgraded to Performance Max. If you want your campaign to be upgraded, you can remove the ad customizers and use the one-click upgrade tool or wait for your campaign to be auto-upgraded later this year, or create a new Performance Max campaign.
- Smart shopping campaigns with more than 20,000 product groups will not be upgraded since this number of listing groups isn't supported in Performance Max. If you'd like your campaign to be upgraded, you can remove some product groups and use the one-click upgrade tool or wait for your campaign to be auto-upgraded later this year, or create a new Performance Max 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 or Local 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.
Once 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 or Local campaign.
Yes, you can upgrade multiple campaigns at the same time. To do so, select the checkbox next to each eligible Smart Shopping or Local 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 are not eligible for upgrade to Performance Max (including both ineligible Smart Shopping or Local campaigns or campaign types other than Smart Shopping or Local campaigns), 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."
|
Setting |
Smart Shopping campaigns | Local campaigns | Performance Max |
| Conversion goals | |||
| Campaign type | Smart Shopping | Local | Performance Max |
| Google Merchant Center | |||
| Google My Business | N/A | ||
| Locations | N/A | ||
| Feeds | N/A | ||
| Country of sale | |||
| Campaign name |
|
||
| Local products (on/off) |
|
||
| Regional availability and pricing, Show products across multiple countries | N/A | ||
| Budget | |||
| Bid strategy |
|
|
|
| Geo targeting | |||
| Languages | N/A |
|
|
| Ad schedule | |||
| Start date, End date |
|
|
|
| Ad destination (final URL) | |||
| Final URL expansion | N/A | N/A |
|
| Campaign URL options | N/A | N/A | |
|
Asset group name |
N/A | N/A | |
| Product groups | N/A |
|
|
| Ad group | Ad group:
|
Assets:
*Local campaign videos shorter than 10 seconds in length won't be migrated over. You'll be prompted to upload a video, along with other missing assets, once the campaign has been migrated. |
Asset group:*
*In order for Performance Max to serve maximally across channels, it’s recommended that Smart Shopping and Local campaign advertisers add the assets listed above to their Smart Shopping or Local campaigns before initiating the upgrade to Performance Max. Assets can also be added after the upgrade. |
| Audience signals | N/A | N/A |
|
| Assets | |||
| Seasonality adjustments and Data Exclusions | N/A |
|
Videos shorter than 10 seconds in length won't be migrated over. You'll be prompted to upload a video, along with other missing assets, once the campaign has been upgraded.
Performance Max campaigns should perform similarly or better than your Smart Shopping or Local campaigns. During Beta testing, retail advertisers noticed an average increase of 12% conversion value at the same or better ROAS by upgrading to Performance Max. Local advertisers should observe similar performance to their original Local campaign.
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 have other campaign history in your account, what your conversion goal action is, and how many conversions you can get with your daily budget.
- 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:
Bidding:
Reporting and insights:
|
| Local campaigns | Local inventory ads on Search and Maps |
Goals:
Bidding:
Reporting and insights:
|
- 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.
- App install goals
- Awareness and Consideration goals
- Hotel campaign inventory
- Keyword-targeted Search
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.
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.