Advertisers will get new reporting on how well each asset performed within Performance Max, getting a breakdown of how different pieces of creative drove conversions. These updates to Performance Max were first announced at Google Marketing Live in May, but are now rolling out to advertisers. Google also announced on July 30 new generative AI capabilities for advertisers.

Advertiser concerns about Google’s AI

Not all advertisers trust that Google’s algorithms make the right decisions when using AI to place ads.

Buyers have raised concerns that Performance Max places their ads in unsavory content. In one example, Performance Max can favor ads that run against a brand’s own name on search, which could waste dollars on targeting ads at people who would have clicked on a brand’s websites anyway, advertisers have told ADWEEK. A Google spokesperson said buyers can prevent Performance Max ads from showing up when users search for the name of their brand.

Some advertisers have also found ads appearing against a large swath of display inventory when they’d rather most impressions go toward search and YouTube.

In November 2023, Adalytics published research that brands inadvertently bought ads on pornographic and sanctioned websites via a pocket of inventory called the Google Search Partner (SPN) Network. Brands could not opt out of advertising on this SPN inventory when buying ads using Performance Max.

A week after the report surfaced, Google allowed brands temporarily to opt out of advertising on the Search Partner Network on Performance Max buys, ADWEEK exclusively reported. In February of this year, Google announced it would give buyers placement reports sharing which SPN sites Performance Max ads showed up on, and let brands exclude certain SPN sites, a Google spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the new Performance Max updates rolling out now are unrelated to the Search Partner Network.

One buyer told ADWEEK that the new changes to Performance Max were “very welcome” as their brand had been pushing for brand safety controls.

But other advertisers are still suspicious of Performance Max. A second buyer said they still don’t trust that the AI tool is worth brands’ money, saying they haven’t spent more than test budgets using Performance Max in years.

“It’s a fully correlation product,” the buyer said. “It doesn’t really seem to grow business. It just throws ads in front of people brands are already doing business with.” A Google spokesperson said buyers can use settings within Performance Max to direct the tool to help brands find new customers.

A third ad buyer said that third-party brand safety tech needs to be able to see all Google ad placements, and not just rely on the data Google gives them, to be effective. A Google spokesperson did not comment on how exactly the brand safety tech’s reporting on Performance Max will work.