Something new and exciting is available in Google ad grants. It's called Performance Max, or P-Max for short. This is one of the biggest changes ever to the ad grants program, and the first new campaign type in 20 years.

This section the course will teach you how create a P-Max campaign, because it's substantially different to how you've been used to writing ads.

The announcement was made at the Google.org Impact summit on the 4th September 2024.

P-Max in a paid campaign puts your ads all across Google: for example in search results, YouTube, Discovery, Gmail, the Display network, and Google Maps. That's its major benefit, it's a simple way to put ads everywhere for best performance.

But, and this is an important restriction, in an Ad Grant your ads will only appear in Search results and Google Maps. For now. There is a possibility that further inventory will be opened up and ads might appear in Gmail or maybe other Google-only places, but it's unlikely that ads will ever appear on YouTube or in Display. Maybe one day we'll even have shopping ads in an Ad Grant. But currently... it's search only.

Only since December 2024 has an Ad Grant been able to put ads onto Google Maps. This could be a game-changer for local nonprofits, which have always struggled due to their restricted geographical reach, especially if they want visits (think animal shelters, churches, museums).

As you'll see in the first lesson, this isn't immediately obvious. When you go to create a P-Max campaign it incorrectly tells you that it puts your ads all across Google, and you'll be shown previews of how your ads might appear in places they won't actually appear. You'll even be asked to upload a video which can't get shown. You'll need to ignore some of the messaging.

Which begs a question: if this is still search only, why use P-Max? I'd suggest several reasons:

• Low impressions is a common problem in Ad Grants. As a keyword-less, audience-targeted way of showing ads, this *might* help overcome that.
  
• If and when P-Max opens to new placements across Google, you'll be ready to show ads there
• P-Max might be the future of Google Ads, moving to a keyword-less and multi-inventory type of campaign
• There are often fewer compliance issues with P-Max than with search campaigns. For example, there are no keywords to monitor, and Click Through Rate won't be a concern.
• Local nonprofits that want visits stand to benefit from ads on Maps

Google has said that P-Max in Ad Grants is an AI advancement. They're positioning that as a reason to use P-Max. That's because, as you'll see, Google Ads helps you write headlines and descriptions and suggests targeting methods. Whilst you should never uncritically accept all Google's suggestions, that might be helpful when creating new ads.

Updated: April 2025