If you’re running Performance Max, or planning to launch a new campaign, I want to clear up one of the most misunderstood parts of Google Ads: audience signals and search themes. Understanding how to use (and not misuse) signals can strongly impact your PMax success.
Why Performance Max is different than other Google Ads campaign types
If you stop reading here and take nothing else away from this article, remember this: You do not get to pick your audience or keyword targeting in PMax.
This is where a lot of advertisers get tripped up.
Unlike traditional Search campaigns where you build a keyword list, or Demand Gen where you choose specific demographics or interest-based audiences, or Display/Video where you can pick exact content placements – PMax is purely a goal-based campaign. Its primary directive is to achieve your conversion goal. That means your conversion tracking and your bid strategy are what actually determine who sees your ads.
“Under the hood” of Performance Max, optimized targeting and dynamic search technology decide who will see your ads, based on how likely Google thinks they are to help you achieve your goals.
You can provide the AI with a starting set of directions or “suggestions” via audience signals and search themes. If the AI likes your suggestions, it will follow them. And if it doesn’t, it will ignore them.
Audience signals vs. audience targeting
What really happens when you add audience signals to an asset group in your PMax campaign? You’re giving the AI a hint about who your ideal customer might be. Or to use Google’s words, you’re combining your expertise with Google’s AI.
Within the Google Ads interface, these audience signals look exactly like audience targeting. Your Performance Max audience signals can include:
- Your Data Segments: Customer lists (Customer Match), YouTube viewers, website visitors, etc.
- Google Segments: In-market, affinity, detailed demographic, or life events.
- Custom Segments: Based on interests, websites or apps.
The key thing to remember is that these are just signals. The AI takes your suggestions, but it’s not restricted to them.
For example, let’s say you give your PMax campaign the affinity segment “luxury shoppers” as an audience signal, because you sell high-end products. If the AI, over time, sees that the affinity segment “value shoppers” actually click through your ads and convert at a better rate, it
prioritize serving ads to those value shoppers rather than luxury shoppers. The AI will go where the conversions are, regardless of your initial signal. This is why conversion tracking is paramount.
Contrast that with a Demand Gen campaign. If you add the affinity segment “luxury shoppers” to Demand Gen, and optimized targeting is turned off, you will only show ads to users who match the luxury shoppers segment – even if it doesn’t convert well. If you use the Maximize…
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