Performance Max campaigns allow you to promote your products or services across the Google Network by creating one easy-to-manage campaign.
This article will guide you through the process of creating a Performance Max campaign. This article gives you the minimal steps to create this campaign type and includes links to help topics that can help you learn more about how to optimize your Performance Max campaign. Learn more About Performance Max campaigns
Instructions
Here are the steps on how to create a Performance Max campaign for advertisers with or without a Merchant Center feed or store visits goal.
For advertisers without a Merchant Center feed or store visits goal
1. Create a new campaign and choose your goal
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- In the "Page" menu on the left, choose Campaigns.
- Use the plus button
to select New campaign.
- Select an advertising objective for your campaign. If none of the goals fit what you’re looking for, select Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.
- Confirm the conversion goals for your campaign. Your account goals will be default prepopulated, but you can remove these or add new goals.
- Select Performance Max as your campaign type.
- Enter a campaign name.
- Choose Continue.
Learn more about how to set up conversion tracking for your website
Keep in mind
- Irrelevant or stale goals: If you notice irrelevant goals, use the 3-dot icon
to “Edit” or “Remove” the goal. In case of stale goals, go to “Tools” and then to “Conversions” to update your account-level conversion goals for the best performance and so you don’t have to continually remove them from your targeted goals.
- Conversion value: It's a best practice to set values for your conversions when each conversion is worth a different amount to your business or when you select more than one goal and those goals have different values. For example, if your campaign is optimizing towards both phone calls and website actions, you could set the value for phone calls as your average sale order value. Automation then optimizes towards the goals that will drive the most return on ad spend (ROAS). Learn more About conversion values
to “Edit” or “Remove” the goal. In case of stale goals, go to “Tools” and then to “Conversions” to update your account-level conversion goals for the best performance and so you don’t have to continually remove them from your targeted goals.2. Set your budget and bidding
- In the "Budget and bidding" section, enter the average amount you want to spend each day.
- Scroll to the “Bidding” section and select a bid strategy.
- Conversions: If you select the checkbox for “Set a target cost per action”, the campaign will try to meet the Target CPA you enter. Learn more About Target CPA bidding
- Conversion Value: If you select the checkbox for “Set a target return on ad spend”, the campaign will try to meet the Target ROAS you enter. Learn more About Target ROAS bidding
- Choose Next to go to “Campaign settings”.
Setting your budget
Your budget establishes a monthly charging limit for an individual campaign. The charging limit is the average daily budget you set, multiplied by the average number of days in a month. While your spend may vary each day, you won’t pay more than your monthly charging limit. Learn more About spending limits
For Performance Max, try an average daily budget of at least 3 times your CPA or cost/conv. for the conversion actions selected for your campaign. Check your account daily to know how your campaigns have performed.
On days when your ads are likely to get you more traffic, you may spend up to 2 times your average daily budget. Those days are balanced by days when your spend is below your average daily budget.
You set an average daily budget for your campaigns, with the flexibility to change it at any time.
Setting your bid strategy
Based on your specified performance goal, Performance Max will help set the right bids for every auction and optimize the campaign to deliver against that performance goal.
If you’re tracking values with your conversions, we recommend using the “Maximize conversion values” bid strategy. If you aren’t tracking values and care about all of your conversions equally, we recommend using “Maximize conversions” bid strategy.
Learn more about how to choose your bid and budget
3. Add your location and languages in campaign settings
- On the “Campaign settings” page, select the location to target under “Locations”.
- Select Enter another location, enter the name of the place you want to target, then select Target or Exclude.
- If you want to target specific places within a location, select Nearby and again select Target or Exclude locations.
- Under “Languages”, select the language you want your ads to serve in.
- You can select multiple languages to show your ads to specific sets of customers.
Tip: For more location targeting options, use the Advanced search link. You can add location in bulk or enter a location and radius around that specific location that you'd like to target. Learn more about location targeting
To set your ad scheduling, campaign start and end dates, and URL settings use the “More settings” area.
More settings
Ad scheduling
Use ad scheduling to determine what days and hours your ad will show. For some goals, you may want your ad to only show during business hours or when you are available to handle customer inquiries. Learn more About ad scheduling, and how to Create an ad schedule.
Final URL expansion
If URL expansion is turned on for your campaign, your final URL may be replaced with a more relevant landing page from your final URL domain with a relevant dynamic headline, based on customer intent. This feature can increase your campaign’s ability to serve, and we recommend it be turned on for optimal performance. Learn more about the benefits of URL expansion
Campaign URL options
The tracking template is where you put tracking information. You can use URL parameters within the template to customize your final URL. When an ad is clicked, the information is used to create your landing page URL.
