---
name: performance-max-shopping
description: "Set up and improve Performance Max and Standard Shopping: Merchant Center feed quality and custom labels, revenue, profit and new-customer goals, structure by margin and category, asset groups with search themes and audience signals, brand exclusions, negative keywords and placement and customer exclusions, channel-level reporting, and experiments against Standard Shopping and Search. Use whenever someone asks about Performance Max, PMax, Google Shopping ads, Merchant Center feeds, product titles for ads, PMax brand cannibalisation, channel reporting or new-customer acquisition goals."
license: CC-BY-4.0
metadata:
  author: Afeez Adebayo
  author_url: https://afeezadebayo.com
  author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
  author_x: https://x.com/za_icon
  source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/marketing/performance-marketing/performance-max-shopping/
  category: marketing
  subcategory: performance-marketing
  version: "1.0.0"
  created: "2026-10-10"
  updated: "2026-10-10"
---

# Performance Max and Shopping

Performance Max (PMax) runs one campaign across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, with Google's AI choosing placements, audiences and bids. For years it was a black box. That has changed: Google added channel-level performance reporting (rolling out from late 2025, with data from June 2025 onward), campaign-level negative keywords, brand exclusions and experiments. [Reported from Google Ads announcements] The levers are back; using them well is the job.

This skill sets up, audits and improves Performance Max and Standard Shopping for e-commerce and lead generation: feed quality, goals and values, asset groups, signals, exclusions, channel reporting, new-customer focus and tests against alternatives.

## Operating principles
1. **The feed is the campaign.** For retail, product titles, attributes, images, prices and availability decide where you show.
2. **Value-based goals.** Pass revenue or profit; use new-customer goals where acquisition matters.
3. **Exclude what you don't want to pay for:** brand traffic, existing customers (when goals are acquisition), poor placements, irrelevant queries.
4. **Read channel reports.** Know how much goes to Search, Shopping, YouTube and Display.
5. **Test against alternatives.** Standard Shopping, Search and Demand Gen can outperform PMax for some accounts.

## Feed essentials (Merchant Center)
| Attribute | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Title | Brand + product type + key attributes (size, colour, material, model) in the words shoppers search |
| Product type and Google category | Accurate and specific |
| Images | Clear main image on plain background; lifestyle images as additional |
| Price and availability | Match the landing page exactly, updated as often as they change |
| GTIN, brand, MPN | Present where they exist |
| Custom labels | Margin band, best-sellers, seasonality, stock level, for campaign splits |
| Shipping and returns | Set in Merchant Center for eligibility and trust |

## When to use, and when not to
Use it for retail and e-commerce advertisers with product feeds, lead-generation advertisers using PMax with offline values, when PMax spend looks opaque, when brand or existing customers dominate PMax results, and when deciding between PMax and Standard Shopping.

Don't use it for pure Search accounts (`google-search-ads`) or for overall budget allocation (`media-planning-budgeting`).

## Inputs to ask for, in one message
1. Merchant Center diagnostics and feed export.
2. PMax and Shopping campaign exports including asset groups, channel performance, search term insights and placements.
3. Conversion goals, values and new-customer settings.
4. Margins by product or category; custom label structure.
5. Customer lists for exclusions or new-customer goals.

## Workflow

### Step 1. Fix the feed
Resolve disapprovals and warnings; rewrite titles for top products; add missing attributes; set custom labels for margin and performance.

### Step 2. Set goals and values
Revenue or profit values; new-customer acquisition goal (bid higher for new customers or new customers only) where the business wants growth; check conversion duplicates.

### Step 3. Structure campaigns
Split by margin band, priority categories or markets using custom labels; avoid too many campaigns that thin out data.

### Step 4. Build asset groups
Group by theme or category, with relevant headlines, descriptions, images and videos; add search themes and audience signals (customer lists, website visitors, custom segments) as hints.

### Step 5. Add exclusions
Brand exclusions (when brand is covered elsewhere), negative keywords for irrelevant queries, placement exclusions, customer list exclusions for acquisition goals.

### Step 6. Read channel performance
Check spend and conversions by channel; question large Display or video spend with weak results; compare Search spend inside PMax with your Search campaigns.

### Step 7. Test
Use experiments: PMax versus Standard Shopping, PMax with and without brand, feed changes. Judge on profit and new customers.

### Step 8. Monitor
Weekly feed diagnostics, search term insights, channel reports, asset performance and new-customer share.

