---
title: "How do I optimize a Performance Max (PMax) campaign in Google Ads?"
description: "Performance Max optimization, report by report: what you control in a PMax campaign, where Google Ads shows what it did, and the changes Google's pages name."
canonical: https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization
last-updated: 2026-10-03
---

Guide

# How do I optimize a Performance Max (PMax) campaign in Google Ads?

Performance Max optimization, report by report: what you control in a PMax campaign, where Google Ads shows what it did, and the changes Google's pages name.

In short

- A Performance Max campaign shows your ads on Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one budget. You set its goals, assets, signals and exclusions, and Google's AI sets every bid.
- Google says to run a new one for at least 6 weeks before judging it, and to allow 1 to 2 weeks after a significant change.
- Read it in the search terms report's Performance Max view, the asset group and asset reports, and the channel performance report. Google calls the placement report a brand safety tool, not a measure of performance.
- To optimize it, improve what it works from, such as assets, your customer lists as audience signals and up to 50 search themes an asset group, and set its limits with brand exclusions, negative keywords and URL exclusions.
- Goldbeater reads every search your Performance Max campaigns paid for, every day, and raises one that converted twice or more where no Search keyword is it, with the exact keyword drafted in the Search ad group it belongs to.

Goldbeater checks this every 24 hours

- A search Performance Max converts that your Search campaigns don't bid on
- Performance Max text saying a word you never want in your ads

Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on the findings. A free first look shows how many problems these and 161 other checks find on one of your accounts, and what they cost. No card.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [or start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

1. [01 What you control in a Performance Max campaign, and what Google decides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#what-you-control)
2. [02 The Performance Max learning period: six weeks before you judge it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#learning-period)
3. [03 Performance Max reporting: where Google Ads shows what it did](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#reporting)
4. [04 Performance Max insights: what the Insights page adds](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#insights)
5. [05 The Performance Max search terms report, worked on ten searches](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#search-terms)
6. [06 Performance Max asset groups: what one is, and when to split](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#asset-groups)
7. [07 Performance Max assets: Google's requirements, and what it recommends](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#assets)
8. [08 Audience signals and search themes steer Performance Max; they don't limit it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#signals)
9. [09 The limits you can set: brands, negatives, URLs and new customers](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#controls)
10. [10 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#in-goldbeater)
11. [11 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#questions)

Contents

1. [01 What you control in a Performance Max campaign, and what Google decides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#what-you-control)
2. [02 The Performance Max learning period: six weeks before you judge it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#learning-period)
3. [03 Performance Max reporting: where Google Ads shows what it did](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#reporting)
4. [04 Performance Max insights: what the Insights page adds](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#insights)
5. [05 The Performance Max search terms report, worked on ten searches](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#search-terms)
6. [06 Performance Max asset groups: what one is, and when to split](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#asset-groups)
7. [07 Performance Max assets: Google's requirements, and what it recommends](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#assets)
8. [08 Audience signals and search themes steer Performance Max; they don't limit it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#signals)
9. [09 The limits you can set: brands, negatives, URLs and new customers](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#controls)
10. [10 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#in-goldbeater)
11. [11 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization#questions)

The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.

## What you control in a Performance Max campaign, and what Google decides

A Performance Max campaign, PMax for short, is one campaign that can show your ads on all of Google’s inventory: Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. Google calls it goal-based. You say what a conversion is and what it’s worth, and Google’s AI sets the bids and assembles the ads. It has no keywords to pick: Google’s name for how it chooses searches is keywordless targeting.

| You set                                                                     | Google decides                                                                         |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Conversion goals and values, and an optional target CPA or ROAS             | The bid in every auction, from how likely a conversion is                              |
| A daily budget                                                              | Which channels and placements the budget goes to                                       |
| Asset groups: text, images, videos and a final URL                          | Which assets make each ad, and the text and videos it adds where those settings are on |
| Audience signals and search themes                                          | Who sees the ads, inside your signals or outside them                                  |
| A Merchant Center feed, if you sell products                                | Which products show, from the listing groups you include                               |
| Exclusions: brands, negative keywords, URLs, and placements for the account | Nothing: these are the limits it works inside                                          |

