Breaking Down the Differences Between Google’s Demand Generation and Performance Max Campaign Types

With the advancement of search engine technology, Google has continued revolutionizing the digital advertising industry by introducing new products such as Demand Generation (Demand Gen) and Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. These campaign types can allow multifamily advertisers to leverage Google’s advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to deliver targeted advertising across Google’s wide range of platforms.

For apartment communities in need of a high amount of leasing traffic, a strong media mix that drives consistent lead opportunities will contain a combination of both broad awareness and high intent-based campaigns. Broad awareness campaigns such as Google Ads Demand Gen, are helpful in reaching a broader audience to create awareness and potential interest. High intent-based campaigns such as Google Ads Performance Max, can utilize both online and offline behavior signals as well as Google’s AI to reach a more targeted audience that are more likely to have a higher lease conversion rate. The inclusion of both broad awareness and high intent-based campaigns helps to keep a consistently full prospect funnel.

What Are Demand Gen Campaigns?

Demand Gen falls into the category of broad awareness campaigns, as the primary objective is raising awareness and generating interest among the target audience through a high volume of impressions on popular Google platforms. Advertisers have full control over which creative assets are included in their campaign, ensuring that the ads are displayed in highly visible areas, which are more likely to engage users who are not actively seeking to purchase but are open to discovering new products or services. The goal is to capture users' attention during regular online activities like watching YouTube or scrolling through their Gmail to peak interest and increase brand awareness.

Image source: Google

Benefits of Demand Gen:

• Top-of-funnel reach and conversions: Demand Gen campaigns are used to target users at the awareness and interest stages of their purchasing journey
• Increased brand awareness and engagement: If the primary focus is to build brand recognition and attract people's interest in your product or service while generating demand and increasing brand visibility, Demand Gen is a great option
• Visually appealing: Demand Gen is effective for businesses heavily reliant on content marketing, driving traffic to educational or informational content and enhancing brand authority

What are Performance Max Campaigns?

Performance Max campaigns allow advertisers to maximize ad performance by utilizing Machine Learning / Artificial intelligence to fully automate ad optimizations in real time based on goals and budgets. This campaign creates compelling ad presentations, testing different combinations to identify the most effective ones to achieve maximum reach across various platforms, including Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and Discover.

Compared to Demand Gen, PMax campaigns focus on high intent-based audiences, typically those who have demonstrated a clear interest in a product or service. They aim to secure the highest conversion rates at the lowest cost.

Benefits of Performance Max:

• Full-funnel reach and conversions: PMax reaches a large audience and drives conversions across the entire funnel, focusing primarily on higher intent users that are more likely to convert into leases
• Multiple conversion goals: PMax can handle campaigns with various goals, from brand awareness and website traffic to lead generation

Demand Gen vs. Performance Max Campaigns:

Specific trends are noticeable when comparing Demand Gen campaigns to Performance Max campaigns with the same budget.

• Typically, Demand Gen campaigns exhibit higher click activity and impression
• Performance Max campaigns have a higher click-through-rate
• Demand Gen campaigns generally have a lower cost-per-click than Performance Max campaigns
• Demand Gen campaigns have a smaller potential reach as the ads are served on fewer networks than PMax, but usually provides more impressions overall