Performance Max
How do I see where Performance Max is actually spending?
Why this matters
Performance Max is famously opaque, but the visibility is better than the reputation suggests if you know where to look. The blocker is that the data sits across three places that Google does not stitch together for you.
Inside the platform, the PMax Insights tab now shows search categories (rolled out 2023, expanded since), asset audience signals, and budget pacing. The Channel report shows the rough split of spend between Search, Shopping, YouTube and Display: which alone often surprises brands who assumed PMax was mostly Shopping.
Beyond the platform, scripts fill the deeper gaps. Mike Rhodes' PMax script (free, widely used) surfaces search-term-level data, asset group performance breakdowns and channel splits at a level the UI does not. Optmyzr, Adalysis and similar tools layer their own reporting on top.
The right cadence is to look at all three monthly: Channel split tells you the budget allocation, Insights tells you the queries and signals PMax is leaning on, and the script tells you the search-term reality. Together they remove most of the PMax black box.
If a category is winning, the question is 'do we want PMax owning that?'. If a category is losing, the question is 'can we exclude or wall it off?'. Visibility is the prerequisite for both.
How JudeLuxe approaches this
JudeLuxe runs the PMax script weekly across all client accounts and reviews the Channel + Insights split monthly. Findings go into the weekly Loom rather than waiting for a quarterly review.
The PMax service page covers the structural approach; the audit page shows how this visibility maps to action.
Related reading: Performance Max management.
Related questions
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