Google Ads: Search Themes for Performance Max

Sagar Sethi

17/01/2024

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What do you get when you combine Performance Max with Google AI? Relevant Traffic. There is a new beta called "Search Themes" in Performance Max. It helps you reach and serve on placements you may have not been reaching yet. Helping you expand your reach on Google Search as well as other placements. This addition was done in October 2023 & since many have seen good results.

Earlier performance max looked at your feeds, assets and landing pages to predict which placements will perform better for your campaign. However, now with the Search Themes you can add more information about your business that you expect to perform well. Search Themes for Performance Max is designed to help you perform better.

So if you have information that AI cannot learn quickly, you need to use Search Themes. In scenarios like when you're using a landing page that needs to be precise and cannot have ALL the information about your business. Or when you have just launched into a new market or industry and your campaigns don't have a huge performance history. You can also do this when you're nearing black Friday and want to launch a new sale or a promotion. You get the idea.

We think that this is an excellent addition because it fills the GAP everyone thought existed in Performance Max campaigns and gives some control back in your hands. Essentially, by adding Search Themes, you're telling Google AI that you wish to reach that traffic across your entire Google Ads inventory. It also helps you find audiences based on your prospect's search behaviour.

So for example, if you want to drive sales for an Art Exhibition specifically for kids and don't have a dedicated page that highlights these attributes, this is where Search Themes come into play. You can add "activities for children" or similar as 'search themes'. This will help you reach customers who are searching for related terms, reading related blogs or watching related videos.

Summary

• Search Themes lets Google AI perform better by reaching an audience that it would not have reached in the past.
• Search themes will have the same prioritisation as broad match and phrase match keywords in Search Campaigns.
• Account-level negatives will work with Search Themes.
• Search terms insights will provide total transparency by showing categories your ads match against at both campaign and account level.
• Search Themes will not limit Performance Max traffic but identify new or incremental traffic to improve performance.
• They are optional addition and not required.

If you already have a performance max campaign running, we recommend you speak to your Google Ads Agency before making any changes.