Performance Max checklist: optimising for B2B leads

A good Performance Max checklist does not start with the assets, but with the question of what you are steering on. Short answer: PMax optimises exactly towards the goal you feed it, so if you let every conversion carry the same weight, you get plenty of cheap conversions and very few customers. Instead, feed back conversion value and qualified leads, sharpen your asset groups and audience signals, and keep a few manual dials in your own hands. In this checklist we walk through the performance max optimization work that genuinely makes a difference for B2B lead generation.

If you first want to know what Performance Max is and whether it suits your situation at all, read Performance Max campaigns for B2B. This article assumes you are already running and want to optimise.

Work it out yourself: calculate your ROAS and your break-even point with our free ROAS calculator.

What should you let PMax steer on?

This is the most important dial and at the same time the most neglected one. PMax is a bidding machine that optimises towards the goal you define. Give it “maximise conversions” without value, and it will hunt for the cheapest conversions it can find: newsletter sign-ups, downloads, contact forms from students. All “conversions”, no customers.

For B2B lead gen you therefore steer on value, not on volume, a principle that also comes back in most best practices for optimising Performance Max:

• Give every conversion action a value that roughly matches its business value. A quote request is worth more than a whitepaper download.
• Feed offline conversions back from your CRM, so Google learns which leads actually became customers and not just which ones filled in a form.
• Pick a bidding strategy that fits value, such as Maximise conversion value with a ROAS target, instead of Maximise conversions.
• Turn on enhanced conversions so your matching with CRM data becomes more reliable.

The premise: PMax is only as smart as the signals you feed it. Without value input it optimises towards the wrong goal. How to lay that foundation is covered in Google Ads conversion tracking.

How do you set up your asset groups for B2B?

An asset group is the set of building blocks Google uses to assemble ads itself. In B2B the temptation is to build one broad asset group for your entire offering. Do not do that: Google then mixes signals and no longer knows which landing page belongs to which intent.

Run through this checklist for every asset group:

• Create one asset group per service, audience or proposition, not one for “everything we do”.
• Supply enough variety: multiple headlines and descriptions, imagery in landscape, square and portrait, a logo and at least one video.
• No video? Make one yourself, even a simple one. Otherwise Google generates a generic video that does your brand no favours.
• Write your headlines around your real proposition and USPs, not as keyword mush. Put pricing, benefit and proof up front.
• Link every asset group to the right landing page, not to your homepage.
• Aim for Ad Strength “Good” or “Excellent”, but do not let it steer you blindly: it measures variety, not whether the lead converts.

The better your assets and the clearer the separation, the less generic the ads Google builds.

How do you use audience signals without losing control?

Audience signals are not targeting, and that confuses a lot of advertisers. They are a starting suggestion: you give Google a hint about who is likely to convert, the algorithm learns from that and then also looks broader, as the best practices for Performance Max campaigns also emphasise. A strong signal speeds up learning and reduces the chance that PMax fishes in the wrong pond.

For B2B that means:

• Feed your audience signal with your own first-party data: customer lists, CRM segments, website visitors who converted.
• Add custom segments based on search behaviour and competitor websites your buyer visits.
• Do not expect the signal to “fence off” your audience. It steers, it does not exclude. For hard exclusion you need other dials (see below).
• Refresh your lists regularly, because stale data lets the algorithm steer on old patterns.

Good audience signals are especially valuable during the learning phase. They give PPC campaigns a flying start instead of weeks of expensive guessing.

Which exclusions should you set up?

PMax is a black box, but not a completely sealed one. There are a few places where you do keep control, and you should use them. This is where a lot of B2B budget leaks away.

• Brand exclusions: exclude your own brand term if it is already covered by search campaigns, otherwise PMax claims cheap brand clicks and your reporting looks artificially good.
• Account-level negative keywords: set them up so PMax does not show on irrelevant or brand-damaging terms. These days you can add them yourself directly in your account.
• Placement exclusions: exclude irrelevant apps, channels and sites so you are not paying for impressions in game apps.
• Geo and language: restrict tightly to your real sales area, certainly for Belgian B2B with a defined region.
• Data feeds and URL expansion: if you do not want Google picking destination URLs itself, restrict it to specific pages. For lead gen you would rather send traffic to targeted landing pages than to random pages Google considers “suitable”.

These dials take ten minutes and often save a large share of your wasted spend. So do not hand over control blindly.

How do you judge whether PMax really works?

Google’s dashboard is happy to show you plenty of conversions at a low price. That is precisely the trap. PMax reports what it delivered according to your goal, not whether those leads make money. So judge it outside the dashboard.

• Measure cost per qualified lead, not cost per conversion. A lead your sales team rejects is not a result.
• Close the loop with your CRM: how many of the PMax leads became quotes, and how many became customers?
• Look at search term reports and asset performance, and do so at least monthly to exclude irrelevant terms.
• Compare PMax with your search campaigns on real revenue per euro, not on conversion volume. For what is realistic per sector, read these Google Ads benchmarks by industry.

The common thread in our approach: steer on customers and revenue, not on the number of cheap conversions an algorithm reports. How to structurally raise lead quality is covered in lead generation with Google Ads. If you want help with the whole setup, take a look at our Google Ads service.

Frequently asked questions about optimising Performance Max

Why does my PMax campaign deliver plenty of conversions but few customers?

Almost always because you are steering on volume instead of on value. If every conversion carries the same weight, PMax hunts for the cheapest action it can find. Give conversions a business value, feed offline conversions back from your CRM, and the campaign will shift by itself towards leads that actually convert.

How long does it take before PMax performs?

Count on a learning phase of a few weeks before the algorithm optimises steadily. Strong audience signals and clean conversion data shorten that phase. Do not change too much at once during that period, because every major change partly resets the learning to zero.

Should I exclude my brand name in PMax?

In B2B usually yes, if your brand traffic is already covered by search campaigns. Otherwise PMax claims those cheap brand clicks and the numbers look better than the actual new demand you are generating. Set up brand exclusions so your reporting stays honest; these days you can do that yourself in the campaign settings.

Can I run PMax as my only Google Ads campaign?

For B2B lead gen we advise against it. Start with search campaigns on buying intent and use PMax as an addition, not as a replacement. That way you keep control over your most important traffic and use PMax for the broader reach it covers well.

Ready to steer your Performance Max towards customers?

PMax can work for B2B, but only if you feed it the right signals and keep a few dials in your own hands. We set up your conversion value, asset groups and exclusions so your budget goes to qualified leads instead of cheap conversions, and we judge together on revenue, not on dashboard figures.

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