Is anyone running a successful Performance Max campaign?

I'm new to Google Ads.

Created a Performance Max campaign for USA in the eLearning niche and so far through 7 days, my average CPC is $8 with 0 conversions and almost $200 in ad spend.

I want to give it more time because I know that it's still "learning." But with a CPC that high, I'm sure it's impossible to be profitable. Especially if the product I'm selling is <$50.

Has anyone run a successful Performance Max campaign? Do I need to just be patient and wait it out?

They do generally seem to outperform standard campaigns by a small margin but they're no silver bullet

At $8 CPC it does sound like there is a structural or targeting issue with your campaigns.

Generally if any campaign I'm running is over $1.50 CPC, I'm taking a close look with the presumption there's an issue somewhere (not always, but most of the time there's a targeting issue)

Even during learning phase the performance should be better than that, unless your just in an absolutely super competitive niche, in which case I'd be re-thinking the angle of approach