When Google decided to sunset Smart Shopping campaigns in favor of Performance Max, ADM was ready.

The Context

Caraway is a popular maker of high-quality home cookware. As an eCommerce business, Caraway frequently used Google’s Smart Shopping campaigns to advertise their wares.

Google planned to sunset the Smart Shopping campaign format by the end of August 2022, with Performance Max being the determined replacement. The transition would be automated, but in advance advertisers had the opportunity to transition manually. ADM considers Performance Max campaigns beneficial for improving delivery and increasing shopping reach. 

Because Smart Shopping campaigns accounted for nearly two-thirds of Caraway’s Google Ads delivery, smooth and structured transition was vitally important for maintaining the client’s strict return on ad spend (ROAS) goals. This was especially pressing because we believed Google was likely to favor Performance Max delivery over Smart Shopping during the transition period—meaning the longer we waited, the harder it might become to achieve Caraway’s monthly revenue expansion goals.

Our Solution

In order to transition Caraway’s campaigns, we needed to aggregate all necessary creative assets and determine the most effective campaign structure under the new format. ADM determined that a phased approach to Performance Max transition would limit the likelihood of negative impact on delivery, given that there is often volatility during automated transitions. 

We worked closely with the Caraway team to get all the necessary creative across image, video and text to form the campaigns. Then we leveraged product type keyword data from their search campaigns to form custom audiences for each asset group, which would better inform the Performance Max campaigns on who to target with what creative. 

ADM rolled out our transition plan, beginning with a lower-volume campaign in order to study the differences between Smart Shopping and Performance Max in detail, utilizing  insights from the initial transition to inform the subsequent campaign updates. These learnings allowed for us to properly allocate budget across the old and new campaigns during the transition period to control for volatility despite significant upheaval in the account.

Adhering to our phased approach, ADM began transitioning campaigns two months prior to the automatic transition deadline, giving Caraway’s account significant time to benefit from the lack of other advertisers using Performance Max. Finally, we created separate Performance Max campaigns based on the different product types to allow for custom creative, well-defined audience signals, and to control bids and budgets more effectively. 

Client Overview

Caraway Home is a brand that designs and manufactures ceramic-coated cookware and bakeware. The brand has built a reputation for its appealing, practical designs and high-quality construction. The brand has also received a boost thanks to a popular cooking influencer who prominently uses its products in her videos. ADM has been working with Caraway Home since June 2020. Our team proudly manages their search engine marketing (SEM) services, running successful search and shopping campaigns in both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.