TPE #37: new pMax strategy for Upper Funnel prospecting
Apr 10, 2023Read time: 4 minutes
Over the last 6 months we’ve been testing a new Performance Max strategy and it’s working really well, especially in peak season: Performance Max for Upper Funnel prospecting.
The benefits are twofold:
- Use Performance Max to find new customers on Upper Funnel placements (YouTube, Display, and Discovery).
- Use the insights from this campaign to discover new audiences to target in your dedicated YouTube, Display, and Discovery campaigns.
Quick disclaimer: this is an advanced strategy. Only test this if you have high quality creatives, and are already advertising with dedicated YouTube, Display, and Discovery campaigns.
Let’s dive in!
Prospect on Upper Funnel placements and discover new audiences
Before we look at the mechanics, here are some of the results we’re getting with this new strategy:
As you can see, both campaigns overperform vs. target!
Here’s how the strategy works:
- Set up a Performance Max campaigns with asset groups without a product feed.
- Exclude all search terms so the campaign only shows ads on Video and Display inventory.
- Use the pMax spend allocation script and search term insights to check and minimize spend on Search.
- Use the audience insights to find new audiences to target in your dedicated YouTube, Display, and Discovery campaigns.
1: Set up a Performance Max campaigns with asset groups without a product feed
The first step is simple. Set up a new Performance Max campaigns. In the asset group, add all assets (use your best performing images, videos and copy) except a product feed. By doing this, you ensure you don’t spend any budget on Shopping ads.
2: Exclude all search terms so the campaign only shows ads on Video and Display inventory
There is a problem here: Performance Max can and will show ads on any placement it deems necessary to get conversions. By nature, it will cannibalize on your existing Search campaigns. With this specific strategy, we don’t want that. We only want pMax to focus on upper funnel placements.
By not adding a product feed in step 1, you already ensure there is no spend on the Shopping network.
The next step, is to ensure there is no spend on Search. And you do that by proactively excluding as many search terms as possible. Here’s how to do that:
- Create a negative keyword list and let support add it to your campaign (check out this how-to guide we created if you’re unsure how to do this).
- Proactively fill the negative keyword list with as many BROAD exclusions as possible to reduce share of Search spend to close to 0%.
It’s nearly impossible to have 0% Search traffic, but by excluding any and every search term, the likeliness of showing ads on the Search network decreases significantly.
Regularly check the search term insights in your pMax campaign to see if any search terms were matched on your campaign. If so, add them to your negative keyword list.
Most people won’t do this because they think it’s too much manual work. It definitely takes some time to set up and maintain, but the performance makes up for it. If you do what others aren’t willing to do, you win!
Over time, the amount of clicks from Search will drastically decrease, and pMax will spend your entire budget on upper funnel placements.
3: Use the pMax spend allocation script and search term insights to check and minimize spend on Search
Make sure you minimize spend on Search by using Mike Rhodes’ pMax spend allocation script (here’s a guide on how to use and download it) and by checking the search term insights.
The campaign on top is perfect: the majority of the budget was spent on video, and the rest on Display. Nothing on Shopping and Search.
This is what you want to see in the insights tab of your pMax campaign: almost no clicks on search terms (indicating extremely low spend on Search).
By keeping an eye on the script and search term insights, you ensure the budget is correctly spent on upper funnel placements, helping you find new customers on YouTube, Display and Discovery.
On to the final step and more insights.
4: Use the audience insights to find new audiences to target in your dedicated YouTube, Display, and Discovery campaigns
There’s gold to be found in the insights tab of your pMax campaign. Scroll all the way down to find audience insights.
Once you gather enough data, you’ll see which audiences your customers belong to. You can then test these audiences in your dedicated YouTube, Display and Discovery campaigns.
Start with the highest indexed audiences (this indicates how likely it is that your converters are part of them).
This is what it looks like:
Do NOT set and forget your Upper Funnel Performance Max campaigns
A final note: this ‘campaign type’ needs to be maintained well: do not set and forget it. The longer it runs, the higher the chances of showing ads on the Search network (which pollutes your data).
Keep adding negative keywords to your exclusions list, and regularly check the audience insights for new audiences to test in your dedicated Upper Funnel campaigns.
Over to you: happy testing!
So there you have it: you can now test a new Performance Max strategy to find new customers on Upper Funnel placements.
Use the insights from this campaign to discover new audiences to target in your dedicated YouTube, Display, and Discovery campaigns.
Again: this is an advanced strategy. Only test this if you have high quality creatives, and are already advertising with dedicated YouTube, Display, and Discovery campaigns. Don’t attempt this if you’re managing a new account with small budgets.
Happy testing!
Cheers,
Bob & Miles
