Google Ads to Replace Smart Shopping and Local campaigns with Performance Max

Marketing Marketing News PPC Shopping and Pmax

Everything you need to know in less than 50 words

Get ready, by the end of September 2022, Google Shopping and Local Campaigns will cease to exist as Google Ads will automatically upgrade them to Performance Max. The transition will happen gradually throughout the year allowing advertisers to prepare using Google’s self-service “one-click” tool.

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Whether you like this change or not, by the end of September this year, Google Shopping and Local campaigns will disappear from Google Ads. Yet Google assures that Performance Max is based on the same foundational features while delivering better results, as advertisers claimed to see an average increase of 12% in conversion value (while ROAS remained the same or higher).

To remind you, Performance Max is a goal-based campaign requiring you to provide a conversion goal and several creatives solely. All the rest will be done automatically by Google’s algorithms. In addition, with PMax, you can access additional features such as new ad inventory and automation insights.

Get ready, by the end of September 2022, Google Shopping and Local Campaigns will cease to exist as Google Ads will automatically upgrade them to Performance Max.

So what’s next? If you plan to open new Shopping or Local Campaigns, create them with Performance Max. Beginning in April, start transforming all your existing Shopping campaigns with Google’s one-click tool. It will be possible to upgrade specific campaigns or all at once. From June, one click will be available for Local Campaigns as well.

The timeline below covers all the critical milestones. Note that it might be subjected to changes.

Official Timeline

April 2022 – start upgrading your Shopping Campaigns to Performance max with the “one-click” tool.
June 2022 – one-click will be available for Local campaigns as well.
July-September 2022 – Your Shopping Campaigns will be automatically upgraded for you.
August-September 2022 – Your Local Campaigns will be automatically upgraded for you.

Our Two Cents

Google’s latest announcement is just another step towards fully automated advertising campaigns, as we already covered last year when PMax was launched. We believe that this trend will continue to evolve and eventually the PPC manager role as we know it will alter drastically. Thus, PPC managers, agencies, and marketers ought to prepare for these future changes by focusing on growing trends. For instance, marketing strategy, creatives, feed, and website optimization.

Source: Google Ads & Commerce Blog

Other related developments from around the industry:

Google Announces the new 2022 Partners Program

The big change is for Premier Partners who are awarded to the top 3% of partners in each country. In addition, all Partners will get access to monthly insights from Think with Google, and starting from late February, all Google’s Partners will be also listed in a new directory, available to all advertisers globally.

Google Performance Max Campaign – The Future Is Here

It may seem like just another campaign type, but if you have been paying attention, Performance Max is a lot more. For the last five years, Google’s strategy has been aiming towards creating a fully automated Google Ads platform. This is part of Google’s bigger vision; full automation. Everything you need to know about the Performance Max campaign, how it works, the requirements needed, and a step-by-step guide on how to get started.

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