Pmax best practices 2025: insights from Erika on how to get the most out of your campaigns

Google’s Performance Max campaigns are making waves among digital marketers in 2025. This new campaign type is gaining traction, but many advertisers still wonder how to successfully integrate it into their digital acquisition strategy.

To bring clarity, we sat down with Erika Shemie, Partner Success Manager at Google, to talk about pmax best practices and how to get the most value out of these campaigns, especially during seasonal peaks.

But before we go any further, a quick reminder: what exactly are Google Performance Max campaigns?

In short, they allow your ads to appear across all Google channels (Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Discover, Display…), with automated orchestration powered by AI. This goal-based format relies on machine learning to drive maximum performance.

Now let’s get into the details with Erika and explore how to kick off your Performance Max journey the right way.

1. Hi Erika, how can retailers leverage Google Performance Max campaigns to boost reach during the holiday season?

Great topic to kick things off. Let’s break down some pmax best practices advertisers can implement when using a Google Merchant Center (GMC) feed:

Create a dedicated promotion campaign

• Build a campaign specifically for your promotions. This will serve as a _generic framework_ for all your seasonal marketing efforts. You can then simply adjust it by adding the relevant holiday or promotion details, along with specific creative assets.

Use conversion value maximization strategies

• Choose strategies such as _Maximize Conversion Value_ (without a ROAS target) to benefit from a shorter learning phase — particularly useful if you’re launching a new Google Performance Max campaign before a key season like Christmas or Black Friday.

Filter for promotional products

• Only include promotional items in your ad groups, for example by applying a custom label.

Make sure your budget matches seasonal demand

• Use the demand forecast tool and performance planner to assess peak opportunity volumes. This will help keep your budget unconstrained and ensure your Pmax ads are optimized for visibility.

Create a separate campaign with targeted goals

• If you want to focus on specific seasonal products, create a dedicated Pmax campaign (e.g., one for Christmas items, one for high-margin categories, and another for the rest of the catalog). Setting a lower ROAS target can help increase visibility in the lead-up to peak sales weeks.

2. Which advertisers are best suited for Google Performance Max campaigns?

Google Performance Max campaigns build on the success of existing automated solutions to offer a comprehensive format that can support a wide range of marketing objectives. Whether your goal is online sales, lead generation, website traffic, brand awareness, app promotion, or driving visits to physical stores, this campaign type can adapt to your needs.

Even better, Performance Max campaigns give you access to Google’s entire ecosystem: Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, the Display Network, and partner websites — making it a powerful lever for Google Shopping integration and beyond.

For retailers, the main objectives supported by this format are online sales, in-store visits, and new customer acquisition. That means virtually every advertiser can benefit to some extent from Google Performance Max.

However, these campaigns are especially valuable for less experienced advertisers who may not yet be comfortable managing manual campaign optimizations. This is where applying the right pmax best practices becomes essential — helping you lay solid foundations right from the start.

1. 
   What advertising strategies can you implement with Performance Max campaigns?

Before anything else, advertisers should define their business goals and set up their campaign accordingly. Here are a few common scenarios:

• Are they looking to spend as much as possible while maintaining a target ROAS?
  If so, it’s recommended to set a ROAS target and leave the budget uncapped.
• Is their objective to drive as much revenue as possible within a fixed budget?
  In this case, we suggest setting the desired budget and using a _Maximize Conversion Value_ bidding strategy without a ROAS target.
• Do they have other priorities like attracting new customers or increasing store visits?
  Then the campaign should focus on new customer acquisition or store visit conversions.

Pmax best practicesVisit the _Insights_ tab to uncover ways to improve performance. Keep your creatives and copy fresh to ensure relevance. Monitor your metrics, and if performance starts to drop, checking the click-through rate (CTR) can often point you in the right direction.

4. How can advertisers improve their visuals and copy to boost conversions?

There are many ways to optimize your ads so that Google can easily identify the most important content. Here are a few simple techniques to apply, especially if you’re aiming to follow core pmax best practices:

• Include key product information — especially promotions and discounts — directly in your headlines and descriptions. _Why: These elements grab attention and can be powerful motivators for driving conversions._
• Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns in your headlines and descriptions. _Why: Sentence case feels more natural and authentic to users than all-caps titles._
• Avoid repeating the same phrase across your headlines and descriptions. Choose variations that could be dynamically combined — especially if Final URL expansion is turned on. _Why: This gives Google’s system more flexibility to test ad combinations and find what drives the best results._

5. How many campaigns should you create for a given product? And how often should you refresh them?

There’s no one-size-fits-all rule for the number of campaigns an advertiser should run. This particular pmax best practice depends on several factors. Campaign setup should always align with your business goals and strategic priorities.

Google’s Performance Max for online sales is designed to maximize results based on a defined budget and ROAS target. If your account only has one ROAS goal and one budget, a single campaign may be enough. But if multiple goals coexist, it’s best to split them into separate campaigns.

In general, if you offer a large number of products, with high conversion volumes and different ROAS targets per category, you should consider running multiple Performance Max campaigns.

_For example, a retailer aiming for profitability per product type might create one campaign for footwear, another for outerwear, and a third for accessories — each with a distinct ROAS target._

Another common case is when advertisers operate with separate budgets, languages, or geo-targeting. In this situation, it’s essential to segment Performance Max campaigns accordingly.

