What Performance Max management covers
Performance Max is the Google Ads campaign type that runs across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign, with Google's AI deciding where to show your ads. Managing it well means giving it the right conversion goals, assets and signals, using the controls Google now offers, and checking every week where the money actually goes. We run Performance Max for ecommerce brands and lead-generation businesses in Delhi NCR and across India.
It's part of our Google Ads management service. This page covers how we handle Performance Max specifically.
Who Performance Max management is for
- D2C and ecommerce brands with a Merchant Center product feed, where Performance Max replaces or sits alongside Shopping campaigns
- Lead-generation businesses such as education, coaching and real estate, where conversion tracking is reliable enough for Google to learn from
- SaaS and B2B companies that want reach beyond Search and can track qualified leads, not just form fills
- Advertisers already running Performance Max who can't tell what it's doing or whether it's taking credit for brand searches
It's usually not the first campaign for a new account with no conversion history. In that case, start with Search campaigns and add Performance Max once tracking is proven.
The problems it solves
- Spend going to Display or placements that don't bring customers
- Performance Max claiming sales from people who searched your brand name anyway
- Junk leads, because the campaign is optimising for any form fill
- Ads sending people to the wrong pages through final URL expansion
How Performance Max works
According to Google Ads Help, you set conversion goals (with an optional target CPA or ROAS), then build asset groups: sets of headlines, descriptions, images, logos and videos around one theme or audience. Google combines them into ads for each channel. Search themes guide which searches you appear on, and Google says they have the same priority as phrase and broad match keywords. Where a search exactly matches an exact match keyword in a Search campaign, the Search campaign takes priority.
Performance Max is also automatically eligible for ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode, which Google began scaling in India in October 2026. Our guide to Google AI Mode ads in India explains what that means.
The controls that matter
Performance Max used to be called a black box. Google has since added more visibility and control, set out in its Google Ads Help announcement on Performance Max:
| Control or report | What it lets you do |
|---|---|
| ✓ Campaign-level negative keywords and lists | Block searches you don't want, on Search and Shopping inventory |
| ✓ Brand exclusions | Stop the campaign from taking credit for your own brand searches |
| ✓ Search terms reporting | See which searches triggered your ads |
| ✓ Channel performance report | See results by channel, such as Search, YouTube and Display |
| ✓ Device and age targeting | Limit where and to whom ads show |
| ✓ Full asset stats | See conversions and cost for each asset, and replace weak ones |
| ✓ Final URL expansion asset reporting | See and remove assets Google generated from your pages |
Google Ads Help also says Search partners and the Google Display Network can have their own priority tier and optional daily budget, so lower-value inventory doesn't take the whole budget.
💡 The rule we follow: Performance Max optimises towards whatever you tell it counts as a conversion. If that's any form fill, it will find cheap form fills. Getting conversion goals right matters more than any other setting.
What's included
- Conversion goal setup and checks, including offline or qualified-lead conversions where your CRM allows it
- Asset groups built around clear themes, with product filters so shoppers land on the products they saw
- Search themes, brand exclusions and negative keyword lists
- Final URL expansion settings, with pages that shouldn't get ad traffic excluded
- Merchant Center feed review for ecommerce, alongside our Google Shopping ads work
- Weekly review of search terms, channel performance and asset stats
How we run Performance Max
- Audit first. We review your existing campaigns, conversion actions and where spend is going. Our Google Ads audit covers this in detail.
- Tracking. We fix conversion tracking so the campaign learns from real enquiries or sales.
- Build or restructure. We set up asset groups, signals and exclusions, and decide how Performance Max should work alongside your Search campaigns.
- Weekly optimisation. Search terms, channels, assets and budgets reviewed every week.
- Transparent reporting. You see what was spent, what it produced and what we're changing next. Engagements are month to month.
What affects the cost
There are two parts: your ad budget, paid to Google directly, and our management fee. What affects them:
- Your goal and target: a tight CPA or ROAS target limits how much the campaign can spend
- Number of campaigns and asset groups: more products, audiences or locations means more to build and review
- Creative needs: whether images and videos exist or need to be briefed
- Tracking work: connecting CRM or offline conversions takes extra setup
Management fees for paid ads start from ₹10,000/month. Get a quote based on your account and goals.
Not sure what your Performance Max campaign is doing?
Share access and Nishant will review your conversion goals, search terms, channels and assets, and tell you what to fix first. Free, with no obligation.
Book My Free Audit →Frequently asked questions
It's a goal-based campaign type that runs across all Google Ads inventory, including Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, from a single campaign, using Google's AI to decide where ads show.
Yes. Google has rolled out campaign-level negative keywords and negative keyword lists for Performance Max. They apply to Search and Shopping inventory.
Yes. Google Ads now offers search terms reporting for all Performance Max campaigns and a channel performance report, plus full asset stats.
It can, if conversion tracking measures real enquiries. If it optimises for any form fill, lead quality often drops, so we set goals around qualified leads wherever possible.
Often, yes. Google gives Search campaigns priority when a search exactly matches an exact match keyword, so Search can cover your core terms while Performance Max adds reach.