Final URL expansion with Performance Max

Final URL expansion helps you optimise the performance of your Performance Max campaigns. Use Final URL expansion to replace your Final URL with a more relevant landing page based on the user's search query and intent, and to generate a dynamic ad headline, description and additional assets to match your landing page content.

Note: When running Performance Max campaigns for shop goals only (shop visits, shop sales, contacts and direction clicks), Final URL expansion isn't supported.

Benefits

• Reach more customers matching your business through new relevant queries that may not serve through your regular campaigns.
• Increase ad performance through more relevant ads with dynamic headlines, descriptions and assets.
• Drive conversions due to relevant landing pages being selected based on campaign goal, user intent, ad headlines, descriptions, assets and other signals.

Note: Videos in your Performance Max campaigns may be converted to a different aspect ratio (for example, portrait or square) using Google’s proprietary computer vision technology. You can review updated aspect ratios from your campaign’s 'Assets' tab in Google Ads. To control this function, filter your 'Assets' tab for videos and make your changes.

Ways to utilise Final URL expansion

Here are a few cases of how advertisers might want to use Final URL expansion:

• I want the best possible performance for my campaign → Leave Final URL expansion on.

Note: If Final URL expansion is on, Google may replace your Final URL with a more relevant landing page based on the user’s search query, and generate a dynamic headline, description and additional assets to match your landing page content. Learn more About automatically created assets.

• I want the best possible performance for my campaign, but don’t want to show ads for certain terms → Leave Final URL expansion on and use negative keywords (reach out to your Google rep or Google Support to assist with this feature).
• I want good performance, but there are certain pages I don’t want to send traffic to → Leave Final URL expansion on and use URL exclusion rules.
• I can only send traffic to a single page, as that’s the only path to conversion → Turn off Final URL expansion.

Note: Final URL expansion can serve and receive traffic on any page that hasn’t excluded a Final URL domain. This means that if you have a subdirectory (like www.example.com/brand), your campaigns may be optimised to show both general and brand subdirectory pages.

URL Exclusion

If you have pages that you need to exclude from sending traffic to, you can use URL exclusion or URL parameter rules. For example, if you don't want customers to be directed to non-commercial pages or sections of your website, you can exclude those pages using URL exclusions.

Note: Your campaign’s Final URL can’t be excluded from your Performance Max campaign using URL expansion exclusions. It will still be served and receive traffic if excluded. For example, if your campaign’s Final URL is www.example.com and you exclude www.example.com from URL expansion, www.example.com will still be served and receive traffic for your campaign.

If you wish to exclude your homepage from serving, you can choose a more specific landing page (such as www.example.com/page) and then exclude your homepage (www.example.com).

Exclude URLs

If you have specific URLs that you don’t want to include in your Performance Max campaign, you can enter these URLs individually and they won’t be served in ads (for example, your careers page).

Exclusion rules

If you have specific URLs or entire categories of your site that you don't want to present in your ads (for example, if you're discontinuing a brand and no longer want to advertise its products), then you can create a rule that includes www.domain.com/brand and excludes www.domain.com/brand/product1, www.domain.com/brand/product2 or any other pages you don't wish to be served in ads.

Instructions to exclude URLs

1. Sign into your Google Ads account.
2. On the left-hand page menu, select Campaigns.
3. Choose the Performance Max campaign that you want to edit.
4. On the left-hand page menu, click Settings.
5. Expand the 'Final URL expansion' section.
6. Select Exclude URLs.
   • From this point, you will be able to add URLs to exclude or use Rules to exclude URLs:
     • To exclude URLs: List the URLs that you wish to exclude, then click Add.
     • To use Rules: Click the 'Rules' tab to add the custom rules you want to apply, then click Add.
7. Click Save.

Opt out of Final URL expansion

Note: Opting out of Final URL expansion isn't recommended as it may limit the ads served by your campaign.

If you don’t want Google to select alternative landing pages automatically, you can opt out of the Final URL expansion feature by following the steps below:

1. Sign into your Google Ads account.
2. On the left-hand page menu, select Campaigns.
3. Choose the Performance Max campaign that you want to edit.
4. On the left-hand page menu, click Settings.
5. Under 'Additional settings', expand the 'Final URL expansion' section.
6. Choose to turn it off.
7. Click Save.

For advertisers with a Merchant Center feed

For Performance Max campaigns with a Merchant Center feed attached, ads may be served to a URL provided in the campaign (Final URL) or to a product included in the campaign from the attached Google Merchant Center.

• If Final URL expansion is turned on: Search Ads may be served to additional URLs besides the provided Final URL domain. Shopping Ads may serve optimised titles based on the user query, in addition to product URLs and product titles from the Google Merchant Center.
• If Final URL expansion is turned off: Search Ads will be served only to the Final URL. Shopping Ads may serve optimised titles based on the user query, in addition to product URLs and product titles from the Google Merchant Center.
• Learn more about Optimised titles.