Could PMax campaign be used to improve GMB rankings in unpaid search?

[EugeneTheMarketer]

I've observed dentaLOOK dentistry in Zhytomyr, Ukraine for a long time. They often run ads that make them appear #1 in google maps pack, google maps. I assume it is a performance max campaign because they also have rectangular pin on a google map. When I don't see their ad they still often appear #1 in search

So my theory is the campaign drove traffic to their GMB profile, which threengagement signal for google to rank it higher.

I've tried to run PMax campaign with the goal to receive conversions for another dentistry nearby that is a competitor to dentaLOOK. The conversions are too expensive, so I decided to turn it off. Now I think of turning it on again, but delete website link, phone extension - so after clicking people will go to GMB profile and will be scrolling through it, watching photos, posts, services, reviews - and generating engagement signals for google. Maybe someone can also do this experiment with me and confirm/disprove the results

As I was writing this post, I noticed that dentaLOOK have the keyword "Zhytomyr" in their business name, so they appeared first when I was entering a keyword "Zhytomyr". But anyway, do you think driving traffic through PMax could improve rankings overtime.

Regards, Eugene.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Hi Eugene, I've noticed that your post has not received any feedback for quite awhile, so I thought I'd share my thoughts. In short, running any type of Google advertising, whether Display or P-Max will not have any direct impact on your organic/unpaid ranking. While you can't trust 100% what Google says, they have remained adamant that there is no crossover benefit and to date, no third party has legitimately proven this incorrect. There simply is no evidence: Is Your Usage Of Google Ads An Organic Search Ranking Factor?

However, Google Ads (including pmax) can have indirect effects on organic performance. For example, running ads can increase your brand's visibility, which may lead to higher CTR which then could increase website/webpage interaction and user engagement which are factors that might influence your site's (or individual pages) organic rankings over time.