A common critique of Performance Max campaigns (and many of the advertising updates from Google over the last decade, to be honest) is that they’re not well suited for generating leads. However, with recent PMax advancements, this is no longer the case.
Since the launch of Performance Max, there have been tons of updates to make generating leads easier using this particular campaign type. However, it’s still not a “set it and forget it” lead gen strategy. You’ll have to find ways to consistently optimize your PMax campaign so that it can acquire as many leads as possible.
Plus, in my opinion, it’s a good strategy to find ways Performance Max can work for you and your business because it’s never guaranteed that the other campaign options will continue to stick around.
So with that, let’s talk about the strategies you can use to make PMax impactful for lead generation.
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5 ways to optimize your Google Ads PMax campaigns for lead generation
Here’s how you can leverage different features within Google Ads Performance Max campaigns for maximized lead generation.
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1. Use a full(er) funnel approach to conversion tracking
We’re going to start at the most foundational part of a campaign in Google Ads: the campaign objectives and goals.
The biggest challenge I’ve seen with PMax campaigns for lead gen is that they can definitely generate leads. The problem is that some of the leads are straight up crap.
While it’s true that you’ll need to technically generate leads with PMax to build a funnel, it’s a simple but important distinction to make the goal of the campaign something other than those form fills that correlate with leads.
The better approach is to set your PMax campaigns to optimize for a qualified lead, or some other action that’s further down the funnel than the initial lead itself.
To do this, you’ll need to use some combination of enhanced conversions and offline conversion imports from your CRM.
This process can be a bit finicky to set up, but it will really pay off in the end. The outcome will be a Performance Max campaign that uses Google Ads’ machine learning to generate qualified leads for your business.
2. Use audience signals that match the buyer funnel
Similar to choosing a performance goal that’s further down the funnel, we can also leverage audience signals that are further down the funnel.
With Performance Max campaigns, Google will start by targeting the audiences you provide it, then extend beyond those lists once it feels like it has a good understanding of your target audience and can find similar users who are likely to complete your given campaign goal.
To help them find higher-quality users who are more likely to convert on your down funnel actions, you should give it as qualified an audience as possible. Website visitors and lead form submissions aren’t enough.
Use your customer lists, qualified form fills, opportunities, and lost contracts. Yes, even lost contracts are qualified. They got all the way to the final stages of your sales cycle, so my guess is you wouldn’t mind having more of them.
Although there are lots of options you can choose from in the preset Google audiences like In-Market, Life Events, and Detailed Demographics, for the most part, I find these to be too broad for lead gen companies trying to drive high-quality leads. Like most things Google develops, they can be excellent for ecommerce, but lead gen is just a different beast. I’d recommend sticking to your own audiences with PMax.
3. Leverage search themes based on buyer behavior
Search themes operate similarly to keywords in search, but not exactly the same. They help guide Google to certain themes your audience may search. They have the same prioritization as phrase and broad match terms in Search campaigns, but will be outranked by your exact match keywords.
For this reason, have a robust search account set up with exact match terms in place. Not just phrase and broad, even though Google prefers them. Let your Search campaigns tackle the exact match versions of your keywords, even if it will be to the detriment of PMax performance.
Instead, use PMax to find incremental conversions (remember, those high-quality, bottom-funnel conversions).
To do this with search themes, create tightly themed asset groups, just like you would with keywords in search. Too often, advertisers will throw all their high-volume keywords into a single asset group, no themes included, and hope for the best.
With tightly themed groups, you’ll have a narrower focus for Google to go off of and have a better chance of finding the right type of users when they’re in the right state of mind.
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4. Use negative keywords to exclude low-quality users
Google didn’t have negative keywords in the initial version of PMax. Since then, they’ve slowly rolled out increasing options for negative keywords. As of early 2025, advertisers now have the ability to add up to 1,000 negative keywords at the campaign level to a PMax campaign, giving quite a bit of control over which search terms you show for.
To generate high-quality leads with PMax, there’s a simple rule: take full advantage of your negative keywords. This includes all of the regular, foundational negatives you likely have in your existing Search campaigns (read: the ones that are irrelevant to your business), but it also should include relevant, but lower quality queries. Make sure you’re focusing on the users with high intent and excluding those who are just window shoppers.
5. Treat asset groups like personas on LinkedIn or Meta
PMax campaigns operate similarly to a social media campaign in that they have a broad network reach, and each asset group houses a different set of audiences and contextual targets. Put that structure to work, similar to how you would in LinkedIn or Meta Ads.
Use each asset group as a different persona: have the proper audience signals that align with those users, layer in any specific demographics or interests that match, include the proper search themes they would be looking for (make a couple asset groups to target drastically different search themes if you need to), and tailor the creative assets to the messaging that would resonate best with this specific persona.
If need be, you can use Google’s AI tools to help you develop creative assets based on your website. There have been some great advancements in how this works, and it can help you better tailor your asset groups to each persona without taxing your design department too heavily. There’s even a portion for brand guidelines below where you can control your logos, color schemes, and more.
Turn your Performance Max campaign into a lead-generating powerhouse
While high-quality lead generation can be tough with Performance Max right out of the box, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There are plenty of tools and strategies available for you to leverage Google’s machine learning while also finding users who are a good match for your company, not just more empty form fills. For more help finding, converting, and nurturing leads for your business, see how our solutions can maximize your PMax strategy.
