Google Just Added Text Ads to Shopping Campaigns — Is AI Max for Shopping a Win or a Trap?

Google just dropped a PMax special — and there's a lot to unpack.

In this episode of Growing Ecommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris break down three major updates reshaping how ecommerce advertisers run Performance Max and Shopping campaigns in 2025:

1. Network exclusions for PMax: You can now opt out of Search Partner Network AND Google Display Network directly inside PMax. Years in the making, and a massive lever for both performance and brand safety. We walk through why it matters, when to use it, and how to check your own data first.

2. Shopping Performance View: A new level of product-level reporting coming to PMax and Demand Gen campaigns via the Google Ads API. See performance by brand, category, product type, and item ID — the same parity you get in standard Shopping. Huge for anyone who's tried and failed to understand feed performance inside Max.

3. AI Max for Shopping: The biggest one. Google is rolling out an optional AI layer for standard Shopping campaigns with three features:

- Text customization: Google rewrites your product titles dynamically per query

- Final URL expansion (FUE): Google picks landing pages from your site — including category pages

- Optimal format selection: Text ads can now appear inside your Shopping campaigns

We discuss what this means for advertisers who run standard Shopping for control, whether there's real redundancy with Search and PMax, the campaign overlap and CPC escalation risk, and why Mike thinks this is actually bigger than AI Max for Search.

Standard Shopping: confirmed not dead. Google is investing in it.

Growing Ecommerce is brought to you by smarter ecommerce (smec) — helping online retailers optimize paid search through AI-powered software and human PPC expertise.

#PerformanceMax #PMax #GoogleShopping #AIMaxForShopping #GoogleAds #EcommerceMarketing #PPC #SearchPartnerNetwork #GoogleAdsUpdates #PaidSearch

About Smarter Ecommerce (smec):

Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control.

The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution.

As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and drives €5B+ in annual e-commerce revenue for 350+ global retail clients including THG, Snipes, REWE, and Intersport.

Make sure to follow smec - Smarter Ecommerce for more performance marketing insights:

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Transcript

Intro: The PMax special

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to another episode of Growing E-Commerce. We have a jam-packed agenda today. It's a bit of a PMAX special, you could say. So we're going to be focusing on some updates to PMAX and the PMAX verse. It's getting bigger. Yes, we'll be talking about exclusions coming for certain networks, deeper transparency coming to PMAX, and the newest addition to the family, AI Max for shopping. What?

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Okay, but first things first. Helder, sir. Nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah, it's good to be back.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

So with I mean, look, I I may I may I take over here? By all means. By all means. You mentioned

Search Partner Network & Display Network exclusions in PMax

SPEAKER_00 0:52

exclusion possibilities now for certain networks.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I would like to start with that one. Okay. Because I feel like it's important to you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Alright? Yeah, it is. Okay. Okay. Please, Mike. Let's start with that. A deeply emotional moment for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

What exclusion possibilities do we have now?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yeah, when I say certain networks, I'm referring specifically to Google Display Network, alright? And Search Partner Network. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Hell yes. Mate, so you tell me with a straight face that you you have the possibility now to exclude Search Partner Network from PMAX. Yes. No way. You're kidding.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

It's possible.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yes, it only took us three, four years. Ladies and gents, all the listeners, I have to look, I have to share some flowers with with this dude uh next to me now. Because Mike was fighting this war with with utmost intensity, um, ruthlessness, and man, you achieved it. And I can remember an episode in the year 2025. It was about the search partner network where you did an analysis, performance analysis, where you clearly showed that the search partner network is on average not performing.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

And you brought this up again. Google, do something.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

And here we are. Yes. I mean, I'm pro may I say that I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Well, thanks. I can't take sole credit for this, but I think I was definitely a voice. Um, I know those Googlers read my posts, they don't always like them.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Don't undersell yourself, mate. Uh but I know, of course, a lot of things played into this. You were one of the major voices here. And I think it's a it's a I mean we shouldn't oversell this feed itself, but it's a it's it's a massive, massive leverage now to to to optimize your performance. Let's face it. Yes. Hell of a job, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