Learn about final URLs and tracking templates
4. Build your asset group
- On the “Asset group” page, enter a unique asset group name.
- Build your asset group by adding the following details.
| Asset | Recommended asset guidelines |
|---|---|
| Images | Add up to 20 images. |
| Logos | Add up to 5 logos. |
| Videos |
Add up to 5 videos. Note: If you don’t upload a video, one will be auto-generated from the other creative assets in your asset group. To opt out, you can upload your own video during campaign construction or after your campaign has launched. |
| Headlines | Add up to 5 headlines (maximum 30 characters). |
| Long headlines | Add up to 5 long headlines (maximum 90 characters). |
| Descriptions | Add one short description with maximum 60 characters and up to 4 descriptions with maximum 90 characters each. |
| Call-to-action |
Choose from various layouts as well as enter the name of your business or brand. |
| Ad URL options |
Add the pathway for your display URL as well as choose a different final URL for mobile. |
You can create one asset group before launching your Performance Max campaign and additional asset groups after setup. Your assets will automatically be assembled into all applicable formats and show the most relevant ad creative.
Learn more about how to build an asset group
Tip: Create an asset group with assets that are all related to a single theme or audience. You can read more about the requirements by hovering over the question mark icon 
Audience signals
Audience signals allow you to add audience suggestions that help Google Ads automation optimize for your selected goals. Although adding audience signals is optional, using audience signals can help you accelerate and guide the machine learning models on the ideal way to optimize your campaign.
Learn more about audience signals
Ad strength
Ad strength is an indication of the relevance and range of your ad creative combinations. Having more relevant and unique content can help you get the right ad in front of your customers and improve your ad’s performance.
5. Add ad extensions
Ad extensions expand your ads and give people more reasons to view your ads. Extensions add useful business data below your ad—locations, additional links, prices, and more. For this reason, extensions are recommended in Performance Max campaigns.
The “Extensions” page in Performance Max displays a recommendation of ad extensions related to your set goals. Learn more about ad extension selection
In Performance Max campaigns, ad extensions are tied to specific marketing goals and will be featured more prominently based on the campaign’s goal.
- Ad extensions can be information that gives the user an opportunity to learn more about your business.
- Ad extensions can also be actions that invite the user to do more than visit the website. Some actions covered may be to call the business, submit a lead form, or view locations.
- Ad extensions invite the user to gather more information about the business or extend interaction between the business and user.
6. Publish your campaign
Before you finish setting up your campaign, you'll be taken to a review summary with the details of your new campaign. Select Publish Campaign to complete the process.
For advertisers with a Merchant Center feed
1. Create a new campaign and choose your goal
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- In the "Page" menu on the left, choose Campaigns.
- Use the plus button
- Select an advertising objective for your campaign. If none of the goals fit what you’re looking for, select Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.
- Confirm the conversion goals for your campaign. Your account goals will be default prepopulated, but you can remove these or add new goals.
- Select your Merchant Center account and country where products are sold.
- Enter a campaign name.
- Choose Continue.
Learn more about how to set up conversion tracking for your website
Keep in mind
- Irrelevant or stale goals: If you notice irrelevant goals, use the 3-dot icon
- Conversion value: It's a best practice to set values for your conversions when each conversion is worth a different amount to your business or when you select more than one goal and those goals have different values. For example, if your campaign is optimizing towards both phone calls and website actions, you could set the value for phone calls as your average sale order value. Automation then optimizes towards the goals that will drive the most return on ad spend (ROAS). Learn more About conversion values
2. Set your budget and bidding
- In the "Budget and bidding" section, enter the average amount you want to spend each day.
- Scroll to the “Bidding” section and select a bid strategy.
- Conversions: If you select the checkbox for “Set a target cost per action”, the campaign will try to meet the Target CPA you enter. Learn more About Target CPA bidding
- Conversion Value: If you select the checkbox for “Set a target return on ad spend”, the campaign will try to meet the Target ROAS you enter. Learn more About Target ROAS bidding
- Choose Next to go to “Campaign settings”.
Setting your budget
Your budget establishes a monthly charging limit for an individual campaign. The charging limit is the average daily budget you set, multiplied by the average number of days in a month. While your spend may vary each day, you won’t pay more than your monthly charging limit. Learn more About spending limits
For Performance Max, try an average daily budget of at least 3 times your CPA or cost/conv. for the conversion actions selected for your campaign. Check your account daily to know how your campaigns have performed.
