Paid search guide 14
Performance Max, AI Max for Search, and Smart campaigns let Google choose more of the searches, placements, ad text, and landing pages for you. That can find extra customers, but it also spends where you might not have chosen. Use them only after conversion tracking counts real leads, and check the search terms and channel reports regularly.
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Why this matters
Performance Max is a single campaign that can show ads across Search, Maps, YouTube, Display, Discover, and Gmail. It doesn't need keywords; it uses your assets, audience signals, and optional search themes. AI Max for Search is a setting inside a Search campaign that can match searches beyond your keywords, adjust ad text from your ads and site, and send people to a different page on your site (final URL expansion). Smart campaigns are a simplified type that builds ads from your business details and keyword themes. Google is also moving Local Services Ads into Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals.
These types give Google more room to decide. Google now offers a search terms report and channel performance reporting for Performance Max, campaign-level negative keywords, and brand exclusions. Search campaigns with an exact-match keyword generally take priority over Performance Max for that search. Even so, you see less and steer less than in a standard Search campaign, and automated campaigns can pick up searches for your own business name that people would have found anyway.
Responsible practices
Automated bidding learns from your primary conversions. If those include button taps or page views, the campaign will chase them. Make a delivered form, a qualified call, or an imported booked job the primary action before automating.
Performance Max chooses channels, placements, and searches. AI Max can widen search matching, rewrite ad text, and swap landing pages within your site. Smart campaigns build ads from your business information and show across Search, Maps, and partner sites. Read each type's help page before turning it on.
Add negative keywords at the campaign or account level. Use brand exclusions if you don't want to pay for searches of your own name. In AI Max, you can exclude URLs and set brand and location controls. Keep location settings matched to where you work.
People searching your business name would often find you anyway. If an automated campaign's results are mostly brand searches, the numbers may look better than the new business it brings. Check the search terms report and compare with a brand-excluded view.
In Performance Max, check channel performance to see how much went to Search, Maps, YouTube, and Display. Review search terms and add negatives just as you would for Search. For AI Max, review which searches and landing pages came from its expanded matching.
They fit best once you have reliable tracking, a steady flow of real conversions, and time to review reports. With few conversions, a tight budget, or a narrow service area, a focused Search campaign is usually easier to control and learn from.
Automation review
Confirm your primary conversions are real leads, not taps or page views.
Write down what you want the automated campaign to add beyond your Search campaigns.
Add brand exclusions if you don't want to pay for your own business name.
Add negative keywords for services and areas you don't want.
Check location settings match where you work.
Review the search terms and channel reports every week at first.
Compare cost per qualified lead with your Search campaigns before expanding.
Avoid these failures
Auctions, demand, clicks, conversion volume, lead quality, acquisition cost, booked work, margin, and revenue depend on factors outside any provider's control. Results are not guaranteed.
Questions business owners ask
Sometimes, once tracking counts real leads and there's enough conversion volume for the system to learn. With a small budget or few conversions, a focused Search campaign is usually easier to control. Test it with a limited budget and compare cost per qualified lead.
A setting in Search campaigns that uses Google's AI to match more searches than your keywords alone, customize ad text, and choose the landing page on your site. You can exclude URLs and set brand controls. Review its search terms and landing pages like any other change.
A simplified campaign type for small businesses. You enter keyword themes, a budget, and business details, and Google builds and places the ads across Search, Maps, and partner sites. Control and reporting are more limited than standard Search campaigns.
More than before. Google offers channel performance reporting and a search terms report for Performance Max, and you can add negative keywords. You still steer it less than a standard Search campaign.
Primary guidance
Decide how much to automate