Performance Max — surface checklist
Every Google surface PMax can serve into, what you control with assets vs. what Google decides, and where to look in reporting when delivery looks wrong.
What you actually control
PMax does not let you pick individual placements. You supply assets (text, images, video, logos), audience signals, and conversion goals — Google maps them to eligible surfaces. Treat this playbook as an inventory mental model, not a placement picker.
Surfaces to expect
Search (including Shopping modules), YouTube (in-stream, Shorts, in-feed), Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps/GBP variants commonly appear in PMax delivery. Use the Placements reference to see wireframes for each before auditing a creative mix.
Operator checks before scaling spend
Confirm video aspect ratios cover YouTube + Shorts, product feed quality for Shopping modules, and brand guidelines for Discover/Gmail. Pull placement breakdowns in Google Ads reporting — if a surface under-delivers, fix assets or exclusions before blaming the algorithm.
Related in Placements
Keep going
- Ad Placements — where ads actually showEvery paid surface — Search, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Maps, Display, Shopping, Meta family, TikTok — mapped to the campaign type that controls it.Open →
- Pulse — the paid media news feedAI-summarized headlines from Search Engine Land, Ahrefs, Semrush, PPC Hero, Google, Meta, TikTok, and the publications operators actually read. Updated daily.Open →
- Ad Specs — current dimensions, file weights, and aspect ratiosSearchable reference for current ad specs across every major paid platform. Monitored daily, sourced.Open →
- Policy Watch — paid media policy change trackerAdvertising policy changes across Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, Amazon and more. Sourced from official changelogs.Open →