On days when your ads are likely to get you more traffic, you may spend up to 2 times your average daily budget. Those days are balanced by days when your spend is below your average daily budget.
You set an average daily budget for your campaigns, with the flexibility to change it at any time.
Setting your bid strategy
Based on your specified performance goal, Performance Max will help set the right bids for every auction and optimize the campaign to deliver against that performance goal.
If you’re tracking values with your conversions, we recommend using the “Maximize conversion values” bid strategy. If you aren’t tracking values and care about all of your conversions equally, we recommend using “Maximize conversions” bid strategy.
3. Add your location and languages in campaign settings
- On the “Campaign settings” page, select the location to target under “Locations”.
- Select Enter another location, enter the name of the place you want to target, then select Target or Exclude.
- If you want to target specific places within a location, select Nearby and again select Target or Exclude locations.
- Under “Languages”, select the language you want your ads to serve in.
- You can select multiple languages to show your ads to specific sets of customers.
Tip: For more location targeting options, use the Advanced search link. You can add location in bulk or enter a location and radius around that specific location that you'd like to target. Learn more about location targeting
To set your ad scheduling, campaign start and end dates, and URL settings use the “More settings” area.
More settings
Ad scheduling
Use ad scheduling to determine what days and hours your ad will show. For some goals, you may want your ad to only show during business hours or when you are available to handle customer inquiries. Learn more About ad scheduling, and how to Create an ad schedule.
Final URL expansion
If URL expansion is turned on for your campaign, your final URL may be replaced with a more relevant landing page from your final URL domain with a relevant dynamic headline, based on customer intent. This feature can increase your campaign’s ability to serve, and we recommend it be turned on for optimal performance. Learn more about the benefits of URL expansion
Campaign URL options
The tracking template is where you put tracking information. You can use URL parameters within the template to customize your final URL. When an ad is clicked, the information is used to create your landing page URL.
Learn about final URLs and tracking templates
4. Build your asset group
- On the “Asset group” page, enter a unique asset group name.
- Build your asset group by adding the following details.
| Asset | Recommended asset guidelines |
|---|---|
| Images | Add up to 20 images. |
| Logos | Add up to 5 logos. |
| Videos |
Add up to 5 videos. Note: If you don’t upload a video, one will be auto-generated from the other creative assets in your asset group. To opt out, you can upload your own video during campaign construction or after your campaign has launched. |
| Headlines | Add up to 5 headlines (maximum 30 characters). |
| Long headlines | Add up to 5 long headlines (maximum 90 characters). |
| Descriptions | Add one short description with maximum 60 characters and up to 4 descriptions with maximum 90 characters each. |
| Call-to-action |
Choose from various layouts as well as enter the name of your business or brand. |
| Ad URL options |
Add the pathway for your display URL as well as choose a different final URL for mobile. |
You can create one asset group before launching your Performance Max campaign and additional asset groups after setup. Your assets will automatically be assembled into all applicable formats and show the most relevant ad creative.
Learn more about how to build an asset group
Tip: Create an asset group with assets that are all related to a single theme or audience. You can read more about the requirements by hovering over the question mark icon
Audience signals
Audience signals allow you to add audience suggestions that help Google Ads automation optimize for your selected goals. Although adding audience signals is optional, using audience signals can help you accelerate and guide the machine learning models on the ideal way to optimize your campaign.
Learn more about audience signals
Ad strength
Ad strength is an indication of the relevance and range of your ad creative combinations. Having more relevant and unique content can help you get the right ad in front of your customers and improve your ad’s performance.
5. Add ad extensions
Ad extensions expand your ads and give people more reasons to view your ads. Extensions add useful business data below your ad—locations, additional links, prices, and more. For this reason, extensions are recommended in Performance Max campaigns.
The “Extensions” page in Performance Max displays a recommendation of ad extensions related to your set goals. Learn more about ad extension selection
In Performance Max campaigns, ad extensions are tied to specific marketing goals and will be featured more prominently based on the campaign’s goal.
- Ad extensions can be information that gives the user an opportunity to learn more about your business.
- Ad extensions can also be actions that invite the user to do more than visit the website. Some actions covered may be to call the business, submit a lead form, or view locations.
- Ad extensions invite the user to gather more information about the business or extend interaction between the business and user.
6. Publish your campaign
Before you finish setting up your campaign, you'll be taken to a review summary with the details of your new campaign. Select Publish Campaign to complete the process.