How to Set Up Google Ads Performance Max

Set up Google Ads Performance Max by choosing a business objective, validating the conversion actions, selecting a bid strategy and budget, preparing the asset group, connecting any product feed or location source, controlling URLs, and recording the launch baseline. Performance Max can automate bidding, targeting, creatives, and channel selection, so the quality of the inputs and the clarity of the goal matter more than a long list of manual settings.

Google’s Create a Performance Max campaign guide covers the current campaign flow and links to goal-specific setup paths. For the principles behind the choices, read Google Ads Performance Max best practices.

Choose the objective

Start from the action the business wants: online sales, leads, website traffic, store visits and promotions, or another currently supported objective. If the guided goal does not fit the account, Google provides a “create without a goal’s guidance” path so the advertiser can configure goals deliberately.

Do not choose Sales simply because it is the default when the business needs qualified leads, or choose Leads when the account cannot distinguish a contact from a valuable opportunity. Write the conversion definition before moving on.

Prepare conversion actions

Review account-level goals and remove stale or irrelevant actions from the campaign. Check primary and secondary status, counting, values, currency, attribution, conversion windows, duplicate events, transaction IDs, and imported offline stages.

For lead generation, connect forms, calls, or chats to accepted or qualified outcomes. For ecommerce, verify purchase values, product IDs, refunds, stock, currency, and margin context. For local objectives, make sure calls, directions, or store events correspond to the action the business can serve.

Run a test action end to end. Record conversion lag and do not judge the campaign before the signal can mature.

Select Performance Max and campaign settings

In Google Ads, create a campaign, choose the objective or the no-guidance path, select Performance Max, and continue through the campaign construction flow. Set the campaign name and review the settings for location, language, schedule, networks or inventory, audience, brand, and account-level controls.

Use locations the business can fulfill and a language that matches the offer and page. Check exclusions, brand constraints, account negative keywords where available, and store or Merchant Center links. Do not widen locations or audiences just to make the campaign spend.

Choose bidding and budget

Select the bid strategy that matches the objective and data. Set an average daily budget the business can sustain through the learning and review period. For value campaigns, verify values and margin; for leads, verify qualified cost and sales capacity.

Avoid a target CPA or target ROAS that is too restrictive for current data. Google’s campaign guidance warns that overly restrictive targets can limit reach. Record the target, budget, rationale, owner, and first review date.

Create the asset group

An asset group is a set of text, image, video, logo, and final URL assets around a theme or audience. Use a separate group when a product category, service, audience, page, listing group, or offer needs a different promise.

Google’s How asset groups work lists current text and asset requirements. Provide a business name, final URL, headlines, long headlines, descriptions, logos, images, calls to action, and video where appropriate. Each asset should be useful alone and in combinations.

Cover the customer problem, benefit, proof, qualification, offer, price or availability condition, and next step. Use advertiser-created video when possible and check policy, brand, aspect ratio, and message match.

Connect products or locations

For retail, connect the intended Merchant Center account and verify products, attributes, availability, pricing, currency, shipping, landing pages, and disapprovals. Organize listing groups around meaningful product categories or attributes.

For local objectives, link the approved business profile or location source and check addresses, hours, phone, service areas, and approval status. Do not let the campaign promote a location or product the business cannot fulfill.

Decide on Final URL expansion

Final URL expansion can let Performance Max replace the asset-group URL with a more relevant page from the domain based on search intent. Google documents the feature and exclusions in About Final URL expansion.

If expansion is on, review the site for non-commercial, careers, policy, account, or unrelated pages that should be excluded. Consider page feeds or URL rules when they improve guidance, but do not assume a page feed restricts all traffic while expansion is on.

If one conversion path must use one page, choose the controlled setup after checking the campaign’s current options and tradeoffs. Test the final URL, redirects, mobile page, consent, and conversion action.

Review asset combinations and policy

Read text, images, logos, video, final URL, call to action, business name, and listing group together. Check that the resulting message is accurate and that the page fulfills it. Review restricted categories, claims, trademarks, prices, availability, and local requirements.

If text customization or automated assets are enabled, define who reviews generated content and how stale or inaccurate wording is corrected. Automation can expand coverage; it does not remove responsibility for the ad.

Publish with a baseline

Before launch, save campaign objective, goals, conversion definitions, budget, bid strategy and target, locations, asset groups, feed or page scope, URL controls, assets, and final URLs. Record impressions, clicks, spend, conversions, qualified outcomes, value, margin, inventory, and page behavior from any predecessor campaign.

Check policy status, asset group strength, final URLs, feed health, locations, conversion events, and schedule after publishing. Do not make several major changes during the first review unless an urgent issue requires it.

Plan the first review

Allow enough time for conversion lag and the campaign’s learning period. Review total and qualified conversions, value, margin, CPA or ROAS, budget use, asset groups, combinations, products, pages, search or category insights where available, and business capacity.

The adz.so free Google Ads audit is a truthful next step for reviewing supported account settings. It does not create Performance Max campaigns, assets, feeds, or URL controls. Use Google Ads reports and the business evidence to decide the next setup change.