Performance Max is one Google campaign that runs your ads across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. It can sell well, but only if you feed it good inputs and check where the money goes. Here is how to set it up for an online shop.
How Performance Max works.
You give Google your product feed, your images and videos, your text and your conversion goal. Google decides who sees which ad, where, and what to bid.
That makes the inputs the job. A weak feed, auto-generated video or the wrong conversion goal gets scaled just as fast as a good one.
You can see more than you used to.
Performance Max used to be called a black box. That is less true now.
- Search terms. Google's search terms report shows which searches triggered your ads, and which led to sales.
- Negative keywords. Since March 2025 you can add up to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign, up from 100. They apply to Search and Shopping.
- Channel and asset reporting. Google added reports in 2025 showing what each channel contributes, and which images and videos perform.
Use them. A Performance Max campaign nobody checks is how budget drifts into placements that do not sell.
Set it up properly.
- Fix the product feed first. Clear titles with the words people search for, sharp images, correct prices and stock. For a shop, the feed is most of what Performance Max has to work with.
- Track sales with their value. Optimise for purchases and pass the order value back, so Google chases revenue, not clicks.
- Group products by margin or category. Use separate asset groups, so best-sellers and high-margin lines are not fighting low-margin stock for budget.
- Upload your own video. If you do not, Google can make one from your images. Your own content will look like your brand.
- Add audience signals. Your customer list and site visitors give Google a starting point. They are hints, not limits.
- Give it time. Avoid big changes in the first few weeks while it learns.
Watch out for brand searches.
Performance Max can show ads to people searching for your brand by name. Those people were likely to buy anyway, so the campaign looks better than it is.
Check the search terms report for your brand name. If it is a big share of sales, use brand exclusions and run brand search as its own campaign. Then you can see what Performance Max adds.
Performance Max or Shopping?
| Use Performance Max when | Use standard Shopping when |
|---|---|
| You want reach across every Google channel | You want tight control over bids on hero products |
| You have strong images and video | Your creative is limited to product photos |
| You have enough sales for it to learn from | Your budget is small and you need every pound on high-intent searches |
Many shops run both. Shopping handles the best-sellers with tight control, and Performance Max looks for new customers.
What it looks like in practice.
SICK! ran Performance Max around its products, its sports and Fabio Wibmer himself, with YouTube video ads telling the brand story. From 3 November to 9 December 2024, Google returned 85.43× on €1.8K of spend.
That result needs context. Many of those searches were for Fabio by name, which is close to brand search. It shows what happens when Performance Max meets strong existing demand.
Quadrant, Lando Norris's apparel brand, ran Search, Shopping and Performance Max together. From 25 September to 31 December 2023, Google returned 10.02× on £7.1K of spend.
Your Performance Max checklist.
- Product feed titles, images, prices and stock checked
- Purchases tracked with order value
- Asset groups split by margin or category
- Your own video uploaded
- Customer list added as an audience signal
- Search terms report checked every week
- Negative keywords added for irrelevant searches
- Brand searches checked, with brand exclusions if needed
Common questions.
Is Performance Max good for e-commerce? It can be, if your feed is strong and you track sales with their value. It is less suited to small budgets that need tight control.
Can I add negative keywords to Performance Max? Yes. Up to 10,000 per campaign, applied to Search and Shopping.
How long does Performance Max take to work? Give it a few weeks without big changes. Judge it on sales and revenue over a full month.
Should I still run Meta ads alongside it? Usually, yes. Performance Max mostly captures demand. Meta creates it. Our guide to Meta ads vs Google Ads explains how the two fit together.