Kick off 2025 with new Performance Max features – Google Resource
What’s New in Google Performance Max for 2025: Advanced Controls, Transparency & Reporting
In 2024, Google Ads introduced a powerful suite of Performance Max updates focused on giving advertisers more control and deeper insights. With Performance Max, you can harness the full power of Google’s AI and advertising channels in one unified campaign.
As we step into 2025, Google is doubling down on key improvements to help advertisers drive better results and gain greater transparency into what fuels campaign performance.
🚀 Start the Year Strong with New Performance Max Features
🎯 More Campaign Controls to Steer AI
Performance Max is now equipped with even more ways to refine and manage your campaign strategy:
- ✅ Campaign-level negative keywords – Now rolling out globally, this feature lets you exclude specific queries for better brand safety and relevance.
- 🆕 New customer acquisition goal with High Value Mode – Use your first-party data through Customer Match to target high-LTV prospects, helping Google AI bid smarter.
- 🛍️ Brand exclusions for Search vs. Shopping formats – Gain more flexibility in Retail campaigns by choosing where to apply brand exclusions.
- 🔗 “URL contains” rules – Now coming to campaigns with product feeds, allowing precise targeting by landing page paths (e.g., all URLs containing “/shoes”).
- 👥 Demographic exclusions (beta) – Exclude age ranges like “18-24” or “65+” to better align with your customer base.
- 📱 Device targeting (beta) – Fine-tune your campaigns by customizing ads for computers, tablets, or mobile devices.
To join the demographics or devices beta, contact your Google Ads Support or account manager.
📊 Smarter Insights with Enhanced Search Reporting
Reporting updates in 2025 make it easier than ever to understand how users are interacting with your ads:
- 🔎 Search themes (now out of beta) – Define keyword themes that signal intent and guide AI for better targeting.
- 📈 Search themes usefulness indicator – Shows how impactful your custom search themes are in driving performance.
- 📊 Search terms insights source column – Understand whether impressions came from keywordless AI targeting or your defined search themes.
- 📁 Improved asset group reporting – Get a clear breakdown of asset performance at the group level.
- 📥 Asset group segmentation and downloads – Export segmented data for deeper analysis and sharing.
Use the new source column in search terms insights to see where your queries are coming from
You’ll also find an indicator next to your search themes that tells you how “useful” your search themes are. These new reporting insights will help you understand if the search themes you provided are driving incremental traffic, on top of what Performance Max would find on its own, or whether you’d benefit from updating your search themes.
Check out the search themes usefulness indicator to see if they are helping you improve your reach
Improved asset group reporting
Google Ads continues to evolve Performance Max with features that put more power and transparency into advertisers’ hands. One of the latest and most-requested updates is now live — enhanced asset group reporting with deeper segmentation capabilities.
🔍 Segment & Analyze Asset Group Performance Like Never Before
Now rolling out across all Performance Max campaigns, you can break down asset group performance by key dimensions such as:
- 📱 Device type (mobile, desktop, tablet)
- 🕒 Time of day and day of week
- 🎯 Conversions and interactions by audience and asset combinations
This granular view gives marketers deeper insights into what’s driving performance within each asset group — perfect for data-driven optimization strategies.
📁 Export & Share Your Data with Ease
We heard you — navigating inside the Google Ads interface is helpful, but you also need the flexibility to analyze and share your performance data externally.
That’s why asset group reporting is now fully downloadable! Easily export your segmented reports to Google Sheets, Excel, or your favorite analytics tool to create custom dashboards, client reports, or performance reviews.
🌟 What’s Coming Next in Performance Max
Google Ads isn’t stopping here. Over the coming months, expect even more innovations across:
- 🎛️ Campaign controls
- 📊 Reporting enhancements
- 💡 AI-powered insights
Your voice continues to shape the future of Google Ads. The feedback from advertisers like you is what drives the improvements we see today in Performance Max. Whether it’s about increasing visibility, gaining control, or making smarter optimization decisions — keep your ideas coming!
🎯 Why These Updates Matter
These Performance Max upgrades are designed to strike the right balance between automation and control. Whether you’re focused on new customer acquisition, brand safety, or targeting precision, the 2025 updates offer enhanced capabilities to match your goals.
By leaning into features like campaign-level exclusions, feed-based targeting rules, and in-depth search insights, marketers can now make more informed, strategic decisions—without compromising the efficiency that Google AI brings to the table.
👉 Ready to take advantage of these updates? Explore Performance Max campaigns or get in touch with your Google Ads rep to enable the latest betas.
Want help optimizing your campaigns? Let’s talk about how we can scale your growth with smart, data-driven advertising strategies.