Performance Max: I Was A Skeptic & Now I’m Devout (Even In Bing) via @sejournal, @jonkagan

When Google first announced the existence of Performance Max back in 2020, to say I was skeptical of this ad unit would’ve been an understatement.

When it rolled out to everyone in 2021, I described my thoughts about it as “loud, angry, and distrusting”.

In my defense, look at it from a 2021 Jon perspective: Google gave you an ad unit that would opt you into areas you may not want to be in (Display, Partner Network, YouTube), which you couldn’t opt out of.

You also couldn’t target one network; if you didn’t add a YouTube video, it would make its own. There were no exclusions; there were no negatives. There was negligible reporting.

Additionally, it would show in all the ad placements you were already in, and potentially, cannibalize them. There was limited control over the budget.

All you knew was that you would give Google your money and hope it did right by you.

On top of it all, it was described as a supplementary function, but if you wanted to use Local Search Ads or Smart Shopping, you were forced to do this.

This was then followed by Google representatives recommending that we stop running Shopping campaigns because “PMax will handle it” (which contradicted the original descriptions).

Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about it. Then, when Bing (because I refuse to call them Microsoft Ads) announced it was going to be rolling out PMax back in 2024, I almost lost it.

My loyal, consistent, trustworthy little buddy, Bing, was going down the evil rabbit hole of non-transparent advertising, and I was angry. That was all then (I know that was just over a year ago, but give me credit).

Fast forward to June 2025 Jon, (maybe it is the early summer heat in New England), I am no longer that belligerently angry at PMax for existing (still angry about a lot of other things, though).

Now, for different reasons, I am afraid to say it: I am a Performance Max loyalist. Not just in Google, either, but also in Bing – I love the PMax function in both of them.

Why Was I Anti-PMax?

A little bit of background: I’ve been in the digital space for over 20 years. I’ve seen the evolution of search platforms many times over. Some changes were good. Several were terrible (a la “Enhanced Campaigns” or mandatory “MSAN”).

So, needless to say, I am a firm believer of: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But, PMax was a fix for something that wasn’t broken (at least, at the time, I believed it).

More importantly, this ad unit went against a lot of Google’s claims of “trust and transparency.” This ad unit provided, at the time, almost no transparency whatsoever, so it sure didn’t give us a reason to trust it.

This was essentially having the fox watch the hen house.

What if I didn’t want to trigger for a specific search? What if I didn’t have video assets and I couldn’t let Google create them? What do you mean I can’t get a full placement report of where my ad was showing?

Not to mention, initial data and results yielded little to no noticeable growth in a positive direction. But, there was a lot of burning cash somewhere.

But that was just Google. When Bing rolled out its PMax, the Audience Network had just become mandatory for search. The search syndication network was producing garbage, there was no video ad unit, and the documentation on the Bing PMax capability was negligible and hidden (shout out to Milton for helping me find it).

Why should anyone have been in a pro-PMax mindset at all?

And if you scroll through the old X (Twitter) hashtag of #PPCCHAT (which by the way is the best global paid search community there is), you will realize that few – if any – were, in fact, pro-PMax.

What Changed My Mind About Google?

I should first clarify that I now heavily use Performance Max. It is a necessity (think a necessary evil) in most direct response/performance-driven paid media initiatives.

I maintain several reservations about it. However, other reservations have eroded away over time.

When I first tested out Performance Max, it was a test effort for a consumer packaged goods (CPG) ecommerce company and a couple of quick service restaurant (QSR) brands.

For CPG, we were testing it as a supplement to shopping, and we were honestly ignorant of what it was doing.

For the QSR brands, we tested it out as an alternative to local search campaigns, as those were being “sunsetted” by Google.

If we wanted to continue our digital marketing push to hundreds of brick-and-mortar locations on maps, then our only option was to do PMax (net-net, we were forced to).

In both cases, the initial results were “dog water” (a phrase my 10-year-old son keeps using when describing the Jets’ season).

Why were they bad? There are multiple reasons, including but not limited to: lack of education, probably a poor setup on our part, multiple technical flaws on it via Google, and what seemed like a rush to market/incomplete system.

The CPG ecommerce brand abandoned the effort within a few months (at my recommendation, I should note). But the QSR brands – that was different. We started seeing the data.

For both brands, we had been using local search, YouTube, Search, Discovery (may it rest in peace), and every now and then, GDN – all for different needs.

So, getting them to work together for a single function made sense on paper, but was a novel concept to us.

The QSR brands were optimizing for conversions (we had six types), but one of the six types was more valuable than the others (Store Visits).

Once we moved to a conversion value strategy on PMax, we were off to the races. More so, we started seeing deliveries that exceeded prior deliveries in regular search or local search.

This shift in performance forced me to accept that I could compromise my lack of transparency for strong performance.

Something that was eating at me, though, was the impact on search.

For those who remember, briefly, PMax search was only on mobile. Then, it expanded to all devices. We did a study to prove it was cannibalizing regular search.

