GMV Max is a new campaign setup mode by Shopee that allows Sellers to indicate a ROAS goal for their products, and leverage on the wider Organic platform traffic to provide more exposure for your Products. Based on the specific ROAS goals submitted for each Product, Shopee will then optimize its Ads delivery to achieve the target across the campaign lifetime. 

With GMV Max, Shopee will aim to deliver your Ads in the most efficient manner towards your high potential customers across Search and Discovery placements while also dynamically managing your bids. 

How does GMV Max work? 

GMV Max utilizes the broader organic traffic across Shopee, unlocking more inventory access for Sellers to deliver their Product Ads in. This larger inventory also eases bid competitions against other competitors, allowing Sellers more opportunities to target their high potential customers in a cost-efficient manner and scale their Ad performances more effectively. 

Secondly, Sellers can now utilize Shopee's ROAS insights for their products to consistently enhance and maximize the GMV potential. By integrating competitive insights from Shopee and analyzing their own product and shop performance, sellers can effectively establish realistic ROAS goals and track their progress for each product.

Lastly, Sellers can now set a target ROAS for their Ads. Based on the ROAS goals, Shopee will optimize your bids towards high value conversions as needed to maximize the GMV potential of your Products.

Key Benefits of GMV Max 

1. Better Traffic and GMV

GMV Max introduces a new Ad setup mode that enables Sellers to efficiently run site-wide promotions across various Shopee product feeds, including Search, Discovery, Games, and Coin placements. By leveraging the overall traffic, Sellers can maximize the sales potential of their Products and scale their ROAS performance effectively.

2. Improved Control Over Ads Performance

You will be able to set a target ROAS of your GMV Max ad, and Shopee algorithms will strive to meet this target while expanding your GMV scale. This allows Sellers to have more control over the GMV returns of your Ad investment, versus delivering solely based on the highest bid strategy against competitors. 

Based on the target ROAS goal, the Shopee Ads algorithm will dynamically optimize your Ad campaign across environments and audiences to maximize results.  

3. Effortless Setup and Ad Performance Review at Product Level

Shopee automatically sets the bidding price for your selected product and aggregates ad performance at the product level. You can effortlessly review key metrics such as ROAS, GMV, and more, providing you with valuable insights into ad performance.

How to set up a GMV Max Ad?

Eligibility for GMV Max

Below are the requirements to setting up a GMV Max AD: 

1. Please ensure that you are on the latest version of Ad Setup Flow (Revamped Ads Setup Flow)

2. Each GMV Max Ad can only feature 1 Product. 

3. If there are any active / scheduled ads associated with the selected Product, enabling GMV Max will replace the existing Ads. The existing Ads will automatically be paused. 

Screenshot of Revamped Ads Setup Flow 

Create GMV Max Ad

Follow these steps to create a GMV Max Ad on PC:

1. From the Shopee Seller Center, navigate to the Marketing Center and select Shopee Ads.
2. Click on “Create New Ads” and select “Promote My Product".
3. Setup your Basic Settings for Budget and Duration. Under Placement, ensure that "All" is selected. GMV Max runs across Search and Discovery environments.
4. Set Product Selection as “Manually select Products” and proceed to select your key item. Please note that each GMV Max Ad can only carry 1 product.
5. Set Bidding Method as ‘Auto Bidding". From here, you will see a red input field requesting for your targeted ROAS goal. The “Enable GMV Max” checkbox is automatically enabled.

Sellers may choose to set a specific ROAS goal between 1-50, or use the suggestions provided by Shopee that are specifically tailored based on your current Product performances. For best practice, please ensure that the target ROAS is not too high as this will limit deliveries and your budget may not be spent in full.

1. Once all settings are configured, proceed to ‘Publish” the GMV Max Ad. 

If the selected product has other ongoing ads, they will be automatically stopped once the GMV Max ad starts running. This is to ensure that ROAS is controlled at the product level and that there are no Ad duplications, which will impact the overall bidding efficiency for the Item. 