So optimizing one is two jobs. Give it better inputs: conversions counted right, more and stronger assets, your own customer lists as signals. And set its limits: the brands, searches and pages it must leave alone. What you can’t do is move its budget between channels. Google’s page on channel reporting says you can’t directly control budget allocation per channel, only influence it through those same inputs.

Its conversions are what it learns from, so check them before anything else. The [conversion tracking guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/conversion-tracking-check) covers an action counted twice or not at all.

## The Performance Max learning period: six weeks before you judge it

Google’s advice for every kind of business is to run a new Performance Max campaign for at least 6 weeks, so its bidding has enough data to work from. In that time it says to avoid frequent changes to the budget, the bid strategy or the campaign’s status, which can reset the learning and make results swing.

- After a significant change to a campaign that is already running, Google says to allow 1 to 2 weeks, or at least one full conversion cycle, before reading the result.
- After editing assets, Ad Strength and the asset group’s status take a few days to update, and Google recommends waiting 2 to 3 weeks before deciding to replace a low performing asset.
- For seasonal assets, Google suggests uploading new asset groups at least 2 weeks ahead, so they’re approved in time.

Google’s help pages read for this guide give no number of conversions a Performance Max campaign needs before it works. The nearest is on its page for lead generation: when you bid on value, choose a conversion goal close to a sale that has at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days.

## Performance Max reporting: where Google Ads shows what it did

Six reports cover a Performance Max campaign, each cutting the same spend another way.

| Report              | Where it is                                                                                                                | What it shows                                                                                                                   |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Search terms        | Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms, then Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max, in the drop-down | The searches its ads showed on, from March 2023, with each one's landing page and whether it got a Shopping ad or a text ad     |
| Asset groups        | Campaigns › Asset groups, then the Table view                                                                              | Each asset group's conversions, conversion value and cost, and its Ad Strength                                                  |
| Assets              | Campaigns › Assets › Assets                                                                                                | Each headline, image and video: its impressions, clicks, cost and conversions, and whether you or Google wrote it               |
| Channel performance | Campaigns › Insights and reports › Channel performance                                                                     | Cost and conversions by channel, and a status saying what holds each channel back, for any date after June 6, 2025              |
| Placements          | Campaigns › Insights and reports › Report editor, then Performance Max campaigns placement                                 | The sites, apps and videos its ads showed on, by impressions. Google calls it a brand safety tool, not a measure of performance |
| Products            | Campaigns › Products                                                                                                       | Each product's clicks, cost and conversions across your campaigns, if you run a Merchant Center feed                            |

Google’s pages say how to read each, and the cautions matter more than the columns:

- Judge the campaign, not the row. Google says to keep evaluating at the campaign level. An asset group with a higher CPA or a lower ROAS still contributes to the campaign’s goal, and Google doesn’t recommend removing one on that figure.
- An asset’s ratios are directional. Every asset in an ad is credited with the whole impression, click and conversion, so asset figures don’t add up to the asset group’s. Google says to treat an asset’s CTR, CPA or ROAS as a direction only.
- Read conversions before clicks. In the search terms report, Google says to prioritize conversion data over clicks and impressions, since some of the campaign’s conversions come without a direct click.
- A channel’s status says what holds it back. Each channel is Eligible, Eligible (Limited), Not eligible or Missing required assets, and View channel diagnostics names the cause: a missing video, a disapproved asset group, a product feed issue, Final URL expansion turned off. Google says a channel with no issue and no spend is likely one where it found a better return elsewhere.
- Some searches are left out. The search terms report lists searches used by a significant number of people, so it never adds up to everything the campaign paid for on Search.

