Set up Standard Shopping campaign vs. Performance Max experiments

In Standard Shopping campaign versus Performance Max experiments, you can compare one of your existing standard Shopping campaigns against another existing or brand new Performance Max campaign with similar settings. This comparison can help you determine which campaign type drives better results for your business.

Learn more About Performance Max experiments.

On this page

To set up the experiment, follow the steps outlined below:

  1. Go to Experiments within the Campaigns menu Campaigns Icon.
  2. Select the plus button .
  3. Under "What do you want to test?", select the Campaign types card.
  4. Under "Choose a variable to test", select the Performance Max vs Search, Display, or Shopping card.
  5. Under "Campaign type", select Shopping.
  6. Alternatively, you can also go to Performance Max Experiments, and select the plus button . Select Test vs. Shopping Campaign, and then select Continue.
  7. Click Select campaign.
  8. Select a Standard Shopping campaign that’s not part of an existing experiment.
  9. Select Next.
  10. From the "Traffic split" section, select the traffic split percentage as "Treatment group" and "Control group".

Create a campaign for me

Note: The option to create a new campaign automatically may not be available if the selected Shopping campaign has:
  • More than 100 ad groups
  • An ad group with more than 1000 product groups
  1. Select Create campaign for me.
  2. Click the metric to test under "What do you want to focus on?" drop down to optimize for either max conversions or conversion value.
    • If you intend to optimize for max conversions, select Conversions from the drop down menu. You can also click the "Set a target cost per action" check box to indicate your Target CPA.
    • If you intend to optimize for conversion value, select Conversion value from the drop down menu. You also have an option to click the "Set a target return on ad spend" checkbox to indicate your Target ROAS. Ensure that you set the same Target ROAS as the one in the standard Shopping campaign that you’re testing against.
  3. Select Next.
  4. Set the "Start date" and "End date" for the experiment under "Experiment dates".
  5. Give your experiment a name by entering text in the "Experiment name" field.
  6. Select Schedule.

Create a campaign manually

  1. Select Create campaign manually.
  2. Under "Choose your objective", select your campaign objective.
    • If you select "Sales" as your objective, you’ll have to select whether you’ll be sending your traffic to your own website or a partner’s website.
  3. Review your conversion goals and if required, remove goals by clicking on the 3-dot icon. If you want to add more goals, select Add goal, then select Continue.
  4. Add your campaign name and select Continue.
  5. A recommended budget will populate the "Bidding" section based on the standard Shopping campaign's budget and the traffic split percentage chosen.
  6. Select whether you want to optimize Performance Max towards Conversion value or Conversions.
  7. Set an optional target return on ad spend or uncheck the box above if you don’t want to set a target return on ad spend, then select Next.
    • Note: We recommend you set the same target return on ad spend as the one in the standard Shopping campaign you'll be testing against.
    • Under "Customer acquisition", you can click the "Adjust your bidding to help you gain new customers" checkbox, then select the "Only bid for new customers" option if you want to refine your target audience, regardless of bid strategy. Learn more About the new customer acquisition goal.
      • Note: To bid for new customers, you'll need to include an audience segment with at least 1,000 active members in at least one network.
  8. Configure your campaign settings.
    • Under "Locations", select a target location.
    • Under "Languages", you can select specific languages or select the "All languages" checkbox.
    • Select a start date and an optional end date. If you choose to have an end date, the end date will automatically be set to 12 weeks from the selected start date.
  9. Select More settings to adjust "Ad schedule" and "Campaign URL options".
  10. Select Next to set up your asset group.
  11. Add asset group name, assets, and audience signal. Under "Assets", set the "Final URL expansion", then click Next. It’s recommended to keep "Final URL expansion" on to view maximum performance benefits from your Performance Max campaign.
  12. Set any required assets by setting up "Call assets", "Load form assets", and "Sitelink assets". Select Next.
  13. Review the summary of your experiment and click Publish campaign when ready.
  14. After publishing your campaign, you’ll be taken back to the page where you set up the experiment. Scroll down and click Next.
  15. Review your experiment settings again then select Schedule.

Select existing campaign

  1. Click Select existing campaign from the list of available Performance Max campaigns. Click the pencil icon Edit to reselect your campaign.
  2. Select Next.
  3. Set the "Start date" and "End date" for the experiment under "Experiment dates".
  4. Give your experiment a name by entering the text in the "Experiment name" field.
  5. Select Schedule.

Review or edit a campaign comparable to an existing Performance Max campaign

By default, comparable campaigns are excluded from reporting. Your Report page won’t show comparable Performance Max campaigns unless you enable comparable campaign reporting in Google Ads.

During the experiment, you’ll need to manually edit comparable campaigns, otherwise Google will choose the comparable campaigns for you. After the experiment has ended, you’ll be unable to add or remove your comparable campaigns.

  • View results alongside comparable campaigns: To determine how your experiment performs compared to similar campaigns, enable the "View Results with Comparable Campaigns" toggle in Google Ads reporting.
  • Edit comparable campaigns (until experiment ends): You have complete control over which campaigns are considered "comparable" throughout the experiment. Simply edit your selections within your Performance Max experiments. If you don't manually choose comparable campaigns, Google will automatically select them for you. Once the experiment ends, you won't be able to add or remove comparable campaigns from the results.
It will take one day after the experiment starts to populate the list of comparable campaigns that were automatically chosen for the experiment. After the list is populated, you’ll get an option to edit the comparable campaign list, and add or remove any campaigns from your experiment. You can make these changes until the experiment concludes. Learn more about comparable campaigns.

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