What NOT to do when setting up PMax campaigns

A while back, I was having a talk with a brand owner about how they were running their PMax campaigns.

People think making sales from PMax is easy. You upload some assets, let the algorithm do its thing, and watch the sales roll in.

Not quite.

One of the toughest parts of these automated campaigns is controlling where your ads show up.

If you don't guide the algorithm toward the right audience, PMax will reach low-quality traffic and burn through your budget.

This brand had to learn that lesson the hard way.

When we audited their account, we found that 86% of their ad spend was going toward unprofitable traffic.

And we traced the waste back to 4 critical mistakes...

ONE

Their PMax campaign was converting branded traffic.

They were paying extra CPCs for people who were already searching for their brand name…

When in reality, they could have captured those same customers for a fraction of the price with a dedicated brand campaign.

TWO

They gave the algorithm no direction on who to target.

No customer lists, no audience signals, no search themes.

They basically handed Google a blank canvas and let the algorithm figure out their ideal customer through trial and error.

THREE

They never added negative keyword lists, so PMax was triggering their ads on irrelevant searches.

FOUR

They threw their entire catalog into one campaign.

The algorithm kept pushing spend toward products with terrible returns.

Meanwhile, the products that actually generated solid profit sat there starving for budget.

Now, you might think this brand just didn't know what they were doing.

But this isn't some rare case.

We've seen these exact issues across dozens of accounts over the past few months.

Too many brands see PMax as a black box where you can't see what's happening or measure whether it's actually working.

They never examine the quality of the traffic they're getting…

Or check whether those conversions actually contribute to their growth.

Because of this, they end up not getting the results that they’d hoped for.

Either they're profitable, but only because they're converting the easy branded searches…

Or worse, PMax never becomes profitable at all.

To fix this, you need a few key things in place:

• A campaign structure that keeps brand and non-brand traffic separate (we generally exclude branded terms from PMax campaigns).

• Customer lists so the algorithm can study what your real buyers look like

• Audience signals and search themes to guide the machine toward your ideal prospects.

• Negative keyword lists and placement exclusions to filter out the garbage traffic

• A regular schedule to review search terms, placements, and product performance so you can catch issues early.

PMax is a powerful tool that amplifies whatever direction you give it.

If you're a big brand, you probably still make money even when you “just let PMax find your best customers.”

But give it a few months…

You’ll realize you could’ve made millions more if someone had taken a closer look.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn

How we can help:

Get a free Google ads audit: For brands spending more than $20k/mo. or making over 1 million annually, we’ll identify the key bottlenecks in your account, and turn it into a free 90-day scaling plan. Click here.

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