Performance Max on Microsoft Advertising

Search ads are built around keywords and search intent. Performance Max uses your goals, assets, audience signals, conversion data, and automated bidding to optimize across multiple ad formats and placements. It is designed to find conversion opportunities across Microsoft inventory, not only on search results pages.

Performance Max is a campaign type for cross-channel, AI-powered optimization across Microsoft Advertising inventory. AI Max is different. AI Max is an opt-in set of AI features for Search campaigns that can help with expanded query matching, asset personalization, and URL routing. In simple terms, Performance Max is a campaign type. AI Max enhances Search campaigns.

Use Performance Max when you want one campaign to optimize across multiple Microsoft Advertising placements and formats. Use AI Max when you want to improve existing or new Search campaigns with more AI-powered query matching, asset personalization, and landing page routing. Many advertisers may eventually use both, depending on their goals.

Before launching, set up Universal Event Tracking, choose meaningful conversion goals, prepare strong text and image assets, define your budget, and add audience signals. Performance Max works best when it has clear goals and enough conversion data to learn from.

Universal Event Tracking, or UET, helps Microsoft Advertising understand what people do after they interact with your ads. It supports conversion tracking, audience targeting, remarketing, and automated bidding. For Performance Max, UET gives Microsoft AI the signals it needs to optimize toward valuable customer actions.

Yes. Conversion goals tell Performance Max which actions matter most to your business, such as purchases, form fills, sign-ups, app downloads, or other key events. The campaign uses those goals to guide automated bidding and optimization.

Performance Max can work for advertisers that want to drive conversions and reach customers across multiple Microsoft Advertising placements. It can be useful for ecommerce, lead generation, travel, financial services, education, B2B, local services, and other businesses with clear conversion goals.

Performance Max does not use keywords the same way traditional Search campaigns do. Instead, it uses your goals, assets, audience signals, search themes, conversion data, and automated bidding to find relevant opportunities. You can also use negative keywords as a control to help guide where ads should not appear.

Audience signals help Performance Max understand which customers are most valuable to your business. They do not limit the campaign to only those people. Instead, they give Microsoft AI a stronger starting point for finding users who may be more likely to convert.

Search themes are signals that help Performance Max understand the types of searches, topics, products, or services that matter to your business. They are not the same as traditional keywords, but they can help guide the campaign toward more relevant search intent.

Performance Max uses automated bidding to help get the best results from your budget. Depending on your goal, you can optimize for conversions or conversion value. You can also use optional targets, such as a target CPA or target ROAS, when you have enough performance data and a clear efficiency goal.

If your account has limited conversion history, it may be better to launch without a strict target at first so the campaign can learn. After the campaign collects enough data, you can add a target CPA or target ROAS to guide efficiency. If you already have strong conversion volume and reliable values, a target may make sense earlier.

Performance Max needs a learning period. Give the campaign time to collect conversion data before making major changes. Frequent budget, bid, goal, or asset changes can reset learning or make performance harder to evaluate.

Add a variety of high-quality headlines, descriptions, images, logos, final URLs, and other eligible assets. More complete asset groups give Microsoft AI more options to assemble relevant ads for different placements and customer intents.

Yes. Microsoft Advertising can use AI to recommend or generate creative assets based on your inputs and website. Advertisers should still review assets for accuracy, brand fit, compliance, and landing page relevance before relying on them at scale.

Use conversion tracking, UET, reporting, and campaign performance metrics to evaluate results. Review conversions, conversion value, CPA, ROAS, spend, clicks, impressions, landing page performance, search term insights, and placement reporting where available.

Advanced advertisers should improve UET coverage, use high-quality conversion goals, assign accurate conversion values, test creative assets, review search term and placement reporting, add negative keywords where appropriate, refresh audience signals, and give automated bidding enough time to learn before making major changes.

Yes. Microsoft Advertising supports importing eligible Performance Max campaign elements from Google Ads. After import, review campaign settings, budgets, bidding, asset groups, images, logos, final URLs, search themes, tracking, and conversion goals. Imports can save time, but every imported campaign should still be checked before launch.