Google's AI campaign stack: Performance Max, Demand Gen and AI Max for Search

0:00 Google's AI campaign stack

Google now gives you three AI-first campaign types, and most advertisers get into trouble by using all three without knowing what each one is for. In this lecture you'll learn the job of AI Max for Search, Performance Max and Demand Gen, which controls you still keep in each, and a thirty-minute weekly review that keeps the machine honest.

0:26 Why it matters

Why does this matter? Because these three campaign types overlap, and when they overlap badly, they compete for the same customer and you pay twice for the same demand. Here's an analogy. Think of a shop with three staff. One stands at the door greeting people who already know what they want. That's Search with AI Max. One works every aisle and the stockroom. That's Performance Max. And one is out on the street handing out samples to people who've never heard of you. That's Demand Gen. If all three crowd the door, the street never gets worked and the door gets expensive. Your job is giving each one a clear station.

1:15 AI Max for Search

Start with AI Max for Search. It isn't a separate campaign type. It's a suite you switch on inside a normal Search campaign. It has three parts. Search term matching finds relevant queries beyond your keyword list. Text customization writes headlines and descriptions from your landing pages. And final URL expansion can send a click to a more relevant page on your site. You can switch the last two off individually, and you keep brand controls, URL exclusions and negative keywords.

1:50 When to use AI Max

When should you use AI Max? When your conversion tracking is solid and your landing pages genuinely answer lots of questions. The system reads your site to decide what you're relevant for, so thin pages make weak matches. When should you hold back? On tiny budgets, with broken tracking, or in regulated industries where every headline needs sign-off. In that last case, keep search term matching but switch off text customization, so only approved copy runs.

2:23 Performance Max

Next, Performance Max. One budget, every Google channel: Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. You steer it with asset groups, a product feed if you sell products, audience signals, and search themes. For years the complaint was that it was a black box. Google has since rolled out channel performance reporting, search terms reporting, and campaign-level negative keywords. Use them. The classic PMax trap is quietly harvesting your own brand searches, so apply brand exclusions and check search terms every week.

2:59 Simple example: Manchester bookstore (illustrative)

Let's walk a simple example. A small online bookstore in Manchester sells children's books. They have one Search campaign on exact match keywords like children's books online. They switch on AI Max search term matching and, in the first two weeks, the search terms report shows new queries like bedtime stories for five year olds and gift books for toddlers, which convert well. But it also shows free printable colouring pages, which never convert. So they add free and printable as negative keywords and keep the good expansion. That's the pattern you'll repeat forever: let the AI explore, read the report, fence off the junk, and keep the wins.

3:46 Demand Gen

Third, Demand Gen. This is Google's visual, mid-funnel campaign, running on YouTube including Shorts, Discover, Gmail and display inventory. It's where you introduce your product to people who aren't searching yet. Think short vertical videos, product carousels, and lookalike segments built from your customer lists. Google ships regular feature drops for Demand Gen, so treat each new feature as something to test, not a default to enable. Google has also moved older formats, like Video Action campaigns, into Demand Gen.

4:21 Example: Dubai AC services (illustrative)

Let's put it together with an example. A Dubai air-conditioning maintenance company. AI Max on Search for high-intent queries like AC repair in a specific neighborhood, with their brand excluded and the careers page blocked as a landing page. Performance Max optimizing for leads, fed with offline conversion imports from the CRM, so the model learns which leads actually became paid jobs. And Demand Gen running short vertical videos in the weeks before summer, to build demand before peak season.

4:56 Sequence your changes

One more thing about sequencing. Don't switch on every AI feature on the same day. If you enable AI Max, launch Performance Max and start Demand Gen in one week, and results change, you'll have no idea why. Roll out one change at a time, give it enough conversions to learn, and where you can, use Google's built-in experiments to split traffic between the old and new setup. It feels slower, but it's the only way to know what actually helped, and it gives you evidence when a client or a boss asks why you changed things.

5:38 Weekly 30-minute review

Now the habit that separates pros from button-pushers: a thirty-minute weekly review. One, search terms across Search, AI Max and PMax, adding negatives for junk and brand leakage. Two, the AI Max landing pages report, excluding pages that should never get ads. Three, PMax channel performance. Four, asset reports, replacing the weakest and adding one new concept. Five, conversion diagnostics. Six, budget pacing. You can use an LLM to cluster search terms, but a human approves every negative.

6:12 Mistakes + try this now

Here are the mistakes to avoid with Google's AI campaigns. Running Performance Max and a brand Search campaign without brand exclusions, so they fight over your own name. Feeding Performance Max a poor product feed with vague titles, then blaming the algorithm. Counting page views or scroll events as primary conversions, so bidding optimizes for the wrong thing. And never opening the channel performance report. Try this now: open your Google Ads conversions page and list which actions are marked primary. If anything other than real business outcomes is primary, change it to secondary before you touch any campaign setting.

6:55 Watch me do it: weekly review (illustrative)

Watch me do it. Let's run the weekly review on an illustrative Karachi solar installer's account. First, search terms. I filter the last seven days across Search and Performance Max. I see solar panel price in Karachi, great, solar panel installation jobs, not a customer, so I add jobs as a negative, and the brand name appearing inside PMax, so I check brand exclusions are on. Second, the AI Max landing pages report. One click went to the blog post about net metering rules. It converts badly, so I add it as a URL exclusion. Third, PMax channel performance. Display is taking a slice of spend with no leads, so I look at which assets serve there and plan a stronger image set rather than panicking. Fourth, assets. One headline, cheapest solar in Pakistan, is a claim we can't prove, so I remove it. Fifth, diagnostics: enhanced conversions active, offline import of site-survey bookings succeeded. Sixth, pacing: the Search campaign is limited by budget with a healthy cost per lead, so I propose a small increase. Thirty minutes, six decisions, each backed by a report.

8:15 Recap and next step

To recap: AI Max captures intent beyond your keywords, Performance Max spends one budget across every channel, and Demand Gen creates demand with visual formats. Each has controls you must use deliberately. Your next step: export last month's search terms from one campaign, sort them into relevant, irrelevant and brand, and decide whether you need brand exclusions. It's the fastest audit in paid search, and it almost always finds money.