## Performance Max insights: what the Insights page adds

The Insights page, under Campaigns › Insights and reports › Insights, reads the same campaign for patterns, over the last 7 or 28 days. With one Performance Max campaign selected, it can show:

- Search terms insights. Your searches grouped into categories and subcategories, each with its clicks, conversions and conversion value. They count the searches the search terms report leaves out for privacy, so this is the fuller picture of what the campaign matched.
- Audience insights. The audience segments that make up your conversions, and asset audience insights, which show the assets each segment responds to.
- Diagnostic insights. Why a campaign isn’t serving or isn’t converting, such as low Ad Strength.
- Performance insights. What Google reads as the cause when the campaign’s results changed significantly in the last 7 or 28 days.

Search trends and demand forecasts, for the categories you sell in, show at the account level. Google says insights aren’t generated for every campaign at all times, so a card can be missing.

## The Performance Max search terms report, worked on ten searches

The search terms report is where Performance Max meets the campaigns you run by hand. Google publishes the order when a Search campaign and Performance Max could both answer a search. An exact match keyword identical to the search comes first, ahead of Performance Max. Phrase and broad match keywords and search themes identical to it come next and share that place. Then relevance decides, then Ad Rank. The [brand guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/brand-in-performance-max) has the order in full.

So a search Performance Max converts, and that no keyword of yours is, can be claimed. Add it to a Search campaign as an exact match keyword, and that campaign answers it with the ad and page you wrote. The [find keywords guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads) does the same with a Search campaign’s own searches.

1. Go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms, choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max from the drop-down, and set the date range to the last 30 days.
2. Divide the report’s total cost by its total conversions. That is what the campaign’s search terms pay for a conversion.
3. Take each search that converted twice or more, and divide its cost by its conversions. Leave any that pays more for a conversion than the campaign’s searches do.
4. Look for the search in your Search campaigns. Switch the drop-down back to see whether one of them paid for it, and open Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords to see whether a keyword is the search already.
5. If neither, find the ad group whose keyword sits inside the search, word for word. Its ads and its page were written for that search, so that is where the keyword goes.

Search terms, 30 days

Sample data

| Search term                | Clicks | Cost    | Conv. | Cost / conv. | In Search            |
| -------------------------- | ------ | ------- | ----- | ------------ | -------------------- |
| king size oak bed frame    | 151    | $256.00 | 4     | $64.00       | Add to Oak beds      |
| washable wool rug 8x10     | 67     | $171.00 | 2     | $85.50       | Too dear             |
| velvet sofa 3 seater       | 88     | $147.60 | 4     | $36.90       | Cheaper here         |
| how to clean a velvet sofa | 97     | $126.00 | 0     | —            | No conversion        |
| jute rug 8x10              | 63     | $112.50 | 3     | $37.50       | No keyword inside it |
| linen sofa 3 seater        | 52     | $96.20  | 2     | $48.10       | Bought in Search     |
| second hand corner sofa    | 71     | $92.40  | 0     | —            | No conversion        |
| oak dining table 6 seater  | 49     | $88.30  | 1     | $88.30       | Converted once       |
| outdoor rug 8x10           | 38     | $74.40  | 2     | $37.20       | A keyword already    |
| rug sizes guide            | 55     | $71.50  | 0     | —            | No conversion        |

Every search Performance Max — All products paid for in the last 30 days: $1,235.90 and 18 conversions, so its search terms pay $68.66 for one. The last column is what steps 3 to 5 find for each.

king size oak bed frame converted 4 times at $64.00, under the campaign’s $68.66. No Search keyword is it, and no Search campaign paid for it. Beds — Phrase holds the phrase keyword "oak bed frame" in Oak beds, which sits inside it, and that campaign’s own search terms pay $57.28 for a conversion, less than Performance Max paid here. So it’s worth claiming: \[king size oak bed frame] goes in Oak beds.

velvet sofa 3 seater is the same case with one difference. Performance Max buys its conversions for $36.90, and Sofas — Phrase’s search terms pay $96.00. The two figures aren’t measured alike: Google’s page on this report says some of a Performance Max campaign’s conversions come without a direct click. So moving this one is a judgement about which count you trust. jute rug 8x10 has no keyword inside it, since none of the account’s ad groups is about jute rugs. Claiming it means choosing the ad group whose ads should answer it, or writing one.

