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Google is rolling out new features for its AI-powered Performance Max advertising platform, giving marketers more control over their campaigns and deeper insights.

Why it matters: These updates give advertisers more control over ad placement and audience, while maintaining the AI-driven benefits of Performance Max.

Key changes:

• Campaign-level negative keywords are now available to all advertisers.
• New “high-value” customer acquisition mode targets users likely to have higher lifetime value.
• Retailers can now apply brand exclusions separately to Search and Shopping ads.
• New demographic controls let advertisers exclude specific age brackets.
• Enhanced reporting shows whether search queries come from AI targeting or manual themes.

What’s next: Google plans to expand Performance Max features in the coming months, with additional controls and reporting capabilities in development.

Our take: Performance Max has helped advertisers offset some of the privacy-related signal loss in digital advertising. EMARKETER found 57% of US digital ad buyers had used or planned to use AI-powered performance products like Performance Max as of August 2024. While advertisers appreciate the improved performance these tools offer, they’ve been pushing for more transparency and control—which these new features begin to address.

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