If your inbox looks anything like ours, Google’s been gently (or not so gently) reminding you to “expand your clients’ reach with Performance Max.” So what’s all the fuss about?
Performance Max (PMax) launched back in 2021 with a big promise: one campaign to rule them all. Instead of juggling Google properties separately, you could reach everyone, everywhere, with one AI-driven setup.
PMax didn’t live up to the hype though. The early version felt like handing your credit card to a robot and hoping for the best. But over the past year, Google has made steady improvements that give advertisers some more visibility and control.
It’s still not perfect and plenty of marketers remain skeptical, but it is evolving. So if you swore PMax off a year or two ago, it might be worth another look. Here’s what’s new and how to make it work for you.
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (Google Edition)
Performance Max is Google’s all-in-one campaign type that uses AI to run ads across every Google property: Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. Instead of building and managing separate campaigns, you upload your creative assets, set goals, and let Google’s machine learning decide where and when to show your ads.
When it works well, PMax helps marketers reach more people with less manual setup. It’s designed to optimize for conversions and find the best-performing combinations of headlines, images, and placements automatically.
But it’s not a magic bullet. Performance Max can’t fix poor strategy or weak creative, and it hasn’t always given marketers much control or visibility into how campaigns run. It can also make performance metrics look better on paper than they are in reality. For example, a lower cost per conversion might just come from mixing in cheaper inventory like Display or YouTube placements, which can make your old benchmarks less meaningful and your data harder to interpret.
Performance Max Gets A Glow-Up: What’s New
Early versions of PMax earned a reputation as a “black box,” offering limited reporting and almost no insight into where ads were showing up. Over the past year, Google has worked to change that with updates that give marketers a clearer view of what’s performing, what’s not, and how their ads are being distributed across channels.
Taking Back the Wheel
One of the biggest updates to Performance Max is campaign-level exclusions, including brand terms, audience types, and devices. You can finally keep your ads from showing up in the wrong searches or on placements that don’t fit your brand. It’s not full control, but it’s a step toward smarter spending and better reporting. For marketing leaders, that means fewer awkward screenshots from your team explaining why an ad ended up somewhere it shouldn’t. For hands-on marketers, it’s a better way to fine-tune where your budget actually goes.
Fewer Guessing Games
Performance Max now offers channel reporting and asset-level insights that break down performance across Search, YouTube, Display, and more. You can finally see which creative assets are performing well and which ones aren’t. With a clearer view of what is driving results (and not just a single “conversions” total), you can make more informed decisions and build a stronger case for where to invest your ad budget.
AI Upgrade
Google has leaned heavily into AI-powered creative tools that can generate headlines, visuals, and copy in seconds. You can even train the system to stay true to your brand’s look and voice. The setup is faster, and you can test more variations with less manual work. But automated doesn’t mean autopilot. AI is great at scale and speed, but not at storytelling. Your strategy still needs to steer the ship.
A New Road to Reach Your Audience
Google recently added Waze inventory to Performance Max, bringing ads directly into navigation experiences. Brands can now reach drivers heading to stores, restaurants, or events. For tourism, retail, and service-based businesses, this opens the door to hyperlocal, high-intent advertising. PMax can now connect digital impressions with real-world action, literally driving customers to your door.
When to Hit “Go” and When to Say “No”
Performance Max isn’t for everyone, but when it fits, it can be a powerful way to scale your marketing without adding more plates to spin. The key is knowing when to lean in and when to keep your distance.
When It Makes Sense
Performance Max is designed to amplify what’s already working, not fix what isn’t. It’s a good fit when you already have a solid foundation:
- You already have strong creative, clear goals, and reliable conversion tracking.
- You want to scale awareness and conversions efficiently across Google properties like Search, Display, YouTube, and Maps.
- You’re running e-commerce, retail, tourism, or awareness campaigns that benefit from broad reach.
- You’re a small team that needs efficiency and doesn’t have the time to manually manage every ad placement.
When to Hold Off
Performance Max works best when it has plenty of data and creative variety to learn from. If either is limited, it can burn through your budget fast. You may want to wait before using it if:
- You’re a niche B2B company or have a long, complex sales cycle.
- You rely heavily on manual control or precise keyword targeting.
- You don’t have enough high-quality creative assets to test and refine.
- You’re not getting frequent or accurate conversion data that Google’s system can optimize around.
- You have strict brand or legal compliance requirements that need additional review before ads go live.
How to Get the Most Out of Performance Max
The marketers who see results treat PMax as a complement to their Google Ads strategy, not a replacement. It should support your other campaigns, not run solo. To make it work:
- Feed it quality inputs:
- Audience signals, strong creative, and clean conversion data.
- Nail the measurement basics:
- Confirm Google Ads conversion tags are firing correctly and that enhanced conversions are active.
- Use data-driven attribution so upper-funnel assists get proper credit.
- Link GA4 to Google Ads and verify data flows in both directions.
- For lead generation, import offline conversions or CRM quality signals so the system optimizes for value, not just volume.
- Keep UTM tracking consistent so you can trace results accurately in your CRM and analytics tools.
- Measure the entire customer journey across all touchpoints, not just the ones that happen on the same site where the ad appears.
- Guide the system:
- Set brand and placement exclusions early to protect spend and brand safety.
- Review channel and asset insights monthly for trends, wasted spend, and creative refresh needs.
- Refresh creative often to give the model more winning combinations to find.
Performance Max is powerful, but it’s not plug-and-play. The difference between using it and making it work will always come down to strategy.
The Bottom Line on Performance Max
Performance Max has come a long way, but it still works best when there’s a smart strategy behind it. Good results come from clear goals, strong creative, and reliable data tracking.
If you’re interested in getting more out of Performance Max or want a second opinion on how it fits into your broader digital strategy, let’s talk.