Google has rolled out a series of Performance Max updates in 2025. For those who've been working with Performance Max for a while, you know it was long considered a "black box." That's changing now. Advertisers and specialists are getting more insight into what's happening under the hood.
In this article, we'll cover all the new features and - more importantly - how to use them for better results.
January: Negative keywords available
Campaign-level negative keywords are now available for all advertisers. This was a major pain point for a long time - you simply couldn't exclude where your ads appeared.
Image courtesy of Google and Nils Rooijmans
Why this matters
One of our clients in sporting goods saw an immediate 15% cost reduction by adding "free" and "used" as negative keywords. Performance Max was showing up for "free sneakers" searches - unprofitable.
High value customer targeting: Focus on valuable customers
Google AI now predicts which new visitors are worth the most to your business. Through Customer Match, you upload data from your best customers, and Google finds lookalikes.
Real-world example
An online furniture store uploads data from customers who make multiple purchases. Google AI now bids more aggressively on prospects similar to these loyal customers. Result: 23% higher Customer Lifetime Value.
Retail-specific improvements
Brand Exclusions Per Format
You can now apply brand exclusions to Search text ads while still running Shopping ads for brand searches.
"URL Contains" Rules
Perfect for ecommerce sites with many categories. Target specifically on pages with "women-shoes" or "laptops" in the URL.
April-May: Channel performance reporting - The end of the black box
For the first time, you can see exactly how your Performance Max campaign performs per channel:
- Search
- YouTube
- Discover
- Gmail
- Display Network
- Search partners
- Maps
Why this is important
One of our clients discovered that 40% of their conversions came through YouTube, while they hadn't created any video assets for it. After adding product-focused videos, their total ROAS increased by 31%.
Diagnostics: Google tells you what’s going wrong
Image courtesy of Google and Frederick Vallaeys
The system now provides concrete improvement points.
Here are some examples:
- Not visible on Maps? Add store locations
- Few impressions on Search? Your landing pages might not be relevant enough for the search queries
Asset-level insights: Finally see which creatives work
New metrics per asset:
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Cost
- Conversion value per cost
- Average CPC
Practical example
We discovered at a clothing ecommerce site that lifestyle photos performed 3x better than product photos on white backgrounds. By adding more lifestyle imagery, their CTR improved by 28%.
Improved search themes: See if they actually generate incremental traffic
Google now shows a "usefulness" indicator. This shows whether your search themes actually generate extra traffic, or if Performance Max would find those keywords anyway.
Advice: Test different search themes and monitor the indicator. Replace themes with low usefulness scores.
Beta Features for early adopters
Google has also released beta features that you might be able to test out. If you're interested in signing up then you can contact your Google Ads account team or the Google Ads support team to request access.
Demographic Exclusions
You can exclude specific age groups. This is perfect for advertisers with age-specific products.
Device Targeting
You can target specifically on desktop, mobile, or tablet. This is useful when you know certain products convert better on specific devices.
Concrete implementation tips
Interesting in testing out these features that have been released in 2025? Follow these steps to apply the new Performance Max updates to your campaigns.
- Start with negative keywords
- First analyze your Search Terms report
- Add irrelevant search terms as negative keywords
- Monitor weekly for new irrelevant terms
- Use channel performance strategically
- Identify your best performing channels
- Create assets specifically for those channels
- Shift budgets to channels with highest ROAS
- Optimize assets based on data
- Analyze which asset types perform best
- Create more variants of successful assets
- Remove or replace poorly performing assets
ROAS Impact: What can you expect?
Based on our client data, here are the kind of improvements you can expect to see:
- Average 18% ROAS improvement after implementing new features
- 25% reduction in wasted ad spend through negative keywords
- 34% better asset performance through data-driven optimization
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Are these features free? A: Yes, all updates are freely available for Performance Max advertisers.
Q: Do I need to do anything to get access? A: Most features roll out automatically. For beta features, you can request access through your account manager.
Q: Does this work for smaller accounts too? A: Yes. We actually see the biggest impact with smaller accounts because they previously had fewer optimization options.
Performance Max vs Standard Shopping: still relevant?
With these updates, Performance Max becomes more transparent. However, we still recommend testing both campaign types in parallel. Standard Shopping still gives you more granular control at the keyword level.
The ROAS and volume balance challenge remains
Even with these improvements, the challenge persists: higher ROAS often means lower volume. The new channel insights do help manage this balance better by shifting budget to channels with the best ROI.
Bottom Line: Why you need to implement these updates now
Performance Max has evolved from "black box" to a tool with more transparency. The combination of AI power and advertiser control makes it perfect for ecommerce advertisers who want both scale and profitability.
Next steps:
- Implement negative keywords based on your search terms
- Analyze your channel performance data
- Optimize assets based on new metrics
- Test search themes with focus on usefulness indicator