Upgrade to Performance Max

  • Use existing advertising knowledge and current campaigns to help set up Performance Max campaigns.

  • Upgrading to Performance Max can unlock new audiences, drive better performance, provide transparent insights, allow steering automation, and simplify campaign management.

  • The upgrade process involves steps like identifying eligible campaigns, checking requirements, creating a Performance Max campaign based on an existing one, enhancing it, comparing performance, and finalizing the campaign.

  • There are different options for managing your upgrade, including assisted workflows, fully-automated upgrades for certain campaigns, and manual upgrades.

When getting started with Performance Max, you can use existing knowledge and information from your current advertising to assist in setting up new Performance Max campaigns. If you already manage campaigns using the Google Ads API, you may be able to use your existing campaigns, depending on the campaign type, to help you configure a Performance Max campaign rather than create a new campaign from scratch. This guide covers the available options to help you plan your upgrade to Performance Max.

Upgrade paths by campaign and feature

The following table summarizes active and completed Performance Max upgrade workflows in the Google Ads API:

Scenario Upgrade method API mechanism and guide
Brand guidelines on existing Performance Max campaigns Automatic or manual API migration Check campaign.brand_guidelines_enabled and call CampaignService.EnablePMaxBrandGuidelines to migrate campaign-level BUSINESS_NAME and LOGO assets. See Brand guidelines migration.
Retail & Standard Shopping campaigns Manual or assisted creation Configure campaign.shopping_setting with your Merchant Center merchant_id and partition products using AssetGroupListingGroupFilter. See Performance Max for retail.
Vehicle listing campaigns Automatic upgrade (existing) / API creation (new) Existing vehicle campaigns were automatically upgraded. For new campaigns, set campaign.listing_type to VEHICLES. See Vehicle campaigns.
Local Services campaigns (GLS PMax) API creation (starting in v26) Set campaign.pmax_campaign_settings.local_services_enabled to true along with country_code and listing_id in local_services_pmax_campaign_settings. See Local Services Performance Max campaigns.
Smart Shopping & Local campaigns Completed automatic migration Automatically upgraded to Performance Max. Manage upgraded campaigns using standard Performance Max workflows.

Audit existing campaigns for upgrade

Use GoogleAdsService.SearchStream with the following query to inspect your existing campaigns, check whether Performance Max brand guidelines are enabled, and identify retail, vehicle, or Local Services Performance Max settings:

SELECT
  campaign.id,
  campaign.name,
  campaign.status,
  campaign.advertising_channel_type,
  campaign.bidding_strategy_type,
  campaign.brand_guidelines_enabled,
  campaign.listing_type,
  campaign.shopping_setting.merchant_id,
  campaign.pmax_campaign_settings.local_services_enabled
FROM campaign
WHERE campaign.status != 'REMOVED'

Reasons to upgrade

Here are a few reasons to upgrade to Performance Max:

  • Unlock new audiences across Google's channels and networks
  • Drive better performance against your goals
  • Get more transparent insights
  • Steer automation with your campaign inputs
  • Simplify campaign management and optimize your ads

You can find more information about Performance Max in the About Performance Max campaigns article.

Steps to upgrade

The steps to upgrade broadly involve the following:

  1. Identify which existing campaigns can be upgraded to Performance Max
  2. Check the requirements and eligibility
  3. Create a Performance Max campaign based on an existing campaign
  4. Enhance the campaign for Performance Max
  5. Compare and optimize campaign performance
  6. Finalize the Performance Max campaign

Each step can differ depending on the upgrade route. For more details on each step, check out the respective sections of the upgrade eligibility guide.

Manage your upgrade

Teams at Google have developed processes to help you understand how and when to upgrade as well as tools to help you provide input to assisted upgrades. Depending on how many accounts and campaigns you would like to upgrade, there are different options you should consider:

Assisted
You are provided with an assisted workflow to help you upgrade a campaign. By providing a few inputs, Google is able to create the campaign and help you measure its performance before finalizing the process.
Fully-automated
Certain campaigns will be upgraded to Performance Max automatically by Google. You should understand which campaigns this applies to, when this is due to happen, and what actions (if any) you will need to take.
Manual
You want to expand your reach by adding Performance Max to your portfolio of campaigns. You can choose when and how this happens and how you will measure the success of this campaign compared to your other campaigns. With this option, make sure you understand how the assisted and fully-automated options might affect your plan.

These options depend on the campaign you are planning to upgrade. For more details, see the upgrade eligibility guide.

Next
Check upgrade eligibility