Performance Max uses the power of AI to access all your goal inventory to form a single campaign. It can work with your keyword based search campaigns to improve your conversions, optimizing performance in real time using Smart Bidding. Google AI is used across creatives, budget optimization, bidding and more, empowered by your specific advertising goals. A new beta in Performance Max known as search themes gives you a way to guide Performance Max by sharing your expertise with Google AI.
With search themes, you’re letting Google AI know you want to reach traffic across all Google Ads inventory. This includes Gmail, Discovery, Maps, Search, YouTube and Display. It can assist you in finding members of your target audience based on search behavior across channels. This can be helpful in many situations such as when you’re launching a new sale for a holiday season without a lot of performance history or when you’ve launched a new product or service or expanded into a new market.
How Can Search Themes Help You Expand Your Audience?
Performance Max looks to your website for information that can help identify search queries that are relevant. Search themes allows you to add specific information that can help you reach a particular group of people that may be interested in the offerings you add. Search themes allows you to add as many as 25 unique search themes per asset group.
With this information, search themes can help you identify new or incremental traffic. Using search themes is optional, but this feature can be beneficial when used to drive better performance. Tools like brand exclusions and negative keywords at the account level can help you control the type of traffic that Performance Max is served on.
How Search Themes Works
Search themes will have the same order of importance as your phrase match and broad match keywords. You have the ability to indicate queries that your target audience is likely to search for, which is in addition to queries that would be matched by Performance Max based on your assets and URLs. You’ll be able to identify what search categories matched to your ads at account and campaign levels as well as associated performance.
Your custom segments that are based on interests will continue to be available after search themes is released, but you won’t be able to use past search activity to add or edit custom segments in Performance Max.
Early in 2024, insights into improved search terms is coming along with guidance relating to search themes. This will be based on initial feedback received from pilot testers. This will help you to understand how much impact search themes are having on your results.
The world of PPC advertising is continually evolving, and marketers often find it difficult to keep up with changes. Softline Solutions is an award-winning Google Premier Partner that’s committed to staying on top of developments as they happen. We’ve helped hundreds of businesses to grow their online presence, and we’re ready to do the same for you. Reach out to Softline Solutions today.
