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Marketing Academy · Field Work●Paid Ads
All projects·From: Google Shopping & Performance Max
CoreSimulation· 50 minutes

The First 30 Days: Launching Performance Max Without Burning the Budget

YETI Holdings

Objective: Practice the sequence of launch, learning-period, and bidding decisions a real PMax rollout requires, including catching branded-search cannibalization before it inflates ROAS.

You're migrating YETI's outdoor-gear Shopping campaigns to Performance Max after leadership asks for a single campaign covering the full catalog.

Make the calls a PMax launch actually requires: whether you have enough conversion history to launch, how to react during the learning period, and how to set a realistic ROAS target.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Ads
FreeWhere every decision in this simulation is actually made — campaign settings, Search Terms Insights, ROAS targets

Free to access; only ad spend costs money, and this simulation requires none

Paid upgrades (optional, faster/deeper)

Optmyzr(optional)
PaidAutomated PMax script alerts for branded-query share and learning-period volatility

Speeds up the same checks this simulation walks through manually, not required to complete them

The process

Simulation

Day 0, launch readiness check

Day 0 of 30

The existing Standard Shopping campaign is averaging 22 conversions per month. Leadership wants PMax live this week.

Sample output
Standard Shopping — Trailing 30 days

  Conversions   22
  Google's stated PMax learning threshold   30-50 conversions/month
  Current ROAS   410%
Spend to date:$0 of $40,000 (monthly budget)
Budget remaining:$40,000

Conversion volume is below Google's stated threshold for PMax to learn effectively. What do you recommend?

Run this for real insteadOptional

The simulation above is a complete project on its own, free, no account or spend required. This is only for learners who want to test the same decisions against a real live account.

Minimum spend:$8,000
Minimum duration:21 days
Setup steps
  1. Confirm the source Shopping campaign clears 30+ conversions/month before migrating
  2. Set an initial ROAS target at or slightly below current Shopping performance
  3. Add a separate, higher-priority branded Search campaign before or at PMax launch
Check-in schedule: Check Search Terms Insights weekly for branded-query share; do not change budget or targets before day 14.

Final deliverable

A 30-day launch decision log: the choice made at each stage, the resulting metric change, and the exact lesson passage that justified it.

See a reference example
Sample output
Chewy, PMax Launch Log (excerpt)

Day 0: Delayed launch 5 weeks to clear 30+ monthly conversions on Standard Shopping first
Day 10: Held targets steady through learning-period volatility — CPA stabilized at $36 by day 18
Day 21: Set ROAS target at 395% (matching current performance), not leadership's requested 700%
Day 25: Flagged 52% branded-query share and split off a dedicated branded Search campaign for next month

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

  • Delays or adjusts launch when conversion volume is below the stated threshold, rather than launching anyway
  • Holds targets steady through learning-period volatility instead of making a destabilizing mid-period change
  • Sets the ROAS target at or below current performance rather than an aspirational number
  • Identifies branded-search cannibalization from Search Terms Insights before reporting ROAS