There are some PPC accounts where PMAX is all we need, and no other type of campaign is necessary. However, this is usually not the case. In many situations, alongside the PMAX campaign, we run at least one search campaign that targets our most important keywords.
But how do you evaluate the performance of individual campaigns when PMAX is a black box, and you can’t see where the ads are being displayed?
That’s where we use our own PMAX script, which we developed in-house. In this case study, we’ll demonstrate how this script helped us optimize our campaigns.
But first, what is the PMAX script?
The PMAX script shows us where our ads are placed. Are they being displayed in Shopping? Or more on YouTube, Display Network, or Search? We can see all of this in a simple overview. In addition to costs, we can also track conversions, conversion value, clicks, and impressions.
This is an example of how the script looks. You can see five different graphs, each showing a different metric, with the data color-coded according to the channels where the ads were displayed. The black color represents the total sum for the selected period.
Why Use This Script and What Are Its Main Advantages?
🔹 We look at data for different periods. You can set the script to show data for any number of days. By default, we set it to at least 180 days. In many cases, it’s useful to review data from previous months as well.
🔹 We can drill down to individual days. Want to know where PMAX was displayed yesterday? No problem. You can also switch the overview to show data by week or month, depending on your needs.
Case Study
We noticed that a campaign was no longer meeting its tROAS. In this particular campaign, we had a specific category where we were running PMAX alongside a carefully managed search campaign with exact match keywords. The PMAX assets were empty, so there shouldn’t have been any clicks coming from display or video.
We looked into this report at the point marked by the red arrow.
We noticed that, besides Shopping, the ads started showing up in Search. This was surprising because we had a dedicated search campaign for that purpose.
Upon investigating, we found that our adjustments to tROAS had caused the search campaign to slow down. Its impression share had decreased, allowing PMAX to step in and start displaying in Search as well. This, in turn, led to a drop in ROAS for the PMAX campaign.
Once we changed the bidding strategy in the search campaign, PMAX performance returned to normal levels.
The key takeaway here is that, thanks to this script, we can assess the mutual influence of PMAX and other campaigns in the account. It’s also interesting because adjusting the settings in one campaign improved the ROAS in PMAX without any direct changes to the PMAX campaign itself.
