Performance Max Replaces Smart Shopping: A Transition Plan for Online Stores

Google has confirmed that Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will be automatically upgraded to Performance Max, a campaign type that has been available in Google Ads since last November. The switch will not happen this month, but Google has said it will roll out in waves between July and September depending on the account. If you run an online store and have not touched your Shopping campaigns in months, this is the time to check three things before Google does the work for you: product feed quality, how accurate your conversion values are, and what happens to searches on your own brand name. Here is the plan I run with clients who sell online before their account gets switched over.

What exactly is Performance Max?

Performance Max is a campaign type that combines delivery across the Search Network, the Display Network, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and the Shopping tab into a single goal, instead of keeping each channel in its own campaign. You supply assets (headlines, descriptions, images, a video if you have one) grouped into asset groups, a product feed linked to Merchant Center if you sell online, and a bidding goal, and Google's algorithm decides where to show your ads and to whom, adjusting continuously based on what converts best. It is the natural extension of Smart Shopping, which already combined Shopping and Display remarketing under automated bidding, but stretched across every Google ad placement at once.

Why is Google replacing Smart Shopping with Performance Max?

Because Google wants delivery consolidated under one fully automated campaign type rather than keeping Smart Shopping and Local running alongside a newer system. Google has confirmed the upgrade will be automatic: your existing Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will be recreated as Performance Max campaigns without you rebuilding them, with your bid settings and history carried over where possible. The announced window runs from July to September depending on the account, but nothing stops you from getting ready now instead of dealing with it the day the switch reaches your account.

Should you migrate now or wait for the automatic switch?

Google Ads also offers an upgrade tool built right into your Smart Shopping campaign, letting you switch to Performance Max yourself ahead of the summer deadline while keeping the existing campaign's history and learnings, instead of starting from a blank campaign. For a store that has time to clean up its feed and conversion tracking first, I prefer using that upgrade tool once both are in order, rather than waiting for Google to recreate the campaign in one shot on a date I do not control. If your account does not have that room, the automatic switch is still a reasonable option, as long as the feed and conversion tracking are cleaned up before it arrives.

What should you check in your product feed before the switch?

A poorly maintained product feed was already holding back your results under Smart Shopping, but Performance Max draws on the same feed to serve across more placements at once, which magnifies a feed problem instead of fixing it. Before a transition, I check that every product has a title built from the terms shoppers actually search, not just the manufacturer's name, images that meet Merchant Center's requirements, a GTIN when the product has one, and an availability status and price that match what your store actually shows at that same moment. I also add custom labels by margin tier or season before the switch, because Performance Max does not keep the same flexibility Smart Shopping had for isolating a subset of products once a campaign is running; a feed segmented from the start makes later adjustments easier. A price mismatch between the feed and the product page gets the item disapproved in Merchant Center, or worse, shows an ad with a price your store no longer honours once the shopper lands on the page.

How do you protect your conversion tracking during the migration?

Performance Max relies on conversion value to decide where and to whom to show your ads, so a misconfigured value skews its decisions from day one rather than later on. Before an account switches over, I confirm that every conversion that matters, the completed purchase and not just an add-to-cart, sends the correct dollar value to Google Ads, that duplicates between your store's native tracking and a third-party tool are resolved, and that the conversion window reflects your product's real buying cycle instead of a default setting left over from when the account was created. The ROAS you were targeting under Smart Shopping is still your reference point: if the conversion values feeding it are accurate, the move to Performance Max starts from firmer ground.

Are your brand searches protected inside Performance Max?

Not yet, and that is the point I watch most closely since Performance Max launched. Unlike a standard Search campaign, Performance Max does not let you add negative keywords to keep your ads off searches for your own brand name. If your account also runs a separate brand campaign, compare your reports after the migration to see whether Performance Max starts picking up traffic that used to go to your brand campaign at a much lower cost per click. Checking impression share on your top brand terms before and after the switch is a quick way to catch this early, rather than waiting for a monthly report to reveal a shift that has already been happening for weeks. It is budget that can shift without you noticing unless someone is watching it in the weeks after the switch.

How does SIB get an online store ready for this transition?

Before letting an automatic switch touch an account I manage, I go through the product feed, conversion tracking and existing campaign structure with the same level of detail I would use on a brand-new account, working through each product category one at a time to confirm the feed's titles and prices match what the store actually shows, before Performance Max even enters the picture. That is the kind of preparation I build into any Google Ads management engagement for a business that sells online, migration or not, since a feed and tracking review catches problems that a campaign rebuild alone would miss.

What should you watch in the first six weeks after the switch?

Google recommends it directly: wait roughly six weeks before judging or comparing a Performance Max campaign's results, the time it takes the algorithm to gather enough conversion data for its decisions to settle. During that stretch, avoid changing the budget, bids or asset groups more than once a week, since each change resets part of that learning. What I watch instead: weekly conversion volume, to see whether it stays steady or drops against your old Smart Shopping campaigns, cost per conversion over a comparable stretch, and results by asset group and by listing group in the reports available for this campaign type, to catch early if one particular group is dragging results down.

Drafted with AI assistance, checked and published by Marven Salgado.