Experiment with Google Ads Performance Max

While Search Ads 360 doesn’t support experiments natively, you can set them up in Google Ads so that your Floodlight data is used to power your Google Ads Performance Max campaign. This article will show you how to set up Google Ads Performance Max experiments using your Search Ads 360 conversion data.

Learn more About experiments in the Google Ads Help Center.

On this page

• Before you begin
• Set up your experiment
• Best practices for evaluating your results

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How it works

When you set up a Google Ads Performance Max experiment, a control group and a trial group of viewers are created. During the experiment, Google Ads Performance Max displays ads only to viewers in the trial group.

Performance for existing campaigns won’t be negatively impacted by experiments. Putting them into control and trial simply tags which ones had Google Ads Performance Max traffic alongside them and which ones didn’t. For the existing campaign traffic in the trial arm, Google will measure what happens when it runs alongside Google Ads Performance Max.

As Google Ads Performance Max optimizes towards the goals you set and the experiment ramps up, you can view reports showing how Google Ads Performance Max compares to the campaign you are testing it against.

Before you begin

Experiments with Google Ads Performance Max using your Floodlight data will be available only after your account has been migrated to the new Search Ads 360. Check the What’s available tab in the Experience hub, to stay up to date on your available features.

To set up a Google Ads Performance Max experiment that uses your Search Ads 360 conversion data, make sure Floodlight conversions are set up in your Search Ads 360 account.

Learn how to set up Floodlight conversion reporting in the new Search Ads 360.

Set up your experiment

Follow these steps to set up your experiment in Google Ads:

Step 1: Share all Search Ads 360 conversion data with Google Ads

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a sub-manager account.
3. On the toolbar, click the tools and settings icon , and under "Measurement," click Conversions.
4. From the page menu on the left, click Settings.
5. Click Share conversions to expand the section.
6. Click the check box next to the following setting:
   • Share all Floodlight and other conversion data related to Google Ads with all Google Ads accounts linked to this Search Ads 360 sub-manager account.
7. Click Save.

Step 2: Create a Google Ads Performance Max campaign in Search Ads 360

After sharing your Search Ads 360 conversion data with Google Ads, you’ll create a Google Ads Performance Max campaign in Search Ads 360. This is the campaign that will be used in your experiments.

Learn how to Create a Google Ads Performance Max campaign.

While creating you’re campaign for an experiment, select the following options:

• When choosing an objective, select Sales or Leads.
• When selecting your “Conversion Goals”, select Sub-manager account-level conversion goals, you may choose one of the radio options available. Below are the conversion goals which helps with bid optimization:

1. Search Ads 360: After selecting Search Ads 360, the system will display the list of conversion goals (Use account default goal settings or Use campaign specific goal settings)
2. Search Ads 360 and Google Ads: After selecting Search Ads 360 and Google Ads the system will display the list of conversions (Use account default goal settings or Use campaign specific goal settings)
   • Note: Here you have the option to select conversion goals for Google ads separately.

3. Google Ads: After selecting Google Ads the system will display the list of conversion (Use account default goal settings, Use campaign specific goal settings)

Learn how to Create a Floodlight conversion action.

Step 3: Set up Performance Max experiment in Google Ads

After you’ve created a Google Ads Performance Max campaign in Search Ads 360, you can set up experiments in Google Ads that will optimize towards your Floodlight conversion actions. There are 2 types of Google Ads Performance Max experiments. You can test either of these using your Search Ads 360 conversion data.

When creating your experiment in Google Ads, select the Performance Max campaign you created in Step 2 above.

• Uplift experiments: Helps you measure the incremental benefit of running Google Ads Performance Max campaigns alongside your Search, Video, Discovery, and Display campaigns.
  
  Learn how to Set up Uplift experiments for Performance Max.

• Shopping campaign vs Performance Max campaign: Helps you measure a control group of users who view your Shopping campaign against a trial group who are being served ads by a Performance Max campaign.
  
  Learn how to Set up a Standard Shopping campaign vs. Performance Max campaign experiment.

Step 4: Evaluate results

After you’ve started running an experiment, it’s helpful to understand how to monitor its performance. By understanding how your experiment is performing in comparison to the original campaign, you can make an informed decision about Google Ads Performance Max.

View your experiment's performance in Search Ads 360

• Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
• Navigate to a Google Ads client account.
• From the page menu on the left, select Campaigns.
• Find the Google Ads Performance Max campaign you are testing and your control campaign.
• Compare the “Conversions,” “Conv. Rate,” and “Cost/Conv” columns.

View your experiment's performance in Google Ads

• Sign in to your Google Ads account.
• On the left panel, click Experiments.
• Click All experiments from the “Experiments” menu.
• Find and click the experiment that you want to view.

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Best practices for evaluating your results

To effectively evaluate the results of your experiments, it is important to understand how Google Ads Performance Max works and what it is designed to do. Follow these best practices to accurately measure your experiments.

Run your experiments for at least 4 to 6 weeks

It’s recommended that you run your Google Ads Performance Max campaigns for at least 4 to 6 weeks and exclude the first two conversion cycles from your analysis. The first 7 days of data is automatically discarded to account for the experiment ramp-up time. This ensures that you’re evaluating both arms fairly.

For example, if your experiment start data is December 1 and the end date is December 31, you’ll only view data for the period between December 8-31 in the Experiment results page. However, you should be able to view stats for all campaigns in the main campaigns table for your desired date range.

Remember what Google Ads Performance Max is designed to do

Google Ads Performance Max is designed to optimize towards Conversion Value or Conversions. When evaluating your performance, consider the following metrics:

• Optimizing towards conversion values, like ROAS, Conversion Value, or Cost
• Optimizing towards conversion volume, like CPA, Conversions, or Cost

Other metrics like clicks, CPC, or CvR, should be analyzed as secondary metrics. Google Ads Performance Max is not designed to optimize for them.

For example, you may see an upward trend in CPC for your Google Ads Performance Max campaign during the experiment, but if ROAS or Conversion Value is improving then your campaign is achieving its objective.

Remember the goal of your experiment

The goal of the experiment is to show you how many more conversions or how much higher of a conversion value the Performance Max campaign is driving for the account as a whole. So, your results will show you aggregated conversions, conversion value, CPA, ROAS, and spend for the groups.

Here are best practices for responding to experiment results:

Experiment Results	Conclusions and recommendations
The trial arm drove more conversions or conversion value at the same or better CPA or ROAS compared to control arm.	Running Google Ads Performance Max alongside comparable campaigns can bring you additional conversions at a comparable ROI. Recommendation: Launch the Google Ads Performance Max campaign and scale budgets to get more coverage and efficient conversions at that ROI.
The trial arm drove more conversions or conversion value at a CPA or ROAS worse than the control arm.	If the Google Ads Performance Max campaign had a target CPA or ROAS set, evaluate if they are comparable to targets for other performance campaigns. If targets aren’t comparable, then the test should be adjusted. Google Ads Performance Max automation will always try to achieve the set CPA or ROAS targets within the available budget. Recommendation: Continue testing after adjusting CPA or ROAS targets. If targets are comparable, then this result could be because Google Ads Performance Max was driving additional conversions, which may have used additional budget. Recommendation: Continue to run Google Ads Performance Max campaigns as part of overall cross-channel strategy. If the Google Ads Performance Max campaign didn’t have a target CPA or ROAS set but comparable campaigns did, performance for the trial arm can seem worse. Recommendation: Re-run the experiment with a target set (you can start with the account average CPA or ROAS)

Related Links

• About the "Experiments" page (formerly drafts and experiments)
• About Performance Max experiments in the Experiments page