March 12, 2025

Who Should Use Performance Max Campaigns in 2025

If you clicked on this blog post, there’s a chance you fall into 1 of 3 of these categories:

You’ve run a PMax campaign and failed
You want to run a PMax campaign
You’re hesitant to run a PMax campaign

No matter what number resonates with you the most, I’ll discuss what a PMax campaign is, how it delivers, and if it’s worth testing out for you or your client.

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What Are Performance Max Campaigns, Anyway?

Great question – Performance Max (otherwise known as PMax) is a campaign option in Google advertising that combines:

Search
Display
Shopping
YouTube

The main goal of this campaign is to maximize conversions across all Google channels.

Sounds amazing, right? Well… sort of. There is a caveat to this seemingly magical campaign. You can’t pick or choose (or even see) where your clicks and conversions come from. This means your campaign may be mostly serving Display ads to your remarketing audience when you intend to generate new customers through Google Search placements. There is no easy way to see this in the Google Ads reporting.

There are situations where Performance Max can help you drive more qualified conversions. However, it is important to understand how your campaign is delivering before taking the Google Ads reporting at face value.

Like anything in digital advertising, keeping a close eye on your campaigns, especially Performance Max, is important. You might see it’s converting but then realize they’re low-level conversions or not your primary goal.

How PMax Campaigns Work

PMax campaigns use machine learning to show your ad where it’s most likely to convert and get seen. This means displaying ads across all Google channels at the optimal time when a potential customer is most likely to take action.

AI helps optimize PMax campaigns by adjusting your bids, targeting, and placements based on Google’s learning algorithm.

How PMax Campaigns Are Structured

When setting up a PMax campaign, you’ll need to create asset groups, which function similarly to ad groups in traditional campaigns. Each asset group includes:

Headlines & Descriptions: These can be short, compelling text that highlights your ad.
Images: You’ll want these to be high-quality so they show off your product well.
Videos: Make sure this is engaging so it boosts your ad performance.
Logos & CTAs: You’ll definitely want your logo and call to action to be clear and easy to digest.

After you’ve set everything up, Google will serve them wherever it thinks will get the most conversions.

Where Will They Appear?

One of the biggest advantages of PMax is its broad reach. Ads can appear across:

Google Search: Your typical ads that show after a query has been searched

Google Display Network: Banner and responsive display ads on partner websites.

YouTube: Video ads in YouTube feeds that could show up before/during a video.

Gmail: Ads within Gmail inboxes that will typically show up in your Promotions tab.

Google Discover: Video ads could show in Discover feeds.

Google Maps: Local-based ads that drive store visits and directions.

Benefits of Using PMax campaigns

Performance Max campaigns are not for everyone. However, in some cases, they can provide incremental growth for your business if set up and analyzed correctly. AI automates the campaign creation process and can take away some of your manual tasks as a PPC manager. According to Google, PMax offers:

Automation & Optimization: AI helps improve performance by automatically adjusting bids, placements, and targeting based on real-time data.
Expanded Reach: Access to Google’s entire inventory allows your ads to show up across multiple channels – all in one campaign.
Better Conversion Tracking: PMax provides improved audience insights and conversion-based optimization, making it easier to track and enhance performance.
Simplified Campaign Management: With automation handling most of the usual optimizations you’d do manually, advertisers spend less time on manual adjustments compared to the typical Google ad campaign.

Challenges & Limitations of PMax

There are important limitations that every advertiser should be aware of before putting a large budget behind this type of campaign:

Limited Control: You’ll notice less transparency on where ads show and what’s working.
Data Visibility Issues: Unfortunately, there’s not much viewability with important insights that you’d normally check frequently. With this type of campaign, you won’t be able to view the search term report or placements.
Creative Dependence: Success relies on high-quality assets. Bad quality images or weak copy could tank your performance.
Budget Allocation Concerns: You can’t control how the budget is distributed across all of the Google platforms included in PMax. Some channels could spend more than you would want them to.

Best Practices for Running a Successful PMax Campaign

If you’re ready to try a PMax campaign, I have a little bit of advice for you that could help your performance.

Provide High-Quality Assets – Strong headlines, compelling descriptions, engaging images & videos.
Use Audience Signals Wisely – Upload first-party data (customer lists, website visitors) to guide AI.
Optimize Conversion Tracking – Ensure proper setup of conversion goals & attribution.
Test & Monitor Performance – Use GA4 & Google Ads reporting to track conversions.
Combine with Other Campaigns – Use PMax alongside search & other campaign types for a balanced strategy.
Use Mike Rhodes’ PMax Script: Check out this video from Mike Rhodes, a PPC expert and founder of Web Savvy, who created a powerful script for analyzing PMax data. Since Google Ads doesn’t provide a breakdown of where PMax traffic comes from, this script fills the gap, allowing advertisers to generate a report that reveals traffic distribution across different channels. Check out his detailed script here.

When to Use (and Not Use) PMax Campaigns

Best Scenarios:
- E-commerce companies tracking 10-15 purchase events in a single campaign and are monitoring incremental total revenue growth, not just sales attributed to PMax.
- Lead generation companies tracking 10-15 leads per campaign or ‘micro’ conversions to ensure there is enough data for the campaign to learn and optimize.
- Businesses with multiple advertising objectives.
Not Ideal If:
- You need full control over placements & spend allocation.
- You rely heavily on detailed search term reporting to refine your strategy.

Final Thoughts

PMax is a powerful campaign option that uses AI to simplify and enhance your digital advertising. While it offers plenty of benefits, it also requires a strategic approach.

Would you rather have someone on our team run your next PMax campaign? We’d love to chat with ya! Connect with our team today to kickstart your digital marketing!

Written by Brier Gurholt