Fast query: What precisely does Performance Max maximize?
I’ll allow you to go first.
You: “Efficiency Max maximized my income.”
Me: “No.”
You: “Ah, I see. I’m monitoring income, not revenue. So Efficiency Max maximizes my income”
Me: “Nope.”
You: “Uhh, OK, then it should be conversions
Me: “No, once more.”
You: “What? What else is there? Clicks then?”
Me: “No, no, no!”
You: “WTF?!”
Me: “It’s spend. Advert spend. Efficiency Max maximizes your advert spend, so long as you let it.”
In case you are 100% satisfied the final assertion is full BS, you possibly can cease studying now. The remainder of this text received’t carry you a lot.
If, nevertheless, you might be like me and also you assume it’s an fascinating speculation value testing and letting the information converse for itself, then learn on. This is perhaps of curiosity to you.
And if you’re already satisfied it’s true, then that is your fortunate day as a result of we’ve received some fascinating scripts to assist forestall Efficiency Max from losing your cash.
What follows are three scripts taken from my newest SMX Superior presentation. Use these scripts to your benefit and you’ll want to watch the complete video of the session (at backside of this text).
Script 1: Negate non-converting Efficiency Max search phrases
Efficiency Max excels at reporting averages, comparable to the common spend per day, conversion price and marketing campaign ROAS.
It’s not good at reporting the precise efficiency of particular person search phrases.
Sure, you possibly can go to the Google Adverts interface, click on Insights and Reviews, navigate the search class report and click on round like a rabbit on pace. But it surely’s clumsy, to say the least!
It’s tough to seek out search phrases that waste cash in your Efficiency Max campaigns.
The phrases themselves are laborious to seek out within the interface, and the efficiency of unhealthy actors is hidden within the marketing campaign averages.
Wouldn’t it’s good to have a listing that clearly exhibits the search phrases with poor efficiency?
You may simply resolve what to do with them (e.g., repair asset teams/touchdown pages) or add them as negative keywords to your Performance Max campaign.
Fortunately, we are able to use scripts to create such a listing for us. Right here’s what that appears like:

Script 2: Disapproved merchandise alerts
Let’s say you’ve been operating a profitable Efficiency Max marketing campaign for a couple of weeks.
The marketing campaign is spending its finances, producing related clicks, producing conversions and attaining ROAS barely over the goal. All is properly.
Then, for some cause, the 2 top-performing merchandise in your marketing campaign, that are liable for greater than 40% of the income, get disapproved.
What do you assume will occur?
Efficiency Max has delivered nice outcomes previously and thinks it may well nonetheless achieve this right this moment and tomorrow.
However the disapproved merchandise are out, and Efficiency Max has to (re)uncover new clicks that carry out not less than in addition to the clicks on these disapproved merchandise.
This studying section includes plenty of trial and error, testing new sorts of clicks, likely with plenty of clicks that don’t convert.
A variety of waste, except you are taking motion.
You may, for example, use seasonality adjustment to point decrease anticipated conversion charges till you get the highest merchandise re-approved.
Or you might lower the finances to forestall extreme spending with low returns within the quick run.
If you don’t act when top-performing merchandise get disapproved, you most likely waste spend.
Subsequently, I created a script to provide you with a warning when merchandise that obtain important clicks (or conversions) are disapproved.
Script 3: Exclude spammy placements
Do you know there’s a report known as Efficiency Max campaigns placement?
It’s positioned within the Template gallery of the Report editor.
The report exhibits what placements on the Google Show Community (GDN) generated impressions to your Efficiency Max campaigns.


Sadly, once more, the report isn’t that straightforward to seek out.
It solely exhibits the variety of impressions – no click on information, no conversion information. This makes it laborious to guage these impressions’ high quality (income worth).
The GDN is stuffed with spammy “built-for-AdSense” websites that result in plenty of faux clicks.
Bear in mind, the horrible efficiency of those clicks is hidden from us within the aggregates we use to judge Efficiency Max’s efficiency.
Fortunately for us, there are lots of scripts that can allow you to exclude these spammy placements.
Tip: Ask ChatGPT to increase the script to additionally have a look at area spam scores just like the Moz spam rating (with a software like Reviewgrower) and auto-exclude the spammy ones.
Use scripts to maximise your income, not simply spend
Efficiency Max, left by itself, maximizes Google’s income, not essentially yours.
It’s worthwhile to monitor Efficiency Max campaigns like a hawk and proactively make adjustments primarily based in your first-party information and insights.
Google Adverts Scripts can automate plenty of these duties for you and alow you to take again management to optimize your income.
Watch: Mastering Efficiency Max utilizing Scripts
Yow will discover extra scripts and ideas to enhance your Efficiency Max efficiency in my SMX Superior session.
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