A Performance Max agency sets up and runs Google's most automated campaign type so that the automation spends your budget on the right products, the right customers and the right goals. Performance Max campaigns serve ads across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign, and Google decides where each dollar goes. That makes the inputs, such as your feed, your conversion data, your creative and your exclusions, far more important than the settings most people focus on.
Our Performance Max campaign management is part of our PPC management services. We treat PMax as one tool in a Google Ads account, not a replacement for everything else. Run alongside brand Search and well-structured Shopping, it can find buyers you would never reach with keywords alone. Run on its own with weak inputs, it tends to take credit for brand searches and returning customers you would have converted anyway.
What Is Google Performance Max?
Google Performance Max (often shortened to PMax) is a goal-based Google Ads campaign type that uses one budget and one set of assets to show ads across all of Google's channels, with Google's bidding and targeting deciding where and to whom each ad is shown. It became available to all advertisers in late 2021, and Google moved Smart Shopping and Local campaigns into Performance Max during 2022.
A PMax campaign is built from asset groups. Each asset group holds headlines, descriptions, images, logos and videos, plus optional audience signals and search themes, and for retailers a selection of products from your Merchant Center feed. Google combines those pieces into search ads, shopping ads, display banners, YouTube videos and feed ads automatically. You set the goal (sales, leads or store visits), the budget and the bid target; the system does the rest, which is exactly why the setup work matters.
Our Performance Max Management Services
| Service | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Account and tracking audit | We check that conversions match real orders or qualified leads, that values are correct, that Enhanced Conversions and Consent Mode v2 are in place, and that no duplicate or micro-conversions are steering the bidding. |
| Campaign and asset group structure | Campaigns split by margin, product category or service line, and asset groups built so each one has a clear theme, matching creative and the right landing pages. |
| Feed optimization | Product titles, descriptions, product types and custom labels for margin, best sellers and price bands, with supplemental feeds and feed rules where your platform cannot export the right data. |
| Creative and assets | Headlines, long headlines and descriptions written for each asset group, image sets in every ratio, and real video so Google does not auto-generate one from your images. |
| Brand and traffic controls | Brand exclusions, negative keyword lists, URL exclusions for pages that should never be landing pages, and a separate brand Search campaign. |
| Bidding toward profit | Target ROAS or target CPA set from your margins, conversion value rules, and new customer acquisition settings when acquiring new buyers is worth more to you than repeat orders. |
| Reporting and insight | Monthly reporting on search term insights, asset results, product performance and channel splits, compared with your store or CRM numbers. |
How We Build and Run a Performance Max Campaign
- Audit and data check (week 1). We compare Google Ads conversions with your Shopify, WooCommerce or CRM records for the same period, review Merchant Center diagnostics, and list what Performance Max is currently spending on brand terms and existing customers.
- Structure plan (week 1 to 2). We decide how many campaigns you need and why. Splits are based on things the business cares about, such as high and low margin products, hero products versus long tail, or separate service lines with different lead values.
- Feed and asset build (week 2 to 3). Feed fixes and custom labels go in first, then asset groups with written copy, images, video and audience signals from your customer lists and site visitors. Brand exclusions and URL exclusions are set before launch.
- Launch and learning (weeks 3 to 8). New campaigns usually need several weeks of stable settings before their results mean much, so we avoid large changes in this period. We still fix broken assets, disapprovals and obvious waste straight away.
- Optimization cycle (month 3 onward). Asset refreshes, product moves between campaigns based on performance, target adjustments, and tests against Standard Shopping or Search where the data suggests PMax is not the best fit for part of the catalog.
PMax Campaign Structure That Gives the Algorithm Better Inputs
Asset groups by theme, not by convenience
One asset group for everything forces Google to show generic messages to everyone. We build asset groups around themes a buyer would recognize, such as a product category, a use case or a service, so the headlines, images and landing pages match what the person is looking for. Each asset group also gets its own listing group selection, so the products shown match the creative.
Audience signals and search themes
Audience signals tell Google where to start looking, using your customer lists, website visitors, custom segments and Google's own segments. They are suggestions, not limits, so PMax can still serve to people outside them. Search themes add query ideas that your feed and landing pages may not cover. Both help most in the first weeks, before the campaign has its own conversion history.
