Pmax vs Standard Shopping: Driving Ecommerce Growth In Google Ads | SMX Advanced 2026

Transcript

1. PMax vs. Standard Shopping: Maggie Humphrey DRIVING ECOMMERCE GROWTH IN GOOGLE ADS
2. Maggie Humphrey DIRECTOR OF ECOMMERCE SEARCH ENGINE LAND CONTRIBUTOR AGENCY
3. It’s more than bid strategies You must understand the business objective. Ecommerce growth is entirely dependent on aligning your strategy with your business goals Translate that business goal into an account strategy 1 2 Then comes balancing automation and control » not choosing just one 3
4. Combine automation with intentional segmentation Performance Max and Standard Shopping offer different solutions ~ The key is understanding what each campaign is designed to optimize towards Success comes from using them intentionally Performance Max » automation Standard Shopping » control
5. THE CLIENT Direct to consumer online retailer #1 CLIENT GOAL STRATEGY Increase overall revenue year-over-year Increase new customer sales while retaining existing customers RESULT Increased purchases from new customers 60% year-over-year Increased revenue 45% year-over-year SOLUTION ~ Non brand standard shopping campaign for key categories ~ New customer acquisition & retention campaigns using PMax ~ Excluding past purchasers from all prospecting campaigns
6. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Promotions / Discount Products
7. Pmax for promotions ~ Isolate sale SKUs to prioritize discounted products with their own budget ~ Expand reach across channels beyond Search/Shopping ~ Pair promotional assets with sale-specific messaging to drive urgency ~ Enable faster scaling through automation during high-demand periods
8. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Smaller product categories ~ Promotions / Discount Products
9. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Smaller product categories ~ Promotions / Discount Products ~ Off-hours / coverage campaigns
10. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Smaller product categories ~ Promotions / Discount Products ~ Off-hours / coverage campaigns ~ Low-performing or “zombie” skus
11. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Smaller product categories ~ Promotions / Discount Products ~ Off-hours / coverage campaigns ~ Low-performing or “zombie” skus ~ Customer acquisition bidding ~ Customer acquisition bidding
12. PMax Prospecting vs. Remarketing Pmax automatically remarkets to site visitors and/or returning customers Without any settings applied, purchases will skew toward existing customers, especially if they already have high life-time-value Example: Pmax campaign with no customer bidding settings on Customer Type Conversions Conv. Value New Customer 711 $732,663 Returning Customer 1,036 $1,405,939 1/1/2026 - 2/28/2026
13. PMax Prospecting vs. Remarketing Enabling new customer bidding allows Google to prioritize acquisition of first-time buyers Limitations: Not perfect — some overlap with existing customers still occurs Example: Pmax campaign with new customer settings enabled 1/1/2026 - 2/28/2026 Customer Type Conversions Conv. Value New Customer 281 $219,653 Returning Customer 87 $93,407
14. ~ It analyzes your account’s conversion data from the past 540 days to build a customer list ~ Anyone who purchased outside of that 540 day window is considered new By default, Google uses automatic detection to distinguish between new and existing customers. How this works. 1 2
15. ~ Use the conversion value calculator to estimate your value based on target ROAS ~ Lower ROAS » higher tolerance for CAC » higher acceptable acquisition value Tell Google how much new customers are worth to you by applying a value Bidding higher for new customers.