I I had to do this.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

I had to do this. I've taken the handshake. I'll take a handshake. But I mean, yeah, I want to shout out there's been other, you know, vendors. Uh there are people like who brought the some there were a couple of search partner network scandals in the past couple of years coming from independent researchers. Um, and ultimately it's brands, advertisers, their budgets and wallets and where they're spending or not. Um, and when this is a sticking point for too long, you know, they at first they had a temporary opt-out of Search Partner Network because there was a huge PR crisis more than once. Um, and then they allowed in exclusion of placements in Search Partner Network. But every other campaign, like search uh campaigns, shopping campaigns, there's just a clear opt-out option. And that's what we've been missing. And for the most dominant channel, which is PMAX. Yeah, it's finally here. You know, I think I think I'll say that so there were researchers pushing on the brand safety front. Um, I always approach this from a performance front, but I also think that those two are heavily correlated in the end.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Um and maybe maybe to circle back, why this is so important? Because as a matter of fact, and you did a quite comprehensive analysis a couple of months ago. Yes. Um, the Search Partner Net Network, and we we don't want to doom it by default, but in general, there were some issues. Yeah. Brand safety issues, and and let's let's let's be clear, quite some spicy and and highly serious brand safety issues. Yes, right? Absolutely. We don't want to to to open that box of cans again, but it was really serious. And the second thing is the performance. On average, yeah, we showed that the search button network was lacking.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

And yeah, I mean, two major reasons why there had there should be an opt-out possibility in the first place, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Yeah, yeah, totally. And yeah, I mean, um again, I don't like always follow the data. Look at your own data. You can go to the PMAX channel report, search partner network is broken out in there now for a while, and you can like scroll down to the table view below and just check if it makes sense in your PMAX campaigns or not. Because there are some campaigns where it's going to work. For sure. Um, and if you curate it enough with placement exclusions and stuff, there there could be opportunities in there for you. So I I'm not gonna say outright that it has no place, but what we saw for most advertisers is that it's

How to check your own SPN data + Mike's placement exclusion script

SPEAKER_01 5:19

negative, it's harmful. Um and so having the ability to opt out is all that we wanted.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

That's that's certainly great news. By the way, for the placement exclusion, we have a script here, right? We maybe we c can share it uh now. You should have a look at it. It it will help you.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Definitely. Yeah, late uh 2025, I wrote a script to help continue drawing some awareness toward this toward this issue.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

And it might still be needed because uh let's face it, the search button network might be working for some retailers, but still have a detailed look, follow data, and and yeah, be selective with uh with certain websites you just don't want to be there. Exactly. But Mike, I mean I can't even believe it that I'm saying this. This alone would be great. But there's more to it.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah, Google Display Network, you mean, yeah. Exactly. They've they've opted or they've given an opt-out or opt-in opt-out for Google Display Network as well. And there's a huge amount of overlap between the search partners in the display network. Um some people are just not happy to have that activity in their PMAX at all. It's very remarketing oriented, then maybe they want less of that, whatever the case might be. Um so whether it's a brand safety issue or a performance issue or like uh what is the purpose of this campaign, a strategy issue, do I want remarketing more or less? So again, I'm actually a little less critical of Google display networks, but they did a hell of a chop here. Exactly. And it I think with both of these networks, what I would love to see, and I I think Google will continue to make progress here as well. I because I would actually just love to see that the networks have an overall higher standard of quality and where you don't have to worry about using that's what I would love.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Aaron Powell That would would be the the aim, yeah. Yeah. However, I think I mean maybe maybe we can leave it there. And uh shout out to Google.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Right? I mean Yeah. They they listen to the market. They listen to you, they listen to others. Yeah. Thank you. And it's a great thing. And the the the recommendation to everyone here is follow the data, have a look at it because it can really make a difference. Yes. It really can make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

