Driving Results on Google with Performance Max Ads

When Google launched Performance Max back in 2021, a lot of PPC managers (us included) greeted it with the kind of enthusiasm you might reserve for a self-driving car with blacked-out windows. Sure, it might get you where you wanted to go. But you couldn’t see where it was taking you, you couldn’t grab the wheel, and if it drove into a ditch, you’d only find out when the bill arrived.

Fast forward to 2026, and things look very different. Google has spent the last couple of years quietly handing back many of the controls advertisers kept asking for. Performance Max still isn’t perfect, and there are a few things you can’t do, but it’s a far more manageable (and frankly more useful) campaign type than it was even a year ago.

So whether you’re thinking about trying Performance Max for the first time, or you’ve been running it for a while and suspect it could be doing better, this guide walks you through how it works today, what’s changed, and how to get genuinely good results from it.

What is Performance Max, in plain English?

Performance Max (or PMax, as most people call it) is a type of Google Ads campaign that can show your ads across almost everything Google owns, all from a single campaign. That includes Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.

Instead of building separate campaigns for each of those places, you give Performance Max a few key ingredients: a goal (such as sales or leads), your creative assets (headlines, images, videos and so on), your product feed if you sell online, and a few hints about who your customers are. Google’s AI then decides where to show your ads, who to show them to and how much to bid, all in real time.

It’s a bit like hiring a very hardworking media buyer who never sleeps. They’re brilliant with data and quick to spot an opportunity. But they only know what you tell them, and they take everything you say very literally. Give them clear goals and good material, and they’ll do great work. Give them vague instructions and patchy information, and, well, you’ll get exactly what you asked for.

From black box to (mostly) glass box: what’s changed

For its first few years, the biggest complaint about Performance Max was simple: you couldn’t see what it was doing. Which searches were triggering your ads? How much was going on YouTube rather than Search? Was it quietly spending your budget on people who were already searching for your brand name anyway?

The good news is that most of those questions now have answers. Search Engine Land recently described today’s PMax as fundamentally different, and far easier to manage, than the campaign type that launched. Here are the changes that matter most:

Negative keywords, at last. You can now add negative keywords directly to a Performance Max campaign, up to 10,000 of them, as well as using account-level lists. That means you can stop PMax showing for searches that are never going to convert, such as jobs, “free” or DIY queries. It was the single most-requested feature in PMax’s history, and it’s made a real difference.

A proper search terms report. You can now see the actual searches triggering your ads, in much the same detail as a normal Search campaign. Pair that with negative keywords and you finally have the feedback loop you need.

Channel performance reporting. You can see how each channel, from Search to YouTube to Display, contributes to your results, and track how spend shifts between them over time.

Brand exclusions. You can stop PMax taking credit for people who were already searching for your brand. That matters if you run a separate brand campaign, as we explain in our post on the benefits of own-brand bidding.

Placement, device and demographic controls. You can exclude websites and apps you’d rather not appear on, and fine-tune by device and age.

Customer Match exclusions. If your goal is winning new customers, you can now exclude the customer lists you already have.

Better asset and landing page reporting. You can see which headlines, images and videos are pulling their weight, and which pages PMax is actually sending people to.

Microsoft has been busy too. Since March 2026, Performance Max campaigns in Microsoft Advertising support negative keywords as well. If you run Microsoft Ads alongside Google, that’s very welcome news.

What you still can’t control

Now for the honest bit. More visibility doesn’t mean full control, and there are still a few things Performance Max won’t let you do.

The big one is budgets by channel. You can’t tell PMax to spend 70% on Search and cap YouTube at 10%, or switch Display off altogether. You can now see where the money goes, but the AI still decides how to split it.

It’s the question clients ask us most, and the answer is usually structural rather than a setting. Splitting product ranges into separate campaigns, excluding brand terms, giving PMax better assets and stronger conversion data: these are the levers that genuinely change how it behaves. And if you need tight control over one particular channel, running a dedicated Search, Shopping or YouTube campaign alongside PMax is often the right call. Our post on building a PPC channel mix that pays off goes into how to make those pieces work together.

