Performance Max campaigns in agricultural e-commerce - the potential of automation in selling agricultural products.

Selling in the online world is now an everyday occurrence. Hundreds of thousands of transactions each day, during which items are purchased, both everyday items and those to run businesses, generate millions of dollars in sales. The agro industry is not lagging behind in this trend. It is entering the world of e-commerce more and more boldly. And now it's no longer just machinery parts, which were often cheaper on the „net” than on the shelf in the store, but a whole range of products for the agricultural segment. This trend drives the need to develop effective advertising campaigns that reach a specific audience.

An incredibly effective tool to help achieve high sales goals is the Performance Max (commonly known as PMax) campaign. A properly optimized online store, a well-prepared product feed and a properly run campaign are the keys to success.

Performance Max campaigns - what is it?

Performance Max (PMax) is a type of Google Ads campaign that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to reach the right users at the right time. With this campaign, we can maximize sales results, including in agro e-commerce. This is possible because the ads appear throughout the Google ecosystem:

• in the search engine,
• In the advertising network (Display),
• On YouTube,
• In Gmail,
• In Google Maps.

The system itself decides where, when and to whom to show the ad to achieve the best possible result within the set budget and campaign goal (e.g. sales, conversion value or customer acquisition).

Does PMax make sense in the agro industry?

The agricultural industry is governed by its own laws. First of all, there is the seasonality of products. Protective products dedicated to specific phases of development, seeds for specific sowing dates, or parts for machinery that break down during the season.

Of course, many industries experience seasonality, which requires proper action to maximize sales potential in agro e-commerce. However, in the agro industry, some products may take 2-3 weeks to be applied, plus plans to carry out the treatment may be thwarted by weather conditions. So realistically, we may have up to a week to apply a given product.

With this in mind, our operations must be flexible, fast and well adapted to seasonality. PMax campaigns fit this need perfectly, because they can:

• automatically respond to changes in demand - the system learns when interest in certain categories increases,
• use data from the Merchant Center - which allows you to advertise thousands of products without manually creating hundreds of ads,
• reach the right audience - based on search history, online activity and shopping behavior,
• optimize budgets in real time - focusing spending on the best converting products.

How to prepare an e-commerce platform for a PMax campaign?

1. product information

The cornerstone of PMax's effectiveness is the product feed in Google Merchant Center. In the agricultural industry, precise information - titles, descriptions, images, units (e.g., 5L, 25kg), prices and availability - is especially important.
For example - you sell crop protection products, in addition to the name of the product, in the title it is worth indicating its purpose -. „Adengo 315 SC 1L - herbicide corn”.”.

This not only improves the fit of ads, but also increases their relevance in the eyes of customers especially in the case of products that are not from the so-called general palette of a particular manufacturer, but are branded for a specific distribution, or have the same purpose, but do not have a known name. In the description, on the other hand, it is absolutely necessary to indicate what active substances the product contains.

2. segment your offerings by season

PMax campaigns work best when the system has clearly defined product groups. In the agricultural industry, a seasonal breakdown of campaigns works well:

• Spring - fungicides (also divide promotion periods by application date), insecticides, spring herbicides, growth regulators, spring cereal seeds, and corn seeds
• Late spring/summer - rapeseed, fungicides dedicated to this application period, fertilizers
• Autumn - herbicides for fall application, fertilizers, and late fall corn seed.

Proper division into groups of products tailored to the period and purpose for use makes it easier to analyze results. In addition, algorithms learn customer behavior in specific situations faster. Properly dividing products and running promotions saves resources for dedicated campaigns without unnecessary burnout. It is pointless to promote the entire product portfolio. It's like trying to sell an Easter bunny for Christmas.

3. prepare creative resources

As I mentioned above, the PMax campaign uses the entire Google advertising ecosystem. It uses a variety of ad formats. Therefore, creative variants of text, graphic and video ads should be prepared.

This not only improves the quality of the campaign, but also builds trust, which is of great importance in the agro industry, which is based on relationships and reputation.

4. set the right campaign goal

In the case of a fertilizer or crop protection store, the main focus will be on product sales (conversions) or revenue value (ROAS).

Action strategy - PMax in agro e-commerce

In my experience, the effectiveness of PMax in agriculture is not just about launching a campaign and „handing over the reins to an algorithm.” The key is to provide data wisely and continuously analyze the results.

In practice, this means:

• Exclude products that do not sell online and promote products that fit the season,
• Setting up different campaigns for different product groups,
• The use of „audience signals,” such as farmers in specific regions or people interested in growing canola, the use of remarketing bases.

PMax is powerful, but it requires proper „guidance” - then it repays the favor with great results.

Case study (from real life)

An agricultural store that sells crop protection products and fertilizers has implemented a PMax campaign for spring 2025.

Established ROAS 2000% – Final ROAS even 8000% for selected groups

• The cost of conversion dropped by 22%,
• stock sold out.

The key was to properly combine a PMax campaign with a well-organized product feed and segmentation by season.

Of course, the price of the products offered is not without significance. Even the best-configured sales campaign will not achieve results if there are no competitive prices, or at least comparable to the market offer. This, too, can be dealt with. There are tools available that compare current prices and suggest at what level we should sell. In this case, all that remains is to verify whether we are selling at a margin or not.

Summary

Performance Max is a tool that is great for sales campaigns. Therefore, nothing prevents you from using it to sell products dedicated to agricultural production. Automation, integration with Merchant Center and good optimization of the online store allow you to take full advantage of machine learning, and this translates into reaching customers looking for the products you want to sell. And all this at the right time and with good margins.

For agro e-commerce is an opportunity to compete effectively while building loyalty among farmers who are increasingly shopping online.

We have been connecting agro brands with farmers for over 20 years.

Talk to us about your campaign and start reaching the right audience.