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- With Performance Max campaigns, you only pay for the performance that your ad gains
- Prices are dynamic, which means they can change based on a number of factors
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How much do Performance Max campaigns cost?
Performance Max campaigns serve across all ad channels, so the amount you pay depends on the ad formats serving in your campaign. You’ll only pay for the performance that your ad gains and there are no startup costs to create and run a Performance Max campaign.
This makes Performance Max campaigns a good option for most advertisers, because it’s easy to set up, serves across all channels, and automatically optimizes to maximize performance across all of Google Ads inventory.
How does Performance Max determine bids and allocate budget?- Google’s AI adjusts bids dynamically based on expected conversion probability and value. If a search is more likely to convert, the system may increase the bid.
- Historical data, user intent, audience signals, and advertiser-defined targets, like cost per action (CPA) or return on ad spend (ROAS), influence bidding.
- Performance Max automatically distributes the budget across channels like Search, Display, YouTube, Shopping, Discover, among others, based on where it predicts the highest return.
Billing in Performance Max works consistently with other campaign types based on where ads are served, for example:
- For ads on YouTube instream, we bill advertisers based on CPM.
- For image ads on the Discover Feed, YouTube home feed or watch next feed, we bill advertisers on clicks to the website.
- For ads on Gmail we'll bill an “engagement” on a teaser click to expand the ad. We don't charge advertisers for the secondary click to the website.
- For ads on Search, Shopping, and Display, we'll bill advertisers based on clicks.
- For ads on Maps, billing depends on your bidding strategy and format:
- If bidding to store visits or store sales: Maps Search uses click-based charging, and Promoted Pins use view-based charging.
- If bidding to Local Actions: All Maps formats use click-based charging.
The billing model is independent of the bidding strategy, Performance Max will always try to optimize for ROI.
Performance Max campaigns use real-time pricing, so ad costs change based on several factors:
- Payment basis: We base payment on ad performance with dynamic pricing.
- Dynamic prices: The price that you pay isn't fixed, Google uses the bid along with the ad’s quality and expected impact to determine ad rank.
- Channel-specific billing: Billing follows the same structure, with costs depending on ad placement, like CPM for YouTube Instream, clicks for Search, Shopping, and Discover, among others.
- Campaign-level evaluation: Evaluate Performance Max campaigns at the campaign level, since the system optimizes across channels based on conversion objectives.
- Placement reports: Use placement reports for brand safety, not performance evaluation.
Several factors influence Performance Max campaign prices, which are dynamic, including:
- How much competing advertisers in your area are spending
- How relevant your ad is to a person's Google search
- How likely a person's search will result in a sale
Learn more about Performance Max Pricing.
