the pmax haters said it only gets returning customers - 100% new customers in the first 15 days of this month, 3x more than the same period last month, and not a single returning order in the mix.
24 orders. $14,157 in sales. $589 AOV. zero returning customers.
first 15 days of last month - 8 new customers from google.
first 15 days of this month - 24. all new. all cold. all from a pmax feed only campaign.
same 15 day window. 3x the new customers. and the month isn't even halfway done.
pmax by default will hunt down your existing customers, claim credit for organic sales, attribute email revenue to itself, and report a CPA that has nothing to do with reality. that version of pmax is a remarketing channel dressed up as prospecting.
but that's a setup problem. not a platform problem.
when the feed is built to attract cold buyers - right titles, right attributes, right product groups structured around search intent - google knows exactly which auctions to enter and which buyers to go after.
when the conversion action is new customers only, pmax stops recycling and starts finding genuinely new people.
when the tROAS is set low enough to give google permission to go after cold traffic, the new customer rate follows.
we're only halfway through the month.
at this point it's just dumb to not be on google if you're an ecom brand.
the buyers are there. the intent is there. the platform can find new customers at scale.
you just need someone who actually knows how to build it.