PMAX vs Standard Shopping — which one do you prefer right now?

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Moonflare

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Hey guys,

I’ve been going back and forth on this for a while now and wanted to see what everyone else is doing.

I started out with Standard Shopping, but then switched to PMAX because Google kept pushing it so hard. At first, the ROAS looked better on paper. But after digging deeper, I realized PMAX was just stealing credit for my brand traffic.

So, I switched back. Right now, I am running Standard Shopping alongside a separate, dedicated branded campaign. Honestly, performance feels way more predictable now, and I actually know exactly where my conversions are coming from.

What are you guys running for e-commerce right now?
  • Only PMAX?
  • Only Standard Shopping?
  • Or both together?
If you are running both, how do you split the budget without them fighting each other? Would love to hear your thoughts!
 
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I prefer standart shopping + seperate branded search. PMAX can look good in reports, but in many accounts it takes too much credit from brand / search traffic. standrt sgopping gives more control and cleaner data If ı use both, I keep PMAX with lmited budget and watch search terms / brand impact closely. For scaling I trust standrt shopping more
 
What you’re doing now is actually the setup a lot of advertisers settle on after testing both. PMAX can look strong on surface metrics, but it often blurs attribution, especially with brand traffic mixed in.
 
for mature accounts, both. standard shopping for control, branded search separate, then pmax for expansion and finding pockets i'd never think to target manually. the mistake is judging pmax by reported roas alone. google is very generous when giving itself credit for conversions that were already halfway through the door.
 
I am running a hybrid setup with both but you absolutely must exclude your brand terms from the performance max campaign to stop it from stealing credit.
 
Im still sticking with standard shopping bro, pmax is just a black box and wastes too much budget on trash placements.
 
you did the right thing because pmax always steals brand traffic to fake the roas numbers. best setup right now is running both together but never use same products in both campaigns. put your best-selling winners in pmax but make sure you use brand exclusion list so it doesnt touch your brand search. then put all your other low-margin items or zombie skus in standard shopping with manual bidding so you have total control on search terms. this way they dont fight each other and you get best of both.
 
Im still running both. Standard Shopping gives me way more control and cleaner data, while PMAX is decent for scaling. I keep brand traffic separate too, otherwise PMAX tends to take credit for conversions it probably didnt create.
 
Im running both, but i keep branded traffic seperate too, makes reporting way more clear and easier to scale.
 
If Standard Shopping is giving you more predictable results, do not feel pressured to switch. Consistent performance beats chasing Google's latest recommendation.
 
I am also using Standard Shopping with a separate brand campaign because it feels more clean and predictable than PMAX and I keep budgets split so they don’t overlap
 
totally agree on pmax stealing brand credit, i only run them together if pmax is feed-only with brand exclusions, otherwise standard shopping + search brand campaign is way cleaner.
 
PMAX is a black box, plain and simple. Stealing credit is exactly what it does. Sticking with Standard Shopping and a separate brand campaign is smart. Predictability is key when you're dealing with massive traffic and need to optimize server loads efficiently. Don't let Google's "push" dictate your strategy.
 
I’ve had the same experience, PMAX often mixes up brand traffic so reporting gets messy, while Standard Shopping plus a separate brand campaign gives me much clearer control and more reliable performance tracking.
 
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