In the beginning, there was only Search. Then Google said, “Let there be Shopping.” And so began the golden age of search advertising.
Fast forward, and machines now perform the more granular and recurring optimizations at scale that we had to manually.
Algorithmic campaigns like Performance Max have become Google’s golden goose. They claim that in the near future, businesses will be able to input their goals and information, and Google’s system will run its advertising program for them.
Agencies and marketers have naturally pushed back, claiming that Google wants to put them out of business when they’re still needed. Some even say that machine learning isn’t necessary when brilliant human minds are on the job.
The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.
Performance Max isn’t going anywhere, and neither are agencies and marketers. And if you plan to manage Google Ads this year, you will need to accept both sides of that coin.
So, with some very welcome changes from Google behind us, here’s the state of Performance Max and what I envision for it going forward.
Why Does Performance Max Have A Negative Reputation?
PPC marketers have many complaints about Performance Max. Some are valid, and others feel unfair.
The inability to see most of your keyword data is one of the reasons I hear the most.
The introduction of search categories is welcome, but they are not necessarily the keyword a user searched for.
You can expand the category somewhat and get an idea of intent, but it’s not a one-to-one deal like seeing the actual query.
And while longtime advertisers are accustomed to seeing every search term, the reality is that Google has been removing more and more data for years, all in the name of privacy.
This limited and unclean data around what people search for – what we’re used to seeing in the search terms report – is a valid frustration, especially when budgets are limited, or the pressure to deliver is particularly high.
There are improvements to take note of, though.
By default, the system shows seven days, and you can go back to the last 28 days. Google has also added the ability to look at longer time frames for search terms.
The addition of these new capabilities – even if they don’t cover everything we want – tells me that Google sees that the adoption of Performance Max is not going to reach the desired levels unless we have the tools we need to make use of it.
And even though this data only started in March 2023, having it now is helpful.
Another reason why Performance Max has a negative reputation is its attribution shyness. You can’t fully see where success or failure is coming from, which is a challenge in performance marketing.
A campaign could show you 10x return on ad spend, but you may have, at best, a sneaky suspicion that it’s coming from primarily retargeting traffic. There’s no real way to see the data that confirms that hypothesis (or refutes it).
And so the mindset shifts to one of “it’s not worth the hassle,” compounded by the fact that third-party attribution tools like Triple Whale are still unable to weigh Performance Max very well within its system because it cannot see view data for YouTube like it does for Meta.
This makes Performance Max look like it’s not working as well as it is.
One of the trickiest pieces of Performance Max is that people just have a hard time reconciling the data that Google shows and that they want to get from the campaign, which is typically profitable net new customer acquisition.
By moving back to Shopping – even if it shows a slightly lower return on ad spend (ROAS) – marketers at least know what they’re getting for their money as the reporting and attribution are clearer.
On the flip side, while third-party attribution tools do underreport for Performance Max (likely because of channels like YouTube and Display that affect performance), my experience is that mixing the two – putting some products in Shopping and some in Performance Max – often works well if the campaigns are being used properly.
Do We Need Granular Control In Performance Max?
Playing the devil’s advocate for a minute, I think the whole idea of Performance Max is that you shouldn’t have to add negative keywords.
You’re meant to optimize the campaign based on your bidding strategy, ROAS or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) target, account and campaign structure, landing page, and proprietary data.
This ties into another source of frustration: low-quality ad inventory.
My answer to both complaints is to focus on getting the best performance out of the campaign, or switch back to Search or Shopping.
I think we have to accept some amount of poor traffic and unwanted conversions in exchange for incremental gains in profitable new customer acquisition.
In the bigger picture, search terms and placements don’t really matter as much as the system will learn to focus less on that kind of traffic if it’s not converting.
Performance Max does take time and money to get going, so it’s fully understandable if your niche or vertical means you can’t justify the investment due to factors like limited budget, low search volumes, unavailability of data inputs, or tight industry regulation.
This is your reminder that Performance Max is an option, not a necessity.
The Resurgence Of Search And Shopping: Why Performance Max Won’t Replace PPC Marketers
Performance Max saw widespread adoption at launch, even though we were coming from Smart Shopping, which worked far better at the time.
