Google’s just done something unusual: they’ve made Performance Max campaigns more transparent. If you’re running PMax (and let’s face it, Google’s been pushing everyone towards it), you can now see exactly which Search Partner sites your ads are appearing on, complete with impression counts.
This might sound like a minor reporting update, but it’s actually quite significant. For the first time, you can properly audit where your budget is going when Google spreads your ads across its Search Partner network.
The Search Partner Mystery Box Is Finally Opening
Performance Max campaigns run across multiple channels—Shopping, Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, and Gmail. That’s part of their power, but also part of the problem. Until now, when your ads appeared on Google’s Search Partner sites (think Ask.com, AOL, and hundreds of smaller search engines), you had virtually no visibility into where they were showing up.
Google’s now populating the placement report with actual Search Partner domain names and impression data. According to Search Engine Journal, this is rolling out to more accounts, giving you the ability to review where your ads are appearing for brand safety purposes.
Why does this matter? Because not all Search Partner traffic is created equal. Some sites deliver decent results. Others… well, let’s just say you might not want your premium product ads appearing there. Now you can actually see where Google’s algorithm is placing your ads and exclude the rubbish sites that are eating your budget without delivering results.
Here’s what to do: check your PMax placement reports in the coming weeks. Look at which Search Partner domains are getting impressions. If you see sites that don’t align with your brand or aren’t delivering conversions, you can now exclude them. It’s basic hygiene, but it’s something we simply couldn’t do before.
Microsoft’s Actually Trying to Help You Understand PMax
In related Performance Max news, Microsoft has launched a hands-on training programme specifically for PMax campaigns. This week’s updates include new learning paths that walk you through how these campaigns actually work.
This is worth paying attention to, even if you’re primarily focused on Google Ads. Microsoft’s approach to education often reveals what the industry recognises people are struggling with. And clearly, people are struggling with Performance Max.
The learning path covers practical implementation—not just the usual “let the AI do its magic” nonsense that Google’s documentation tends to lean on. For e-commerce businesses trying to get their heads around these campaigns, having structured training that explains what’s happening under the bonnet is genuinely useful.
Performance Max campaigns can work brilliantly when set up properly. They can also burn through budget remarkably quickly when they’re not. Understanding how they function—how the algorithm allocates budget across channels, how creative assets get selected, how audience signals influence delivery—makes the difference between campaigns that perform and campaigns that merely spend.
Google’s New Meridian Scenario Planner: Crystal Ball or Marketing Fluff?
Google’s also introduced something called the Meridian Scenario Planner this week. It’s designed to help you model different budget allocation scenarios across channels and predict outcomes before you commit your actual budget.
In theory, this sounds brilliant. Model your Q4 budget across Search, Shopping, Display, and YouTube before you spend it. See projected returns. Make data-driven decisions. In practice? We’ll need to see how accurate these projections actually are.
The tool is part of Google’s Meridian marketing mix modelling platform, which analyses how different marketing channels contribute to conversions. The Scenario Planner lets you play with hypothetical budget splits and see what Meridian predicts will happen.
Here’s my take: any tool that helps you think through budget allocation before spending it is worth exploring. But treat the projections as educated guesses, not certainties. Marketing mix modelling is only as good as the data it’s trained on, and your business might behave differently than the aggregate data suggests.
If you’ve got significant ad spend and you’re trying to figure out how to split budget between prospecting and remarketing, or between Search and Shopping, this tool might give you some useful directional guidance. Just don’t bet the farm on its predictions until you’ve seen how they match up with your actual results.
Why Your Budget Overspends Even With Target ROAS Set
Here’s something that confuses people constantly: you set a target ROAS or target CPA, you set a daily budget, and then Google… spends more than your budget. What’s going on?
This week’s explainer from Search Engine Journal breaks down exactly why this happens, and it’s worth understanding because it affects how you should actually plan your budgets.
Google’s automated bidding strategies (Target ROAS, Target CPA) focus on hitting your efficiency goal, not on strict budget pacing. If the auction presents opportunities to get conversions at your target efficiency, Google will take them—even if that means temporarily overspending your daily budget.
Google can spend up to twice your daily budget on any given day, though they’ll supposedly balance it out over the month. But here’s the catch: if you’re consistently seeing opportunities to hit your target ROAS, you’ll consistently overspend your stated daily budget.
What this means for you: when you’re setting budgets with automated bidding, don’t think of your daily budget as a hard cap. Think of it as guidance for Google’s algorithm. If you absolutely cannot spend more than £100 per day, set your daily budget lower to give yourself headroom. Or use a shared budget across campaigns with a monthly cap.
The other thing to understand is that Target ROAS bidding optimises for efficiency, not volume. If your target is too aggressive, Google will simply underspend your budget because it can’t find enough conversions at your required efficiency. If your target is too loose, you’ll hit budget constantly but you might not be particularly profitable.
Finding that sweet spot—where you’re spending your available budget while hitting acceptable efficiency—requires ongoing adjustment. It’s not set-and-forget, despite what Google’s automation promises might suggest.
What This All Means Going Forward
These updates point to an interesting tension in Google’s approach. On one hand, they’re pushing more automation and AI-driven campaign types like Performance Max. On the other hand, they’re slowly adding back transparency and controls that let you actually see what the automation is doing.
The PMax placement reporting is a small but meaningful step towards giving advertisers more visibility into Google’s black box. The budget behaviour with automated bidding is something that’s always worked this way, but more people are bumping into it as more campaigns shift to automated strategies.
For e-commerce businesses, the practical takeaway is this: automation can work brilliantly, but you still need to actively manage it. Check where your ads are appearing. Understand how budget pacing actually works with automated bidding. Test the new tools Google releases, but verify their predictions against your real-world results.
The algorithm isn’t a replacement for strategy. It’s a tool that executes strategy faster than humans can. But you still need to define that strategy, monitor the execution, and adjust when things aren’t working.