The top two asset groups look great, but the third – not so much.
You win some and lose some.
Start
Start communicating with your clients to work through these initial issues.
We struggled with the above campaign at first. It produced some spam leads.
But with lots and lots of communication with the client and their teams, we figured it out. We made some adjustments – and so did the client – to make it work.
Continue
Continue to optimize Performance Max campaigns.
Even though PMax is more automated than Search campaigns, there’s still room for optimization.
You can, for example:
Review asset groups and pause those that are not performing.
Review mobile traffic and performance. In the above campaign, we found that mobile traffic wasn’t converting – and a lot of mobile traffic was coming from PMax. Therefore, we assigned a lower conversion value for mobile traffic.
Review your search terms. As with Search campaigns, you can also review your search terms for PMax (although you’ll need a script). But unlike Search, where you can specifically target and exclude (negate) keywords, try thinking about trends and categories that can enhance current targeting.
Realize PMax campaigns are a complement to your top-performing Search campaigns.
Dig deeper: 5 ways to get the most from Performance Max in 2025
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Audience-first strategies
Stop
Stop thinking of your keyword selections as the whole (or even the most important part) of your ad program strategy.
Obsessing over the millions of keyword variations you can bid on to describe your company’s products and services is no longer a viable approach.
Start
Instead, start building an audience-first strategy.
Think about your customers’ needs – and then strategically align your keywords with those needs and the stages of the customer journey.
Then, align those ad campaigns with your customers’ big-picture business goals.
Continue
Continue focusing on value-added components in your Google Ads account that complement your keywords.
Use first-party data, such as customer and website audience lists, to include, exclude, and create lookalike opportunities.
Last year, we onboarded a client with valuable customer data that their previous agency had ignored.
Instead of leveraging this data, the agency kept adding new keywords, cluttering the account with thousands of low-value terms.
We proposed an audience-first strategy, requiring a shift in their approach.
The client was hesitant to allocate the same budget as before.
Despite a smaller budget, we exceeded expectations.
Cost per lead dropped significantly, from $100 to $19.
High-value conversions increased, prioritizing quality over quantity.
We restructured the account, removed thousands of ineffective keywords, and built a strong foundation.
By leveraging remarketing and customer lists, we efficiently targeted prospective, past, and current customers.
Our approach was simple: we understood the client’s business and goals, then used customer segments to attract new customers while excluding existing ones.
This ensured we met each audience’s needs at the right stage of their search journey.
Now, with a scalable structure in place, we’ve successfully expanded product offerings and recently launched a new category – something that wouldn’t have been possible under the previous setup.
What will you stop, start, and continue in Google Ads in 2025?
These start stop, start, and continue recommendations for Google Ads optimization won’t work for every account.
But the most critical element of any optimization is review and follow-up.
With every change you make to optimize an account, you need to assess what the change improved (or didn’t improve) and then move forward in a way that puts your client closer to their business goals.
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