What are Performance Max campaigns?

They are an automated Google Ads campaign type that serves ads across many Google services. You provide the goal, budget, data, assets and signals, and the algorithm chooses placements, bids and variants.

Can I control where Performance Max ads appear?

There is no manual budget split between channels. Control comes from goals, structure, assets, the feed, signals, locations, URLs, exclusions and the quality of your creative.

Does Performance Max need Merchant Center?

Only when the campaign promotes products from a catalogue. Service, local and B2B businesses can run it without a feed.

What budget and conversion volume do I need?

Third-party sources quote minimums of about €230 to €690 a month, but conversion volume matters more. Below about 50 conversions a month, Search is the safer start. Costs are the media budget, management (typically 10 to 20% as a commission, or a flat fee) and creative.

How long until I see results?

The first conversions can come quickly, but judge the campaign after the two to four week learning phase and a larger number of conversions. Speed depends on budget, measurement, demand, offer and account history.

Do I need my own images and video?

Yes, ideally. Google can generate assets automatically, but they do not always match your brand quality. Your own materials give you more influence over the message, and a missing video means YouTube delivery relies on auto-generated content.

Can Performance Max inflate results with brand traffic?

Yes. The cheapest conversions are searches for your company name. We use brand exclusions, a separate brand Search campaign and a geo-holdout test to measure what the campaign really adds.

Does Performance Max replace Search?

No. Search captures demand and gives full control. PMax scales sales by giving some control to the algorithm. Running PMax alone usually ends with it taking over brand traffic, so we run both in parallel.

Performance Max

Performance Max agency: automation with a strategy behind it

We combine Performance Max automation with conversion measurement, product feeds, audience signals and creative in one system. You set the business goal. We set the strategy, structure, budgets and data, not the algorithm.

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Google Premier Partner 2026
Top 3% of Google Ads agencies in Poland
Microsoft Advertising Partner
Campaigns in 25 export markets

What a Performance Max agency does

A Performance Max agency sets up and manages Google's automated, multi-channel campaign type so that the algorithm works from the right goals, data and assets. Performance Max (PMax) runs across Search, Google Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover and Google Maps from a single campaign structure.

Automation does not mean no strategy. Wrong measurement, or putting everything into one structure, makes the algorithm optimise in the wrong direction. PMax can serve ecommerce sales, lead generation, omnichannel sales, new customer acquisition and the promotion of locations, and different conversion actions, such as a form, a purchase or a phone click, should carry different weight.

We are a Google Premier Partner 2026, in the top 3% of Google Ads agencies in Poland, and we run campaigns on 25 export markets. PMax is one part of our wider Google Ads service.

Results from our Google Ads projects

€3.55M

sales from Google Ads in 9 months (PLN 15.5 million), one home and living store

4,008%

ROAS for Hotel Bania in the summer season

1,066%

ROAS for a clothing store, with sales up 280% and CPA down 40%

€1.27M

Google Ads sales in the first five months of a new brand's presence (PLN 5.56 million)

Campaign results by sector

These figures come from our own campaigns and have not been independently verified. Results depend on basket value, repeat purchase, seasonality and margin, not on campaign settings alone.

Sector	Result
Hospitality: Hotel Bania Thermal and Ski	ROAS of 4,008% and cost per conversion down 68%; see the Hotel Bania case study
Clothing ecommerce	ROAS of 1,066%, sales up 280%, CPA down 40%
Toy vending machines (impulse category)	ROAS of 1,000%+, sales up 229%, cost per conversion down 64%

Asset groups, signals and search themes

Asset groups

They organise text, images, logo, video, final URL and signals. We build them by category, service, market, margin, season or audience segment.

Audience signals

Signals give the algorithm a starting point for learning. They are not hard targeting. Customer lists, site visitors, abandoned baskets and forms, and custom segments work best, and first-party data is the most valuable.

Search themes

They describe your customers' language, uses and problems. Quality matters more than the number of phrases.

Asset limits to plan creative around

Limits as published by third-party sources in 2026. They can change without notice, and sources disagree on the video limit, so check them in your account.