Feed and custom labels
For retailers, the Merchant Center feed is the most important PMax input. Product titles decide which searches you can appear for, and custom labels let us split campaigns by margin, stock depth or sales velocity. If your feed comes straight from a platform export with no optimization, it is usually the first and highest-value fix. Our Google Shopping feed optimization guide walks through the main changes.
Final URL expansion and URL exclusions
Final URL expansion is on by default and lets Google send traffic to any page on your site it thinks fits the search. That can help discovery, and it can also send ad traffic to blog posts, careers pages or old campaign pages. We either turn it off or exclude the pages that should never receive paid traffic.
New customer acquisition
Performance Max can bid higher for new customers, or bid only for new customers, using your customer lists and conversion data to tell them apart. If repeat buyers already come back through email and organic search, paying full price to win them again through PMax wastes budget. This setting is one of the clearest ways to stop that.
Performance Max Campaign Optimization: What We Review and How Often
| Frequency | What we check and change |
|---|---|
| Several times a week | Budget pacing, sudden cost or conversion changes, disapproved products and assets, tracking health |
| Weekly | Search term insights for brand leakage and irrelevant themes, product-level results, negative keywords, placement and URL exclusions |
| Monthly | Asset results and creative refresh, product moves between campaigns, target ROAS or CPA adjustments against your margins, a written report |
| Quarterly | Campaign structure review, tests against Standard Shopping or Search, seasonal planning and new customer acquisition settings |
Most of the optimization in PMax happens through inputs rather than levers. We improve the feed, creative, conversion values and exclusions, then give the system time to respond. Changing targets every few days resets learning and usually makes results worse.
Search vs Performance Max: How Google Chooses Between Them
When a search term is identical to a keyword in one of your Search campaigns, Google gives that Search campaign priority over Performance Max. For every other search, Google picks the campaign based on relevance and Ad Rank, which means PMax can and does serve on searches you might expect your Search campaigns to cover.
That has practical consequences. Your most valuable terms, including your brand name and core product or service terms, should live as keywords in Search campaigns, so you control the ad text, landing page and bid. PMax then works on the long tail and the other channels. We check the search term insights in Performance Max every week to find queries worth moving into Search and themes worth excluding.
| Factor | Search campaigns | Performance Max |
|---|---|---|
| Control over queries | High, through keywords, match types and negatives | Lower, through search themes, brand exclusions and negatives |
| Channels | Google Search and search partners | Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps |
| Creative | Text ads you write | Text, image and video assets combined by Google |
| Reporting depth | Full search terms report | Search term insights plus asset and product reports |
| Best for | Brand terms and high-value queries you want to control | Catalog reach, new audiences and cross-channel coverage |
Keeping PMax Ads Away From Brand Searches You Already Win
Left unchecked, Performance Max often reports a high return on ad spend because a large share of its conversions come from people who searched your brand name. Those buyers were already looking for you. We separate them with three controls: brand exclusions applied to PMax, a dedicated brand Search campaign with its own budget, and reporting that shows PMax results with and without brand traffic. If PMax still looks profitable after brand traffic is removed, it is earning its budget.
Performance Max for Ecommerce and for Lead Generation
Performance Max for online stores
For ecommerce, PMax depends on a clean Merchant Center feed and accurate purchase values. We split campaigns by margin or performance tier, use custom labels to keep low-margin products from eating the budget, and send cost of goods data where your platform supports it so bidding can move toward profit rather than revenue. Our Google Shopping ads service handles the feed and Merchant Center side in more depth, and the ROAS calculator helps you set a break-even target before you choose a bid strategy.
Performance Max for lead generation
For lead generation, the risk is volume without quality. PMax can find cheap form fills from Display and Discover placements that never become customers. We only run PMax for leads when qualified leads or sales can be fed back into Google Ads through offline conversion import or Enhanced Conversions for leads, so the system learns which leads matter. Without that feedback, a Search campaign is usually the safer choice.
Performance Max Deliverables and How We Report Results
- A written PMax plan explaining the campaign split, asset group themes, targets and the first 90 days of tests.
- Feed changes documented, with supplemental feeds and rules you can see in Merchant Center.
- All copy, images and videos stored in a shared folder you own.
- A monthly report covering spend, conversions and value by campaign and product group, brand versus non-brand results, new versus returning customers where measured, asset performance and the changes made, compared against your store or CRM data.
Success looks like PMax meeting your target return or cost per acquisition on non-brand traffic, with results that hold up when checked against real orders and leads. We do not promise a specific ROAS, because it depends on your margins, prices, competition and conversion rate.