For sure. Because that it's always the range of outcomes. This is why I hate providing single monolithic numbers. I go on this rant often enough, but um you know I think the the monolithic number was like 37% lower ROS in search partner network.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

But you had the outliers.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

But there's a range of outcomes. Some people it was even far worse than that. But some people it really helps us. Yes. So have a look. No, cool thing. Yeah. Cool thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Again, Mike. It was worth it. All the sleepless nights. It was worth it.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

My my beard is is maybe it got a lot grayer, but maybe I'll still be. No, I look distinguished, man. Thank you, Search Partner Network, for making me look more distinguished. So, Mike, what what's next on the agenda? Well, um, so more credit where credit is due to Google.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, it it it feels nah, it feels okay.

More transparency: Shopping Performance View explained

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Google Google is doing a lot of things right. It is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah, I know I I had this uh meme a long time ago now, 18 months, two years ago, that Google is eliminating all the reasons for hating PMAX.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yes. Um and the meme, by the way, is a great one. I used it for one of my talks. No, but there is really less less and less reasons to to hate PMAX. It has become a very powerful transparent channel. Yeah. You I mean we talked about this. You have the leverages back on in your control for the most part. Yeah. And uh people tend to forget how bad smart shopping was. Yes. Um that's right.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Smart shopping, I as I I really feel it's the low point in the street.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

It was the low point, yeah. And and and PMAX is a significantly better, better channel. And uh yeah, credit where credit is due.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

But let's well, we haven't uh we're talking around it. So specifically, there's more transparency coming to PMAX. Um this what is it? Yeah, there was a I was overdue. I I like once every one or two weeks I check the Google Ads Developer blog and see what's new. And uh I missed this one because I was a little behind on this, but there's the new level of reporting coming to actually to demand gen app campaigns and PMAX. So this is not just a PMAX exclusive thing. Um and if you're falling asleep hearing Google Ads Developer blog, just bear with me because this is it's it's really important and helpful. Um so and it's not that technical, but there's a major view in the ads API. It's called the shopping performance view. And this contains every product related dimension that you can imagine. Category. Yeah, exactly. Brand, category, level one through five. You have product types, custom labels, item ID, of course, product title. Yep. Um so as an e-commerce advertiser, this is the beating heart of course all of your product-related um performance reporting. And so, you know, Google, we've we've said that it's no longer a black box in PMAX. Um, but this this channel reporting was limited to the campaign level. Yes. And it wasn't compatible with a lot of other dimensions that you'd want. And even that they've they've been improving here. But now they're joining this also Demand Gen. This is super significant for Demand Gen 2, because that's increasingly feed-based. Um so this is really important. They're allowing both of those campaigns to have full access to the channel, excuse me, uh the shopping performance view and everything that that entails. And this includes the network segment, which is this when you talk about PMAX channels, network, these are synonymous.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Um which is now making the first point even stronger. So you you you it you're not just able now to completely exclude the search partner network, but you can really do now a thorough analysis. Yes, exactly. So it's basically equal to the uh from a performance perspective analysis. Um it's equal to all the other channels. I'm talking about the the search partner network here. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

It's great. Yeah. This is this is on this complete parody with the kind of reporting that you have in standard shopping camp. Awesome. So yeah, I mean what what you can do here, we're still waiting because uh I don't know when this episode will air exactly, but uh this this will actually all be up and running by like mid-June. Um, and I'm sure they're gonna talk about it at Google Marketing Live as well. Um But yeah, this will so we're waiting to see all the data that will be available, but it looks like you can see your channel split inside of PMAX per brand, per product type.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Per product. This is this is fascinating. It's it's and again, but circling back to our statement, the Google gives it it hands over the the leverages again.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

I mean it it it's really a hell of a thing. I I I really loved it, especially for the campaign type uh for the channel Dimancia. Yeah. Because this per se is a great channel. We talked about it a lot, but now you you can make way better decisions, informed decisions. It's it's great. Yeah. Nothing, nothing more to add here.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah, I'm uh exactly. Let's not yeah, demand genetics. I'm super excited because people have been adding feeds and demand gen for quite some time now. And I've tried to look and understand the performance of that, and you can't. So great tape. Really big. So props to Google. Yes, props to Google. It feels right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

What about the next one, Chris?

