GUIDE

Performance Max: my approach to tracking, structure and profitability

Armin Memić’s approach to Performance Max: start with measurement, build a structure that reflects the business and understand how much brand affects performance.

Armin Memić Senior Google Ads consultant

Performance Max can be a powerful tool when Google receives the right signals and campaign structure reflects the business. My starting point is therefore not budget or tROAS. I first want to know what the campaign optimises towards.

Performance Max is a goal-based campaign type using Google’s AI and Smart Bidding to find conversions across several Google properties. Its name also makes an important point: it should perform against a business objective, beyond clicks or visibility alone.

The goal may be a purchase, form submission, registration or another action that matters to the business. If that action is not measured correctly, the rest of the work becomes uncertain.

Start with the question: what does the campaign optimise towards?

I carried out an audit where the client felt Performance Max had initially worked well, then deteriorated and eventually reduced its spend sharply.

Sales still looked good in Shopify. In Google Ads, however, the campaign appeared to be failing.

Reviewing the account, I found that the conversion action used for optimisation was configured incorrectly and could not fire properly in practice. A new campaign structure was not necessarily needed. Google was first receiving incorrect or missing sales signals.

That is a good reason not to start by moving budget, changing tROAS or building five new asset groups when PMax suddenly performs poorly.

I first want to check:

which conversion goals the campaign uses
which conversion actions are Primary
whether they fire correctly
whether the correct conversion value is sent
whether these are the actions the business wants Google to optimise towards

Primary conversion actions normally appear in the Conversions column and are used for bidding when the goal is used for optimisation. Secondary actions are normally for observation. There are exceptions, including custom goals, so the setting needs to be read alongside the campaign’s actual goals. Google’s documentation on Primary and Secondary conversion actions

I cover this more practically in Why I always check tracking first in Performance Max.

Build the structure around the business, rather than the interface

Once tracking is sound, I review the structure. I start with the business, before the Google Ads interface.

Which products or services matter most?
What defines the business?
Where do we need to secure visibility and budget?
Are there clear landing pages?

I do not create more asset groups just to make the account look advanced. Budget, data volume, product structure and business objectives all matter.

For e-commerce, I focus particularly on product categories and feed structure. For SaaS and lead generation, distinct services, features and landing pages can be natural reasons to separate asset groups.

Google describes an asset group as a collection of creative assets around a theme or audience. In retail, listing groups within an asset group control which products or product groups from Merchant Center are included. Google recommends starting with the website’s product categories or themes. How asset groups work

Giving everything its own group is not the aim. The structure should help Google use the right products, landing pages and creative for a real business area. In How many asset groups should you have in Performance Max? I explain how I balance structure against data volume.

Give Google relevant signals, without adding unnecessary ones

Performance Max is automated, but Google can still benefit from guidance. I use, among other things:

first-party data
Audience Signals
Search Themes
relevant landing pages
product feeds
creative assets with meaningful differences

Audience signals provide guidance rather than strict targeting. Google can show ads beyond those signals if its system considers other users likely to convert. Google’s explanation of audience signals

Search themes are optional words or phrases describing what customers search for. They complement rather than replace PMax’s own assessments from assets, feeds and landing pages. Google allows up to 50 unique search themes per asset group. How Google uses search themes in Performance Max

My view is that relevant signals are more useful than filling fields simply because they are available.

Start with control and expand deliberately

I prefer to start with control, then enable more automation when there is a clear reason. I want to understand which landing pages, signals and assets drive performance before letting Google broaden its activity further.

In Performance Max, this often involves Final URL expansion and Text customization under Asset optimisation. With Final URL expansion, Google can replace the specified final URL with another relevant landing page on the site. Text customisation can create text assets from landing page content and the wider campaign context. Google’s documentation on Final URL expansion and Text customisation in Performance Max

Google often recommends these features to broaden reach and find relevant combinations. I still do not enable them without thought. I normally start with clear destinations and creative I have chosen, then expand automation when there is a clear reason and I can follow what it changes.

The same applies to creative. Do not fill an asset group with five versions of the same sentence. Give Google different angles to work with.

Angle	Example
Product	Road running shoes
Problem	Sore feet after longer runs?
Product benefit	Extra cushioning without unnecessary weight
Reassurance	Free returns for 30 days

That provides a better foundation for real combinations than minor rewrites of the same message.

Brand can make a PMax report look better than the underlying picture

Brand is another area I examine closely. Performance Max can report strong overall ROAS while many conversions come from people already searching for the business’s brand.

That is not necessarily bad. I want to understand what Performance Max contributes.

There is a difference between:

Performance Max reports good results.
Performance Max creates value the account would not otherwise have received.

I do not assume brand must always be removed. When assessing whether PMax can find more generic demand at a particular CPA or ROAS, I prefer not to mix brand into the numbers. I explore that trade-off in Should you exclude brand from Performance Max?.

Performance Max is a tool, not the strategy

I do not start by asking: how do we get Performance Max to spend more?

I start with: how do we make the Google Ads account perform better?

Sometimes that means more PMax. Sometimes Search or Standard Shopping. Sometimes the next improvement lies in tracking, the feed, landing page or offer.

That does not automatically mean the campaign with the highest reported ROAS should receive the most budget. I first need to understand what the number contains and what the business wants more of.

My concise checklist

Are we tracking the right thing?
Are the right conversion goals being used?
Are conversion values correct?
Do the asset groups make sense?
Is the creative good enough?
Do we have relevant audience signals and search themes?
How much does brand affect performance?
What does PMax do that other campaigns do not already do?