Pmax best practices tip:If you’re targeting multiple countries with different budgets, you should always create one campaign per country. Budgets are managed at campaign level, so clear segmentation is key for optimal results.

6. Do you have any A/B testing tips for managing campaigns effectively?

We recommend using a pre/post test or a geo-split test when switching from Standard Shopping campaigns to Performance Max. In practice, this means:

• Identify the products to test: Select a subset of products from your Shopping campaigns to test within Performance Max.

• Set the appropriate budget: The budget allocated to your Performance Max campaign should be equal to or greater than what was previously used in Shopping. This prevents an overall drop in sales due to underinvestment.

• Google’s Performance Max campaigns typically take precedence over Standard Shopping campaigns when targeting the same products. That’s why it’s essential to allocate enough budget to maintain sales volume.

• Compare conversion value and ROAS achieved in Performance Max with results from your previous Shopping campaigns.

• Reproduce your original campaign setup: Ensure product targeting and conversion goals are the same between your Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.

_Note:_ _As with any new campaign, Pmax requires a learning period._

Once the Performance Max campaign is live, pause your original Shopping campaign. Let the new campaign ramp up for at least 1–2 weeks and exclude this time when analyzing performance.

After that, evaluate campaign results over 4–5 weeks, including any conversion lag, to make decisions based on a solid data set.

Pmax best practices like these are key to drawing fair comparisons and optimizing long-term performance.

7. What assets are essential to successfully set up a Google Performance Max campaign?

Add as many assets as you can — or at least everything you currently have available. Performance Max relies on advanced machine learning automation. The more assets you provide, the more diverse and relevant ad formats Google can generate for different channels and audiences.

If you connect a Google Merchant Center (GMC) feed, you’re technically not required to add other assets. However, if no feed is attached, some elements become mandatory. Even when a feed is present, Google still recommends including the following minimum for an effective setup:

• Conversion tracking:

Google Ads conversion tracking or GA4 conversion tracking

• Approved GMC feed

• Text assets::

• Headline: 5 headlines of up to 30 characters (at least one under 15 characters)

• Description & Short Description: 4 descriptions of up to 90 characters (at least one under 60 characters)

• Business name: 1

• Images :

• Landscape (1.91:1): 3 or more recommended

• Square (1:1): 3 or more recommended

• Portrait (4:5): At least 1 recommended

• Video assets:

• 1 or more recommended (up to 5 videos allowed). If you don’t have a video, Google may generate one automatically.

• Extensions:

• Sitelinks: At least 4

• Callouts: 1 recommended

• Structured snippets: 1 recommended

Keep in mind that a core pmax best practice is to organize asset groups just like ad groups — by theme. For example, try creating separate asset groups for each product category or service you offer.

8. What does a successful Performance Max campaign look like?

Success ultimately depends on your business goals. For some advertisers, it means hitting or exceeding a target ROAS. For others, it’s about maximizing sales volume — in which case, the focus shifts to quantity over profitability.

That said, there are a few pmax best practices that apply universally to help improve results:

1. Provide as many assets as possible: text, images, videos. The more you go beyond the minimum requirements, the more effective your campaign delivery will be.
2. Automation only works if your data is reliable.
   Make sure your product feed is clean, well-structured, and free from warnings or suspensions. Your conversion and remarketing tags should also be firing correctly and consistently.
3. Align campaign goals with business goals.
   There should be no disconnect: your ad objectives need to reflect your actual business targets.
4. Enable URL expansion.
   This key feature in Google’s Performance Max allows your final landing page to be replaced dynamically with a more relevant version: including headline, description, and ad assets based on user intent.
5. Set a ROAS target that matches your growth strategy.
   Once your campaign is optimized and stable, you can begin fine-tuning your ROAS goal. Keep this in mind:

• The higher your ROAS target, the less your campaign will likely spend.
• The lower your ROAS target, the more it will likely spend.

9. Can you run campaigns in parallel with Performance Max?

Is it possible to run Google Performance Max campaigns in parallel with other campaigns targeting the same products without conflicts in ad delivery?

The short answer is: no.

It’s not advisable to run Standard Shopping campaigns for the same product set already included in a Performance Max campaign.

Why?Because Google gives priority to Performance Max over Standard campaigns — including Display campaigns that use a connected Merchant Center feed.

There is one exception:
If campaigns are running in separate Google Ads accounts (i.e., different CIDs) or don’t rely on a Merchant Center feed, then the ad with the highest Ad Rank will be displayed.

As with many pmax best practices, the rule of thumb is to avoid overlap to ensure your campaign structure remains clean and optimized.

Key takeaways from this interview

• For seasonal products or sales, build a dedicated promotion campaign.

• Google Performance Max campaigns make full use of Google’s ecosystem: Search, Maps, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and partner websites.

• Choose an advertising strategy that aligns with your goals — and allow enough flexibility in budget and time for the campaign to perform.

• Monitor campaign performance closely to spot when new assets or strategic adjustments may be needed.

• Evaluate your A/B testing only after two weeks of launch, then allow 4–5 weeks for optimization.

• Add as many assets as possible from your GMC feed and your online store.

• Clearly define your goals and success metrics to assess your Performance Max efforts effectively.

Enjoyed these 2025 pmax best practices and expert insights? Stay connected and explore all the resources available on our blog.

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