AI Max for Shopping: background and strategy

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Uh it it it made maybe you do the intro. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Uh this is a here, I'm gonna go back to an email. I love referencing this email. There was a leaked email after Google Marketing Live a couple years ago now, or year, was it last year or the I can't remember, but um where they they were it was the earliest discussion about AI Max for search campaigns. And at the time, they it was clear this new technology was coming out. It was being discussed inside amongst execs, and they were calling it P Max for Search. Search, yes. Um, and then when it rolled out in beta, it was called Search Max. And then finally, um, I hope someone got a promotion for it, they decided to call it AI Max for Search.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

I think AI makes makes all the difference in how this thing is perceived.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah. And and and it puts a distance uh as well from PMAX because yeah. But what they did, they migrated all kinds of campaigns over to PMAX campaigns. And I I'm sure we've talked about this on the pack podcast before, but quickly, uh, there were still these some big heavy stones left that they couldn't move, most notably search campaigns and shopping campaigns. And so they had this genius idea to kind of invert their usual strategy. And rather than bringing search to PMAX, because we know they focus grouped that idea, and I don't know the results of the focus group, but I think it wasn't good. They brought PMAX to search. And now you can connect the dots here. Okay, AI Max for shopping campaigns, they're bringing PMAX or some components of it to standard shopping campaigns.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yes. Which is a hell of a thing, and we will unpack it. Yeah. But before we unpack the the details, I would like to discuss um this this move from a more strategic perspective, product strategic perspective. Yeah. We as a matter of fact, we know that there were to a certain degree this this this this fast adoption of PMEX, more or less forced to a certain degree, but standard shopping didn't go away. Yeah. Right? For for for good reasons, for all the all the right reasons. Um but what we see now is especially the last couple of months, is that the cost share for standard shopping is not just uh stabilizing, but it's slightly increasing.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Then there was this for me very stunning and surprising white paper Google brought up where in which Google openly talked about great use cases to have a hybrid approach. Yeah, standard shopping and PMAX running in parallel. And all these signs were clear to us that uh standard shopping might become a thing again for for Google. And what you're telling me now is that AI Max for shopping, it's it's quite a heavy investment from from a product development perspective for the campaign type standard shopping. So am I right here that it's more fair than ever to say standard shopping is here to stay?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yes, I would say so. I mean they're investing in the product here. There's actually one of the features is new, it's an innovation. Exactly. So it's new to the shopping format.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah. Yeah. Why I'm bringing this up because uh just just the the other day I had a conversation with uh head of e-commerce of of quite some some significant online retail in Germany. And uh they they are running on standard shopping. And we had this this discussion about okay, am I riding the right horse here? Am I using a technology which is it isn't it a dead horse? And we had this very open discussion about it. And I I think that the discussion is a nuanced one. I think standard shopping, there is a place to run standard shopping in Mainz, and Google is still looking at this channel to innovate.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Definitely. Yeah. I I That's a major takeaway. I agree. I think it's it's uh a key sign that this is a future-proof campaign time. I I personally, because I used to agonize over it all the time. I was like, when are they gonna announce that they're getting ready for standard shopping? I felt in the smart shopping days, they they felt very antagonistic. Yes. And PMAX had a always this dominant relation towards shopping for a long time. Yep. Until somewhat recently.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

And it was an idol or story.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Yeah. Let's face it. They wanted you to choose. And

Text customization: should you let Google rewrite your titles?

