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Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that has existed since 2021. Instead of a separate campaign for Search, Shopping, YouTube and Display, you build one. You give it a goal, a budget, headlines, images, videos and, for a shop, your product feed. Google then chooses on which channel, for which search and for which person your ad appears.
What a campaign is made of
| Part | What it is | What you decide |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion goal | what counts as a result: sale, enquiry, call | which conversions and their value |
| Asset group | a set of headlines, images, videos and a landing page | one group per product or service |
| Audience signal | a hint about your customer: visitors, customer list, search terms | which signals you give |
| Product feed | your products from Merchant Center, for shops | which products go in |
| Bidding | maximise conversions or conversion value, optional target | the target CPA or target ROAS |
| Exclusions | keywords and brands you do not want to appear on | up to 10,000 keywords per campaign |
An audience signal is not targeting. It tells Google where to start looking; after that it shows your ad to people outside the signal as well, if it expects them to convert.
Where Performance Max does well
Performance Max is strong when your tracking is right, when you have enough conversions to learn from and when you supply images and video. It then reaches people on channels that would otherwise need separate campaigns, and covers remarketing without a separate setup. For a shop with a good feed it is often the campaign that takes most of the budget.
Where it goes wrong
Without reliable tracking Performance Max steers on the wrong numbers. If your tracking counts a click on a button as a conversion, Google mostly buys clicks on that button. Set up GA4 and your conversions before you start. Brand terms are a trap too: the campaign shows to people who were already looking for your business, and so seems to perform better than it does. Exclude your brand or give it its own campaign.
For a local service business with a small budget and few enquiries a month, Performance Max is rarely the best start. A search campaign with clear keywords gives more control, as in Google Ads for plumbers and Google Ads for small business. What goes into asset groups looks like the ads in Google Ads examples: a promise, a price or a lead time, and an image that shows it.
Performance Max next to Shopping
Since October 2024 Performance Max no longer has priority over standard Shopping. If the same products sit in both, the ad with the highest Ad Rank wins. That makes a combination worthwhile again. The trade off is in Google Shopping vs Performance Max.
Measuring and steering
You see per channel what Performance Max did, which search terms got clicks and which assets score best. Steer on your target ROAS or target CPA, not on clicks. Work out a healthy ROAS for your margin with the ROAS calculator, and read at ROAS why that number means nothing without margin. Plan the monthly spend with the Google Ads budget calculator, and tag your links with the UTM builder so Analytics shows which campaign brought the sale.
Setting up or reviewing a Performance Max campaign is part of our Google Ads management. We always start with tracking, as we did for Park & Wash.
Questions about Performance Max
Do I need an online shop for Performance Max?
No. A service business can use it too, with enquiries as the goal. A product feed is only needed to show products.
Can I see where my ads appeared?
Partly. There is a channel report and a search terms report, but less detail than in a separate Search or Shopping campaign.