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About Performance Max campaigns

Note

Performance Max is an asset-focused campaign type that allows you to easily create and manage your campaigns, optimize ads to reach the right audience at the right time, and drive performance to meet advertising goals—across the entire Microsoft Advertising Network. Rather than manually creating ads one by one, you can save time by adding assets, such as text and images, to your asset groups and let us take care of the rest.

Microsoft AI will determine which assets and audiences are best for your ads based on your campaign and asset group settings, including your audience signals. We'll ensure that your ads have optimal asset combinations, capturing the attention of customers who are ready to buy your product or service. For information on creating your Performance Max campaign, please see Create a Performance Max campaign.

You can also apply brand exclusion lists to your Performance Max campaigns for the branded search queries you don't want your ads to serve on. This helps ensure that your target audience sees your ads in a context that's appropriate for your brand. For information on creating your Performance Max campaign, please see Create a Performance Max campaign. For information about best practices and recommendations for Performance Max campaigns, see Best practices for Performance Max campaigns.

Note

Not everyone can use brand exclusions yet. If you can't, don't worry—it's coming soon!

The benefits of using Performance Max campaigns

  • Save time. You provide the assets in your asset groups, and we'll automatically optimize your ads for the highest performance.
  • Use real-time automation to maximize your return on investment (ROI). Using AI, Performance Max campaigns stay on top of consumer trends to determine the best asset combinations for your ads. Then, your ads are updated in real-time to enhance conversion value and help meet your campaign goals.
  • Easily manage your campaign. Reduce the manual load of managing multiple campaigns with Performance Max's campaign optimization. You can advertise your products and services with a single simple-to-manage campaign, and our automation will ensure you're delivering ads that drive performance.

Use Performance Max when you want to:

  • Meet specific performance goals, such as increasing sales and driving potential customers to your website.
  • Enhance your return on ad spend and maximize reach across the entire Microsoft Advertising Network.
  • Display your ads across the entire Microsoft Advertising Network with a single campaign.
  • Expand your ad reach and increase conversion value by serving search, audience, and Product ads.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • How do Performance Max campaigns impact my existing Search campaigns and keywords?

    • Performance Max campaigns serve to complement existing Search campaigns and won't impact your keyword targeting.
    • If a search query matches a search keyword associated with your account, then your Search campaign ads will take priority over your Performance Max ads during ad delivery.
    • If a search query doesn't match a search keyword associated with your account, then the ad with the highest relevance and performance will display during ad delivery.

  • How do Performance Max campaigns interact with other campaign types in the ad auction?

    Ad delivery for Search campaigns with exact match keywords is prioritized over Performance Max campaigns. For all other campaign types, the campaign with the highest ad rank will serve.

  • Can I manage multiple channels (like Google and Facebook) with my Microsoft Advertising Performance Max campaigns?

    No, Performance Max campaigns serve across the entire Microsoft Advertising Network. Multi-channel management is only available with Smart campaigns.

  • What is the learning period for Performance Max campaigns and how long does it take for them to go live?

    Performance Max campaigns should get their first impression within three days after you set them up (for campaigns serving Product ads) or four days (for campaigns not serving Product ads). The learning period upon making optimizations and adding new assets should be two to four weeks or two to three conversion cycles (e.g., the amount of time it takes for a click to result in a conversion). If you experience longer periods, escalate to your Microsoft Account team or Contact_adCenterSupport.md) as soon as possible.

  • How long does the editorial review of new or edited asset groups take?

    Most reviews are completed within 48 hours. If your content still has the Under Review delivery status after two business days, please contact Support for assistance.

  • What is IndexNow and how can it benefit Performance Max campaigns?

    IndexNow is a no cost, simple, and efficient protocol that allows websites to instantly notify search engines about content changes so that new, updated, and deleted web content is quickly indexed. We recommend using IndexNow to boost your ad performance for Performance Max campaigns, as it helps maintain accuracy and relevancy for ads that are generated using information from your website. See Using IndexNow to enhance ad performance for more information.

  • Will Netflix inventory be included in Performance Max campaigns?

    Not at this time.

  • How do Performance Max campaigns work with third-party tool providers?

    There is support for third-party tool providers such as Skai, Adobe, SA360, and Marin, and we're working with additional partners on support. This is coming soon. To learn more about how these third-party tool providers work with Performance Max, see the pages below. Note: For Skai, you'll need to log in before visiting their help center to see what's supported for Performance Max campaigns.

  • Do I need to create keywords for my Performance Max campaigns?

    You don't need to create and manage keyword lists for Performance Max campaigns, as they don't use keywords. However, you can use search themes (words or phrases) associated with your campaign to help Microsoft Advertising optimize your campaign during the learning period. Search themes act as signals to help us reduce the learning period and get your campaign up and running quicker. To learn more about search themes, see Create a Performance Max campaign.

    Note

    You may choose to add negative keywords at the account level with negative keyword lists to help prevent your ad from appearing in response to certain search queries. For more information about negative keyword lists, see How to add keywords that won't trigger my ads (negative keywords).

  • How do I know which products from my Microsoft Merchant Center catalog will be included in an asset group under my Performance Max campaign?

    You can use listing groups to determine which products from your Microsoft Merchant Center catalog should be included in a particular asset group under Performance Max campaigns. Up to 20,000 listing groups can be applied to each asset group.

  • Can I upgrade my Smart Shopping campaign to Performance Max?

    For advertisers who still have access to Smart Shopping campaigns, they can manually upgrade them to Performance Max by going to the Campaigns page and selecting the checkbox next to the appropriate Smart Shopping campaign. Then, select Edit > Upgrade to Performance Max.

    Note

    After converting a Smart Shopping campaign to Performance Max, your new Performance Max campaign will have about a two week learning period (or less). We'll retain your Smart Shopping campaign's performance data for reporting purposes. This means that you'll still be able to view reports on how your Smart Shopping campaign performed and can compare it to your new Performance Max campaign.

  • What is the editorial review and how long does the review take after adding a new asset group?

    When you add a new asset group, it will undergo an editorial review to ensure it meets our policy guidelines. Most reviews are completed within 48 hours. If your content still displays the Under Revew or Disapproved status after two business days, please contact Support.

    A Disapproved status for an asset group indicates that certain elements within your assets may not comply with our guidelines. If you believe your asset group adheres to all guidelines and would like to request an exception for a disapproval, see How do I challenge a disapproval?

  • Are website exclusions supported for Performance Max campaigns?

    Website exclusions are supported only at the account level for Performance Max campaigns. The following first-party domains are not supported for website exclusions in Performance Max campaigns:

    • msn.com
    • outlook.com
    • outlook.live.com
    • microsoftcasualgames.com
    • windows.msn.com
    • ntp.msn.com
    • zone.msn.com
    • superapp.msn.com
    • bing.com

    Note

    This only applies to Performance Max campaigns—these first-party domain exclusions will continue to apply to any other campaigns you have set.

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