SPEAKER_01 17:32

now, yeah, they're going for this both and strategy and they're investing in shopping again. I don't lose sleep over this anymore. I think that shopping is here to stay. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yes. Okay. Great. Now, however, I think when we unpack this AIMX for shopping now. Not not all things are by default utterly positive.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yeah. It's confusing.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

It's confusing. Let's unpack it, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

So what is AI Max for shopping? Yes. Um just uh just as a reminder, AI Max for search, this is not a new campaign type. It was a it was a technology layer that you can add on.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Basically DSA based, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yeah. It was most so what it does, it is basically a broad match layer and there's a DSA layer. This is basically what it boils down to in terms of traditional classic Google Ads technology. Um and now there's again not a new campaign type here, but there's an optional technology layer for shopping campaigns that you can use. And in this case, the features are text customization, which is known from other stuff like AMX and PMAX. It used to be called automatically created assets. Um so there's text customization and final URL expansion and something called optimal. Spit it out. Optimal format selection.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

This is where it gets tricky. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Anyway, yeah, let's let's talk about one and then the other.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

The text customization. Yes. Um just because it might be new to some listeners. What does it do?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Um text customization allows Google to write their own ad copy. And in the past, this was used to write headlines and things like that in search ads. Now, when you apply it to shopping, the question is what is the ad copy in a shopping ad? Um what's your read on that, Chris?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

And we had this discussion. The ad copy and to c The customization possibilities for a shopping ad are limited, right? And when we talk about the ad copy, the customization will happen with a title. Exactly. That that that's it. Yeah. And Google decides what the best possible title is for that particular search query. Yeah. That's the target state.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Exactly. So in the past, like you have if your fee title is a static attribute, and people have tried to find different ways to optimize their titles or try to have titles that are more relevant to queries. Um but here they're gonna customize that title.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

They're customizing this this title. I mean, probably a bigger thing, but we talked also about the the patent that Google at some point of time maybe will also create or customize their landing page based on the on the query. For me, this this is also a strong sign that Google wants, and that that's why I'm not sure about how positive this is, but Google wants to control the the ad quality more and more. Yeah. Which, again, we talked about this many times, and and the the you you have just limited leverages uh especially regarding that. But this is a clear sign, and I think it perfectly fits, of course, the potential future of search where this Atlantic commerce environment, um, you you're more conversate natural language based search queries. Of course, Google wants to map this perfectly to the ad result. Yes. That's why it makes sense. Yeah. But I don't know. Is it I mean, do we know anything about it? Is it working? Are there any can I can I can I run tests on this? Is Google choosing the right titles? Is there any any any transparency going on there?

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Um I mean, the feature has just been announced recently, and so I think it's early to talk about those results, but they come at this from multiple angles as well, because they they already there was a feature in Merchant Center for a while, or like where I think they could kind of reorder the words in your title and things like that. Um they have a feature in Product Studio, which uses AI to generate titles for you. Um and so they're they really but it's in everyone's interest because you know ultimately they they're viewing click through rate as a proxy of a good relationship here.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

It's actually their holy grail, honestly speaking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

And and it really is a win win win because and a consumer should see an ad that Feels relevant and doesn't feel like an ad so much is less annoying. Yes. And you as a like this is a marketplace of consumers, and you as a merchant or a retailer, like you also want those clicks you want in the traffic or you want the ad engagement. Um and Google wants those clicks too because they've built per click. Of course. So it's it's in everyone's interest actually to improve the click-through rate and improve, have these titles be as good as possible. Yeah. So their point is that in these new conversational slash AI chat landscapes and services, uh this is a way rather it can look at your whole feed and and determine the optimal title, not just move the word order around or really customize, optimize the title. You can rewrite your title on the flash.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Potential client. Yes. Again, I mean uh uh you you're right. At the end, I think it it's quite comparable to the patent that they at some point want to create this this landing page for for you as an online retailer. You have a point here. It can be a win-win-win situation. Yeah, it can be. The question is, does it work? That's the big question.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

