Google announces additional AI-powered PMax updates for peak season

Google has announced the incoming release of several AI-powered updates to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns as advertisers gear-up for the peak shopping season. 

The updates cover asset testing, video performance and campaign management, building upon the series of new controls and features for AI-powered campaigns for PMax and search, announced at DMEXCO in September. 

In terms of asset testing, the update is intended to help retailers optimise assets to better connect with their audience. 

Within the experiments page, advertisers will soon be able to validate the impact of adding new assets beyond their product feed. Available in beta in early November, this will include measurement of the uplift in from adding images, text, and video assets to a product-feed only campaign. 

Further, final URL expansion tests are moving to general availability. This feature allows advertisers to determine if replacing their final URL with a more relevant landing page from their website drives stronger search results. 

Image generation in Google Ads is also being updated with a version of Imagen 3—Google’s “most advanced text-to-image model, tuned using ads performance data to help you create higher-performing assets for your Performance Max, Demand Gen, App, and display campaigns."

On the video front, new enhancements will see users able to scale their creativity on YouTube. Using Google AI, more versions of advertisers’ existing videos can be automatically created with the intention of unlocking additional YouTube inventory and performance opportunities.

Among the updates, flips video ads will see Google AI intelligently flip original video formats to create videos in new aspect ratios. The AI will also be able to shorten video ads by selecting key moments and automatically creating shorter versions. 

This feature will be available across PMax, Video Action, Demand Gen and App campaigns, with each format retaining control over the creation and distribution of videos. 

The final update, as reported earlier this week, will see more flexibility for advertisers to manage PMax and standard shopping campaigns together. PMax will no longer be automatically prioritised when a campaign is in the same account targeting the same products. Instead, Ad Rank will determine which campaign serves an ad. 

This story first appeared on Campaign's sister publication Performance Marketing World.