Performance Max Management Pricing
We price Performance Max management by the number of campaigns and the feed and creative work involved, with a monthly fee for most accounts and a percentage-of-spend model for large accounts that run PMax, Shopping and Search together at scale. The main cost drivers are catalog size, how much feed work your platform needs, and how many asset groups need fresh creative each month. The minimum term is three months.
Management fee only. Ad spend is paid by the client directly to Google and never passes through us.
PMax Launch
$600 /month
Flat fee. For ad spend up to $5,000 a month
- Up to 3 Performance Max campaigns
- Asset groups built per product category or service
- Audience signals from your customer lists and site data
- Merchant Center feed and conversion tracking checks
- Search term and placement exclusions
- Monthly report and 30-minute call
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month (30 days notice)
- Setup
- $450 account build, waived on a 6-month term
PMax Growth
$1,000 /month
Flat fee. For ad spend $5,000 to $15,000 a month
- Everything in PMax Launch
- Up to 8 Performance Max campaigns plus brand Search
- Feed optimization with custom labels by margin and best sellers
- New-customer acquisition goal and value rules
- Asset testing with new images and copy each month
- Channel and asset group performance breakdowns
- Bi-weekly calls and a live dashboard
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month (30 days notice)
- Setup
- $450, waived on a 6-month term
PMax Scale
10% of ad spend
10% of monthly ad spend, minimum $1,500. For spend above $15,000
- Unlimited Performance Max, Shopping and Search campaigns
- Profit-based bidding with margin data
- Supplemental feeds and feed rules management
- Video and Demand Gen assets planned with you
- Weekly calls, Slack and quarterly planning
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month (30 days notice)
- Add-on
- Asset pack: 10 images and 2 short videos for $450
All prices in USD. Need something different? Ask for a custom quote.
For multi-country accounts or large catalogs with several Merchant Center accounts, get in touch for a custom quote.
Performance Max Mistakes We Find in Account Audits
- Counting micro-conversions as goals. Add-to-cart, page views or newsletter signups set as primary conversions teach PMax to chase cheap actions instead of sales.
- One campaign for the whole catalog. Best sellers soak up the budget and the rest of the range never gets shown, with no way to set different targets by margin.
- No real video. If you supply no video, Google may create one from your images and text. These are rarely the version of your brand you want on YouTube.
- Brand traffic hiding poor performance. A strong headline ROAS can disguise weak results on new customers. Brand exclusions and separate reporting reveal the true picture.
- Constant target changes. Adjusting target ROAS every few days keeps the campaign in a permanent learning state.
- Ignoring feed errors. Disapproved or limited products in Merchant Center simply cannot serve, however good the campaign settings look.
Why Choose 95 Solutions as Your Google Performance Max Agency
- We work with product data every week. We co-build AM Jarvis, a SaaS suite for Shopify and WooCommerce stores that includes a Google Merchant Center violation scanner and bulk product editing, so feed problems are familiar ground.
- Senior strategy on every account. Mustafa has 11+ years in digital marketing and has been Head of Marketing for a resort wear brand since 2016, so PMax decisions are made by someone who has managed the budget himself.
- Reporting against your real numbers. We compare PMax results with your store or CRM, and we separate brand and non-brand traffic in every report.
- You own the accounts. Google Ads, Merchant Center, feeds and creative stay in your name, with a three-month minimum term and contracts from our US LLC.
Who Our PMax Campaign Management Is For
A good fit
- Online stores with a Merchant Center feed and reliable purchase tracking that want more from Shopping and PMax.
- Brands whose current PMax campaign reports strong results that do not match what the business sees in its own sales.
- Lead generation businesses that can import qualified leads or closed sales back into Google Ads.
- Accounts moving from a single catch-all PMax campaign to a structure based on margins or product lines.
Probably not a fit
- New businesses with no conversion history and very small budgets, where a focused Search campaign will learn faster.
- Lead generation accounts that cannot tell good leads from bad ones in any system.
- Anyone who wants Performance Max to replace all other campaign types without any brand or search controls.
Related Services Alongside Performance Max
Performance Max sits inside a wider Google Ads account. Our Google Ads management covers Search and account structure, ecommerce PPC plans search, shopping and social around margins and promotions, and our display advertising service handles standalone Display and Demand Gen campaigns when you need more control than PMax gives. Not sure your current setup is working? Ask for a free marketing audit.