For ecommerce PMax campaigns, the advertiser's website is typically the target. However, 26% of clicks and 22% of revenue are categorized as unknown. Google's Ads Product Liaison, Ginny Marvin, explains that "unknown" data can be caused by traffic landing in channels like Gmail that don't get further segmented by ad destination or missing a requirement to enable iOS traffic to flow into ad destination properly. To ensure proper iOS data flow, it's recommended to:
- Send connector pings from SDK source
- Use SDKs like Firebase, Singular, Airbridge, Appsflyer
- Import app session_start events into Google Ads
Performance characteristics of "unknown" clicks show that while cost-per-click is lower, performance isn't as good as website clicks. The median "unknown" click costs €0.29 and converts at 1.71%, generating an AOV of €78.42 for a median ROAS of 4.39. In contrast, "website" clicks cost €0.36, convert at 2.5%, and generate an AOV of €102.83 for a median ROAS of 6.26.
However, it's important to note that the "unknown" data category includes different types of data, such as Gmail and iPhone users. Therefore, it's recommended to improve iOS data flow as per Ginny's advice. PMax is a complex environment and it's advisable to dig into your data, de-average your performance, and not accept PMax as a plug-and-play solution.