The other seven stay. Sofas — Phrase paid for linen sofa 3 seater too, so it’s in Search already. outdoor rug 8x10 is a broad match keyword of Rugs — Broad, and Performance Max took it anyway: a broad match keyword doesn’t come first the way an exact one does. The brand guide covers that case. oak dining table 6 seater converted once, washable wool rug 8x10 pays $85.50 for a conversion, and three never converted. Those three are a question for a negative keyword, which the [wasted search terms guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms) answers.

To add the keyword:

1. On Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords, select the plus button.
2. In the Select an ad group window, find the campaign, then choose the ad group.
3. Enter the search in brackets, which makes it exact match: \[king size oak bed frame]. Select Save.

Two limits, both Google’s. The order decides which of your text ads answers a search. Google says it doesn’t apply to Shopping ad formats or to the rest of its inventory, so a Shopping ad can still show beside your keyword’s ad. The report’s Ad format segment says which kind a search got. And a keyword that can’t serve holds nothing: a Search campaign limited by its budget, a keyword with low search volume, or an ad group whose ads are all disapproved leaves the search to Performance Max.

## Performance Max asset groups: what one is, and when to split

An asset group is a collection of creatives around one theme or one audience: headlines, descriptions, images, videos, logos and a final URL. Google can combine any asset in a group with any other in it, so a group that mixes two products makes ads that mix them.

- Split by what you sell. Google recommends basing asset groups on the sections or categories of products on your website, and also suggests separating by language or target audience.
- Keep the campaign structure simple. Google’s advice for a new Performance Max campaign is a structure as simple as possible, since its AI works best across one budget. The reasons it names for separate campaigns are different countries or languages, budgets or ROAS targets.
- For products, each asset group has listing groups that say which products it advertises. The [Shopping feed guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-feed-optimization#listing-groups) covers them.

Since any line can appear beside any other, read each group’s text for anything you wouldn’t sign off: a claim you no longer make, a rival’s name, a word your brand avoids.

1. Go to Campaigns › Asset groups, select the Performance Max campaign, and in an asset group’s Assets column select View asset details.
2. Read the headlines, long headlines, descriptions and business name. The column Google’s pages call Source, or Added by, marks the lines Google wrote as Automatically created.
3. Rewrite a line of yours, or remove it. A line Google wrote can be removed there too, and turning off Text customization stops new ones.

## Performance Max assets: Google's requirements, and what it recommends

Google’s specifications give each kind of asset a minimum, a recommendation and a most. The minimum is what it takes to publish an asset group with no Merchant Center feed attached:

- Required: 3 headlines, 1 long headline, 2 descriptions, a business name, a final URL, a landscape image, a square image, a square logo, and a call to action, which Google chooses unless you pick one.
- Recommended: 11 or more headlines, 2 or more long headlines, 4 or more descriptions, 4 or more landscape images, 4 or more square ones, 2 or more portrait ones, and a video in each orientation.
- At most: 15 headlines, 5 long headlines, 5 descriptions, 20 images, 5 logos and 15 videos.

Google’s optimization tips ask for more than the minimum: an Ad Strength of Good or Excellent, at least 20 text assets (15 headlines and 5 descriptions), at least 7 images (3 landscape, 3 square and 1 portrait), and at least 1 video. With no video of yours, Google may make one from your other assets, and it says your own matters if you want to spend less on generated ones.

