Build an asset group

 This article applies only to Google Ads accounts in the new Search Ads 360.

An asset group is made from the images, logos, headlines, descriptions, videos, and audience signals you add when you create your Google Ads Performance Max campaign. These assets are automatically mixed and matched based on which Google Ad channel (YouTube, Gmail, Search, and others) your ad is being served on. You can use the ad preview editor to check possible creative asset combinations.

For advertisers with a Merchant Center feed, you don’t need to supply any additional creative assets to launch a Performance Max campaign. However, Google recommends that you provide creative assets to allow your campaign to serve maximally across surfaces and have optimal performance. Ads may be auto-generated on your behalf when possible.

Keep in mind

An asset provided in an asset group can be combined with any other asset from the same group to create ads that serve across Google Search, Google Maps, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover feed, and Google partner websites. Advertisers can create multiple asset groups per campaign after their initial asset group is created and the campaign is launched

Instructions

Add assets

Start your asset group by adding headlines, images, and videos related to a single theme or audience. Performance Max will automatically assemble these assets into all applicable ad formats for your goal and show the most relevant ad creatives in each ad.

1. Add an asset group name to identify your asset group theme. Though you can only set up one asset group before publishing your campaign, you can add additional asset groups later.
2. Add text, images, and videos to your asset group by following the requirements below:

Text specifications

Add 1 final URL	Add up to 5 headlines	Add up to 5 long headlines
Add up to 4 descriptions	Add 1 business name	Add 1 call-to-action
	Add up to 2 display URL paths

Image specifications

Add 3 landscape images 5120KB maximum file size Further supported for serving on image search mode only	Add 3 square images 5120KB maximum file size Note: Images that do not meet this aspect ratio can be uploaded and cropped within the interface.	Add 1 square image 5120KB maximum file size For campaigns with Store Visits only
Add 1 portrait image	Add 1 square logo 5120KB maximum file size	Add 1 landscape logo 5120KB maximum file size

Legend: Asset recommendations Maximum total number for all images: 20 Maximum total number for all logos: 5

File formats: JPG or PNG	Minimum resolution: Recommended is 1200x1200 pixels	5120KB maximum file size	Recommended image safe area: Put your content in the center 80% of the image

Video specifications

Tip: Google automatically resizes your video ads to increase your performance by platform and improve ad strength. If you don’t plan to upload a video, consider how your other creative assets will appear if resized.

	Videos longer than 10 seconds are required for all Performance Max Campaigns If you do not upload a video, one may be generated for you from other creative Add up to 5 videos

If you don’t add a video to your Performance Max asset group, then one or more videos may be auto-generated from the assets in your asset group. Auto-generated videos may be auto-generated in longer, standard YouTube form or in a vertical format so that they may serve on YouTube Shorts. If you don’t have a video asset and don’t want to use the auto-generated videos, you can use the Google Ads video creation tool to create a video for use in your Performance Max campaign. Advertisers may also upload a YouTube Shorts-eligible video (vertical format, less than 10 - 60 seconds in length), which may be eligible to serve on YouTube Shorts. To learn how to create videos in Google Ads, visit Create a video using Asset library.

Google may automatically resize your video ads to increase your performance by platform and improve ad strength. After you’ve created and uploaded your creative assets, landscape videos may be scaled to square (1:1) or portrait (9:16) aspect ratios for YouTube Instream and YouTube shorts. Google will review each video to ensure that quality isn’t lost, however if you have an issue with the resizing please contact Google support to help you opt out of this service.

Ad creative best practices

• Refresh your creative assets, as they're your most powerful tools to drive performance, and they allow you to customize the campaign to promote new products, menu items, or sales.
• For weekend sales, start the campaign 2 to 3 weeks in advance, then frequently refresh your assets to move from more generic store assets to sales-focused assets. This allows you to produce time-based promotions without compromising performance.
• Add at least 7 image assets, including one in 1200x1200 format.
• Don’t delete assets with ‘’low’’ ratings without replacing them with new ones.
• Add more assets as your marketing message evolves or new assets to continue to capture additional users.
• The more assets, the better. More assets means more ad combinations Google can serve across networks to maximize performance.

If you don’t add a video to your Performance Max asset group, then one or more videos may be auto-generated from the assets in your asset group.

If you don’t have a video asset and don’t want to use the auto-generated videos, you can use the Google Ads video creation tool to create a video for use in your Performance Max campaign. Learn how to create videos in Google Ads using Asset library.

Add signals

Performance Max uses audience signals like age, gender, location, browsing history, and search keywords to show ads to the right people. Signals in your Performance Max campaign help Google’s algorithm to run the ad in the right direction. It can show ads that are more likely to be seen and engaged with by the right people, leading to improved results overall.

