What Is Performance Max in Google Ads?

How it works

Instead of building separate Search, Shopping, Display and YouTube campaigns, Performance Max (often called PMax) takes your goal, budget, assets and signals and decides where to show ads. Google's AI chooses placements, bids and ad combinations auction by auction.

You provide:

• A conversion goal, such as purchases or leads, ideally with values.
• Asset groups: headlines, long headlines, descriptions, images, logos and videos, plus final URLs.
• Audience signals: your customer lists, website visitors and custom segments, which act as hints rather than strict targeting.
• Search themes: phrases that tell Google what searches are relevant.
• A product feed from Merchant Center, for online shops.

When it works well

• Online shops with a clean Merchant Center feed and accurate purchase values. PMax replaced Smart Shopping and is now Google's main route to Shopping ads alongside standard Shopping campaigns.
• Accounts with steady conversion volume, so the algorithm has data to learn from.
• Businesses with good creative: real images and video. If you supply no video, Google can generate it, and the results are rarely as good as your own.
• Local businesses with store or call goals, where Maps placements matter.

When to be careful

• Weak tracking. PMax optimises towards whatever conversions you give it. If a page view counts as a lead, it will find page viewers. Fix tracking first.
• Lead generation without quality signals. It can drive cheap, low-quality form fills. Import qualified-lead or sale stages from your CRM if you can.
• Brand cannibalisation. PMax can take credit for people already searching your name. Use brand exclusions or negatives where appropriate and run a separate brand Search campaign.
• Small budgets. Spreading a small budget across every channel can leave each one thin.

The controls Google has added

PMax started as something of a black box. Google has added visibility and control since. In an August 2025 update, Google Ads Help said:

• Campaign-level negative keywords launched earlier in 2025 and apply to Search and Shopping inventory. Negative keyword lists can now be applied at campaign level across multiple PMax campaigns.
• Search terms reporting is available for all Performance Max campaigns and through the API.
• Search themes went from 25 to 50 per asset group.
• A channel performance report was released in beta.
• Full asset statistics are available, and assets created by final URL expansion and text customisation can be viewed and removed.
• Device and age targeting are available.

These make PMax easier to manage, but only if someone actually checks the reports and acts on them. We look at search terms and channel performance at least monthly, add negatives, remove weak assets and replace them with new images or copy, and compare PMax results with any Search campaigns running alongside it so the two are not simply competing for the same clicks.

Setting it up properly

1. Confirm conversion tracking and values, including Consent Mode v2. See our Consent Mode guide.
2. For shops, fix the Merchant Center feed: titles, images, GTINs, prices and availability.
3. Split asset groups by theme or product category, each with relevant images, copy, search themes and audience signals.
4. Decide on final URL expansion: turn it off or exclude pages if you want traffic only on chosen pages.
5. Add brand and irrelevant negatives.
6. Review search terms, channel performance and assets regularly, and judge on profit rather than reported ROAS alone.

What dijitul charges

Our Performance Max management is part of Google Ads management, from £150 a month + VAT, or 10 to 15% of ad spend, whichever is higher. Shopping feeds and campaigns are included. Conversion tracking is £145 + VAT one-off if needed. Ad spend is paid directly to Google. Our guide on ROAS explains how we set value targets from your margins.

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