Asset	Limit	Length
Images	20	n/a
Logos	5	n/a
Headlines	15	up to 30 characters
Long headlines	5	up to 90 characters
Ad text	5	up to 90 characters
Business name	1	up to 25 characters

With a product feed, or without

With a feed

We split products by margin, price, seasonality, stock and performance. Bestsellers and low-margin products should not share the same targets and budgets.

Without a feed

The model for service, local and B2B businesses. Creative, landing pages and lead quality matter more, and only valuable actions should count as main conversions.

How we launch Performance Max

Business goal
We start from what a sale or lead is worth to you.
Measurement check
We separate main from supporting actions: a purchase with revenue and transaction ID, a form, a booking, a phone call, a CRM lead, an offline sale or a new customer.
Structure
Campaigns are split so that different margins and goals get different targets.
Assets and signals
We build asset groups, audience signals and search themes.
Budget and bidding target
We choose between maximising conversions or conversion value, with or without a target CPA or ROAS. An aggressive target at launch limits delivery.
Patience at the start
We do not judge the campaign on single days.

Budget, fees and break-even

PMax has three cost lines: the media budget, management and creative production. Published Polish sources put agency commission at 10 to 20% of the media budget, typically 15%, with a flat fee as the alternative. A percentage fee rises with spend even when extra budget stops paying, so ask any agency at what result it would recommend cutting the budget.

The same sources give minimum budgets from about €230 to €690 a month (PLN 1,000 to 3,000, excl. VAT), which shows the amount alone does not set the threshold. The more useful limit is volume: below about 50 conversions a month, we do not recommend launching PMax. See Google Ads pricing for how fees are set.

Break-even in four steps

Work out margin
Margin after cost of goods, shipping, payments and returns.
Calculate break-even ROAS
Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by margin. At 30% it is 3.33, and at 60% it is 1.67.
Add management
The threshold becomes roughly 1.15 times the figure from step 2.
Check volume
The budget must produce at least 50 conversions a month.

Three controls we always review

Final URL expansion

When on, Google can send traffic to other pages on your domain.

Automatically created assets

The system writes text from your site. Switch it off for regulated offers or when prices are quoted.

URL exclusions

Terms, privacy policy, returns, careers and blog pages should not get paid traffic.

Incrementality and brand cannibalisation

The real question is how much revenue a campaign created and how much it claimed after the fact. An Optmyzr study of 503 accounts found keyword overlap between Search and PMax in 91.45% of them. An analysis of 40 ecommerce accounts reported that cannibalised brand queries inflated blended ROAS by 31% on average. The symptom is ROAS rising in the account while company revenue stands still.

We check with brand exclusions and a separate brand Search campaign, a geo-holdout test (switching PMax off in some regions for two to four weeks and comparing total sales), the share of new customers and revenue rather than the dashboard. We also review exclusions of locations, URLs, content, brands and products. Pair PMax with Search ads and Google Shopping rather than running it alone.

Performance Max compared with other campaign types

The most common conflict is remarketing. We often move it to Demand Gen.

Campaign type	Role	Control	When to choose
Search	Capturing demand	Full	Always, as the foundation
Google Shopping	Sales from the catalogue	High	Ecommerce with margin control
Performance Max	Scaling across channels	Limited	Accounts with trusted measurement and at least 50 conversions a month
Demand Gen	Building demand and visual remarketing	High	When you need control over remarketing

When Performance Max is not the right choice

Fewer than 50 conversions a month. Start with Search.
A margin below the break-even point.
Measurement you do not trust.
A regulated industry or premium brand where control matters more than reach.
A strong brand without brand exclusions.

How a Performance Max campaign learns

Phase	What happens
First days	We verify delivery, measurement, budget use and traffic quality.
First 2 to 4 weeks	Learning phase. The campaign is not judged on single days.
1 to 3 months	Stabilisation, and a comparison of conversion quality, ROAS and segments.
After enough data	Controlled scaling, if the data confirms growth without losing profitability.

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