An online shoe retailer is looking to create a Performance Max campaign to help drive sales in their sneaker category. How should they get started with Performance Max?

Analysis of Correct Answer(s)

• Build strong creatives customized to their sneaker products or offers. Performance Max is an asset-driven campaign type. While it leverages AI to optimize delivery across all Google channels (Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Maps), the effectiveness of the campaign fundamentally relies on the quality and relevance of the creative assets provided by the advertiser. High-quality headlines, descriptions, images, and videos tailored to specific products (like sneakers) or offers give the AI the best possible inputs to create compelling ads and find the most valuable customers. Without strong, customized assets, the AI has limited material to work with, hindering its ability to perform optimally. This is a critical foundational step for any Performance Max campaign, especially for retailers.

Analysis of Incorrect Options

• Separate their Google Merchant Center account from their Google Ads account to avoid overlap. This is incorrect and detrimental for an online retailer. For businesses selling products, linking Google Merchant Center (GMC) to Google Ads is essential for Performance Max campaigns. This integration allows the campaign to access product feed data, which is crucial for generating Shopping ads and informing the AI about the products to promote. Separating them would prevent the campaign from accessing vital product information and severely limit its capabilities for e-commerce.

• Use any Smart Bidding strategy to make bids across channels with AI. While Performance Max exclusively uses Smart Bidding and leverages AI for bidding across channels, this option is misleading and not the appropriate initial step. Performance Max automatically applies the most suitable Smart Bidding strategy (e.g., Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value) based on the campaign's stated goal. The advertiser doesn't actively "use any Smart Bidding strategy" in the traditional sense; rather, Performance Max's AI handles the bidding optimization as an inherent feature. The primary action to get started is providing high-quality inputs.

• Limit sharing audience data in order to allow AI to operate without human input. This is fundamentally incorrect. Performance Max thrives on more data, not less. Providing audience signals (such as customer match lists, custom segments, or website visitor data) is highly recommended. These signals act as valuable inputs for the AI, helping it to understand the target audience better and accelerating its learning phase. Limiting audience data would starve the AI of crucial information, making it harder for the campaign to find the right customers efficiently. The AI needs robust data inputs, including human-provided audience signals, to operate effectively.