How to Use Generative AI in Performance Max: Boost Results

Performance Max is your go-to e-commerce buddy for running AI-powered ad campaigns. It adapts to emerging trends and evolving advertiser needs. 

But what really supercharges Performance Max? Enter Generative AI, a powerful way to automate asset generation. Whether facing an ideation roadblock or needing to boost your efforts, Google Performance Max AI helps simplify and scale your advertising needs.

Curious about how to use Generative AI in Performance Max? You’re in the right place.

In this blog, we’ll learn how to leverage Gen AI to enhance and generate your ad assets, refine existing ad creatives, and more.

Let’s dive in!

Generative AI in Performance Max: An Overview

Using generative AI in asset generation and asset groups is relatively simple. In short, you’ll be asked to feed necessary input to make the AI understand your business and generate texts or images based on the entered prompts. 

Let’s explore this a little deeper. 

Understanding Gen AI in Asset Creation 

Generative AI uses machine learning models trained on large datasets and generates an output based on the existing data or a user-provided prompt. Take ChatGPT, for instance. You enter a prompt, and it produces an image or text based on that particular prompt. 

Similarly, Google incorporated generative AI into Performance Max campaigns. In these campaigns, users provide their store link (the final URL), and Google AI automates and extracts texts and images from the store link and fetches them to your PMax campaign for asset generation. 

Thanks to this feature, advertisers can:

• Create new headlines, descriptions, and product-related images by leveraging existing assets from their website and asset library.
• Quickly optimize their PMax campaigns and improve ad performance. 
• Edit existing assets with ease.

Benefits of Rapid Asset Generation

Gen AI has sped up asset generation and helped advertisers in various ways:

• It has reduced manual work.
• Advertisers can edit the assets without any extra tools or features’ intervention.
• They improve campaigns by letting advertisers adjust their campaigns in real-time based on market trends and customer feedback.
• It is budget-friendly because it is free. However, other advertising budgets, such as bidding, etc., will still be charged. 
• Great tool for personalizing images and texts and offering an enhanced customer experience. 

Further Reading: Explore Performance Max for store goals.

How To Use Generative AI in Performance Max?

Let’s delve into the creation process of different assets.

Eligibility

The eligibility criteria for generative AI are:

• Advertisers must use the Google Ads interface in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish. 
• Advertisers’ accounts have not completed Election Advertising Verification.
• URLs will be ineligible if they relate to a sensitive category, such as certain categories in politics, government, health, religion, sensitive or prohibited products, or other sensitive issues.
• URLs are also not eligible if they are not in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish. They should not be recently published on the internet.

For the next section, it is important to understand Performance Max ad specs in detail for asset generation. 

Generating Assets with AI

First, we will dive into creating new assets with prompts. For that, follow the steps below: 

• We shall begin by setting up a PMax campaign. Go to your Google Ads account. Locate + New Campaign > Choose an Objective > Select Performance Max as campaign type. You can also choose an existing campaign draft.
  
• Set up bidding and campaign settings. When you reach asset generation, enter your online store’s link: 

In the image above, when you enter your store’s final URL, Google AI automatically fills in the product type and its unique points below. You can add extra tags to the list to narrow down what your business is all about:

As you scroll further down, you will be asked to enter more links, which will help Google AI track and download images from your website to enhance them. In the picture below, more links will be displayed based on how many web pages your site has. 

• Once the aforementioned fields are filled in the asset generation section, click “Generate asset.” Your assets will be automatically filled in the next section, “Asset Group.”
  
• You will see headlines, long headlines, and descriptions automatically filled when you reach the Asset Group section.
  
• You can further edit them with prompts as they come with their consolidated generative AI box. Let’s look at each one individually:

Long Headlines

A long headline is a more descriptive, extended version of the regular headline. It has a character limit of up to 90 characters. They appear in placements with more space, such as on the Display Network or YouTube.

When you click “Generate long headlines,” you will be asked to enter a prompt that generates relevant headlines. 

Click “Generate” and it will give the output like this:

Choose the one you want, and it will appear in the main headlines. 

Further Reading: Understand PMax reporting in detail.

Headlines

A headline is a short text asset that has a character limit of 30 characters. It summarizes the central message of the ad. It is combined with other assets to automatically create and display ads across the Google Display Network.

The process is the same for headlines. Click “Generate long headlines” and choose the ones that fit your brand’s focus. Then, click save, which is at the bottom.

Descriptions

Descriptions are short text assets that are up to 90 characters long. They provide extra details or unique points about the product to support your ad’s message across the Google Ad network.

You can generate descriptions by clicking “Generate descriptions.” You can edit the existing prompt to your liking. Here’s how it will look: 

Images

Images are extracted from your website and fed to the asset group for further editing and enhancement. You can use those images in your Performance Max campaigns and display them across PMax-supported Google networks. 

Gen AI can automatically generate images suitable for advertisement needs. You can edit the prompt to enhance its specs. 

Here’s how you can do it: 

Enhancing Existing Assets with Gen AI

If you wish to edit existing images, Gen AI in Performance Max allows you to do so with precision.

