Paid Search

Performance Max is running, but you cannot see where the conversions come from

Performance Max reaches the entire Google Ads inventory through a single campaign and serves on YouTube, the Display Network, the Search Network, Discover, Gmail and Maps g-pmax. Which is exactly why the question is not whether the campaign runs, but what it does. Control here comes from three levers: clean conversion data, separate asset groups with clear audience signals, and exclusions that prevent the campaign from collecting existing demand and reporting it as new business.

What we do: We check conversion actions and values first, cut asset groups by margin, availability and buying occasion, separate brand from new business and supply creatives from our own house; you see what the campaign really moves instead of revenue that would have come anyway.

By Robin Kardinal, Chief Operation Officer (COO)

Last updated on 5 October 2026

What it is about and when it becomes relevant

What Performance Max is

A goal-based campaign that serves all Google surfaces from one campaign: YouTube, Display Network, Search Network, Discover, Gmail and Maps g-pmax. Its building blocks are asset groups, meaning collections of images, text, logos and videos around one theme or audience, plus audience signals that steer the learning g-pmax. Prerequisites are defined conversion actions and working conversion tracking g-pmax.

When it becomes relevant

As soon as a range is broad enough that nobody can maintain every ad group by hand anymore, and as soon as budget sits on several surfaces at once. It gets critical where brand and new business run in the same account: without separation, the campaign optimizes for the cheapest conversion, and that is almost always someone who would have come anyway.

What has changed since launch

The reports have gotten much better, but they do not replace your own order. Whoever cuts asset groups by range logic instead of chance and sets audience signals deliberately gets numbers you can work with. Whoever builds a single asset group for everything gets an average.

Common mistakes and how you spot them

One asset group for the entire range

How you spot itThe report shows a cost-revenue ratio that is true for no single product: the high-margin products subsidize the low-margin ones, and nobody sees it.

Brand queries running along unchecked

How you spot itThe share of conversions from the campaign rises while total revenue stays flat. The campaign is shifting revenue, not creating it.

Conversion value the same everywhere

How you spot itEvery conversion carries the same value although contribution margins differ by multiples. The bidding strategy then optimizes for volume, not for outcome.

Too few assets per group

How you spot itThe campaign permanently reports low ad strength, and the same two creatives have been running for months.

How we go about it

First the number, then the campaign
We check that conversion actions and values are right before touching a setting g-pmax. If the value underneath is wrong, every optimization improves the wrong result.
Cut asset groups by range logic
Not by channel and not by gut feeling, but by margin, availability and purchase occasion. Each group gets its own audience signals instead of a copy.
Separate brand and new business
We pull existing demand out through exclusions and dedicated campaigns, so the report shows what the campaign actually moved.
Restock assets instead of readjusting
New creatives and copy are produced in our own house. The bottleneck with Performance Max is rarely the setting; it is the supply.

Frequently asked questions

Which surfaces does Performance Max serve?

YouTube, the Display Network, the Search Network, Discover, Gmail and Maps, from a single campaign g-pmax.

Does Performance Max need conversion tracking?

Yes. The campaign works with conversion actions and requires working conversion tracking g-pmax. Without reliable values it optimizes on a number that does not reflect your business.

How many asset groups do I need?

As many as your range has distinct purchase occasions. Any general number would be a guess. The usable yardstick is a different one: as soon as two product groups have different margins or different audiences, they do not belong in the same group.

Can I exclude search terms in Performance Max?

Exclusions are possible and part of the craft, especially for brand queries. More important than the individual exclusion list, though, is whether brand and new business are measured separately at all.

Does Performance Max replace classic search campaigns?

No. Search campaigns cover the explicit demand; Performance Max searches beyond it. Running both side by side is the norm, and then the clean separation decides whether the numbers mean anything.

Is this exactly where you are stuck?

Write to us about where it is stuck. Robin Kardinal and the team will look at what is concretely behind it in your case, and tell you where the biggest lever sits.

Book a meeting

Sources

Every statement about ad products comes from the official documentation of the respective platform, with the date we retrieved it. Products change; if something looks outdated to you, write to us and we will check it.