The [ad strength guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-strength#performance-max) has the whole table and what each rating means, and the [character limits guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-character-limits#performance-max) has each line’s length.

## Audience signals and search themes steer Performance Max; they don't limit it

Audience signals are optional suggestions attached to an asset group. Google says Performance Max may show ads to people outside your signals if they’re likely to convert, so a signal is where it starts looking, not who it’s limited to. The inputs Google lists first are your own: website visitors, app users, customer lists and video viewers. It calls a Customer Match list of past purchasers the most valuable signal. Add them in the Audiences section beneath the asset group; the [Customer Match guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-customer-match#signal) has the steps.

Search themes are words and phrases for what your customers search, for things Google can’t learn from your landing page. An asset group takes up to 50, each of 80 characters or fewer. For priority against your Search campaigns they count as phrase or broad match keywords, and they respect brand exclusions. Google says they don’t limit the campaign’s traffic.

1. Go to Campaigns › Campaigns, select the Performance Max campaign, then Asset groups, and choose the Summary view.
2. Select the pencil icon next to Signals on the asset group’s card, then Search themes.
3. Add themes that say something new. Google’s advice is to avoid duplicates and close variants, and to prefer a broad theme such as running shoes to a long one. Select Save.

## The limits you can set: brands, negatives, URLs and new customers

- Brand exclusions keep the campaign off searches for the brands on a list, misspellings included. Google’s page on applying them says they reach Search, Shopping and YouTube search, and its advice is to use them, not negative keywords, for your own brand. The [brand guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/brand-in-performance-max) sets one up.
- Negative keywords go on the campaign or the account and apply to Search and Shopping inventory only. Google says to use them in Performance Max only for essential brand safety needs or completely irrelevant terms. The [negative keywords guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#performance-max) has the steps.
- Final URL expansion is on by default. It lets Google send a search to a more relevant page of your domain than the final URL you gave, with a headline written to match. Google recommends leaving it on. If only one page converts, turn it off: go to Campaigns › Campaigns, select the gear icon beside the campaign, and open Asset optimization.
- URL exclusions keep expansion off pages you name, or off every address a rule matches, such as a blog or a careers page. They work only while expansion is on, and the campaign’s own final URL can’t be excluded.
- Text customization is on by default too. Google writes headlines and descriptions from your landing pages, and shows one only where it predicts it will do better than yours.
- New customer acquisition in Google Ads is a campaign setting. New Customer Value bids higher for new customers and is the mode Google recommends for anyone with a purchase goal. New Customer Only bids only for new customers, which Google recommends only for a strict acquisition budget or for lead generation. Google asks you to define your existing customers with a customer list or a website tag, so it can tell who is new.
- Placements and content are set for the whole account. Performance Max respects account-level placement exclusions and the content suitability settings under Tools › Content suitability.
- Budget and targets. Google’s tips for reaching more channels are to raise the budget where the campaign meets its target and is limited by budget, and to relax a ROAS or CPA target that holds it back. The [Target CPA and ROAS guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-cpa) covers a target the campaign never reaches.

Google names one combination as the foundation: Final URL expansion on, with search themes. Each exclusion after that trades reach for control, so add the ones a report gave you a reason for.

## What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it

Every day Goldbeater reads the last 30 days of searches each enabled Performance Max campaign paid for. It raises a search that converted twice or more, on $20 or more (or the same in your account’s currency), for no more a conversion than that campaign’s search terms paid. It does so only where an enabled Search campaign serves every place and language the Performance Max campaign does and doesn’t block the search with a negative. And only where none of those campaigns has the search as a keyword, identical, respaced or reordered, or paid for it in the same 30 days.

It drafts the search as an exact match keyword in the ad group whose keyword sits inside it word for word: the longest such keyword, then the busiest. The change is recommended where that Search campaign’s search terms pay less for a conversion than Performance Max paid on the search, and offered where they don’t. Where no keyword sits inside the search, the finding says what to do and drafts nothing. A finding reads low, and medium from $200 of cost, a mark that rises on a larger account.