Upgrade Standard ads to GMV Max Ad

Follow these steps to upgrade a standard ad to GMV Max Ad:

1. From Shopee Ads Homepage, scroll down to the “All CPC Ads List” section. Select the specific Ad that you would like to upgrade.

2. Upon entering the Ad Detail page, click the label “Upgrade to GMV Max Now” button attached to the bidding strategy.

3. A pop-up window will appear for you to input your desired ROAS goal.

4. Once you've configured your settings, publish the GMV Max Ad.

Monitor GMV Max Ad performance

Once your Ad is published, it will automatically enter the Learning Phase whereby Shopee will aim to help stabilize your Ad performance. During the Learning Phase, it is expected that there will be some ROAS fluctuations as the algorithm stabilizes. Hence, it is recommended that Advertisers do not make any changes to the Ad setups during this period. 

Best Practices for GMV Max Ads: 

1. Select your ROAS goals based on the recommended range provided by Shopee. These recommendations are customized based on your Shop and Product performance, as well as competitive insights on the platform for similar items. 

2. If a custom ROAS goal is preferred, set it based on the historical performance of your Product. An excessively high ROAS goal will result in limited campaign pacing and spends as GMV Max will become highly selective in delivering your Ads to maintain the submitted ROAS goal. 

Shopee will strive to hit the indicated ROAS goal as closely as possible, but it is not guaranteed. 

Once the performance stabilizes, you may consistently monitor the metrics such as GMV, ad expense and ROAS for your product campaign on the Ad Detail Page.

Disable GMV Max Ad

1. Uncheck Enable Global Traffic Boost in Create Product Ads.

2. You will be prompted to confirm to disable GMV Max including a warning on the potential decrease of overall traffic and GMV after disabling GMV Max.

3. The ads created subsequently will be standard ads without any boost from organic traffic.

ROAS Target Setting Guidelines

Best Practices

1. Focus on the recommended ROAS targets provided within Shopee Ads.

These suggested values are customized for your product based on its historical performance, as well as Shop and competitive category performance for similar items.

2. Set a realistic Custom Value based on historical performances

If Custom Value is preferred, Advertisers may refer to the latest ROAS performance achieved for the item as a baseline.

3. Avoid setting a high target ROAS value

This is because GMV Max works to achieve your ROAS Target by ensuring that your Ad Spends are focused on high quality traffic for your Product(s), based on its historical conversion rates and shopper purchase signals. A high target ROAS will limit Shopee from being able to gather sufficient data to auto optimize its performance. 

New products

It is recommended to start with a lower target ROAS, using the shop category ROAS as a benchmark. This approach helps in gradually building traffic and improving ROAS. 

Hero products

Sellers can use the ROAS from past campaigns as a reference to set more ambitious targets and optimize performance.

GMV Max FAQ

What is the difference between target ROAS and GMV Max ads? 

Target ROAS is currently offered to selected Sellers only. Under this mode, Sellers are able to indicate a preferred ROAS goal, running on user traffic that is designated for Ads. 

GMV Max will be available for all Shopee Sellers. Similar to Target ROAS, Sellers will be able to indicate their ROAS goals. However, the key difference is that they will now be able to unlock a larger traffic inventory that now includes Ads and Organic traffic inventories. 

Additionally, GMV Max ads will optimize dynamically across all placements such as Search and Discovery. This allows Sellers to better reach out to their high intent shoppers and maximize GMV performance. Bid rates will also be managed by Shopee algorithm to ensure a balance in performance between Ad Spends against your achieved GMV performance. 

What is the difference between Auto Bidding (Standard) and GMV Max Ads? 

By default, all Ads created with a Manual Product Selection and Auto Bidding model will now be GMV Max ads. This is indicated by the checkbox “Enable GMV Max” within the Bidding section of your Ad setup flow. To create Standard Auto Bidding Ads, Sellers will need to manually deselect this checkbox. 

Auto Bidding (Standard) does not allow Sellers to indicate a ROAS target and provide Sellers with the option to run their Ads within Search or Discovery Only settings for a range of products.