About search themes

Search themes in Performance Max allow you to provide Google AI with information about what your customers are searching for. This helps Performance Max campaigns to serve on placements that may not be obvious to AI, but where they expect good results. Learn more About search themes in Performance Max campaigns.

Add your data

You can leverage first-party customer and marketing data you already have from desktop and mobile visitors, page and social views, and past converters.

Try adding data from these sources:

• Website visitor lists
• App user lists
• Customer lists (for example, email and subscription lists)
• Video viewer lists

Learn more About your data segments.

Additional signals

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 guide machine learning models on the ideal way to optimize your campaign.

To help you meet your performance goals, Performance Max may show ads to relevant audiences outside of your signals if they have a strong likelihood of converting.

How to add audience signals

In the "Audience signal" section beneath your asset group:

1. Click Add an audience signal.
2. If you have already created audiences, search for the audience you want to choose on the “Select an Audience” page. If not, click + New Audience.
3. On the “New audience signal” page, create a unique name for your audience, then add your custom segments, data, and interests and demographics.
4. Click Save.

You can use the “Interests & detailed demographics” and “Demographics” sections to further customize your audience. To enhance machine learning, use search term based custom segments.

Interests and detailed demographics

Add other segments to reach people based on who they are, their interests and habits, and what they’re actively researching. These signals help you reach the right audience at the right time.

Try adding targets from these areas:

• Detailed demographics: Reach user groups based on long-term life facts.
• Life events: Reach user groups when they’re in the midst of important life milestones.
• Affinity: Reach user groups based on what they're passionate about and their habits and interests.
• In-market: Reach user groups based on their recent purchase intent.

Demographics

When you use demographics, you can narrow the focus of your custom audience segment by using certain identifiers to focus your campaign on specific qualities of your audience.

More options

HTML5

If you've created an HTML5 ad using a different tool, such as Google Web Designer, you can upload it to Ads Creative Studio as a display project. Find more information about creating HTML5 assets.

Requirements

• Your HTML5 ad should be packaged in a single ZIP file.
• Creatives that expand to other sizes are not supported.
• All ad clickthroughs must use either the Enabler or click tags. Hard-coded clickthroughs using HTML anchor tags are not supported.
• HTML5 assets in interstitial dimensions (320x480 and 480x320) can be up to 5.2MB in file size. Larger assets will be immediately rejected, so reduce your asset’s file size as needed.

Display path

Display path gives people an idea of where they'll arrive after they click an ad. The landing page that you define with a final URL tends to be more specific. For example, if your Display path is www.example.com, your final URL might be example.com/shoes. Google Ads uses the domain from your final URL combined with your path text, if any is entered, to create the Display path.

Your path text doesn’t have to match the exact text of your final URL, but it should help the user understand what to expect from your landing page. Each path can have up to 15 characters and you can add up to 2 display URL paths.

Final URL for mobile

Final URL for mobile helps you maintain different landing pages for mobile users. Final URL for mobile is the page on your mobile website that people reach when they click your ad. It doesn’t have to be the same as your display path, but the domains (for example, the “example.com” in “www.example.com”) must match.

Select the “Use a different final URL for mobile” checkbox and enter the final URL for mobile. It should contain any URL parameters your site uses to determine the content of a page or for tracking purposes.

Create a new rule to target specific webpages

URL Contains

You can target pages with URLs that contain a certain piece of text, called a token. In a URL, a token is surrounded by a limiter like “/”, “-” among others.

Example

You want to target all the services-related pages of your electronics website based on the URL string that appears when you navigate the site. If all of those URLs follow a similar pattern, like electronicsexample.com/services/, you should target every one that contains "services,” using rules. You can create rules using the following logic:

URL Rules

Create URL rules or specify which URLs from page feeds to use for your ads.

To target all pages with ‘Services’ in the URL:

• URL contains Services

To target all pages with ‘Services’ and ‘Quotes’ in the URL:

• URL contains Services AND URL contains Quotes

Keep in mind that it won’t work for URLs like electronicsexample.com/servicesmenu/, because it has the word “menu” after the targeted text. However it will work for electronicsexample.com/services-menu/ because the “-” is a separator. Other separators include ‘:’ ‘/’ ‘?’ ‘+’ and ‘&’.

Instructions

To target pages with URLs that contain a certain piece of text, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a Google Ads client account.
3. While creating your Performance Max campaign, navigate to the “Asset group” page.
4. Scroll down and click “More options”.
5. On the “URL rules” card, click + URL rules.
6. Select Create URL rules as a preferred option.
7. Add the text you want the URL to include in the “Add URL rule” bar.
   • You can add one or more text combinations by clicking And after adding each piece of text.
8. Click Add to add the new rule.
9. Click Apply.

Related links

• About Google Ads Performance Max campaigns
• Create a Google Ads Performance Max campaign