How to set up a Performance Max campaign that actually works

Performance Max is only ever as good as what you put into it. Here’s how we approach a new campaign.

1. Get your conversion tracking right first

This one’s non-negotiable. PMax learns from your conversion data, so if your tracking is missing sales, double-counting leads or treating a newsletter sign-up the same as a £500 order, the AI will happily optimise towards entirely the wrong thing.

Check your conversion actions, give them sensible values, and consider server-side tracking to recover conversions that browsers and ad blockers hide. If tracking feels like a dark art, our guide to Google Tag Manager is a friendly place to start.

2. Tidy up your product feed

If you sell online, your product feed is effectively your ad copy. Clear titles, accurate prices, good images and complete product details all help PMax match the right products to the right searches. A messy feed is one of the most common reasons we see Performance Max underperform, and it’s something our Google Shopping team spends a lot of time putting right.

3. Give it great creative

PMax shows your ads in wildly different places, from a short text ad on Search to a full-screen video on YouTube, so give it plenty to work with: a good range of headlines and descriptions, high-quality images in different shapes and sizes, and ideally a video of your own. If you don’t supply one, Google may stitch a video together from your images, and the results can be, let’s say, a little underwhelming. Investing in proper graphic design really pays off here.

4. Point it in the right direction

Audience signals (such as your customer lists, past website visitors or relevant interests) and search themes tell PMax who you’re after and what you offer. They’re hints rather than strict targeting, but good hints help a new campaign find its feet much faster.

5. Add your guardrails from day one

Don’t wait for the search terms report to reveal a problem. Add brand exclusions if you run a separate brand campaign, build negative keyword lists for obviously irrelevant searches, and exclude any placements you already know you don’t want.

6. Give it time to learn

New Performance Max campaigns need a few weeks to settle in, so try to resist the urge to tinker every day. Big changes to budgets, goals or structure can send it back to square one, which is exactly why we avoid major changes in the run-up to busy periods like Black Friday.

Keeping it on track once it’s running

Once your campaign has found its feet, a little regular attention goes a long way:

• Check your search terms monthly, and add negatives for anything irrelevant that’s crept in.
• Look at the channel report, especially if results suddenly shift, so you understand where the budget is going.
• Review asset performance and swap your weakest headlines, images and videos for fresh ones.
• Test changes properly. Performance Max experiments let you test things like new assets against a control, so you’re not just guessing.
• Keep an eye on new customers. If growth matters more than repeat purchases, the new customer acquisition goal helps PMax focus on people who haven’t bought from you before.

Where Performance Max fits with AI Max and Google’s other automation

Performance Max is no longer Google’s only heavily automated option. Many Search campaigns were upgraded to AI Max in September, which brings similar AI-driven matching to Search itself. Our guide to the AI Max upgrade explains what changed. And from 12 October, Google can pull promotions from your website into some Performance Max and Search campaigns automatically, which we cover in Google Ads automated promotions explained.

The common thread? Google’s automation keeps getting more capable, but it still relies on you to set the right goals, supply good material and keep an eye on what it’s doing.

Is Performance Max right for your business?

For most ecommerce businesses with a decent product feed and reliable tracking, the answer is yes, and for many it ends up being their main campaign. It can work well for lead generation too, particularly if you feed back which leads actually turned into paying customers.

It’s a tougher sell if your budget is very small, your tracking is unreliable, or you only want to appear in one specific place, such as Search. In those cases, a simpler campaign type is often the better place to start. If you’re an online retailer weighing up your options, our ecommerce PPC team can help you work out the right mix.

Conclusion

Performance Max has grown up. The black box days are mostly behind it, and with negative keywords, search terms, channel reporting and brand exclusions all on offer, you can finally manage it properly rather than just hoping for the best.

But the fundamentals haven’t changed. Performance Max is only as good as the goals, data and creative you give it. Get those right, keep a close eye on the new reports, and it can be one of the most effective tools in your Google Ads account.

If you’d like a hand getting more from it, our Performance Max specialists would love to help. Or if you’re not sure how your current campaigns are really doing, start with a PPC account audit, and we’ll show you exactly where the opportunities are.