16. ~ Uses first-party data to improve prospecting quality, not just volume Helps guide Google toward users who look like your most valuable customers High value new customers ~ Set values based on prioritization 1 2
17. New Customer Bidding Recap 1 ~ “Only bid for new customers” ~ No value added 1 ~ Bid higher for new customers ~ Value applied 2 ~ Bid even higher for subset of customers ~ Value applied ~ First party data 3
18. 30 Day Period Client example - NC acquisition bidding Campaign Type Cost NC Incremental Sales NC Cost Per Acquisition Percent Of NC Shopping NC Campaign $16,174 153 $105 56% Pmax NC Campaign $3,173 65 $68 62% DTC CLIENT
19. Assessing performance with NCA In platform reported conversion value & ROAS will be inflated! ⤻ Because it includes the assigned new customer value ⦁ To assess true performance we must remove the NCA value ⦁ Monitor your new vs returning customer rate to ensure incremental growth 1 2
20. Assessing performance with NCA New customer columns in Google Ads gives you total purchases by customer Back out the customer value to get your true campaign conversion value DTC Client - 30 Day Period ⤻ 279.56 (new customer purchases) x $250 (NC assigned value) = $69,890 (new customer assigned conversion value) ⤻ $265,086 (platform conversion value) – $69,890 = $195,196 (true conversion value)
21. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Smaller product categories ~ Promotions / Discount Products ~ Off-hours / coverage campaigns ~ Low-performing or “zombie” skus ~ Customer acquisition bidding ~ Customer retention bidding ~ Customer acquisition bidding
22. Pmax retention settings ~ Only available in Pmax! ~ Allows Google to separately value returning customers over new customers ~ Upload existing customer or lapsed customers lists ~ Retention *High Value* assigns a higher value to more desired customers ~ Increases lifetime value through re-engaging past purchasers
23. Retention test results PMax Campaign Spend Conversions Win-Back Conversions Reported Conversion Value Original Conversion Value $10,926 567.72 20.31 $470,154 $459,999 Incremental Value = $500 DTC Client - 30 Day Period PMax Retention Test read more ⤻
24. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Smaller product categories ~ Promotions / Discount Products ~ Off-hours / coverage campaigns ~ Low-performing or “zombie” skus ~ Customer acquisition bidding ~ Customer retention bidding ~ Customer acquisition bidding ~ Product segmentation / ad group le bidding (especially for large catalog ~ Spend control & scalability
25. How I like to use Pmax vs Standard Shopping ~ PERFORMANCE MAX STANDARD SHOPPING ~ Smaller product categories ~ Promotions / Discount Products ~ Off-hours / coverage campaigns ~ Low-performing or “zombie” skus ~ Customer acquisition bidding ~ Customer retention bidding ~ Customer acquisition bidding ~ Product segmentation / ad group le bidding (especially for large catalog ~ Spend control & scalability
26. Account structure example Client business objective Increase revenue year-over-year Agency account strategy Increase revenue year-over-year by increasing new customer sales, while maintaining existing sales
27. Pmax vs. Standard Shopping
28. Product feed tips
29. Product feeds ~ Feed hygiene is critical for your ecommerce strategy Weak feed = poor query matching and wasted spend Optimized feed = higher intent traffic and more sales ~ Ongoing optimizations & testing is a must! Keyword rich product titles, enhanced product images, additional attributes & order (gender, color, size, etc.) ⤻ ⤻
30. Client example Image test Test Swapping standard product images with lifestyle imagery in the product feed Hypothesis Lifestyle images will increase engagement and click-through rate resulting in an increase in purchases/revenue Test approach Replace default stock images with lifestyle images for test group Compare performance against previous period VS
31. Image test results Timeframe Purchases Revenue Clicks Impressions CTR Period 1 8 $17,169 607 211,673 0.31% Period 2 19 $49,393 920 513,457 0.32% Difference +58% +65% +34% +59% +2% 30 Day Product Image Test DTC CLIENT
32. Custom labels Enables more strategic campaign management ~ Allocate budget more efficiently ~ Bid more aggressively on high-value products ~ Control spend on lower-priority items Bottom line: Custom labels turn segmentation into smarter spend decisions to support business goals Common use cases ~ Margin tiers (high vs low profit) ~ Best sellers vs low performers ~ Promotions / offers ~ Exclusive brands Can enhance your ecommerce strategy
33. Tips & tricks Speed round
34. Pmax feed only campaigns (Smart Shopping) ~ Run Pmax without assets ~ Product feed serves as the sole source of data ~ Only product ads will serve across eligible
35. Brand shopping campaigns Campaign Name Cost Target ROAS ROAS Conversion Value Best Sellers | Brand | PLA $14,005 500% 615% $70,195 ~ Showcase top selling products ~ Extensive negative keyword lists (constant refinement) ~ High target ROAS bid ~ Use portfolio bidding to set max cpcs 31 Day Period DTC CLIENT
36. AI Max Works well on broad categories with general keywords Test a page feeds (new version of DSA) Competitor conquesting campaign using brand inclusion list Now eligible for shopping campaigns! 1 2 3 4
37. Use channel reporting ~ Use learnings from channel reporting to test new strategies
38. Audience signal testing ~ Add audiences on observation mode in search and shopping campaigns ~ Test audiences as signals in Pmax
39. Dynamic remarketing ~ Should always be running in your account as a safety net ~ Remarket to product viewers and cart abandoners ⤻ Test is in Microsoft!
40. Track New vs Returning Customers ~ By adding a $0.01 value you can see customer data populate ~ Segment > Conversions > New vs Returning Customers
41. New Prospecting Mode ~ Targets ‘cold’ audiences ~ Automatically excludes past purchaser & users previously engaging with your brand ~ Available in Search, Shopping, Pmax, & Demand Gen
42. Build A Strategy Worth Baking ~ PMax & Standard Shopping can work together to achieve business objectives ~ It’s the ideal recipe that best achieves your goals AUTOMATION CONTROL
43. Thank you! LinkedIn AGENCY ⤻