7 Mistakes You're Making with Google's AI Max (And Why Your CPC Just Doubled Overnight)

Right, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Your Google Ads account looks like a toddler got loose in a sweetshop, your CPC has gone through the roof, and you're wondering if AI Max is actually some elaborate prank by Google to see how much money they can extract from your business account before you notice.

Spoiler alert: it's not a prank. It's just poorly managed AI doing what poorly managed AI does best - spending your money with the enthusiasm of a lottery winner in Las Vegas.

Here's the thing about Google's AI Max (Performance Max, if we're being formal): it's brilliant at optimising... for Google's revenue. Whether it optimises for your success is another matter entirely. Let's dive into the seven costly mistakes that are turning your advertising budget into Google's quarterly bonus fund.

Mistake #1: Letting AI Max Compete Against Your Own Search Campaigns

This is like hiring two salespeople to fight over the same customer whilst you pay both their commissions. Running Performance Max alongside traditional Search campaigns without proper coordination is advertising suicide with extra steps.

Here's what actually happens: AI Max doesn't give two hoots about your carefully crafted Search campaign targeting your best-converting keywords. It'll happily outbid your own Search ads for the exact same terms, driving up your costs whilst providing zero additional value. You're essentially paying Google twice for the same click.

The system doesn't automatically prevent this internal cannibalism. Google's quite happy to let you bid against yourself - it's their revenue, after all. Set up proper campaign exclusions and negative keyword lists, or watch your CPC inflate like a bouncy castle at a children's party.

Mistake #2: Trusting Google's "Smart" Targeting Expansion

Remember when you set up that nice, focused local campaign for your boutique fitness equipment store in Manchester? Well, AI Max looked at that and thought, "You know what this needs? More traffic from people searching for gym memberships in Glasgow."

AI Max has the subtlety of a sledgehammer when it comes to targeting expansion. It interprets any engagement - even accidental clicks from people who immediately bounce - as permission to cast an even wider net. Your local campaign suddenly becomes a nationwide money pit, targeting searches that have about as much relevance to your business as a chocolate teapot.

One fitness business discovered their local gym campaigns had expanded to target online coaching and fitness app searches nationwide, burning through over £15,000 in completely irrelevant traffic. The AI saw "fitness" and decided geography was just a suggestion.

Mistake #3: Setting Budgets Like It's Still 2019

Google recommends against testing AI Max on campaigns with budgets under £40 per day, but here's what they don't tell you: AI Max has the spending habits of a footballer's wife on a shopping spree. It doesn't gradually scale up - it sees your budget and thinks, "Challenge accepted."

Without proper daily spend limits and budget boundaries, AI Max can reallocate 80% of your intended search budget towards low-quality display placements faster than you can say "return on ad spend." It's like giving your teenager your credit card and telling them to "be sensible."

The black box nature means you won't know where your money's gone until you check your account and find it looking like you've sponsored a small country's GDP.

Mistake #4: Ignoring the Broad Match Keyword Trap

Combining broad match keywords with AI Max's "optimisation" is like mixing Red Bull with espresso - technically possible, but you probably shouldn't do it unsupervised.

AI Max interprets broad match as a licence to explore every tangentially related search term in existence. Your campaign for "women's running shoes" suddenly starts targeting "women's running clubs," "women's running tips," and inexplicably, "women running for political office."

Each of these expanded terms comes with its own delightful CPC, often significantly higher than your original keywords, whilst converting about as well as a chocolate fire guard. The worst part? You'll only discover this archaeological dig through your search terms report weeks later.

Mistake #5: Treating AI Max Like a "Set and Forget" Solution

This is perhaps the most expensive myth in modern advertising. AI Max isn't like a slow cooker where you can chuck everything in and come back eight hours later to something edible. It's more like a toddler with finger paints - turn your back for five minutes, and you'll return to find it's redecorated everything in ways you never imagined possible.

The Elite Fitness case study is particularly brutal: their "automated" campaign generated over £20,000 in losses because nobody was actively monitoring the algorithmic spending spree. AI Max had decided that their local gym advertising budget was better spent on national fitness app downloads.

Without daily monitoring, CPC alerts, and regular search term audits, AI Max becomes less "artificial intelligence" and more "artificial expensive-ence."

Mistake #6: Skipping the Brand Safety Setup

Here's a fun game: activate AI Max without proper negative keyword lists and see how long it takes for your premium skincare brand to start advertising on websites about industrial cleaning chemicals. Spoiler: it won't take long.

AI Max's asset generation can pull misleading or legally questionable content faster than you can say "brand guidelines." It might link clinical data to the wrong products, misinterpret sector nuances, or select imagery that would make your legal team break out in hives.

One beauty brand discovered their AI-generated ads were pulling testimonials about anti-aging creams and applying them to their teenage acne products. Nothing says "professional skincare brand" quite like promising 16-year-olds they'll look younger.

Mistake #7: Believing Google's Revenue Goals Align with Yours

Here's the uncomfortable truth: AI Max is optimised to maximise Google's advertising revenue, not your ROI. It's a brilliant system - for Google. For you? Well, that depends on how much you enjoy funding their quarterly earnings reports.

The algorithm is designed to spend your budget efficiently (from Google's perspective), which often means finding expensive placements that generate clicks, regardless of whether those clicks convert into actual sales for your business. It's like hiring a personal shopper who gets commission based on how much you spend, not how happy you are with your purchases.

This misalignment explains why your CPCs can double overnight whilst your conversion rates plummet. The system is working exactly as intended - just not for the person paying the bills.

The Reality Check

If your Google Ads account has become a black hole for your marketing budget, you're not alone. The complexity of modern PPC advertising means that many e-commerce businesses are struggling with these exact issues.

The solution isn't to abandon AI Max entirely - when properly managed, it can be effective. But it requires the same level of oversight as any other significant business investment. Set up proper monitoring, maintain strict negative keyword lists, segment campaigns with clear goals, and remember that "artificial intelligence" still requires actual human intelligence to guide it.

Your wallet will thank you, and you might even start sleeping better at night knowing your advertising budget isn't financing Google's next office renovation.