Performance Max Campaign Audit
Performance Max automates targeting across Google's channels, which makes it harder to see where money goes. Here's how to audit a PMax campaign using the reports Google now provides.
Key takeaways
- PMax optimises toward your conversion goals, so tracking accuracy is critical.
- Check how much spend goes to branded searches and use brand exclusions where needed.
- Use channel performance, search term and asset reports to see where results come from.
- Asset quality and, for retail, product feed quality drive most PMax performance.
Performance Max (PMax) runs ads across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign, with Google’s AI deciding where to show them. It can perform well, but it can also spend heavily on easy conversions such as brand searches. Google has added more reporting since launch, including channel performance and search term reports, so you can audit it more thoroughly than before. Start with Performance Max tips for background.
1. Conversion goals
- Campaign uses the right conversion goals (account default or campaign-specific)
- Only real business outcomes are primary conversions (tracking audit)
- Conversion values accurate for ROAS bidding
- New customer acquisition goal configured if that’s the objective
2. Brand traffic
- Search term insights: what share of conversions come from brand terms?
- Brand exclusions applied if you run a separate brand Search campaign, or if PMax is claiming brand conversions you’d get anyway
- Compare results with and without brand to judge real incremental value
3. Channel performance
- Review the channel performance report: spend and conversions by Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps
- Are conversions concentrated in channels that make sense for your business?
- Display or YouTube spend with poor-quality conversions needs investigation (often weak conversion definitions)
4. Search terms
- Review the search terms report and search term insights for irrelevant themes
- Add negative keywords where available at campaign level or via account-level negatives
- Compare with your Search campaigns to see overlap
5. Asset groups
- Asset groups themed by product category, service or audience
- Every asset group has the full range of assets: multiple headlines, long headlines, descriptions, images in all ratios, logos and video (if you don’t add video, Google may auto-generate it)
- Asset performance reviewed; low performers replaced
- Final URL expansion settings appropriate, with irrelevant URLs excluded
6. Audience signals
- Signals include customer lists, website visitors and custom segments based on search terms
- Remember signals are suggestions, not targeting restrictions
7. Product feed (retail)
- Merchant Center: no significant disapprovals or warnings
- Titles descriptive (brand, product type, key attributes), images high quality
- Prices and availability match the site
- Listing groups structured by margin or performance where useful
8. Settings
- Locations (presence vs interest), languages and ad schedule
- Bidding strategy and targets realistic
- Budget sufficient for learning; avoid frequent large changes
9. Overlap with other campaigns
- Standard Search campaigns with exact-match keywords take priority over PMax for matching queries; check the split works as intended
- Standard Shopping and PMax overlap understood
10. Judge incrementality
PMax can claim conversions that would have happened anyway (brand, returning customers). Look at overall business results, new customer rates and, where possible, run controlled tests.
Full account checks: Google Ads audit. Request an expert PMax review.