How to set up a Performance Max campaign.

01

Start with a Search Campaign

Before launching a Performance Max campaign, run a Search campaign to gather valuable data. This includes:

You'll use this data to build your audience signals and exclude poor-performing terms.

02

Create a New Performance Max Campaign

In Google Ads:

• Click + New Campaign
• Choose your goal (e.g. Leads)
• Select Performance Max
• Link your website URL
• Name your campaign clearly

03

Set Conversion Goals

Choose your primary conversion action — for most service businesses, this will be a form fill or phone call.

04

Customer Acquisition Settings

Tick "Bid for new customers only" if you want this campaign to target prospects, not repeat users. This helps avoid overlap with your Search campaigns.

05

URL & Asset Expansion Settings

Enable:

• Text asset automation to pull content from your website
• Final URL expansion so Google can choose the best page for each user

Then, click "Advanced Settings" and exclude any irrelevant pages (e.g. blog posts, FAQs, or product categories you don't want to promote).

06

Exclude Brand Terms

To avoid wasting budget on branded traffic you'd get anyway, exclude:

Do this using the Campaign-Level Brand Exclusions tool.

07

Ad Scheduling & Audience Signals

• Set ad scheduling — for service businesses, you may want to run only during business hours
• Add audience signals to help guide the algorithm, such as in-market segments, custom segments based on keywords, and remarketing audiences (site visitors, lead form abandoners)

08

Create Asset Groups

Each Asset Group is like an Ad Group — focus each one on a specific service or product category. Include:

09

Set Budget & Launch

Start with at least £10/day and monitor closely. Don't enable tCPA or tROAS until you've got enough data — give the campaign a few weeks to learn. Fix any setup errors (e.g. audience list not applied), and once everything looks good, hit Publish.