Search theme

Without search themes, Performance Max guesses the topic from your site, images and feed. Themes give it your words: what people type when they want what this asset group sells.

They guide, they do not restrict. Google may still match searches beyond them, much like broad match.

1. Open a Performance Max campaign, then an asset group, then Signals.
2. Add search themes, up to 50 per asset group.
3. Use the words customers use, not internal product names.
4. Read the campaign's search terms report to see what it matched.

A pet shop's asset group for cat food adds search themes like grain free cat food, senior cat food and wet cat food delivery. The campaign shows more on those searches and less on generic pet searches.

• Leaving search themes empty.
• Copying the whole keyword list into themes.
• Expecting themes to block other searches.

The audit checks Oppy runs on this, each with its own page.

• Asset groups with no search theme
• Performance Max buying queries the Search campaigns already bid on

• Asset group: The building block of a Performance Max campaign: the headlines, descriptions, images, videos and signals Google uses to build ads for every channel.
• Audience signal: A hint you give Performance Max about who is likely to convert: your customer lists, site visitors, interests and custom segments.
• Performance Max: A campaign type that runs on Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one budget, with Google deciding where each ad shows.