TLDR: Running Performance Max and Search campaigns in the same account isn’t complicated, but it does require a clear structure. Exact match keywords in Search take priority over PMax, so brand and high-intent terms belong in Search. PMax is built for broader reach and Mid-funnel discovery.
Most Google Ads accounts run Performance Max and Search campaigns at the same time. Fewer of them run them well together. The difference usually comes down to one thing: understanding how Google decides which campaign type serves an ad and structuring your account accordingly.
Get it right and you have full-funnel coverage Search campaigns capturing high-intent queries with precision, PMax reaching people earlier in the journey across Search, Shopping, YouTube, and Display. Get it wrong and you’re paying for overlap, inflating your PMax ROAS with brand conversions, and losing impression share on the terms that actually matter.
How Google decides which campaign type serves an ad
The core rule is straightforward. If a user’s search query matches an exact keyword in one of your Search campaigns, Search wins. Google will serve that ad rather than PMax every time.
Where it gets more complicated is with broad match and phrase match keywords, and increasingly with AI Max. These match types can create overlap between Search and PMax without it being immediately obvious. A lot of accounts run into problems here because they assume Google is separating the two automatically. It isn’t. That’s your job, and it starts with how you structure your account.
Which queries should live in Search campaigns
Search campaigns should own two types of traffic: branded queries and high commercial intent non-branded queries.
Brand terms belong in a dedicated Search campaign on exact match. If you don’t protect them there, PMax will serve on branded queries and claim credit for those conversions. The conversions were almost certainly going to happen anyway, the user already knew who you were, but PMax will record them as wins, which artificially inflates your ROAS and makes it harder to read how the campaign is actually performing.
High commercial intent non-branded terms are the second priority for Search. These are the queries where the user already knows what they want and you need precise control over which ad serves. Using a fashion brand as an example: someone searching “blue maxi dress” or “tie dye midi dress” is lower funnel and specific. You want to control exactly which headlines and copy appear for those searches. Search gives you that control. PMax doesn’t.
A cleaner example: if you’re running paid search for a law firm, terms like “employment solicitor London” or “personal injury claim no win no fee” belong in Search. The user knows what they need. The commercial intent is high. You want to control the message.
Which queries Performance Max should own
PMax is built for a different job. It reaches people earlier in the funnel, users who haven’t yet decided what they want or who they want it from, across Search, Shopping, YouTube, and Display, all within a single campaign.
The same law firm example: someone searching “what happens if I have an accident at work” or browsing content around workplace rights isn’t ready to call a solicitor yet. You wouldn’tbuild a keyword list around that kind of traffic, and you probably shouldn’t try to. PMax will find it anyway, and it’s exactly the kind of Mid-funnel discovery that PMax is designed for.
PMax also works particularly well for accounts with product feeds. It uses signals from your feed to serve relevant ads across channels, which means for ecommerce brands the combination of a well-structured feed and PMax can generate reach that would be very difficult to replicate through traditional Search campaigns alone.
The broader, less specific queries, “holiday clothes” rather than “blue maxi dress”, for instance, are where PMax adds value without stepping on what Search is doing.
How to structure your account to avoid cannibalization
The structure that works is built in three layers. The first layer is a dedicated Search campaign for brand terms, running on exact match only. This is non-negotiable. Without it, PMax will serve on your brand and take credit for conversions that were never at risk.
The second layer is one or more Search campaigns for high-value non-branded terms. These are the high-intent, lower-funnel queries where you need precise ad control and where the user is close to converting.
The third layer is PMax, handling broader reach across channels for everything else. The critical configuration step when you set up both is adding a brand exclusion directly in your PMaxcampaign settings. This is available in the campaign settings UI and is straightforward to implement. Without it, PMax will serve on brand queries and skew your data. It’s one of the first things to check when setting up both campaign types to run alongside each other.
How to use account-level negative keywords with PMax
This is worth clarifying, because the approach has changed. Before January 2025, you could only add 100 negative keywords at the campaign level for PMax campaigns, whereas now this limit has increased to 10,000. That changed, and you can now use both account-level and campaign-level negatives with PMax.
The approach now is to use both layers deliberately. Account-level negative lists should contain terms you never want to trigger across the whole account, irrelevant categories, sensitive terms, anything you want to exclude universally regardless of campaign type.
Campaign-level negatives in PMax are for anything specific to that campaign. If there are competitor terms showing up in your search term data that you want to handle in a separate competitor campaign, add those as negatives in PMax. If you want to keep PMax targeting higher intent than it naturally would, use campaign-level negatives to steer it. The principle is the same as it’s always been for Search: anything where you want tighter control should be excluded from the campaigns where you don’t have it.
How to check whether your structure is working
How often you check depends on budget. For larger accounts with high query volumes, daily checks are possible, but that quickly becomes a significant time commitment. Monthly is the minimum. Weekly is sensible for most accounts.
When you audit, check your search term reports in both Search and PMax. You’re looking for overlap, are the same terms showing up in both? Is PMax serving on queries you’ve assigned to Search? The insights tab in PMax is particularly useful here because it shows you which search themes are actually being targeted, giving you a clearer view of where PMax is spending its time.
The other thing to check is your budget split. If PMax is consuming budget freely at the same time as your core Search terms are losing impression share, that’s usually the sign that something isn’t working as intended. Core search terms losing impression share while PMax spends freely is a reliable indicator that your exclusions or structure need attention.
ASK BOSCO® is useful at the campaign level here, you can use the paid search report to see which channels are performing, compare ROAS across PPC and cross-network (which is how PMax appears in reporting), and split performance by campaign. For deeper search term and keyword-level analysis, you’ll need to go into Google Ads directly.
How to rebalance budget between PMax and Search over time
There is no single right answer on budget split, and anyone who tells you there is probably hasn’t managed enough accounts to know. PMax will spend whatever you give it, it has enough channels to absorb budget freely, so the decision about how much to give it should be driven by performance data, not a preset formula.
Your PMax budget
If PMax ROAS is significantly outperforming Search and your structure is set up correctly, brand terms are excluded, high-value exact match terms are protected in Search, then testing a shift of budget toward PMax is reasonable. The condition is that shifting budget to PMax doesn’t start harming brand impression share or reducing visibility on your most valuable lower-funnel Search terms.
If PMax is underperforming, the first place to look is your creative and audience signals. PMax needs quality inputs to produce quality outputs. Weak creative or poorly defined audience signals will limit its performance regardless of how much budget you give it.
Your Search campaigns
If Search is losing impression share on terms that matter, brand or high-intent non-branded, check your PMax exclusions are working before touching budgets. The problem is often structural rather than budgetary.
Budget rebalancing should always be data-led. Look at what you have in front of you: is the structure set up properly, which campaigns are hitting your KPIs, and what does the impression share data tell you? That’s the basis for a budget decision. One size never fits all.
Running PMax and Search well together comes down to being deliberate about what each campaign type is for and setting up your account to reflect that. Search for brand and high-intent terms where control matters. PMax for broader reach and mid-funnel discovery. Clear exclusions to prevent overlap. Regular audits to catch drift before it compounds. Want to see how your PMax and Search performance stacks up? Just ASK BOSCO®. Get in touch with our team for a live demo.