Finding

Sample data

Medium Medium severity Keyword coverage

Performance Max converted "king size oak bed frame" 4 times, and no Search keyword is it

Performance Max — All products › Oak beds

What Goldbeater saw

In the last 30 days it brought 4 conversions in Performance Max — All products, $64 each, where Performance Max's search terms pay $69 a conversion and Beds — Phrase's $57, and no Search keyword is it or Search campaign bought it, though Beds — Phrase has "oak bed frame" in Oak beds.

- Clicks in Performance Max

  151

- Cost in Performance Max

  $256

- Conv. in Performance Max

  4

- Cost / conv.

  $64

- Search campaign's cost / conv.

  $57.28

Why it matters

A search Performance Max has converted at least twice in 30 days, where one of your Search campaigns serves the same places and has no keyword for it and didn't buy it. As an exact keyword there it's answered by the ad and page you wrote, ahead of Performance Max. Goldbeater drafts it in the ad group whose keyword sits inside the search, and offers it rather than recommending it where Performance Max pays less for a conversion than the Search campaign does.

What to do

Add "king size oak bed frame" to Oak beds in Beds — Phrase as an exact-match keyword. Google puts an exact keyword identical to a search ahead of Performance Max, so the Search campaign answers it with the ad and page you wrote whenever it can serve, though a Shopping ad can still show beside it. Performance Max — All products paid $64 a conversion on it, and Beds — Phrase's search terms pay $57. It's the change below.

What would change

- Add an exact-match keyword \[king size oak bed frame] Ad group Beds — Phrase › Oak beds

It reaches your account when you approve it in the change set and press Apply. An applied change can be undone.

This is “A search Performance Max converts that your Search campaigns don't bid on” on a sample account. Goldbeater runs it on yours every 24 hours, and your AI analyst answers what you ask about any finding.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

Sample data. Cedar & Pine Interiors is an invented account, and its figures are made up.

That is the table’s first row, at its figures. The finding’s sentences say each amount to the dollar, so the table’s $68.66 reads $69 there. Of the other rows, Goldbeater raises velvet sofa 3 seater with the keyword offered and not recommended, and jute rug 8x10 with no change drafted.

Goldbeater also reads every enabled asset group’s headlines, long headlines, descriptions and business name for the words your account’s Settings list as never wanted in your ads. A word counts whole, in any capitals, and a phrase counts across punctuation. A line Google wrote counts as the group’s own. It raises one finding for an asset group, low, listing the lines that hold the word. The finding is advice to rewrite them, with no change drafted, and with no words listed it raises nothing.

Other checks read the same campaigns, each in its own guide:

- A search Performance Max paid for that a Search campaign bids on as a keyword is the [brand guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/brand-in-performance-max)’s.
- A search that spends in Performance Max and never converts is the [wasted search terms guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms)’s.
- An asset group Google rates Poor or Average, or one with no video or portrait image of its own, is the [ad strength guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-strength)’s.
- An asset Google disapproved is the [disapproved ads guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-disapproved-ads)’s.
- An asset group with no audience signal, or none of your own lists in it, is the [Customer Match guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-customer-match)’s.
- Listing groups no product can fill, and products no campaign advertises, are the [Shopping feed guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-feed-optimization)’s. A product two campaigns both pay for is the [Shopping ads guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization)’s.
- Text customization and Final URL expansion left on are the [Dynamic Search Ads guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/dynamic-search-ads)’s.

Goldbeater also raises a Performance Max campaign whose ads showed on children’s content, in games or on job sites more often than a stray placement would, which the [Display campaign guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization#performance-max) covers. The [audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist) has every other line it reads.

## Questions

- How long should I wait before judging a Performance Max campaign?

