Set up Standard Shopping campaign vs. Performance Max experiments

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.

To set up the experiment, please follow the steps outlined below:

Note: The instructions below are part of the new design for the Google Ads user experience. To use the previous design, click the "Appearance" icon, and select Use previous design. If you're using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Experiments.
4. Click Performance Max experiments.
5. To create a new experiment, click the plus button , and then click + Test vs. Shopping campaign.
6. Click Select campaign.
7. Select a Standard Shopping campaign that’s not part of an existing experiment.
8. Click Next.
9. From the “Traffic split” section, select the traffic split percentage as “Treatment group” and “Control group”.

Use an existing campaign

10. Click Select existing campaign from the list of available Performance Max campaigns. Click the pencil icon to reselect your campaign.
11. Click Next.
12. View which campaigns are in each experiment arm in the “Test groups” section.
13. To rename your campaign, click on the “Experiment name” field.
14. Click the “Start date” drop-down to select the start date.
15. Click Schedule.

Create a campaign manually

10. Click Create campaign manually.
11. Select your campaign objective.
12. Review your conversion goals and if required, remove goals by clicking on the 3-dot icon. If you want to add more goals, click Add goal.
13. Add your campaign name and click Continue.
14. A recommended budget populates in the “Bidding” section based on the standard Shopping campaign's budget and the traffic split percentage chosen.
15. Select whether you want to optimize Performance Max towards Conversion value or Conversions.
16. Set an optional target return on ad spend (uncheck the box above if you don’t want to set a target return on ad spend).
    • Note: We recommend you set the same target return on ad spend as the one in the standard Shopping campaign you will be testing against.
17. In “Locations”, select a target location.
18. In “Languages”, you can select specific languages or simply click All languages.
19. Set “Final URL expansion”. It’s recommended to keep “Final URL expansion” on to view maximum performance benefits from your Performance Max campaign.
20. Now, select a start date and the end date is automatically set to 3 months from the selected start date.
21. Click More settings to adjust “Ad schedule” and “Campaign URL options”.
22. Click Next to set up your asset group.
23. Add asset group name, assets, and audience signal.
24. Click Next.
25. Set any required extensions by setting up “Call extensions”, “Load form extension”, and “Sitelink extensions”.
26. Click Next.
27. Now review the summary of your experiment and click Publish campaign when ready.
28. After publishing your campaign, you’ll be taken back to the page where you set up the experiment.
29. Now, scroll down and click Next.
30. Review your experiment settings again then click Schedule.

Create a campaign for me

10. Select Create campaign for me.
11. Click the “What do you want to focus on?” 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 action” 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 “Set a target return on ad spend” check box to indicate your Target ROAS. Make sure that you set the same Target ROAS as the one in the standard Shopping campaign that you are testing against.
12. Click Next.
13. To rename your campaign, click on the “Experiment name” field.
14. Click the “Start date” drop down to select the start date.
15. Click Schedule.

Important: It’ll 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, you’ll get an option to edit the comparable campaign list, and add or remove any campaigns from your experiment. You can make these changes for up to seven days from your experiment’s start date.

Related links

• About the Experiments page (formerly Drafts and experiments)
• Set up Uplift experiments for Performance Max
• Performance Max experiments FAQs