Project: Build your PMax campaign

Overview

It’s time to build and launch your first PMax campaign.

This project guides you through creating a PMax campaign to complement your Search efforts, integrating Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discover ads for conversions, brand awareness, and remarketing.

This project guides you through creating and launching your first PMax campaign to drive growth for your startup using the full power of Google's algorithm.

You’ll build a campaign, configure asset groups, and monitor early performance to ensure stability before optimizing and scaling.

What you’ll do

• Create a PMax campaign in Google Ads, leveraging Google’s automation for cross-channel performance.
• Configure campaign settings, asset groups, and targeting signals.
• Launch the campaign and monitor early performance to ensure stability.
• Prepare for optimization and scaling in the next lesson.

Phase 1: Prepare your PMax campaign

Before building, gather the assets and define your goals to set up PMax for success:

• Gather assets (the more the better)
  • Collect at least 3–5 high-quality images (e.g., 1200x1200, 300x250 PNG/JPEG, 150 DPI) showcasing your product or service (see the Ad Creative module for more guidance),
  • 5 headlines (30 characters each, e.g., “Eco-Friendly Landscaping,” “Book Now”),
  • 3 long headlines (90 characters each),
  • 5 descriptions (90 characters each, e.g., “Trusted Local Service, Free Quotes”), and
  • An optional 15–30 second video (MP4, 1280x720) for YouTube engagement.
• Identify goals: Define your PMax goal (e.g., Target CPA $50, Target ROAS 300%) based on your product and how much you can afford.

Phase 2: Create your PMax campaign

Follow these steps to build a PMax campaign, leveraging Google’s automation and simplicity:

1. Set up the campaign in Google Ads

• Navigate to campaigns:
  • In Google Ads, click + New Campaign, select Performance Max, and choose your goal (e.g., “Conversions” with Target CPA $50 or Target ROAS 300%).
  • Do Target CPA if your conversion doesn't have revenue attached (sign ups or leads). Do Target ROAS if your conversion has revenue (purchases).
• Configure campaign settings:
  • Budget: Set a daily budget of around $20–$50 to start to test PMax efficiently on a limited budget.
  • Locations: Use “Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations” (e.g., U.S., UK, or specific states like California) to focus on residents, reducing irrelevant traffic.
  • Languages: Target “All languages” or English for high-fluency regions (e.g., U.S., UK), ensuring broad reach.
  • Ad schedule: Leave open initially—PMax optimizes times dynamically, but you can refine later based on performance data (e.g., weekdays for B2B products).

2. Create asset groups

PMax replaces ad groups with asset groups, combining assets, targeting signals, and search themes.

Create 1–2 asset groups to test PMax’s cross-channel performance:

• Asset group 1: High-intent conversions
  • Assets: Upload 3–5 images (e.g., landscaping projects), 5 headlines (e.g., “Local Landscaping Experts,” “Book a Quote”), 5 descriptions (e.g., “Free Estimates, Fast Service”), and an optional video (e.g., 15-second landscaping demo).
  • Search themes: Add 10–15 keywords related to your business (e.g., “landscaping services,” “landscaper near me,” “lawn care solutions”), letting Google capture intent dynamically.
  • Audience signals: Include in-market audiences (e.g., “Home & Garden”) and remarketing lists (e.g., website visitors, cart abandoners) to target users likely to convert.
  • Focus: Drive conversions and remarketing across Search, Display, and YouTube.
• Asset group 2: Problem-solution searches
  • Assets: Adjust the images, headlines, descriptions, and video to emphasize solutions to common pain points (e.g., images of fixing patchy lawns, headlines like “Fix Your Patchy Lawn,” “Solve Lawn Care Issues,” descriptions like “Expert Solutions for Green Yards, Fast Fixes”). Include an optional video (e.g., 15-second tutorial on lawn restoration).
  • Search themes: Add 10–15 keywords for problem-solving queries (e.g., “fix patchy lawn,” “solve lawn care problems,” “improve garden health,” “easy landscaping solutions”).
  • Audience signals: Include in-market audiences (e.g., “Home & Garden”) and affinity audiences (e.g., “Home Improvement Enthusiasts”) seeking solutions, plus remarketing lists (e.g., users who visited problem-related pages) for targeted reach on Display and YouTube.
  • Focus: Address users’ specific challenges (e.g., “how to fix a patchy lawn,” “best solution for lawn maintenance”), driving engagement and conversions on Display and YouTube by offering problem-solving content.

Tip: Start with 1–2 asset groups to test PMax’s performance—Google’s machine learning optimizes across asset groups and campaigns so you don't want too many variables for your small test budget.

3. Set targeting signals

• Choose some high-intent segments to target. For example, for our ads agency we might choose "Digital Marketing Services" and "Advertising & Marketing Services) as in-market intent audiences

• Include demographics (e.g., 25–54-year-olds, all genders, 11–50% household income) and locations (e.g., U.S., UK) to align with your business’s target market, letting PMax refine dynamically.

Phase 3: Launch your PMax campaign

• Activate the campaign:
  1. Review all settings, assets, and targeting signals for errors (e.g., disapproved images, missing descriptions).
  2. Set the campaign status to Enabled in Google Ads.
  3. Verify your budget ($20–$50/day) and ensure no technical issues (e.g., tracking errors, disapproved assets).
• Monitor initial performance:
  • Check the campaign daily for the first week to ensure ads serve, budgets align (e.g., $20–$50/day not overspent), and no technical issues arise (e.g., tracking errors, disapproved assets).
  • Use columns like impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions, Cost Per Conversion, and Conversion Value/Cost to monitor early results across channels (Search, Display, YouTube).
• Avoid over-optimizing: Resist making changes in the first 7–14 days—Google needs time to learn and optimize.

Great, now we'll learn how to optimize and scale