And here, quite honestly, it's hard to bet against Google. So I I would say I I think there's a grain of of of salt here, a grain of concern, because it it it removes controllability. I mean, I'm sure I I know our clients, man, they are investing shitloads of times, right? To to optimize their title structure because they think they know what and then Google has the free free access to it and to customize it whenever they want. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Like I've you know, and on the organic side, um, this has been a topic for longer with titles being rewritten and some people hate it. I hated it, yes. And and so and some people say the performance is not good. I I have to think that where we are in this context, it sounds it sounds pretty positive. Yes. Probably. I I think uh I think of AI Max for shopping, you know, of the features, this is probably for most people the most obvious yes. Yes. Where they're gonna want to try it out. I just don't know how you would test it. That is tricky because like it otherwise, you know, there are there's tools like FeedX, which can help you test optimized titles in a split against non-optimized. Maybe they'll roll out a feature to help support that.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

I think it would be a hell of a thing. Uh because of course, I mean, I think it it's a it's a tough one to really test. But I as an online retailer, of course, always would have to question my mind, okay, is this it is this the best click rate I I I could have? I mean, and how how do I really know? Did Google the right thing here? Anyhow, I think we could trust Google more or should trust Google more than five years ago because the technology is so much more advanced. And you're right, go there is a goal coherence here. Google wants the click for you as an online retailer. So yeah. But I'm not 100% sold on it.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah. I mean, we'll have to see. I guess we'll the the question is also like how much transparency will we have to do that.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

But Google has a track record here now to really be transparent. So maybe there are ways to have a control over it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

We'll we'll definitely be learning more about the feature. Um, I hope it'll work, but it there's some

Final URL expansion and optimal format selection

SPEAKER_01 25:26

people again, if you don't like it, you don't have to use it. Yeah that's the current state.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

But ladies and gents, this was not even the most critical uh thing we wanted to talk about, this this new AIMEX or social. There's a bigger one, Mike. Again, do do the intro uh and I will chime in.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

All right, sure. So um the next there's two more features and they're interconnecting. Connected, yeah. Yeah. There's final URL expansion. By the way, Google is now calling this F U E. That's F-U-E. Okay. F-U E. That they've they've have an acronym for it. So we have another acronym we need to remember. F-U.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

F-U-E.

unknown 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

The F-U is easy to read. That's easy. Okay. F-U-E. Okay. All right, let's get a hold of it. So the two features here are final URL expansion, which we'll know from PMAX, AI Maxim Search, and optimal format selection, which is not you won't you won't know just by hearing what that means.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I have to ask here. Yes. Maybe I'm stupid. And I certainly are sometimes, but formats. So they choose the right format.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Aren't we talking about shopping ads? Which formats are there to choose from?

Text ads inside Shopping campaigns — who is this for?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Oh, you poor naive thing. If only it were that simple. No, we're not talking about. Why would we be talking about shopping ads in a shopping campaign, Chris?

SPEAKER_00 26:50

So there are more. So you tell me that there are more formats.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Text ads. Yes. No way. You can't activate final URL expansion without bait. It's basically dynamic search ads are going away, they're being sunset, but they're living on in AI Max for Search, in PMAX, and now in shopping.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Crazy shit.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

So just to run this through, I'm an online retailer and I I I take the deliberate decision to run standard shopping campaigns because I have more control. I can do certain things I can't do with PMAX. And now you tell me that there will be text ads published within my shopping campaigns. Yes. All right. All right. Well, my so my first reaction. Okay, it moves. Thanks for the straight answer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yes. My feelings about this are evolving. It's still new at the time of recording, anyway, this news. Um at first, I'm like, who is this for? Who is this for? Because like, if you is it for someone who's not running search campaigns already, or someone who's not running PMAX? Because it's so redundant. It's redundant. Um, I mean, the idea here is that search campaigns, excuse me, shopping campaigns are keyword based. They're matching products and queries. And sometimes there could be um a query that's just way more, let's say category-based or something. Um, and and maybe there's no specific product that fits that gap or whatever the case might be. There's something about that query where a text ad could be more relevant.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Because you have the landing page flexibility.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, exactly. So maybe they'll show a category page instead of a product page.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

