Google’s Performance Max product has frustrated and bemused media buyers since its launch four years ago. In recent weeks, however, the tech giant has chosen to yield a little ground to marketers and buyers asking for more control.
It’s testing a feature that enables media buyers to exclude inventory from third-party search partners and Google Display Network from Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, a change that allows practitioners a greater degree of control over PMax spending than previously possible.
“It’s fairly significant,” said Sam Clarke, managing director and head of search at Crossmedia. “When PMax first came out, one of the biggest pain points was perceived lack of control versus standard campaigns. The lack of strategic levers and visibility was quite a frustration.”
PMax is a type of Google campaign used to run ads across inventory like digital display, search and YouTube. The feature appears in users’ PMax consoles in the form of two checkbox options. Though enabled by default, users can deselect Search Partners, referring to search inventory that appears on third-party websites, rather than mainline Google Search — and Google Display Network.
“It is certainly encouraging that they’re at least giving this opportunity to test opting out of these channels,” said Brian Pappas, director of integrated search at agency Moroch. The agency gained access to the feature in the final week of June, Pappas said.
Though it’s a small addition, the checkbox feature represents an unprecedented level of control over how PMax works. First debuted in 2022, PMax’s black-box automation has confounded marketers hoping to keep a close eye on their media dollars. A few swore off the product entirely.
“You could not trust it,” said Kyle Rovinski, associate director of search at full service agency Duncan Channon.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that the feature remained in “alpha”, but declined to comment on why the company had chosen to add the feature, or when it might be broadly available to the market.
“This is a pilot launched with a limited group of advertisers. At the same time, our North Star has been empowering advertisers with clear visibility and new ways to confidently steer PMax campaigns,” said the spokesperson. “As our AI capabilities evolve, we remain dedicated to providing the tools needed to help drive real business outcomes.”
Digiday spoke to media buyers based in the U.S. and U.K. that had been granted access to the feature, a level of access that seems to indicate it’s no longer in the experimental phase.
Though Google hasn’t made much noise about the feature — some buyers told Digiday they had found it added to their dashboard without any notice — media buyers are excited enough that there’s a queue forming for access. Buyers at three media agencies said that they had requested access, but been denied by Google agency reps. “It’s not been something that’s been terribly easy to get ahold of,” said James Viney, senior paid media account manager at Roast.
The feature follows a series of updates quietly added to PMax by Google since last year, including the addition of channel performance reporting, campaign-level negative keywords, and first-party audience exclusions, features that Rovinski said had restored buyer confidence in PMax.
The ability to cut out Display Network and third-party search partners, however, marks a greater degree of control over the way PMax works.
Buyers are, broadly, pleased with the opt-out feature because it allows them to steer clients from what they consider to be junk inventory. “Search advertisers don’t like the Display Network. We don’t want to opt in,” said Rovinski.
“They’re both sources of remnant inventory that Google’s forced advertisers to opt into with PMax since it’s rolled out,” explained David Dweck, president at Go Fish Digital.
Kaitlin McGrew, head of SEM at indie media agency PMG, told Digiday the reporting and control features had led to a lift in PMax spending among the company’s advertising clients. “We’re eager for those levers. We want to be able to manipulate… we want to double down. Having that insight unlocks that,” she said.
Following tests comparing Google Shopping and PMax campaigns, she said several PMG clients had shifted ad spend from the former into the latter product, resulting in 10% average increase in PMax investments.
One doesn’t have to look far to see the motivation behind the feature updates. The launch of ChatGPT ads in February marked the noisiest challenge to Google’s domination of the paid search market to date. The AI firm has moved rapidly in the last six months to bring its product up to speed, adding a conversion pixel, piloting video ad formats and extending its ad product into different markets.
Meanwhile, Google parent company Alphabet reported on July 23 that its search revenues rose 17% to $63.27 billion in second quarter. That’s hardly pocket change, but it does represent a mild cooling of search revenue growth, which grew 19% during the same period last year.
If the company wants to retain its long lead on the rest of the search market and ensure that revenue growth doesn’t slow further, then discreetly cooperating with long-standing media buyer requests would be a logical place to start.
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