If your campaign goal is to scale your Product’s GMV and ROAS performance, we will recommend to use GMV Max as it ensures that your Ad Spends are optimized towards your high-value shoppers and allows Sellers to clearly chart and evaluate the ROAS improvement for the Product over time. 

When to use Simple Mode vs GMV Max? 

If your objective is to utilize your campaign budget and ensure maximal reach, Simple Mode is recommended as it allows Shopee to help Sellers automatically optimize their bid strategy to ensure utilization of your budget while maximizing performance. 

Simple Mode allows you to set up Ads focused on specifically Search or Discovery environments Only, for a range of Products. 

If your objective is to maximize GMV potential, GMV Max is recommended as it automatically delivers your Product to your key Shoppers within a broader traffic pool. This allows Sellers to scale their ROAS performance and increase their GMV potential. With GMV Max, Shopee will constantly aim to provide Sellers with the most opportunities to meet your ROAS Goal as closely as possible during your campaign period

What happens if I set a high target ROAS?

A high ROAS target is defined as a value that is significantly higher than the historically achieved ROAS performance for your Product or Shop. The goal of GMV Max is to achieve the Seller’s ROAS goals while balancing Ad Spends and and GMV performance.  

When sellers set a high ROAS target, there will be stricter Ads Spends monitoring and GMV Max will become more selective to focus on more efficient Ad placements, reducing spends on low performing Ad placements. As it prioritizes performance efficiency over Ads delivery volume, this limits Ad spends/traffic and the potential GMV that a Product can receive. 

For example, 

When Seller sets a high ROAS target of 14 versus the average achieved ROAS value of 10, GMV Max will become more selective and efficient in Ad deliveries to ensure that the higher ROAS target can be achieved. This means that Ad delivery volumes and therefore Ad Spends will be affected accordingly. With the drop in delivery volumes, this may lead to a dip in potential GMV performance. 

Is GMV Max better suited for new products or hero products?

GMV Max can be effectively used for both new and hero products. 

For new products, it is recommended to start with a lower target ROAS, using the shop category ROAS as a benchmark. This approach helps in gradually building traffic and improving ROAS. 

For hero products, sellers can use the ROAS from past campaigns as a baseline reference to set more ambitious targets and optimize performance.

Is there a difference in ROAS in the new setup flow compared to the old setup flow?

The new setup flow changes the process of creating ads but does not alter the logic of ad placements. The way ads are placed remains consistent with the old setup. The new flow aims to simplify ad creation while maintaining effective ad placement.

If an Item already has a Standard Product ad, can a GMV Max Ad still be created for it? 

Sellers can set up GMV Max Ads for any product with an existing Ad. Once the GMV Max Ad is activated, Shopee will automatically pause all other ongoing Ads linked to the same product. 

Seller will also be notified that the associated Ads will be paused automatically once the GMV Max Ad is published. 

If the seller has set up a standard product ads for item A, can the seller set up the GMV Max ads for item B?

Yes, it's possible. Standard ads and GMV Max ads are mutually exclusive for the same product. If it’s not the same product, then it won’t have any impact on each other.

If the seller has set up a standard ad for item A, can it be upgraded to GMV Max ad? 

Yes, it can be simply done by clicking on the “Upgrade to GMV Max Ad” button within the Ad Detail page of the Product Ad. 

If the Seller has a GMV Max Ad, can it be downgraded to Target ROAS? 

Target ROAS will be deprecated with the launch of GMV Max and will not be available for Sellers from Q3 2024 onwards. 

A GMV Max Ad cannot be downgraded. To deactivate a GMV Max as, Sellers can pause or stop the ad setup and create a new / separate Ad for the same product. 

In GMV Max is it always the case that sellers will get a higher position than Standard ads?

No, GMV Max does not guarantee Product Ads positioning. 

While Sellers can now unlock the 1st slot search results with GMV Max, it is not guaranteed as GMV Max will deliver Ads based on multiple factors, such as audience quality and bid competitiveness to achieve your target ROAS goals while controlling overall Ad spends. Search results are also personalized based on unique Shoppe behaviors. 

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