Performance Max that spends on incremental demand
Asset-group structure, brand exclusions, feed-only vs assets, reporting limits.
Request a proposalPain points
Where you lose money
Pain points
Where you lose money
A black box you can't steer
Performance Max hides placement and query data, so you're spending without seeing where. Optimisation becomes guesswork against a campaign that won't show its work.
It cannibalises your brand
Left unchecked, PMax harvests your own brand searches and reports them as wins. You pay a premium for traffic that would have converted for free.
Feed-only vs assets confusion
Whether to run feed-only or add asset groups changes results dramatically, and the default setup rarely matches the store's actual goal.
Reporting limits hide the truth
Aggregated reporting makes it hard to separate incremental sales from existing demand, so ROAS looks great while incremental growth stalls.
Channel mix
What we'd run
Channel mix
What we'd run
PMax lives on the feed, so we get feed structure right before spending, it decides where and how products serve.
We exclude brand terms so PMax spends on incremental demand instead of harvesting searches that would convert for free.
We choose feed-only or asset groups to match the actual goal, rather than accepting the default that rarely fits.
We build reporting that separates incremental sales from existing demand, so ROAS reflects real growth, not the black box's spin.
FAQ
PMax is a black box, how do you control it?
Through the inputs Google does expose: feed quality, asset groups, audience signals, and brand exclusions. Most PMax waste is brand traffic Google claims as new, we split that out first.
Will PMax cannibalise my brand search?
It will if you let it. We exclude brand terms so PMax earns incremental sales instead of taking credit for buyers who'd have found you anyway.
How is spend allocated?
We separate high-margin and hero products into their own asset groups so budget follows profit, not just conversion volume Google optimises toward by default.
What do you need from me to start?
A clean product feed, margin data by category, and Merchant Center access. Feed quality decides PMax's ceiling more than budget does.
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