And and I endorse that, but that's I mean, you have if you're running search campaigns and you're running shopping, or if you're running PMAC, you should already cover this, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yes. Um But is this maybe the use case? Is this because I mean if if there are and by the way, I think the the this product innovation, I'm talking about shopping campaigns, is I think one of the biggest innovations Google has ever done in that environment. This channel really was revolutionary. But the the one shortcoming, which is still sometimes talked about, especially with clients, is yes, you you there there are these mid-funnel query types. I'm looking for a brand, for category. With shopping, you're always forced to link to the product landing page. Yeah. And this might be might be not ideal. Is this feature that they can choose now, attach that as a format and choose the landing page? Is this feature now enabling also to link to a category page, for instance?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Or yeah, it can it can link to as far as as far as I know, it can take any landing page from your website that you don't exclude. Okay. That's interesting. That is interesting. But again, it's there's redundancy, right? Yes. You know, we've talked about this. There's overlap between shopping and PMAX. There's overlap between PMAX and Demand Gen. There's overlap between PMAX and search. There's overlap, there's now a new kind of overlap between PMAX and shopping.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Yes. And by the way, a completely different story is the and we had quite some some discussions with Google is if there are these overlaps. Yeah what what who decides which ad is shown? Because the ad rank isn't I the ad rank is basically defined or differentiated probably by the CPC itself. And we have this hypothesis that there might be escalating CPCs with uh within your campaign architecture. And the more overlaps there are, the the the the the higher the risk is, from my perspective. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

This Yeah, we it can we've you know it can also the fact a conversion could occur in PMAX today or AI Max search tomorrow or AI Max shopping the day after. Again, it's like it's just very weird. There's so many entry points all going to the same place.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

But maybe that's the strategy from Google.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Yeah. I mean the I and the to this question of who is this for? There could be from Google's perspective, there maybe there's so many advertisers out there who do only run standard shopping

Reportability and what comes next

SPEAKER_01 31:10

campaigns and exact match or something, and they or they don't use these DSA features and they're not using PMAX, and they can do something at this at that scale.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

But that's not what we see on our MCC level with our clients. But yes, this might be a might be a reason. It's just it's just a fascinating strategy. It's fascinating. Yeah. I mean one one because we're quite quite into the time box. One one question, Mike, one maybe last question. Um do we know anything about the uh reportability? So do I know if I'm running my shopping domains, do I know how my text ads within my shopping ads are performing? Is there a is there um a match type uh reporting again?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Or so I I don't know that yet, but my assumption will be if this works like the others, um in like AI Max for search, for example, then there will be an AI Max for search type type, yep. And you'll be able to see there, and maybe there'll even be there's this um ad headline URL combination report that they have for for this DSA type activity. That might also be necessary inside of shopping now. Um but it's just this is basically I actually think that this is much bigger than AI Max for search because that was basically actually replacing features that are exist in search, broadmatch, DSA, those were already there. Um but what this is doing now for shopping, it's expanding shopping as a campaign that covers the entire search network. It's like you now have you have DemandGen, which covers all of the video and display stuff, but not search network, and you have shopping, AI max shopping, which covers all of the search network, but not the video display stuff. And you're right. Then you have PMAX, which does everything, but it's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

This is a quite a big thing. Yeah. Quite a big thing. And they learn something new. There are tech sets in shopping ads. Of course they are. Yeah. I'm so stupid. Of course. Well, Chris. Thanks. Thanks for the time, mate. F you fank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

This has been another episode of Growing E commerce. Brought to you as always by Smarter Ecommerce. You can learn more at smarter ecommerce.com. And as always, if you enjoy this podcast, please give us a shout out on social media, leave us a review or rating, or even tell us F U E. See you.