Still, we were quick to adopt and switch because Google pushed hard on the narrative that it was the future.
Search continues growing in absolute terms, but is losing prominence to PMax & Shopping.
PMax has flattened against Shopping in recent quarters, suggesting a stubborn core of Shopping die-hards. Google may need to make feature concessions to stimulate further adoption. pic.twitter.com/0cdkdMZ4PI
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryanretail) June 24, 2024
Over time and as reality set in, many advertisers started to move back to Search and Shopping for three primary reasons:
- A high proportion of spam and low-quality leads.
- For ecommerce, a lack of control over products and campaign behavior.
- Cannibalization of non-algorithmic legacy campaigns by Performance Max.
Today, I find that we create the most success for clients by running a mix of Shopping and Performance Max side by side.
We haven’t moved away from the latter completely, but I have heard from others that they’ve returned fully to standard Shopping.
This will be furthered by recent developments around which campaign is valued by Google.
Upon the launch of Performance Max, both campaigns running alongside each other meant that Performance Max always took priority while Shopping didn’t enter auctions.
Over the years, there have been some changes to that prioritization. Anything you excluded from Performance Max (such as brand terms) would always fall back to Shopping. And now, Google has announced that Performance Max will not override Shopping.
Both will enter the auctions they qualify for, and ad rank will determine which one shows.
Performance Max In 2025: 5 Optimizations For Better Results
So, how do you regain control when Performance Max takes it away? What can you really do to improve campaign performance, and what options are realistically at your disposal?
Here are five of my Performance Max optimizations to never leave home without.
1. Data input quality is absolutely critical to success with Performance Max and is virtually essential if you run lead generation campaigns.
Offline conversions, audience signals, and enhanced conversions all help improve results.
Synchronizing your customer list and having the campaign focus solely on new customer acquisition is a great way to avoid spending money on people who have already bought from you, improving profitability.
2. Asset group segmentation and how you set up a Performance Max campaign really make a difference in what kind of traffic it brings in.
Without the right decisions here, the campaign will automatically go after traffic that it believes is most likely to convert – site visitors, people searching for your brand, and past/existing customers.
3. The quality of your creative assets and landing pages has a direct impact on your ability to get those big performance lifts that aren’t really possible any longer through old-school account optimization.
You simply must stand out and be relevant in a market where competitive saturation is at its peak, and consumers are bombarded with messages to buy things everywhere on the internet.
4. For ecommerce, feed quality and optimization are non-negotiable for both Performance Max and Shopping.
The feed is the heartbeat of the account – it’s where the system looks for information on your products to help it decide who should see them.
Skipping this step or running a poorly written feed will directly and negatively impact your marketing efficiency.
5. Sculpting options are limited but should still be employed where they make sense. One option is to remove branded traffic using brand exclusions.
You can also add negative keyword lists through Google support and then just block specific keywords. Soon enough, you’ll be able to add campaign-level negatives to Performance Max yourself.
Ultimately, you’ve got to optimize where you can to improve the consumer experience.
This might be something as fundamental as tracking the right conversion actions, writing a sharper landing page with stronger social proof, improving mobile responsiveness, and setting up rules to only advertise products that are in stock.
In short, focus on what you can control and do a wonderful job with those things.
Google Is Listening To PPC Advertisers And Agencies
The PPC community complained about the lack of negative keywords – Google gave them to us. We asked for more detailed reporting – we got it. The cannibalization of Shopping became a problem – Google resolved it.
I think, at this point, Google is due the credit for listening to us.
Several PMax announcements today — thanks to your feedback!
You likely saw account-level negative keywords started rolling out next month for brand suitabilty & other purposes. Now coming soon are…
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) February 23, 2023
Not only is it adding more (and more relevant) features to Performance Max, but it is also seeing that agencies and marketers have a role to play in the future of search advertising.
I think the decreased adoption and vocal critique on social media have undoubtedly influenced the decision to give us back a portion of control and visibility.
It’s our turn to adopt these features, adapt to the limitations of Performance Max (when it makes sense for the account), and, most importantly, keep a fair and honest dialog open on social media with Google’s representatives.
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Featured Image: Jack Frog/Shutterstock
