Term
Performance Max (PMax)
Fully automated Google Ads campaign type. A single campaign serves across all inventory — Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps — driven by Google's AI toward a conversion goal.
Performance Max — in more detail
Performance Max (PMax), available since 2021, is Google’s AI-driven campaign type. Instead of one campaign per inventory, PMax delivers a single campaign across all Google properties. Advertisers provide asset groups (copy, images, videos, logos), conversion goals, a budget, and a bidding goal (Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value, optionally with tCPA/tROAS). Google’s AI handles combinations and inventory mix. Audience signals and custom labels in the feed offer soft steering levers.
Example / In practice
A retailer runs a PMax campaign on the full Merchant Center catalog with 15 images, 5 videos, 5 headlines, and a tROAS target of 400. The campaign optimizes for e-commerce conversion value; reporting shows asset performance, but search-term and inventory-level splits are less granular than in Search or standard Shopping campaigns.
Distinction from similar terms
PMax has gradually replaced Smart Shopping and Local Campaigns. Versus Search campaigns, you lose keyword control but gain reach across all inventories. Classic Standard Shopping allows more segmentation; many accounts deliberately run both side by side.
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Shopping Campaign
A Google Ads campaign type for product ads with image, price, and merchant name. Data comes from the Google Merchant Center feed; targeting is product-attribute-based, not keyword-based.
LexikonUnderstanding Performance Max — strengths, black-box pain, alternatives
When PMax actually delivers, where the black box hurts, and which alternatives are realistic for shopping and lead accounts.
NewsPerformance Max 2026: New Controls, More Reporting — and 45% of all Google Ads Conversions
First-party audience exclusions, 50 search themes, granular reports. What Google actually changed in PMax 2026 — and what didn't.