Google Ads announced that Google will start the process of automatically "upgrading" accounts to Performance Max for Local campaigns. Automatic upgrades will gradually progress and finish in September for most advertisers. As a note, performance max campaigns has been available to all advertisers since November 2021 and a beta launched October 2020.
Google started this process with auto-upgrading accounts to Performance Max for Smart Shopping campaigns in July.
Google wrote "if your campaigns are not eligible for the self-upgrade tool and you are not notified about an automatic upgrade, then your Local campaigns will not be upgraded to Performance Max until 2023. If your campaigns have access to the self-upgrade tool and do not auto-upgrade by the end of September, you will continue to have access to the self-upgrade tool until auto-upgrade resumes in 2023. This will ensure you do not see any campaign disruption during the busy holiday season."
Google wants you to use the self upgrade tool and not have Google Ads automatically upgrade you. Google wrote "the self-upgrade tool for Local campaigns has become available to eligible advertisers and will continue to roll out in phases throughout August and September." "We strongly recommend using the tool to upgrade your campaigns as soon as you can to get a head start on the holiday season," Google added.
You will have access to the self-upgrade tool before automatic upgrades begin. If you choose not to use the self-upgrade tool, then you will receive a notification in Google Ads a few weeks before your campaigns are automatically upgraded to help you prepare. Here is more on the upgrade tool.
When your campaigns are self-upgraded using the tool or automatically upgraded, historical campaign performance from your previous Local campaigns will carry over to your new Performance Max campaigns to maintain consistent performance. Your campaign settings like conversion goals, budget, creative assets, and bid strategy will also automatically transfer to Performance Max.
There are a lot more details on this announcement on this support page.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