But ultimately, the study made me realize something: I may not be in control of the target and the function, but if the performance was there, my argument against it was going to have to diminish as quickly and quietly as Google Glass.

Ok, Then Why Did You Change Your Mind About Bing PMax?

My perception of Bing PMax changed for a different reason than Google’s.

If you’ve read my past articles, you know I am very much pro-Bing, but in very specific categories, such as healthcare. I am not huge on it in other categories.

So, entering into Bing PMax was going to have to be done either by force or because I heard a rumor.

Needless to say, I got backed into a corner that forced my hand on it (twice), and the first instance happened to coincide with a rumor.

First, note this: I am adamantly against the forced usage of the Bing audience network (MSAN) in search, and not being able to opt out of it, completely infuriates me.

Now, cue the rumor: I had been informed by a former Bing employee that if I wanted greater control of the audience network, I needed to go one of two routes:

1. Run audience network-specific ads, or
2. Run PMax ads.

I elected the PMax route (which, by the way, the rumor about that part was not, in fact, accurate).

I went this route because, at the same time, I had a health insurance brand that was crushing it in efficiency in Bing search, but we couldn’t really scale it anymore.

But, we had a test budget earmarked for direct response/performance tactics, and time was running out to use it (or I would lose it).

So, I threw out the idea of trying PMax in Bing. It had been negligibly attempted within the agency in various verticals with underwhelming performance.

We said, “Why not, let’s give it the old college try and prove that this was not going to work for us,” and we tested it against search.

Well … needless to say, I was wrong. It was beating out search. The only thing it couldn’t do – that Google could – was drive click-to-call leads.

Then What Happened?

A number of things:

• I somehow got selected to sit on a focus group panel for PMax with Google, and selfishly directed as much feedback as possible to bring on basics that should’ve been around since Day one (search query insight, demographic control, product distribution, keyword targets, negatives, etc.) Note: As of press time, some of this actually came to fruition, but I can almost guarantee I had little to no impact in making it happen.
• I worked with some brands that were Down For Testing (or “DTF”), and said, “This isn’t going away like Broad Match Modified did, so we need test it out, if you let me do it, I’ll buy you a sandwich, we’ll plan it out as zero return, and celebrate if it works out.”
• I tested out different scenarios: target return on ad spend (tROAS), target cost-per-acquisition (tCPA), max conversions, max value, with a Google Business Profile (GBP), without a product feed, etc. – all to see what the right approach would be.
• Ecommerce brands we went and tested as a supplement to shopping ads, and scenarios where it replaced shopping ads.
• I repeated scenarios where I could in Bing.
  • Bing for ecommerce quickly became a rising star for me in PMax.
  • If you’re willing to wait for the longer ramp-up period, it pays off.

• Most importantly, I stopped fighting PMax adoption. I decided that I could learn to work with less transparency if the returns came back as legitimate.

There Is, However, Some Stuff That Still Really Gets To Me

Don’t take this come around thought train as total acceptance. There are still several things that grind my gears, and tips I recommend for dealing with them:

• In Google, the moment you get access to the channel report, pore over it in detail. It cannibalizes Search and Shopping, which could mean you need to up your game on other entities, or even reallocate funds as needed.
• If you have the GBP connected, the distribution of spend on Maps is obscene. It makes me long for the days of local search ads, and when this happens, it comes at the expense of search distribution.
• Even with the Google Channel Distribution reports, the actual detailed reporting is pretty terrible. Bing doesn’t even have a channel report.
• If you thought you could use PMax as a way to get into Gmail ad units, think again. Less than 10% of the clients I work with who have PMax and channel reporting have actually shown in Gmail. If you want that placement, go to Demand Gen.

• Upload a video. Whatever you do (for the love of all that is sane), don’t let Google create a video for you. I’ve seen them; you definitely do not want them.

Not-So Pro-Tips For The World Of PMax

• Like my therapist wife says: You need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and PMax definitely makes you uncomfortable.
• Have a video ready to go. Don’t let Google make it. Shoot it with your cellphone if you need to.
• Do not launch without using search themes. You don’t have a lot of controls, but that is one to definitely use.
• Bing actually has a good search query report, and Google has recently started rolling out a comprehensive search query report. Both are helpful to understand where you’re mapping, and now with Google, you can use it to expand negative keywords.
• Brand exclusion is a go-to for avoiding competitor bidding.
• The audience signals are key for thriving. Build them a niche, but view it more as a look-alike audience than a pure target.
• Use every extension under the sun, because why not?
• In Bing, not all placements are pretty, and you can actually exclude certain placements by creative there. Utilize it.

The Takeaway

Performance Max, whether it is on Google or Bing, is an ad unit that makes you feel somewhat powerless, but honestly, that isn’t a bad thing.

There are a few verticals/scenarios where PMax isn’t usable (specifically, if it is “remarketing only” audiences or legal compliance restrictions).

You will likely be comfortable with the results, but uncomfortable with the method. You aren’t alone; this is a continuously evolving ad unit.

While you’re at it, especially in Google, don’t sleep on Demand Gen; it’s basically a PMax “lite.”

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