Performance Max (aka PMax) is a Google Ads campaign type that was officially launched for all advertisers in November 2021.
A few months later, in 2022, existing Smart Shopping and Local campaigns were auto upgraded to PMax.
The launch of PMax marked a major shift in the world of PPC advertising.
Until that point, advertisers had to choose between various campaign types to form their Google advertising strategy, including:
- Search – aka Text ads
- Display – Banner ads served on Google Display Network websites and apps
- Shopping – Product listings that serve on Google Shopping and search
- Video – aka YouTube ads
- Smart Campaigns – Smart shopping was sunsetted by PMax, smart display
What made Performance Max such a significant milestone was that it consolidated multiple ad networks (and campaign types) into one unified solution.
Over time, Google’s rhetoric shifted, from expanding automated bidding, encouraging Smart Campaign adoption, and promoting broader match types, to rolling all activity into PMax.
This triggered a snowball effect as teams grappled with the loss of control that came with adopting PMax, the challenges of running it alongside other campaigns, and the fear of missing out if they didn’t use it.
Fast forward to 2025, and opinions on PMax are becoming increasingly polarised.
One quick scroll through LinkedIn and you’ll see this campaign type discussed as black-and-white and the debate framed as for-or-against instead of being approached on a case by case basis rooted in solid PPC strategy.
Where exactly did the divide start with Performance Max?
There’s two sides to the changes that shook up the traditional way of working and both feed into the narrative we hear today:
Tactical
- Control – Targeting, bidding and placements are handed off to Google’s AI.
- Measurement – Granular insights restricted, a backbone of the PPC industry.
- Optimisation – Limited options for fine tuning performance and segmentation.
Strategic
- Reporting – Cross network reports lack depth and it can be hard to build a narrative.
- Scale – With minimal control advertisers can struggle to scale.
- Transparency – Advertisers left in the dark about how and where budgets are spent.
Given the magnitude of these changes, it’s not hard to see why some advertisers approached these campaigns with caution.
Then when you take these, plus the most important word in PPC for me, context, it begins to paint a picture of how opinions are formed.
Another contributing factor is the varying willingness to adapt to change.
A long time before PMax in 1962 sociologist Everett Rogers created a framework that looked to explain how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology spread.
Part of this included ‘adopter categories’ which group together individuals based on their propensity to adopt to change alongside the proportion of the total population that falls into each category:
- Innovators (2.5%) – Earliest to get going on PMax, eager to stay ahead of the curve.
- Early adopters (13.5%) – Opinion leaders who evaluate, share knowledge, guide others decisions and start early.
- Early majority (34%) – Deliberate before committing, seeking assurance from innovators and early adopters, likely waited for the non-Google case studies to surface.
- Late majority (34%) – Adopt new PPC developments late once the majority of the population has done so, need a lot of reassurance and remain skeptical.
- Laggards (16%) – PPC traditionalists who resist change and only do so when they have no other option.
I’ve worked with teams that span nearly all of these adopter categories, and in the context of PPC, whether in-house or within a Google Ads agency, there’s no right or wrong group to fall into. But where decision-makers sit on the adoption curve absolutely shapes the divide we’re seeing in 2025 and the PPC content we consume in our day to day lives and online.
There are other factors too, like agencies or practitioners taking an anti-PMax stance to differentiate themselves, or brands holding back due to strict brand guidelines that the campaign format struggles to meet (think luxury brands and auto-generated video assets). But ultimately, it wasn’t just the technical changes, it was the shift in control, the pace of change, and how the PPC world responded to both.
Is being for-or-against PMax the right stance to take?
In my opinion, no.
It’s down to context:
- Business objectives
- Availability of resource
- Personal experiences
- Data requirements
Take a lean DTC fashion startup with limited resources looking to drive sales and reach, PMax might be a perfect fit. They’re not aiming to rapidly scale media spend, and their data requirements are fairly simple.
Another example could be a PPC team managing several accounts within a small independent agency. Some accounts may benefit greatly from PMax, while others may not.
One client might require heavy segmentation, query funneling, and detailed reporting, whereas another may have tested PMax, seen better results and fully adopted it as their go-to campaign type.
Over the last 15 years working for both global agencies and running my own PPC agency, I’ve managed multi-million dollar PPC accounts that fully adopt PMax, but also have consulted with start-ups where it’s not quite the right fit, debunking the thought that PMax is only for smaller budgets.
There are clear nuances with PMax that every advertiser must consider, such as brand bidding or the use of auto-generated assets, but a blanket yes or no requires more consideration.
How should advertisers approach PMax in 2025?
If there’s one takeaway from the last few years of PMax discourse, it’s that polarised thinking doesn’t help performance.
The bottom line is that whatever role you are in within PPC, the campaigns you are managing will be working towards an overarching KPI, whether sales, leads, traffic, etc.
PMax isn’t inherently good or bad.
Advertisers should move beyond the for-or-against mindset and instead ask better questions:
- What are we trying to achieve, and can PMax support that objective?
- Are we set up to measure the right outcomes, or are we chasing the wrong signals?
- How does this campaign type fit into our broader media mix and where does it not?
- Have we tested PMax vs other campaign types in a controlled environment?
There are still valid concerns about transparency, control and brand safety, and those need to be factored into any decision.
But at the same time, ignoring the potential performance gains that PMax could unlock would be shortsighted.
The best approach as always is to test, validate and question, not to write it off blindly.
And as much as it’s a great sales hook for agencies, there’s just more to it.
Curiosity, not certainty.
