Performance Max best practices for lead generation

Performance Max is a powerful tool for lead generation. By harnessing the full power of Google AI, it automates bidding, targeting and creative optimisation across all Google channels: Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Maps. This means that you’re able to find high-quality leads at super scale. However, AI is only as good as the inputs it receives in order to understand what success means for your business and optimise for the right leads. To drive the best results from Performance Max, you need to power it with great data, steer it towards the conversion actions that you deem valuable, give it strong creative assets to work with and iterate your strategy with the insights it shares. Follow these best practices to set your campaigns up for success.

For additional best practices, review:

• Best practices for all business types
• Best practices for online sales (non-shopping)
• Best practices for shop goals
• Best practices for retail advertisers with online sales goals using a Merchant Center feed

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	Power your AI with strong measurement Set the stage for success by providing Performance Max with the time and data it needs to understand your goals. Fuel your AI with accurate conversion tracking: Google AI requires a solid measurement and data foundation to fuel your campaigns for optimum performance. Ensure that your conversion tracking is accurately set up and you've selected the correct conversion actions for your campaign. This is crucial for the AI to understand what a valuable lead is for your business. Follow the steps outlined in the 'Build a strong measurement foundation' section of our general Lead Generation best practices guide. After these building blocks are in place, allow at least one to two weeks (or up to six weeks for more complex setups or low conversion volume) for your campaign to run and exit the learning phase before making major changes. This gives Google AI the opportunity to learn and gather enough data to make meaningful optimisations. WHY IT MATTERS Your inputs, especially accurate conversion data, control the output of AI powered campaigns. This is particularly important for channels and surfaces that don’t primarily use search queries as intent signals. Feeding the AI with the right conversion data (such as lead scores, predicted lifetime value or clearly defined conversion actions) helps it identify what factors are most predictive of high-quality leads and optimise across all channels effectively. Set clear goals and signals: Use lead generation specific goals, like 'Contact', 'Submit lead form', 'Book appointment', 'Sign-up', 'Request quote', 'Qualified lead' or 'Converted lead', to drive the highest quality leads for your Performance Max campaigns and access enhanced protections against invalid lead activity. Optimise to deeper funnel conversion actions where possible.
	Steer your campaigns Steer Performance Max with precision towards the right audiences and maximise its impact. Choose the right bidding strategy: If your primary objective is lead value, use value-based Smart Bidding strategies like Maximise conversion value or Maximise conversion value with a Target ROAS. Tip: Select a conversion goal closest to a sale or closed deal that has at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days. Ensure that your target ROAS is realistic based on historical performance. Take note that a target set too high can limit impressions and conversions. For more on value-based bidding, watch our miniseries with Ginny Marvin here. If your primary objective is lead volume, use a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy like Maximise conversions. Setting targets: When maximising conversions, select the most valuable conversion goal (ideally further down the funnel) and set your target CPA close to your maximum acceptable cost per lead. A tCPA set too low can limit performance. If you have insufficient conversion data, consider removing tCPA or starting with 'Maximise conversions' and adding a tCPA later. Tip: Choose a single stage of the sales funnel to bid towards. Bidding to multiple stages (such as website visits and converted leads) within one tCPA strategy can be duplicative and lead to suboptimal performance.
	Captivate with creative Craft engaging content and optimise the user experience to attract and convert high-quality leads. Maximise your asset variety and quality: Provide a wide range of high-quality, relevant text (headlines, descriptions), image and video assets. This allows the AI to create more ad combinations and optimise for performance across all channels. Aim for 'Excellent' ad strength: Monitor the 'Ad strength' metric in your asset groups and strive for an 'Excellent' rating. Advertisers who improve their Performance Max ad strength to 'Excellent' see 6% more conversions on average.1 Provide your own videos: If you don't provide videos, Performance Max may auto-generate them. To prevent auto-generated videos, especially if your campaign is feed-only, upload your own or contact your Google account manager to opt out. We found that advertisers who improve their Performance Max ad strength to 'Excellent' see 6% more conversions on average.1 Optimise your lead forms and landing pages: Simplify the lead capture process with lead form assets to maximise conversions. Improve lead quality: To improve lead quality and reduce spam from forms, consider adding qualifying questions, implementing reCAPTCHA on your landing page or forms and using server-side validation. Landing page experience: Ensure that your landing page is relevant to your ads and provides a clear, user-friendly experience. If you've recently changed your landing page and performance dropped, consider adjusting your target CPA to be closer to the actual CPA and allow the campaign time to re-learn.
	Iterate with insights Understand your campaign performance and uncover new growth opportunities. Monitor and analyse: Utilise reports unique to Performance Max like Search terms insights and demand forecasts to gain valuable insights into campaign performance. Make data-driven decisions: Use asset-level reporting to identify top-performing creative assets and bid strategy reports to understand inputs and nuances of your bid strategy, including the top signals being used to optimise your bids. Ensure brand safety and refine targeting:  Placement exclusions: Regularly review 'Placement reports' (available through insights or custom reports) to identify and exclude websites or apps that are irrelevant or not a good fit for your brand. For Performance Max, placement exclusion lists may need to be applied at the account or manager account level. Negative keywords: Review search term insights and add irrelevant search terms as negative keywords at the campaign or account level to filter out unwanted traffic and improve lead quality. Note that there can be a reporting lag for search terms. Final URL expansion: If ads are showing on irrelevant pages of your own website, consider turning off 'Final URL expansion' in your campaign settings. Brand exclusions: If you want to prevent ads from showing for your brand terms, add brand exclusions. Content suitability: Review content suitability settings at the account level to control the types of content that your ads appear alongside. Location targeting: Check for restrictive location targeting. Ensure that location groups are correctly configured and not empty. If receiving leads from outside targeted areas, change your location targeting from 'Presence or interest' to 'Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations'.

^{1* This applies to all Performance Max campaigns (with and without GMC feed)}

^{Source: Google Data, Global, Ads, February 2024.}