What is Performance Max?
Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type built around a goal instead of keywords. Google describes it as "a goal-based campaign type that allows you to access all Google Ads inventory, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps, from a single campaign."
You choose the outcome, such as leads, and provide the ads' raw material: text, images, videos, and settings. Google's AI decides where to show the ads and how much to bid in each auction.
How does Performance Max work?
A Performance Max campaign combines what the advertiser provides with Google's automation:
- Conversion goals: you define the conversion actions you care about and can set a target cost per acquisition (CPA) or return on ad spend (ROAS). Smart Bidding then bids in each auction based on the probability of a conversion.
- Creative assets: you provide text, images, and videos. Google's generative tools can combine them into new images and videos.
- Audience signals: you share information about likely customers to speed up the campaign's learning.
- Budget and safety settings: you set a daily budget and brand safety settings, and Google moves spend toward the inventory that performs best.
Because the campaign optimizes toward the conversion actions you choose, those choices decide what it treats as success.
When does Google recommend Performance Max?
Google recommends Performance Max when:
- The business has specific conversion goals, such as generating leads.
- You want to maximize performance without restricting where ads appear.
- You want to reach all of Google's advertising channels with one campaign.
- You want more reach and conversion value than keyword-based Search campaigns provide.
Google positions it as a complement to Search campaigns, not a replacement. You can create one when the campaign objective is Sales, Leads, Website traffic, or Local store visits and promotions.
What controls does an advertiser have over Performance Max?
Google lists these campaign-level controls:
- Negative keywords and brand exclusions: block unwanted searches and prevent overlap with other campaigns.
- Search themes: guide the campaign toward relevant search intent. Google says search themes carry the same priority as phrase and broad match keywords.
- Final URL expansion: when it's on, Google may send people to a different landing page on your site and write a matching headline and description. Google notes that "you remain responsible for reviewing and ensuring compliance and accuracy of landing page content, and all dynamically generated assets."
- Text customization: generates extra headlines and descriptions from your landing pages, domain, and existing ads.
Search campaigns with an exact match keyword take priority over Performance Max when a search matches that keyword. Google adds that if a Search campaign is budget-limited, Performance Max may occasionally serve on exact match terms.
What is Performance Max with pay-per-lead goals?
It's a separate version of Performance Max that Google built for local service businesses, and it's where Local Services Ads are moving. Google lists these differences from standard Performance Max:
| Performance Max with pay-per-lead goals | Standard Performance Max | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Valid leads, such as calls, messages, or bookings | Clicks, whether or not the person contacts you |
| Where ads show | Google Search and Google Maps only | All Google ad networks, including YouTube, Gmail, and Display |
| Keywords | None; uses your Google Business Profile information | Search themes, negative keywords, and other controls |
Google also lists the Google Verified badge as a feature of the pay-per-lead version for eligible businesses in select categories.
In the pay-per-lead version, phone calls are a required conversion goal, sourced from the Google Business Profile. Messages are on by default, and bookings are available in eligible categories with a booking integration.
What happens to Local Services Ads in Performance Max?
Google is migrating existing Local Services Ads campaigns to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. The first phase began in August 2026 for select U.S. home and storefront service advertisers, and Google's list includes moving. Google says the main changes at migration are:
- Budgets switch from weekly to daily. Google divides the average weekly budget by 7, and monthly spend is capped at the daily budget times 30.4.
- Manual bidding, such as a maximum cost per lead, is no longer supported.
- Industry-level target CPA becomes one campaign-level target. Separate targets for different service types need separate campaigns.
- Reports from the old Local Services Ads dashboard don't carry over, so Google tells advertisers to save them before migrating. Lead history, including messages and call recordings, does transfer.
- Business details such as the name, address, and hours sync one way from the Google Business Profile. Significant changes to the name, storefront address, or primary category trigger a review that typically takes 24 to 48 hours and may pause the campaign.
- Better Business Bureau callouts are no longer supported.
After migration, Google says to watch three numbers: "Conversions" (charged leads), "Cost" (total spend), and "Cost / conv." (average cost per lead). The basics of the lead model are in what are Local Services Ads.