pMax vs. Standard Shopping in 2025

Hello!

Let’s talk about a test I ran this year that may shift how you think about pMax.

In January 2025, I moved all Product Listing Ads (PLAs) out of Performance Max (pMax) and into Standard Shopping for one of my clients. I kept text ads running inside pMax, so this wasn’t a full extraction, just Shopping. I did it because of a big change Google made in Q4 2024: they removed the auction-priority advantage pMax had over Standard Shopping.

This change applied to campaigns running in the same account, but I suspected it might also affect how Standard Shopping ads rank against competitors on pMax.

I had tested this migration before the update and performance tanked, like Google was punishing us for ditching the pMax black box. This client's main acquisition source is through Google Shopping PLAs, so this was not a test taken lightly, as a downturn would mean millions of dollars in revenue missed. I had hope that this time would be different.

So… what happened?

H1 2025 (Standard Shopping) vs. H1 2024 (pMax)

• Spend: +27.93 % (driven by better performance)
• Clicks: +38.46 %
• CTR: +28.12 %
• Avg. CPC: -7.61 %
• Conversion volume: +79.28 %
• Conversion Rate: +96.06 %
• Revenue: +127.07 %
• ROAS: +77.50 %

Same product feed. Same account structure. The only change was pulling Shopping out of pMax and running it manually.



Why did this work?

Standard Shopping is more focused. It doesn’t try to fill every PLA inventory hole Google offers (Display, YouTube, Gmail, etc.). It just runs Shopping. That focus delivered more relevant clicks, at a lower cost.

I had one major concern: search-term control. Turns out it’s been very manageable, and I’m happy with the queries we’re showing for.

CPCs inside pMax climbed through 2023 and 2024. That was sounding alarms and was one of the biggest drivers that pushed me to make this leap. Seeing a 7.6 % CPC drop after shifting to Standard Shopping gave me the confidence to push spend.

The gains above are only what Google Ads reports. The lift in Shopping has also fueled growth in other channels: email/SMS, remarketing, and organic brand search. More exposure from high-intent, high-quality clicks has created a more qualified and abundant funnel.

This account is a high SKU count, high spend, high order volume store. Considering that, this change might not be right for every account, but it’s something you may want to consider testing, especially if your Shopping CPCs in pMax are on an upward trajectory.

Share your own results

If you’re thinking about testing this, or if you’ve done it already, I want to hear from you (especially if your results don’t align with mine). Share your experience (anonymously or not) using the form below.

→ Google Form Link

Thanks for reading,

John Sciacchitano
E-com Heads: Scale or Die Trying
Connect w/ Me on LinkedIn

P.S. The submission form isn’t just for input related to this newsletter. Share anything ecom related that you think is interesting, funny, or relatable!