What Is Performance Max Google Ads?
Performance Max campaign in Google Ads is the newest campaign type that is designed to take over Product Listing Ads (PLA’s), also known as Google Shopping, Smart Shopping Campaigns and Local Search Ads. Performance Max ads combine search campaigns, shopping campaigns, display campaigns, discovery campaigns and YouTube video campaigns and place all of those creative assets into a single campaign.Where Do Performance Max Ads Show?
Since performance max ad campaigns combine all the creative assets across Google Ads formats, performance max ads uses Google Ads inventory to display your ads pretty much everywhere Google Ads are available. This includes Google searches, YouTube, GMail, and even Google partner sites.Are Performance Max Ad Campaigns Right For My Business?
Before you go out and set up a bunch of Performance Max ad campaigns there are some things you should know. First off, in order for your Performance Max ad campaigns to show, you must have at least 1 video included in your campaign. If you don’t have a video for your campaign, you will need to create one. Second, it’s important to understand that Performance Max campaigns are goal based. This means you need to have your conversion goals in Google Ads and on your website set up properly. (If you need help setting goals on either your website or in Google Ads, we can help.) Essentially, every business should be tracking goals on their website. For e-commerce websites you obviously want to track your sales but you may also want to track email subscribers, add to carts, abandoned carts and so on. For lead generation and local business websites you are going to want to track lead form submissions, phone calls, email subscribers and so on.Businesses Who Should Consider Performance Max Google Ads
No matter what type of business or website you have, you may want to consider Performance Max ad campaigns if your business:- Lacks the time and resources to optimize each type of Google Ads campaign (Search, Shopping, Display, Video, Discovery)
- Wants exposure in all of Google Ads inventory but has a limited budget
- Has an unlimited budget and wants to reach out to new audiences across the Google network
Businesses Who Have No Choice But To Use Performance Max Google Ads Campaigns
Google Shopping Campaigns
If you run Google Shopping campaigns, or PLA’s, you have until September 2022 to transition your smart shopping campaigns over to Performance Max. This means you may want to start creating new images and videos for each product you wish to advertise on Google.Local Campaigns
Local campaigns will also transition to Performance Max campaigns in September of 2022. Again, you may want to start creating new images and videos now so you can prepare for the upcoming changes.How To Optimize Performance Max Google Ads Campaigns
Optimizing your first Performance Max campaign may seem pretty straight forward. However, here are some things to pay attention to that can drastically improve your campaign.Campaign Settings
For Ecommerce websites, during the campaign objective setup of your Performance Max campaign is where you will want to connect your Google Merchant Center so you can promote your individual products for sale. When setting up your first Performance Max campaign, the first setting to pay attention to falls under the campaign setting → locations → more settings → final url expansion option. By default, this option is set to send traffic to most relevant urls on your site. This means you are basically giving Google Ads the authority to advertise every page on your website and send users to the most relevant page based on their intent.
Asset Group Settings
Your asset group settings is where you will be creating your ads for your Performance Max campaigns. For Ecommerce stores, the first thing to pay attention to is the listing groups where you can choose to advertise all of your products or specific products you have for sale on your website.


