Performance Max Audit Checklist for E-Commerce: 20 Checks Before You Scale

A Performance Max audit checks whether the campaign is optimizing for the right goal, fed with good data, and not quietly spending on traffic you would not choose. Because Performance Max gives you less visibility than Search or Standard Shopping, a structured audit is the only reliable way to find waste.

Use this checklist on any e-commerce Performance Max campaign, whether you run one yourself or have inherited it. Work through it in order: the early sections determine whether the later ones even matter. If you are still choosing between formats, start with Performance Max vs Search campaigns and Performance Max for Shopping: pros and cons.

1. Conversion tracking and goals (checks 1-5)

Performance Max optimizes towards whatever you tell it counts as success. If that signal is wrong, everything downstream is wrong.

1. The campaign uses the right conversion goals. Confirm that purchases are the primary goal and that micro-conversions such as page views or add-to-cart are not set to primary unless that is intentional.
2. Conversion values are accurate. Revenue should match your store’s order values, ideally excluding tax and shipping consistently.
3. Duplicates are removed. The same purchase counted by two tags inflates ROAS and teaches bidding the wrong thing. See Google Ads conversion tracking with GA4.
4. Enhanced conversions or server-side signals are in place where possible, to recover conversions lost to browser privacy limits. Our Conversions API setup guide explains the options.
5. Cross-check against your store. Compare Google Ads conversions and revenue with your e-commerce platform over the same period. Differences are normal, but large ones need explaining.

2. Feed health and product coverage (checks 6-9)

For retail Performance Max, the product feed is the engine. Bad feed data wastes budget in a way no amount of bid tuning can fix.

6. Diagnostics are clean. Check the Merchant Center Diagnostics tab for disapprovals and warnings. Start with our guide to disapproved products.
7. Titles and attributes are optimized. Our Merchant Center feed specification guide lists what to check.
8. Margin is visible to the campaign. If products have very different margins, use custom labels or product groups so you can treat them differently. See custom label strategy.
9. Out-of-stock and low-margin items are excluded or separated, so budget is not spent on products you cannot fulfil profitably.

3. Structure and asset groups (checks 10-14)

10. Asset groups are organized by theme, such as product category or margin tier, not all products in one group.
11. Each asset group has a full set of assets: images, logos, headlines, descriptions and, where useful, video. If you do not supply video, Google may generate one.
12. Audience signals are set as hints for the algorithm, for example customer lists and past purchasers, and not as hard targeting.
13. Final URL expansion is a conscious choice. If it is on, review which pages Google sends traffic to. If you want tighter control, turn it off or add URL exclusions.
14. The campaign has enough conversion data for the bidding strategy chosen. A low-volume account may do better with simpler structure before adding more campaigns.

4. Spend quality and exclusions (checks 15-18)

15. Brand traffic is separated from new demand. Performance Max can claim credit for searches that would have converted anyway. Use brand exclusions and compare results with and without brand terms.
16. Negative keywords are applied at the account level for irrelevant queries where the feature is available.
17. Search themes are used to guide, not replace, your own judgement about intent.
18. New-customer acquisition goals are considered, if repeat buyers are making the campaign look better than it is.

5. Reporting and cannibalization (checks 19-20)

19. Channel and placement reporting is reviewed. Use the Insights and channel performance reports to see how much spend goes to Shopping, Search, YouTube, Display and Gmail, and whether any channel is a clear outlier.
20. Overlap with Search and Standard Shopping is understood. If you run Search campaigns on the same terms, check which campaign actually serves and wins. Google prioritizes Search campaigns with a matching keyword in some cases, so overlap is not always the problem, but unmanaged overlap hides what is really working.

How to read the results

Do not change everything at once. Group your findings:

• Fix immediately: tracking errors, disapproved products, wrong conversion goals.
• Fix next: structure, exclusions, feed titles and attributes.
• Test over weeks: asset changes, audience signals, new asset groups, brand exclusion.

After each change, allow the campaign time to stabilize before judging it. Frequent large edits restart learning and make cause and effect impossible to read.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I audit Performance Max? Review basic health weekly and run the full checklist at least once a quarter, or after major catalogue, tracking or budget changes.

Is it normal for Performance Max ROAS to look better than other campaigns? Often, because it can capture branded and returning-customer traffic. Check brand exclusions and new-customer reporting before concluding that it is outperforming.

Can I use Performance Max with a small budget? It can work, but a small budget produces little conversion data. In that case, consider a simpler structure first and read where to start: Shopping, Search or Performance Max.

What should I do if results suddenly drop? Check tracking first, then feed diagnostics, then recent changes to budget, targets or assets. A conversion tracking break is the most common cause.

Do I need an agency to audit this? Not necessarily, but a second pair of eyes helps. A good audit tells you what to fix and what to leave alone.

Want a Performance Max audit?

Our Google Shopping management and Google Ads management services start with an audit of tracking, feed and structure. Use our free Google Ads audit template as a starting point, or request an audit.