For example, suppose you want to change the background of the image and add something for the holiday season.

You can remove or edit image elements by providing a prompt that informs Google AI to change them and generate your desired image. 

For image optimization, Google AI uses GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), which help resize, adjust, and eliminate elements in the background from the image. 

Automating assets boosts productivity and simplifies asset management in a few clicks. Users no longer have to edit their PMax ad campaigns manually.  

Safety & Transparency of Gen AI in PMax 

Google promises privacy and security when it comes to running AI models. Oftentimes, advertisers worry about fraudulence, copyright issues, and safety while running AI models.

To counteract this, Google assures transparency between its guidelines and advertisers, which helps build trust amongst the advertisers. 

For that purpose, the platform abides by its AI principles and practices, which include the following: 

• Google’s AI principles guide the development of its AI systems. Its frameworks, such as the Secure AI Framework and Frontier Safety Framework, assure security and evolving model capabilities.
  
• Their governance process covers model development, application deployment, and post-launch monitoring.
  
• The security team tracks AI risks and liabilities by conducting deep research, external expert input, and red teaming.
  
• The team then looks into their systems against safety, privacy, and security benchmarks.
  
• Lastly, they employ mitigation techniques to maintain safety, such as safety tuning, security controls, and robust provenance solutions. 

Further Reading: What’s the difference between PMax Feed-Only vs All Assets? We delve into the nitty-gritty of the two and understand the differences in this detailed guide.

Understanding AI Watermarking

Google intelligently watermarks advertisers’ images to protect copyright, avoid unauthorized usage, and prevent misinformation. 

They utilize SynthID to watermark the images invisibly. SynthID is a watermarking tool that embeds a digital watermark into the image’s pixels. While this is trackable by advanced machines, it is not visible to the human eye.

This tool can also be used to identify other AI-generated images. Your watermarked images will also contain standard metadata, which will help indicate that your ad images are AI-made. 

Protection via Guardrails

While creating ad creatives, Google uses guardrails to prevent asset groups from interacting with sensitive or inappropriate prompts that go against its policies.

All generated assets are subject to the existing Ads policies. You must review and check your assets after they are generated in the preview section and thoroughly inspect them before publishing in the ad campaign. 

Strategic Enhancements in PMax Campaigns with AI 

Now that you have a grasp of how generative AI works and how you can use it to your advantage, it’s time to face the real question: how to stay ahead of the competition?

Many leading brands, including your competitors, use gen AI in Performance Max campaigns to gain an edge. 

To help you stay ahead of the curve, we have gathered some crucial points that can help you enhance your AI campaign strategy: 

1. Integrate Product Studio:

Product Studio is an AI-powered tool in the Google Merchant Center Next, where merchants can use AI to generate and enhance product images. The feed from the Merchant Center can be synced into PMax ad campaigns.

This lets you add automated images to the campaign and improves the visual appeal of your ad across YouTube, Display, Discover, etc. 

2. Enable Final URL Expansion 

Enabling the Final URL expansion has the potential to direct shoppers to the most relevant landing pages. By pairing automated assets and final URL expansion, you optimize shoppers’ destination experience (use caution when using).

3. Completely Optimize Your Campaign with AI

Utilize the entire AI automation suite. Further optimize your campaign by incorporating PMax search themes and audience signals. 

4. Real-Time Strategy Adjustments

The algorithms adjust ad bidding strategies in real-time. This helps maximize your marketing campaigns’ ROI. Leverage AI for more personalization, more targeted and effective marketing strategies.

Conclusion 

AI-generated automation has eased the efforts of advertisers worldwide. Thanks to Gen AI in Performance Max campaigns, advertisers can now enhance their advertising capabilities and reduce manual work. 

Gen AI is the next big thing. From image generation to developing entire ad campaigns, gen AI is only evolving and is the solution to all known problems. 

More Performance Max Blogs To ‘Max’ Up Your Ad Game: Performance Max Placements: View, Control & Optimize Performance Max vs Search Campaign – Which Is Better for You? Performance Max Feed-Only Campaigns: Setup & Strategies Mastering Performance Max Experiments for Campaign Success Demand Gen vs Performance Max

FAQS

 How can generative AI enhance creative assets in a Performance Max campaign?

Generative AI can quickly create and optimize creative assets, improving their quality and relevance to enhance campaign performance.

What are the best practices for integrating generative AI with Performance Max targeting strategies?

Align AI-generated content with campaign goals, ensure policy compliance, and maintain brand consistency for effective targeting.

How can I ensure the quality and relevance of AI-generated content in my Performance Max campaigns?

Implement rigorous quality control measures, regularly test variations, and guide AI with clear brand guidelines.

How can generative AI help optimize budget allocation in Performance Max campaigns?

AI can analyze performance data to allocate budget more effectively, focusing on high-performing assets and strategies.

How can I measure the effectiveness of AI-generated content in my Performance Max campaigns?

Use analytics tools to track performance metrics, compare against benchmarks, and adjust strategies based on data insights.

How can generative AI assist in real-time optimization of Performance Max campaigns?

AI can adapt strategies based on real-time data, allowing for agile adjustments to improve campaign outcomes.