Performance Max (PMax) maximizes what?

Here’s an important question in current PPC days:

What does PMax maximize, exactly?

You go first. I’ll let you answer and then I’ll give my take.

You think: “Profits?”

My take: No.

You: “Revenue?”

Me: No.

“Conversions?”

Nope.

“Clicks?”

Nope again.

It’s Spend.

PMax is designed to make Google money. BIG money. And thus, it maximizes your spend.

Now, don’t get me wrong — it won’t spend without returns. That would be foolish. Advertisers like you and me would jump ship and thus total ad spend would tank.

However, here’s the thing: PMax will spend as much as it can, as long as we think it delivers a decent return.

It is your job to judge this return, NOT Google’s. 

If that’s true, how should we think about enhanced conversions, consent modeling, data-driven attribution, and the likes?

– Nils

Author: Nils Rooijmans

Google Ads Performance Architect with a passion for PPC Automation & AI, in particular via Google Ads Scripts.