  Google says to run a new Performance Max campaign for at least 6 weeks, and to avoid frequent changes to its budget, bid strategy or status in that time. After a significant change to a running campaign, it says to allow 1 to 2 weeks, or at least one full conversion cycle.

- Can I see the search terms for a Performance Max campaign?

  Yes. Go to Campaigns, Insights and reports, then Search terms, and choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max from the drop-down. The data starts in March 2023, and searches with too little activity are left out. Search terms insights, on the Insights page, group every search into categories, the hidden ones included.

- Does Performance Max take searches from my Search campaigns?

  It can. Google puts an exact match keyword identical to a search ahead of Performance Max. A phrase or broad match keyword identical to the search only shares priority with an identical search theme, and anything else is decided by relevance and then Ad Rank. A Search campaign limited by its budget can lose even an exact match search.

- Do audience signals limit who sees my Performance Max ads?

  No. Google calls them suggestions, and says Performance Max may show ads to relevant audiences outside your signals if they have a strong likelihood of converting. Search themes don’t limit its traffic either.

- Can I choose which channels a Performance Max campaign spends on?

  Not directly. Google says you can’t control budget allocation per channel, only influence it: with assets suited to a channel, audience signals, search themes, accurate conversion tracking, and account-level content suitability settings and placement exclusions. The channel performance report shows where the spend went.

- How many asset groups should a Performance Max campaign have?

  Google’s help pages read for this guide give no number. They say to keep a new campaign’s structure as simple as possible, and to split asset groups by theme: the sections or categories of products on your website, a language, or an audience. Every asset in a group can be combined with every other, so a group should hold one theme.

- Should I turn off Final URL expansion in Performance Max?

  Google recommends leaving it on, and using URL exclusions for the pages you don’t want traffic sent to. It says to turn it off when one specific page is the only path to a conversion. With it off and a page feed attached, the campaign sends people only to the pages in the feed and in your asset groups.

How Goldbeater checks this

## These checks run every day, and whenever you ask.

Each finding shows its evidence, an estimate of what it costs a month where it costs money, and, where a setting fixes it, a change drafted for you to approve.

A check is code that runs the same way every time, so a new finding means your account changed. Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on what the checks find, and your AI analyst answers any question about your account.

Checks A finding is worth

- A search Performance Max converts that your Search campaigns don't bid on Fixing it raises the Keyword coverage
- Performance Max text saying a word you never want in your ads Fixing it lowers the Risk

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

No card for the first look. [See every check](https://goldbeater.ai/checks).

Google's own pages

## Where the manual method comes from.

1. [About Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724817?hl=en)
2. [Optimization tips for Performance Max campaign for all business types (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11385582?hl=en)
3. [Performance Max best practices for lead generation (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13775965?hl=en)
4. [Optimization tips for Performance Max campaigns with a Google Merchant Center feed (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13776350?hl=en)
5. [About the search terms report in Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16327396?hl=en)
6. [About the search terms report (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708?hl=en)
7. [About search terms insights (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11386930?hl=en)
8. [About the Insights page (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10256472?hl=en)
9. [About asset group reporting for Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13872527?hl=en)
10. [About asset reporting in Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10725056?hl=en)
11. [About asset-level metrics (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16259414?hl=en)
12. [About the channel performance report for Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16260130?hl=en)
13. [About Performance Max channels (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16683501?hl=en)
14. [Optimization tips for channel performance (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16286939?hl=en)
15. [Find or create placement reports for your Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11465047?hl=en)
16. [About Product Reporting (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/17035334?hl=en)
17. [Manage a Performance Max campaign with listing groups (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11596074?hl=en)
18. [About keyword matching options (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7478529?hl=en)
19. [About ad group and asset group prioritization within a Google Ads account (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2756257?hl=en)
20. [Add negative keywords to campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7102995?hl=en)
21. [Add keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7476658?hl=en)
22. [How asset groups work (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724748?hl=en)
23. [Best practices for asset groups in Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14528220?hl=en)
24. [Performance Max campaigns specs and format requirements (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/17091269?hl=en)
25. [About Performance Max Ad Strength (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14143250?hl=en)
26. [About audience signals for Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14530785?hl=en)
27. [About search themes in Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13351809?hl=en)
28. [About search themes (Search targeting & controls for Performance Max) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16669486?hl=en)
29. [Apply brand exclusions to Performance Max or Search campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14505308?hl=en)
30. [About brand exclusions (Search targeting & controls for Performance Max) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16669487?hl=en)
31. [Negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/15726455?hl=en)
32. [About negative keywords (Search targeting & controls for Performance Max) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16668865?hl=en)
33. [About Final URL expansion in Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14337539?hl=en)
34. [About Final URL expansion (asset optimization) (Search targeting & controls for Performance Max) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16672777?hl=en)
35. [About URL exclusion in Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14337773?hl=en)
36. [About text customization in Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724897?hl=en)
37. [Common AI-based controls combinations for Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16672522?hl=en)
38. [About customer lifecycle goals (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12080169?hl=en)
39. [How to use brand suitability features in Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13607727?hl=en)

