Know what Performance Max searched for, where it spent, and what Google made.
Adintel reads each Performance Max campaign’s search terms, splits its spend by channel, and checks its asset groups and product groups every night. Its terms are worked like any others, a converting one added as a search theme where it appeared, and the assets Google made are counted and listed where they serve.
Its search terms, each with what it spent and brought.
On the search terms page’s PMax tab, every term Google reports for the window that drew a click, with its spend, conversions, value and return, and above them the share of spend no term shows.
Read from Google, checked by rule.
Its search terms are checked by triage with the account’s others. A converting term can become a search theme in an asset group where it appeared; one that does not fit what the account sells can become a negative at the account, the campaign or a negative keyword list, since Performance Max has no ad groups.
Its channels are measured and never switched: the Google Ads API does not offer Performance Max’s channel controls yet. The account-level negative list and the lists attached to the campaign reach its search with no term shown.
Each night the audit checks its asset groups, for video and images, ad strength, a feed with no creative and audience signals, and its product trees, for segmentation and the spend left in the catch-all.
What you can do from it
- Exclude its search terms at the account, the campaign or a negative keyword list, or add one as a search theme.
- Read its spend by channel, campaign by campaign, each channel with its own conversions and return.
- Change its status, daily budget and target through the confirm that checks the change with Google first.
- Pause several asset groups at once, or enable one.
- Dismiss the ad strength recommendations Adintel says to dismiss.
What it will not do
- It cannot switch Performance Max’s channels: the Google Ads API does not offer that yet.
- It never changes assets or Google’s automation switches on Performance Max; those are changed in Google Ads.
- It never adds Google’s figures for its own assets to the campaign’s.
- An account that is all Performance Max gets only budget moves in Actions.
Questions about Performance Max
Which search terms does it show?
Every term Google reports for a Performance Max campaign in the window that drew a click. Min. clicks raises the floor.
Can I add a negative to a Performance Max campaign?
Yes, at the account, to the campaign itself, or to a negative keyword list attached to it. The ad group level is not offered, since Performance Max has none.
What does the audit check on it?
An asset group with no video or fewer than two images, ad strength rated Poor or Average, a product tree with no image or video beside it, no audience signal or search theme, fewer than three signals, a product tree with no segmentation or a catch-all holding 60% or more of its spend, and asset groups well behind the others.
Why is Google’s ad strength recommendation dismissed?
Where an asset group has no text, image or video you added and serves product ads from the feed alone, Adintel says dismiss, with that reason.
See Performance Max on a real account.
A real Google Ads account, read only, with nothing to sign up for or connect. The free trial is 14 days on up to 10 of your own accounts, with no card.