Performance Max: Set Up, Analyse and Optimise Campaigns with AI

1. Define the conversion that matters

Write down the outcome the campaign should pursue: a purchase, a qualified lead or another measurable business result. Specify the conversion action, budget, geography and destination pages before creating the campaign.

Check that the selected conversion actions are recording correctly. For value-based bidding, confirm that the values have a useful business meaning and use the correct currency.

A lead-generation campaign may need qualified-lead feedback from a CRM. Treat a submitted form and a completed sale as distinct outcomes when interpreting performance.

Review the selected Google Ads account's campaign structure and available performance data. Prepare a Performance Max brief covering the intended conversion, daily budget, geography, landing pages and measurement checks. Identify information that needs checking in the Google Ads interface. Do not activate a campaign.

2. Choose bidding around the business goal

Performance Max supports conversion-focused and conversion-value-focused bidding. Select the approach based on how the business evaluates results.

Google began changing bidding labels in June 2026. Some account screens may still show Target CPA or Target ROAS as a target attached to a maximise strategy. Google states that the naming transition does not change the underlying bidding behaviour. Google's bidding strategy guide.

Choose an initial target using reliable historical performance and commercial constraints. An ambitious target still needs enough conversion opportunity for the campaign to deliver useful results.

3. Prepare asset groups and review the paused setup

Organise asset groups around coherent product or service themes. Keep the final URL, headlines, descriptions, images and video relevant to the same offer. Google assembles these assets into ads across its inventory. Google's asset-group guide.

SourcetoMCP provides operations for creating a paused Performance Max campaign, creating asset groups and linking supported assets. Its video-asset operation references an existing YouTube video.

The Performance Max setup operations have not yet been verified through a complete live campaign launch. Review the paused campaign and its asset groups in Google Ads before activation.

For retail campaigns, confirm Merchant Center and product-feed settings in Google Ads. The campaign creation operation does not currently configure Performance Max retail-feed linkage. Check final URL expansion there too, including any pages that should be excluded. Google's final URL expansion guidance.

Prepare a paused Performance Max campaign using the reviewed brief. Group the supplied assets by offer and keep every asset group paused. Report the created campaign and asset-group IDs, any failed operations and the settings that still need checking in Google Ads. Leave activation for a separate reviewed action.

4. Add audience signals and search themes thoughtfully

Audience signals give Google suggestions about useful audiences. Google can also serve beyond those suggested audiences when its systems predict relevant conversions. Google's audience-signal documentation.

SourcetoMCP supports adding search themes and linking an existing audience through its asset-group signal operation. Use themes that describe the offer, customer need or buying context. Keep them consistent with the landing page and supplied assets.

Before adding an existing audience, confirm the audience ID and its intended use. Record the added signal identifiers so future changes can be traced.

5. Compare campaign and asset-group performance

Start with equal-length periods, such as the latest complete 28 days and the preceding 28 days. Use the same campaign IDs and account currency, and account for conversion reporting delay.

SourcetoMCP can return campaign and asset-group performance, including cost, conversions and conversion value. Asset-group results help prioritise investigation, but they do not establish which individual image, video or headline caused a result.

Consider this hypothetical campaign with purchase revenue recorded as conversion value:

The campaign's ROAS is $5,600 / $2,000 = 2.80. Against a business benchmark of 3.00, that is a shortfall of 0.20 ROAS points, or 6.7% relative to the benchmark.

The walking-shoes group deserves investigation because its CPA is higher and its ROAS is lower. Check its offer, landing page, product availability and asset diagnostics before deciding on a change.

Asset groups share the campaign budget. Increasing an asset group's budget is not an available adjustment.

Compare campaign and asset-group performance for the two complete 28-day periods. Calculate campaign CPA and ROAS from total cost, conversions and conversion value. Rank asset groups for investigation. Include their conversion counts and distinguish observations from possible explanations. Do not change budgets, bids or statuses.

6. Choose one measurable optimisation test

Select a specific issue supported by the account data. For example, revise an asset group's offer message, correct an unsuitable destination page or review a campaign budget after checking conversion quality.

Record the original setting, proposed change, expected outcome and review date. Keep a change log so later results can be assessed against what actually changed.

Google recommends running Performance Max campaigns for at least six weeks to give its systems time to learn and accumulate comparison data. Fix tracking errors promptly and use conversion delay and reporting maturity when choosing an evaluation window. Google's Performance Max optimisation guidance.

For an existing campaign, SourcetoMCP can update the daily budget and campaign status. Changes to existing standalone bidding targets currently need to be made in Google Ads. Check the exact action supported by the connected tool before asking the assistant to apply a change.

Can I use the connected search-terms tool for Performance Max?

SourcetoMCP's current search-terms operation excludes Performance Max campaigns. Use Google's Performance Max reporting in the Google Ads interface for search-term and channel details that this operation does not return.

For a wider account review, follow the Google Ads audit checklist. For recurring performance reviews, use the weekly Google Ads optimisation workflow. Start with Google Ads for Claude or Google Ads for ChatGPT to analyse your connected account.