Performance Max campaigns are a relatively new offering from Google that utilise machine learning to optimise your ads across all of Google’s channels, including YouTube, Google Search, and the Display Network, all from a single campaign.
The appeal? It promises to maximise your reach by automatically finding the best performing audiences and providing more conversions at a lower cost.
For a business owner or marketing manager like yourself, this sounds ideal—especially when you’re aiming to attract a specific audience without splashing out on multiple ad campaigns.
Performance Max Lead Generation Case Study: Seniors First
We considered this approach for Seniors First, a Sydney-based reverse mortgage broker targeting Australian seniors. The potential to automate ad placements and leverage Google’s vast network to reach this niche audience was too good to pass up.
After all, who wouldn’t want to streamline their marketing efforts and potentially reduce costs while targeting very specific customer profiles?
Here’s what Seniors First aimed to achieve:
- Target Audience: Directly reach Australian seniors interested in reverse mortgages.
- Quality Leads: Generate leads that are ready to engage and potentially make decisions.
- Efficient Reach: Utilise digital advertising to connect with this niche market effectively.
Here’s what led us to choose Performance Max:
- Automation and AI: The platform uses advanced machine learning to optimise ad placements across Google’s entire inventory—Search, Display, YouTube, and more—automating the heavy lifting and theoretically improving efficiency.
- Comprehensive Reach: We decided to experiment with Performance Max to see how its AI capabilities could assist us across our conversion funnel. The goal was to enhance our presence across multiple formats and scale up our visibility, positioning our ads strategically to catch the attention of seniors actively considering their financial options.
- Expectations: Our aim was to leverage Performance Max to generate high-quality leads—seniors genuinely interested in exploring reverse mortgages. We hoped this technology-driven approach would lead to better engagement and more effective conversion rates, taking full advantage of AI to optimise our campaigns.
The Outcome: Evaluating the Quality of Leads
After launching the Performance Max campaign for Seniors First, you’d likely expect us to report a surge in high-quality leads, right?
Unfortunately, the reality didn’t quite meet our expectations. Despite the sophisticated technology and promises of reaching the ideal customer at the perfect moment, the leads we gathered told a different story.
Here’s what we discovered:
- Lead Quality: The leads generated through Performance Max were generally challenging to convert. Since these campaigns operate based on signals and do not allow for age restrictions like traditional campaigns, we often reached individuals outside our target demographic—Australian seniors. This lack of control meant that many contacts were not seriously considering a reverse mortgage or simply were not the right age group. However, having younger individuals in our database isn’t without potential benefits. These contacts could become valuable customers in the future as their circumstances change.
- Conversion Rates: The leads we generated required more effort to convert into potential customers because they were often in the initial phase of getting to know the service. This challenge directly impacted our conversion rates, as the number of leads that progressed to serious inquiries and eventual clients was lower than expected. Consequently, the campaign was not as cost-effective as we had hoped, underscoring the need for targeted engagement strategies to nurture these early-stage contacts.
For you, as a business owner or marketing manager, these findings are crucial. They suggest that while Performance Max offers extensive reach and automation, it might not always align perfectly with specialised services requiring highly targeted leads.
Alternative Strategies: What We Recommend Instead
After our experience with Performance Max, we’ve explored other campaign strategies that could be more effective for targeting specific audiences like Australian seniors. Here are a couple of options to consider:
Search Campaigns and Facebook Remarketing
These campaigns allow for more controlled targeting, including exclusions based on age and interests. With Search campaigns, you can directly target queries specific to your audience, enhancing the relevance of your ads. Facebook Remarketing, on the other hand, lets you re-engage individuals who have already shown interest in your services, potentially increasing conversion rates by reminding them of what you offer.
Similar Audiences
Using data from your existing customer base, campaigns targeting similar audiences can help you reach new users whose interests and demographics align closely with your best-performing customers. This method is particularly effective in refining your outreach, ensuring you’re more likely to connect with people genuinely interested in your services.
By focusing on these targeted campaign types, you can better manage your advertising spend and improve your campaign outcomes.
Lessons Learned: Valuable Insights from Our Experiment
Reflecting on our journey with Performance Max for Seniors First, there are several key takeaways that can help shape your future marketing strategies.
Understanding what works—and what doesn’t—is crucial for refining your approach and ensuring your advertising dollars are well-spent.
Here’s the crux of our experience:
- Performance Max may not always be the best fit for specialised lead generation, particularly when targeting highly specific audiences like Australian seniors. Although it provides extensive reach and automation, it might not consistently yield the high-quality, targeted leads required for niche markets. However, these campaigns are excellent for generating brand awareness and establishing a strong presence at the top of people’s minds, making them a valuable tool for broader marketing objectives.
- Consider other options: Based on our findings, starting with Search or Facebook campaigns might be more effective for your specific needs. These platforms offer greater control over audience targeting, allowing you to precisely tailor your advertising to the groups most likely to be interested in your services. This focused approach can lead to better outcomes by directly reaching those who are most relevant to your business.
We invested into this experiment so you wouldn’t have to, testing the waters of Performance Max and learning firsthand what works and what doesn’t.
If you are interested in exploring better ways to generate leads for your business, you can get a FREE assessment from our in-house advertising experts at WebBuzz.