## Channel report questions
| Observation | Question | Possible action |
|---|---|---|
| Most spend on Search, mostly brand | Is PMax harvesting brand demand? | Brand exclusions; measure brand incrementality |
| High Display spend, low conversions | Are placements low quality? | Placement exclusions; asset review |
| YouTube spend with view-through credit | Is video adding sales? | Lift or geo test |
| Shopping strong, others weak | Would Standard Shopping do as well with more control? | Run an experiment |

## Custom label strategy
| Label | Values | Use |
|---|---|---|
| custom_label_0: margin | high, medium, low | Separate campaigns or ROAS targets by margin |
| custom_label_1: performance | hero, steady, zombie (no impressions in 30 days) | Give zombies their own budget to get exposure |
| custom_label_2: season | spring, summer, autumn, winter, evergreen | Shift budgets with the season |
| custom_label_3: stock | in-stock-deep, low-stock | Avoid pushing items about to sell out |
| custom_label_4: price band | under-25, 25-75, over-75 | Different targets for different order values |

## Title formula examples
| Category | Formula | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Apparel | Brand + gender + product + material + colour + size | Acme Women's Waterproof Running Jacket, Recycled Nylon, Navy, M |
| Electronics | Brand + product + model + key spec | Acme Wireless Headphones X200, Noise Cancelling, 40h Battery |
| Home | Brand + product + material + dimensions | Acme Oak Dining Table, 180 cm, Seats 6 |

## Experiment ideas
1. PMax versus Standard Shopping for a product subset, judged on profit.
2. PMax with brand exclusions versus without, judged on total brand-plus-non-brand profit.
3. New-customer acquisition goal on versus off, judged on new customers and payback.
4. Feed title rewrite for top products versus original (before/after with control products).
5. Asset groups by category versus by audience theme.

## Weekly checklist
- Merchant Center disapprovals and price mismatches.
- Channel performance shifts by spend and conversions.
- Search term insights for irrelevant themes (add negatives).
- Asset group and asset performance.
- Share of conversions from new customers.
- Budget-limited campaigns that should scale.

## Edge cases and judgement calls
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Small catalogue, small budget | One or two campaigns; strong feed and assets; simple goals |
| Very large catalogue | Custom labels for margin and performance tiers; zombie products in their own campaign |
| Lead generation PMax | Only with offline qualified values; otherwise it finds cheap low-quality leads |
| Brand-heavy results | Brand exclusions plus separate brand Search campaign |
| Seasonality and promotions | Use seasonality adjustments for short, predictable conversion rate changes |

## Handoffs to related skills
- Tracking and values: `conversion-tracking-capi`
- Search campaigns alongside PMax: `google-search-ads`
- Customer lists and new-customer goals: `audience-first-party-data`
- Video and image assets: `ad-creative-testing`
- Incrementality: `incrementality-testing`
- Product data for AI shopping surfaces: the AEO & GEO `ai-commerce-product-visibility` skill

## Worked example
A homeware retailer put most of its Google budget into one PMax campaign with ROAS above target. Channel reporting showed a large share of spend going to Search, mostly brand queries, and customer list analysis showed many conversions were returning customers. The fix: brand exclusions with a separate brand Search campaign, a new-customer acquisition goal with a higher value for new customers, custom labels splitting high and low margin products, rewritten titles for the top 300 products and an experiment against Standard Shopping for low-margin lines. Reported ROAS fell, but new customers and contribution margin rose.

## Output format
```
# Performance Max and Shopping review: <account>, <date>
## Feed health and fixes
## Goals, values and new-customer settings
## Campaign and asset group structure
## Exclusions (brand, negatives, placements, customers)
## Channel performance findings
## Test plan and monitoring
```

## Common mistakes
- Weak feeds with generic titles.
- Letting PMax take credit for brand and existing customers.
- Ignoring channel reports.
- Too many campaigns with too little data each.
- Lead-gen PMax bidding on raw form fills.

## Questions to ask before you change campaigns
- Which products make money after ad costs?
- Does the business want new customers or total revenue?
- Is brand search covered elsewhere?

## Self-check before you answer
- Is the feed complete and accurate for top products?
- Are values and new-customer goals set correctly?
- Are brand, customers, placements and queries governed with exclusions?
- Are channel reports read and alternatives tested?

## Official documentation
- About Performance Max campaigns: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724817
- Merchant Center product data specification: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112
- Customer acquisition goal: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12080169

---
Created by Afeez Adebayo, Marketing, SEO & Growth Expert
Website: https://afeezadebayo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
X: https://x.com/za_icon
Source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/marketing/performance-marketing/performance-max-shopping/

Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may copy, share and adapt this skill, including for commercial use, as long as you credit Afeez Adebayo and link to the source URL above. Keep this notice in any copy or adapted version.