Performance Max runs across Google’s inventory from one campaign. In a small market, that automation can accelerate growth or become an expensive black box. It depends on the inputs you provide.
Does PMax make sense in a small market?
PMax learns from your conversions. With only a few per month, it can take a long time to learn and drift towards the cheapest inventory.
In practice, wait until you have several dozen reliable conversions per month. Below that, Search and standard Shopping provide more control.
E-commerce: everything starts with the feed
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Israel is among the countries supported by Merchant Center
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Shekel prices, delivery configured for Israel, and product pages consistent with the feed
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Structured Hebrew titles: brand, product type and key attribute. Use local sizes and units
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Segment by margin or performance using custom labels, rather than default product categories
Lead generation: proceed carefully
PMax optimises for the conversion you give it. If that is “form submitted”, it will find form submissions, not necessarily customers.
Import qualified leads or sales from your CRM before allocating significant budget.
Language and geography
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One asset group per language: never mix Hebrew and French assets
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For French speakers, create a dedicated campaign with French assets and landing pages
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Google announced that from September 2026, Search would use ad language instead of the campaign’s language setting. That setting continues to apply to other channels such as YouTube and Display
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If you sell only to people in Israel, target presence in the location rather than interest in it
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Provide your own vertical Hebrew videos. Otherwise, Google may generate videos from your images
Signals: audiences and search themes
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You can add up to 50 search themes per asset group
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On Search, they have the same priority as broad- and phrase-match keywords. An exact-match keyword identical to the search remains higher priority
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Use them for searches not yet reflected in your pages, including Hebrew phrasing
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Audience signals: customer lists, website visitors and recent buyers
Brand traffic and Search cannibalisation
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Without brand exclusions, PMax captures branded searches and makes its ROAS look better
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Enable brand exclusions and keep a dedicated branded Search campaign
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Campaign-level negative keyword lists are now available in PMax
Reporting: what you can now see
Channel performance reporting and search-term insights show where the budget goes. Also monitor the share of new customers: PMax may focus on existing ones.
When PMax is not the right choice
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too few conversions,
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lead generation without lead-quality feedback,
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a strict need for control by language or search,
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an offer that first needs to create demand that does not yet exist
Further reading
Sources
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Google Ads Help — About search themes in Performance Max campaigns
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13351809?hl=en -
Google Ads Help — Unlock new relevant traffic on Performance Max with search themes (2023)
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14179631?hl=en -
Google Ads Help — About language targeting
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722078?hl=en -
Google — Kick off 2025 with new Performance Max features (2025)
https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/new-performance-max-features-2025/ -
Google — Unlock more visibility and control in Performance Max (September 2025)
https://business.google.com/us/accelerate/announcements/unlock-more-visibility-and-control-in-performance-max/ -
Google Merchant Center Help — How to fix: Country where you sell products not supported
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/12472394?hl=en
