• by Laurie Sullivan , 8 hours ago

Google is testing the ability for advertisers to split-test shopping ads, specifically for creative assets in Performance Max campaigns.

This allows advertisers to compare the performance of two sets of assets in the same group, within three groups, to find the creative that works best. This capability was previously limited to retail-focused campaigns but has now been expanded to all campaign types.

Dario Zannoni, webmaster in Japan, wrote on LinkedIn that once available, the experiment can be set up from the Experiments page, under the Assets sub-menu.

“However, considering the time Performance Max typically requires to complete its learning phase and stabilize ad delivery, these tests will likely need to run for a considerable period to produce reliable results, probably not less than 4 weeks,” Zannoni wrote.

Zannoni called the feature “very promising.” He also pointed in his post to a Google help document that outlines Performance Max optimization experiments, and that the assets are divided into three categories such as Control group, Treatment group, and Common assets.

Duane Brown, software development engineer at Amazon, also spotted the test being talked about in a Slack group, to which Ginny Marvin, Google Ads product liaison, confirmed the feature is in beta.

Performance Max was often viewed as a "black box" where identifying specific performance results for image, video, or headline seemed difficult.

Advertisers also can now test up to 15 videos per asset group, up from five. It provides additional data points for algorithms to find the perfect combinations.