Performance Max.

What is Performance Max?

Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that uses one budget and one set of goals to run ads across Google's channels: Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.

You supply creative assets such as headlines, descriptions, images and videos, plus audience signals and conversion goals. Google's automation then decides where to show your ads, to whom and at what bid.

Why it matters

Performance Max can reach people across far more placements than a search-only campaign, and for online retailers with a good product feed it is often central to the account. The catch is that it optimises entirely towards the conversions you track. If those are accurate and valuable, it can scale well. If they are weak, such as every form fill counted equally, it will find the cheapest version of that action, which may not be the customer you want.

The controls that matter

• Conversion goals The most important input of all. Performance Max optimises towards whatever you mark as primary.
• Asset groups Bundles of creative and audience signals, ideally one per product line or service, so the messaging stays relevant.
• Search themes and negatives Search themes guide which searches it pursues, and campaign-level negative keywords, rolled out during 2025, let you exclude irrelevant ones.
• Brand exclusions Stop the campaign serving on, and taking credit for, searches for your own business name.
• Channel and search terms reports Added during 2025, they show where spend actually goes and which searches triggered your ads.

What to do about it

Before launching or reviewing a Performance Max campaign, make sure your conversion tracking counts qualified leads or sales, ideally with offline conversion imports from your CRM. Add brand exclusions and a negative keyword list. Check the channel performance and search terms reports every month, and compare lead quality from Performance Max with your search campaigns. If you sell services locally on a modest budget, a well-built search campaign is often the better place to start.