PPC | GOOGLE ADS | PERFORMANCE MAX | The State Of Performance Max: How To Optimize Google Ads In 2025

Article by Menachem Ani

In the beginning, there was only Search. Then Google said, “Let there be Shopping.” And so began the golden age of search advertising.

Fast forward, and machines now perform the more granular and recurring optimizations at scale that we had to manually.

Algorithmic campaigns like Performance Max have become Google’s golden goose. They claim that in the near future, businesses will be able to input their goals and information, and Google’s system will run its advertising program for them.

Agencies and marketers have naturally pushed back, claiming that Google wants to put them out of business when they’re still needed. Some even say that machine learning isn’t necessary when brilliant human minds are on the job.

The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.

Performance Max isn’t going anywhere, and neither are agencies and marketers. And if you plan to manage Google Ads this year, you will need to accept both sides of that coin.

So, with some very welcome changes from Google behind us, here’s the state of Performance Max and what I envision for it going forward.

Why Does Performance Max Have A Negative Reputation?

PPC marketers have many complaints about Performance Max. Some are valid, and others feel unfair.

The inability to see most of your keyword data is one of the reasons I hear the most.

The introduction of search categories is welcome, but they are not necessarily the keyword a user searched for.

You can expand the category somewhat and get an idea of intent, but it’s not a one-to-one deal like seeing the actual query.

And while longtime advertisers are accustomed to seeing every search term, the reality is that Google has been removing more and more data for years, all in the name of privacy.

This limited and unclean data around what people search for – what we’re used to seeing in the search terms report – is a valid frustration, especially when budgets are limited, or the pressure to deliver is particularly high.

There are improvements to take note of, though.

By default, the system shows seven days, and you can go back to the last 28 days. Google has also added the ability to look at longer time frames for search terms.

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