More guides

## Other things worth checking by hand.

- [How do I audit a Google Ads account? Work through 163 checks, area by area, conversions first.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [What are sitelinks and callouts in Google Ads? What they add, and which campaigns run without them.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/sitelinks-and-callouts)
- [What are Google Ads image extensions, and which assets am I missing? What an image asset needs, and which assets you lack.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-image-extensions)
- [How do I optimize my Google Ads headlines? Find repeated headlines and write ones that differ.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/repeated-headlines)

[All 58 guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

7-day trial · nothing charged for 7 days

## Try it for a week. See the money it saves. It pays for itself.

[Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

Or connect one account for a [free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look), no card needed: how many problems it finds, and what they cost.

[Goldbeater home](https://goldbeater.ai/)

Goldbeater checks your Google Ads account every day and shows its work: what’s wasting money, what it’s worth, and the changes that would fix it. Nothing changes in your account until you approve it.

Changes only with your approval · Disconnect any time

Product

- [How it works](https://goldbeater.ai/#how)
- [What we find](https://goldbeater.ai/checks)
- [The dashboard](https://goldbeater.ai/#dashboard)
- [PPC monitoring](https://goldbeater.ai/ppc-monitoring)
- [Budget pacing](https://goldbeater.ai/budget-pacing)
- [Google Ads automation](https://goldbeater.ai/google-ads-automation)
- [AI analyst](https://goldbeater.ai/ai-analyst)
- [MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/mcp)
- [Pricing](https://goldbeater.ai/pricing)
- [Sign in](https://goldbeater.ai/app)

Guides

- [Google Ads audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [Google Ads wasted spend](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms)
- [Google Ads MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mcp)
- [Broad match keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match)
- [Google search partners](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-search-partners)
- [Common Google Ads mistakes](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mistakes)
- [All guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

Goldbeater vs

- [Opteo](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-opteo)
- [Optmyzr](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-optmyzr)
- [Google's recommendations](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-google-recommendations)
- [Ryze AI and groas](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ryze-ai)
- [A PPC agency](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ppc-agency)
- [Adalysis](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-adalysis)
- [TrueClicks](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-trueclicks)
- [AI tools for Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/ai-tools-for-google-ads)
- [All comparisons](https://goldbeater.ai/compare)

Company

- [About Goldbeater](https://goldbeater.ai/company)
- [Security](https://goldbeater.ai/security)
- [Press](https://goldbeater.ai/press)
- [Contact us](mailto:support@goldbeater.ai)

Legal

- [Privacy](https://goldbeater.ai/privacy)
- [Terms](https://goldbeater.ai/terms)
- [Google API disclosure](https://goldbeater.ai/privacy#google-api)

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