Automation still needs oversight

Performance Max removes much of the day-to-day campaign management, but it's still important to review how campaigns are set up and where budget is being spent.

A regular audit helps identify missed optimisation opportunities before they impact performance.

1. Best practice campaign setup

Start by checking the settings that have the biggest impact.This includes:

• URL expansion and exclusion settings

• Brand exclusions

• Asset coverage and automatically created or edited (‘enhanced’) assets

• Campaign objectives and asset groups

Small configuration issues can significantly influence where your ads appear and how your budget is spent.

Squared.io tip: Squared.io automatically highlights common Performance Max setup issues, making it easy to identify campaigns that don't follow best practice.

2. Protect your brand

Performance Max can serve ads across a wide range of placements.

Initially applying account-level content suitability settings and brand exclusions before regularly reviewing placement exclusions helps reduce the risk of ads appearing alongside unsuitable content.

Where appropriate, exclusions should become part of your ongoing campaign governance rather than a one-off task.

Squared.io tip: Apply brand safety exclusions across individual accounts or entire account groups with automated rules, ensuring new campaigns inherit the same protections.

3. Review search queries regularly

Performance Max gives advertisers less visibility than standard Search campaigns, making it easy for irrelevant or overlapping queries to go unnoticed.

Review the search terms your campaigns are matching to and ask:

• Are irrelevant queries slipping through?

• Are valuable search terms missing from your Search campaigns?

• Are Performance Max and Search campaigns competing for the same queries?

Analysing common words and phrases (N-grams) can also help spot recurring themes that should be excluded or expanded.

Squared.io tip: Squared.io surfaces Performance Max search queries alongside Search campaigns, provides N-gram analysis across both campaign types, highlights query overlap, and lets teams apply negative keywords directly from the insights.

4. Improve underperforming assets

Google provides performance ratings for headlines, descriptions and other creative assets. Use these insights to:

• Replace "Low" performing assets.

• Test new messaging.

• Build on combinations already rated highly.

Small creative improvements can have a meaningful impact over time.

5. Check your Shopping feed

If your Performance Max campaign includes products, campaign performance depends on the quality of your Merchant Center feed. Look for:

• Product diagnostics

• Missing or incorrect categories

• Zero-click products

• Out-of-stock or discontinued items

These issues often reduce visibility long before they're obvious in campaign reporting.

Squared.io tip: By connecting Google Merchant Center, Squared.io surfaces feed issues, product disapprovals and zero-click products directly alongside Performance Max performance, helping teams quickly identify whether the campaign or the feed is limiting results.

6. Focus budget on what's performing

Automation doesn't always distribute spend efficiently. Review:

• Products with high spend but no recent conversions.

• Asset groups that consistently underperform.

• Campaigns limited by budget or reach.

Prioritising these opportunities helps ensure more of your budget is invested where it's delivering results.

How Squared.io helps

Squared.io continuously audits Performance Max campaigns for setup issues, brand safety gaps, underperforming assets and product feed health. By combining Google Ads with Merchant Center data, teams can quickly identify what's limiting performance, automate common fixes and spend less time manually reviewing campaigns.