On Friday, Google pushed out a pretty big overhaul of the Performance Max documentation within the Google Ads support area. I've been waiting to compare the old and new documents, but the Wayback Machine has been down for about a week now.
A lot, I mean, a lot of the document was updated. I am not sure if it is just reorganizing the document or if anything foundational was changed in these documents but it is worth reviewing the updated document.
Shauvik Kumar posted about this on X on Monday and he documented what he felt was changed:
- Search & PMax Prioritization: How Search and Performance Max interact, including the stated priority for exact match keywords and Search themes.
- New PMax Campaign Controls: Groups brand exclusions, negative keywords, Search themes, and keywordless targeting as controls for refining Performance Max reach.
- PMax Budget Recommendations: Guidance on the Budget Panel and how its three recommendation levels are determined.
- Final URL Expansion: Clearer place among PMax campaign controls and notes advertiser responsibility for landing-page and generated-asset accuracy.
Here is my diff of the page changes:
Here is Shauvik Kumar post:
👀 Today's Google Ads Diff...
— Shauvik Kumar (@shauvikkumar) August 31, 2026
Google has substantially rewritten the Performance Max docs.
Performance Max documentation now gives advertisers much more explicit guidance on how campaign controls, Search prioritization, budgets, assets, and landing-page expansion work.
1.… pic.twitter.com/Oqa72mqRhD
Forum discussion at X.
