Google Tool Lets Marketers Self-Upgrade Smart Shopping, Local Campaigns To Performance Max

Google created a self-upgrade tool announced Tuesday to transition Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max.

Eligible advertisers can now access the tool, which will continue to roll out in phases throughout August and September. Google recommends using it to upgrade campaigns ahead of the holiday season.

Those who choose not to use the tool will receive a notification in Google Ads a few weeks before their campaigns are automatically upgraded.  

Marketers can upgrade their Smart Shopping and Local campaigns by navigating to the notification in the ads’ dashboard, the Recommendations page, or the Campaign page.

Google says the historical performance of previous campaigns will migrate over, along with campaign settings such as bid strategy, budget, creatives, and goals.

Campaigns not eligible will migrate to Performance Max in 2023.

Those with access to the self-upgrade tool that do not upgrade campaigns by the end of September will continue to have access to the self-upgrade tool until 2023.

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When campaigns are self-upgraded using the tool or are automatically upgraded, historical campaign performance from previous Local campaigns will migrate to new Performance Max campaigns to maintain consistent performance. Campaign settings like conversion goals, budget, creative assets, and bid strategy will also automatically transfer to Performance Max.  

Previous Local campaigns will move to “Removed” status after upgrading to Performance Max, eliminating the ability for marketers to edit or reactivate the campaigns, or create new Local campaigns.

Historical data will continue to be available from the Campaigns page or Overview page in Google Ads.

In a blog post, the company also suggested best practices to ensure that advertisers get the most from the change.

For example, advertisers can use the Performance Planner to plan holiday budgets, start holiday campaigns two to three weeks in advance, set a value for each conversion -- for example, setting that a phone call click equals $3 and a store visit $equals 10 -- and turn off ad scheduling and/or geotargeting.

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