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Google is evolving even faster than global warming. No sooner have you fully grasped how a particular format works than a new type of campaign, a new feature or an AI-powered variation pops up in your account without warning. Among the most notable recent developments are Performance Max and Demand Gen.
Both of these formats rely heavily on Google’s automation and AI to reach audiences across a wide range of platforms. Powerful? Definitely. Magical? Not at all. And that’s exactly why the expertise of an SEA agency becomes a real game-changer.
Key points to remember:
In summary, Performance Max and Demand Gen offer numerous possibilities thanks to Google’s automation. However, their effectiveness depends on strategic management, reliable data and solid creative expertise. The role of an SEA agency is precisely to transform these technologies into genuine drivers of growth.
Performance Max allows you to access multiple Google ad inventories from a single campaign, with results optimised around conversion or value objectives. Bidding, audiences, placements, asset delivery: almost everything is automated. But this creates a new responsibility: providing the algorithm with the right objectives, the right signals and the right creatives. You can set it and forget it. Your budget, however, might not see the funny side.
If you ask the algorithm to maximise the wrong kind of conversion, it will do so very effectively. A qualified enquiry, a newsletter subscription and a brochure download should not send the same signal to Google.
Value, not just volume, as we’ve said. Not all sales have the same margin, and not all leads become customers. A good SEA agency aligns the signal sent to Google with true business value: margin, average basket value, lead quality and LTV.
For retailers, the quality of the Merchant Centre feed makes all the difference. A catalogue containing several thousand products can never be managed as a single, homogeneous unit: profit margins, stock levels and best-seller status must guide the strategy.
Google can automate a whole host of things, but it can’t come up with a value proposition that really packs a punch if the assets are lacklustre. Creative quality remains crucial, and becomes even more so as automation increases.
Demand Gen follows a different approach: generating demand across Google’s most prominent platforms (YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Discover, Gmail, Maps, Display). The format continues to evolve rapidly, particularly in terms of video formats, with the introduction of video campaign groups on Google Ads, which further expand the possibilities available to advertisers.
Good to know: In June 2026, Google even launched a voluntary migration of certain Display campaigns to Demand Gen, a sign that the format is playing an increasingly pivotal role.
Traditional search comes into play when a need already exists. Demand generation operates at an earlier stage to raise brand awareness, build brand consideration and re-engage a cold audience. This approach is closer to social media advertising than to traditional search.
Performance Max vs Demand Gen: the showdown
| Performance Max | Demand Generation |
| Performance-oriented | Focus on demand generation |
| Multi-inventory distribution | Highly visual environments |
| Advanced automation | Creativity and audience engagement at the heart of it all |
| Conversion / value | Discovery, commitment, conversion |
| Retail & lead generation | Branding performance and consideration |
In real life, the two go hand in hand – don’t worry 🧡
The most advanced agencies often have early access to new features and beta versions, and, above all, they know how to filter out what is really worth implementing. New does not necessarily mean better.
Ask about the initial objectives, the structure put in place, and how the results were measured; don’t just accept ‘we’ve been using PMax for a long time’ as an answer.
Demand generation relies heavily on creative quality. An organisation that combines media buying and creative production = a hit hook, a vertical format that outperforms, and continuous adaptation.
The more Google automates, the more critical the quality of the data provided becomes. A high-performing AI system fed with poor-quality data becomes, above all, highly effective at making the wrong decisions.
Mastering Performance Max and Demand Gen relies as much on SEA expertise as on the ability to draw on complementary skills. At Ad’s up Consulting, the Search and Shopping teams combine their knowledge of Google Ads campaigns with an approach that blends automation and human oversight. They can also draw on expertise in Social Ads, Display, Data and Creative to build coherent acquisition strategies, adapt formats to different advertising environments and optimise performance across all channels.
This topic is also linked to that of overall profitability: our article SEA performance: how to find an agency to maximise your ROAS? explores the trade-off between volume and profitability, which is just as crucial for PMax as it is for traditional Search.
On Performance Max: cramming everything into a single campaign without any segmentation, sending all conversions to Google without prioritising them, neglecting ad creatives, or judging the campaign solely on platform ROAS without considering incremental value and margin.
On Demand Gen: reusing Search creatives as they are (a text advert on a generic image isn’t exactly the height of creativity 😇), expecting an immediate ROAS, or analysing the format in isolation when it often contributes to the performance of other channels.
Don’t limit yourself to platform KPIs. ROAS, CPA and conversion rates remain essential, but also take a look at:
💡 Advice from our experts:
Don’t blindly hand over your strategy to automation
Let Google optimise your ad delivery, but retain control over your business objectives. Regularly check reported conversions, audience signals and whether the results align with your actual business objectives.
Prioritise your conversions according to their actual value
Not all conversions are equal. Distinguish between simple interactions and actions that actually generate revenue. For your lead generation campaigns, where possible, use CRM data to provide Google with quality signals about leads that have actually converted.
Adapt your creative assets to the platforms
Don’t automatically reuse your Search ads for Demand Gen. Develop eye-catching visuals, short-form video formats and messages tailored to YouTube, Shorts and Discover. Create multiple variations to identify the best-performing combinations.
Manage your campaigns with a cross-channel approach
Performance Max and Demand Gen can interact with your other acquisition channels. Analyse their contribution across the entire customer journey and avoid making decisions based solely on conversions attributed by Google Ads.
Measure actual profitability rather than just ROAS
Cross-reference Google Ads data with your business data: turnover, margin, new customers and customer lifetime value. Where possible, implement incrementality analyses to distinguish between conversions actually generated by the campaign and those that would have occurred regardless of the campaign.
Key takeaway: Performance Max and Demand Gen should not be viewed as stand-alone solutions capable of guaranteeing performance. Their potential lies in striking a balance between automation, human expertise, creativity and data utilisation. A high-performing SEA agency must know how to orchestrate these various levers to deliver a truly profitable acquisition strategy.
PMax and Demand Gen aren’t formats you should just switch on without thinking, hoping that Google’s AI will do all the work. To really deliver results, you need the right objectives, clean data, eye-catching ad creatives and a vision that goes beyond the ROAS displayed in Google Ads. This is where a good Google Ads agency moves beyond simply managing your account to becoming a true growth partner.
Would you like to find out whether your account is really making the most of PMax and Demand Gen? The Ad’s up team can carry out an audit with you.
A type of Google Ads campaign that heavily automates ad delivery across multiple Google properties, based on conversion or value objectives.
A Google Ads solution focused on generating demand, across visual platforms such as YouTube, Discover and Gmail.
Not necessarily. Strategies often combine several campaign types depending on the objectives and the desired level of control.
A good variety of assets tailored to the different platforms helps to test formats, messages and creative angles.
Opt for an agency that can demonstrate real-world case studies, has a strong grasp of tracking and data, and can integrate these campaigns into a genuine cross-channel strategy.
