PMax ads and Asset Optimization
Hey all! I created a PMax campaign and I turned Asset Optimizations off. This means that the landing page I provide in asset set up is the landing page all users should be sent to, correct? When I create a landing page report for PMax I am showing landing pages other than the one I choose in set up. Anyone have any info?
The short answer is:
Asset Optimization being turned off in your Performance Max (PMax) campaign should restrict traffic to the final URL you provide, but PMax often defaults to using a feature called Final URL expansion even when Asset Optimization is disabled.
This feature allows Google to send traffic to other relevant pages on your entire domain, not just the specified landing page, if the system believes those pages are better for a user’s query.
The only way to completely lock down your landing pages is to ensure Final URL expansion is turned off as well.
To get around limitations in Google Ads reporting and gain more control, you can use the Google Ads API in conjunction with Google Tag Manager (GTM) and a server-side solution like Stape or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to bypass these reporting issues and gather accurate, first-party data.
The long answer is:
Even with Asset Optimization off, Performance Max campaigns are still designed to leverage automation across your entire domain to find conversion opportunities.
The setting you’re looking for, which often operates independently of the Asset Optimization toggle, is Final URL expansion.
This setting is usually turned on by default and allows Google to replace your provided final URL with other, more contextually relevant pages from your website.
You need to explicitly check and disable Final URL expansion if you only want to send traffic to the single landing page you specified.
If you want to use the expansion feature but only for certain pages, you can also use URL exclusions to block specific pages or sections of your site from being used as a landing page.
Regarding the reporting issue, the problem you’re seeing in the landing page report is likely due to how Google attributes and reports these visits, especially when expansion is active or when you have tracking templates in place.
A robust and cost-effective way to get the true, unfiltered landing page data, while also solving for tracking consistency, is to utilize the Google Ads API, Google Tag Manager, and a server-side tagging solution like Stape or Google Cloud Platform.
You would configure GTM to fire a server-side tag that sends your own custom, reliable first-party data directly to your preferred analytics or database platform before Google’s system can potentially alter or obscure the information.
Using the Google Ads API allows you to pull highly granular, raw click and impression data, including the true destination URL at the time of the click, which often provides more detail than the standard reports available in the Google Ads interface.
By combining the API’s data with the clean data collected via server-side GTM through a platform like Stape which offers a cheap and scalable server-side environment or GCP you can accurately match clicks to landing pages and bypass the limitations or reporting inconsistencies you’re seeing in the standard Google Ads reporting, giving you a clear picture of where your traffic is actually landing.
This setup is excellent and cheap because the API access is free, GTM is free, and the server-side component through Stape or GCP often has a very low entry cost, especially compared to more expensive, third-party attribution tools, making it a powerful, custom, and privacy-compliant solution for accurate reporting on events like page views and Standard Events like purchase or add_to_cart
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