What is the PMAX Script, and how can it be used to help my campaigns?

What is the Mike Rhodes Performance Max Script?

Since its launch in 2021, Performance Max has been a data black box, providing advertisers with limited insights into spending channels, conversion sources, search terms, and more. This changed in 2022 when Mike Rhodes released his first PMAX insights script. Since then, Mike has continuously updated the script, introducing features like platform spend distribution, search theme data, and product profitability analysis. Recently, he integrated ChatGPT for advanced AI-produced insights.

You can learn more about it on this site here. 

Three PMAX Script Use-Cases

1. Channel by Channel Spend and Conversion Data: Google provides little insight into where our PMAX campaigns are spending. Advertisers are left analyzing Avg. CPCs, CTR, and other metrics are used to make educated guesses. Mike’s script, however, provides percent breakdowns of what channels (Shopping, Video, Display, and Search) our campaigns spend on and where conversions are coming from.

This is invaluable knowledge, particularly for E-commerce brands that prefer to spend their advertising budgets on the shopping channel for maximum ROI. With Performance Max now serving as Smart Shopping campaigns and rumors of Feed-Only Asset Groups going away, it’s become increasingly difficult to manage and be aware of shopping placements. Mike’s script is a tremendous help with this and provides insight into whether Feed-Only campaigns run only in the Shopping feed.

2. N-Grams and Search Categories: A newer addition to the script, advertisers can see which of their product categories, product titles, and ad themes drive the best CTR and engagement. With this, we can determine our competitive advantages, disadvantages, and areas of opportunity to grow advertising efforts. The example below shows strong performance from “coloring” searches and poor results from “booklet” related queries. 

3. Creative Reporting: Google consistently stresses the importance of filling PMAX campaigns with high-quality creative assets. However, Google does not share performance data for these creatives. Mike’s script does. With this, we can dive into what CTAs work, what creative design drives better engagement, the cost associated with each, and more. 

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