Performance Max Search Themes: Complete Google Ads Guide

When running Performance Max campaigns, advertisers wanted to understand which search queries matched with their ad campaigns, and how they can provide more information to Google’s automation in order to reach high-intent customers.

To fix this, Google introduced PMax search themes (Performance Max Search Themes), a new feature that suggests extra words and phrases to guide Google AI, helping your PMax ads show in more relevant searches and placements.

This means search themes in Performance Max help you tell Google’s AI what the customers are looking for, which will help advertisers get conversions.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the concept of search themes in detail!

Note: Search themes started off in a beta version. However, currently, they are officially rolled out to all advertisers on Google.

What are Performance Max Search Themes?

Performance Max search themes are optional words and phrases you add to an asset group to tell Google the search queries your customers use to find your offerings. They guide PMax toward relevant traffic across Google channels, including Search, and carry the same priority as phrase and broad match keywords in your Search campaigns.

You can add up to 50 unique search themes per asset group, and they work alongside the queries PMax already predicts from your assets, feeds, and landing pages.

Performance Max Search Theme Examples

Suppose you’re an ecommerce merchant who deals in eco-friendly apparel and is running PMax ad campaigns. Now, your goal is to find new customers, but Google isn’t sure who your buyers are and what kind of search queries they will use in order to find your ecommerce business.

In this situation, add specific queries to search themes. The queries must carry those terms that your ideal audience is looking for. This may look like adding the following terms:

• “Organic Cotton Shirts”
• “Sustainable tops”
• “Eco-friendly shirts”
• “Bamboo pants”
• “Vegan skirts”

Providing more context to the search query will give better signals to Google AI, which will help it narrow down and find high-intent buyers. Additionally, leveraging Pmax reporting can offer insights into how these search themes impact your campaign performance, enabling more informed optimization decisions.

How to get search query ideas for search themes?

There are a few ways you can get ideas or actual search terms for search themes:

• Use Google keyword planner by entering the focus (main) keyword and finding keywords relevant to the main one.
• Analyze competitors and what keywords they are using. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, etc. to find keywords your competitors are ranking for.
• Rely on Google Search suggestions. Understand what terms are appearing in “Related Searches,” “People also ask,” and autocomplete suggestions in the search bar.
• Leverage search terms report. Use pre-existing data and analyze which search queries are driving conversions.

Also, if you wish to explore Performance Max Best Practices, visit this detailed guide.

So, when you add these terms to search themes, you are not providing keywords to target. Instead, you’re giving Google’s algorithm an idea to analyze and figure out what your ideal customers might be looking for. 

You’re basically guiding the AI to target potential customers across all Google surfaces PMax serves ads across such as Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Shopping, Gmail, and Maps.

Upgrading Custom Segments To PMax Search Themes

According to Google, custom segments were upgraded into search themes in early 2024. The platform automatically upgraded existing custom segments (based on search activity) to search themes. Advertisers who are using PMax campaigns can no longer add or edit custom segments.

Keep in mind that custom segments based on interests, custom affinities, apps, and URLs can still be used as part of your Performance Max campaigns. You can find them under “Interests & detailed demographics.”

How Do Performance Max Search Themes Work?

With PMax Search Themes, Google lets you do the following: 

1. A merchant can only add up to 50 search themes per asset group.
2. You can exclude brands from appearing by using brand exclusions. Search themes respect brand exclusions. They are part of the brand settings required to manage branded traffic based on the merchant’s advertising requirements.
   
   In the case of brand exclusions, a campaign will not serve queries and search terms associated with a brand or business that the merchant wishes to exclude. This setting is available for both Search and PMax campaigns.
3. Search Themes also respect account-level negative keywords in PMax campaigns. In addition to PMax ads, merchants can apply negative keywords to Search, Shopping, Smart, Local, and App campaigns.
   
   Account-level negative keywords help you opt out of content not aligning with your business goals. In the account settings, these keywords help create a single account-level list that applies negative keywords to Search and Shopping ads in your account.
   
   Google will automatically apply the keywords to all ad campaign types after the list is created.
4. Adding search themes can help improve your campaign by supplementing the automatic queries that Performance Max matches to your URLs, assets, and other elements.
5. With search themes, you get the same prioritization as phrase match and broad match in Search campaigns.  
6. Results from search themes will direct customers to the landing pages you’ve specified in your Final URL expansion.
   
   With the Final URL expansion, it’s easy to optimize the performance of PMax campaigns. How? The Final URL expansion automatically replaces the Final URL (your ad’s destination URL) with a more fitting and relevant landing page that is based on the potential customers’ search queries and intent.
   
   Along with that, it customizes the ad’s headline to match the content of the landing page, making the ad more personalized to the customer.
7. Indicating the page feeds with the right queries can also drive better results and help customers reach your landing page. Page feeds help in deciding when to display your Google ads and where to direct potential customers to your ecommerce store.
8. Using the “URL contains” setting also drives good results. Just like “Final URL expansion” and “page feeds,” even “URL contains” rules help decide which part of the landing page to send the customer.
   
   It works when automatically created assets are enabled, and you have decided on the specific webpage category you want to target.
9. You can also easily remove themes from the asset group. 

Note: Using Pmax search themes doesn’t affect your ad budget. If anything, Google ads use your budget more effectively. Also, keep in mind that Search Themes helps Google know a searcher’s profile.

How To Set Up Performance Max Search Themes

After analyzing and understanding the concept, let’s dive into the creation process and learn to integrate Pmax search themes into the ad campaigns.

1. Go to your Google Ads account and locate Campaigns on the left side. Then, click the other Campaigns drop-down and locate Asset Groups.
2. On the right side, click the pencil icon next to Signals:

3. You will reach this page. Under Signals, you will find search themes:

4. As mentioned earlier, advertisers can add up to 50 search themes. In order to add them, click the space that says ‘Add search themes (up to 50).’ You can individually enter 80 characters for each search theme. This means you can even add long-tail queries. 

5. After you enter the search theme, the term will go under review. To check that, hover the mouse pointer over the added theme: 

6. Once these query terms get approved, your PMax ads will appear across the Google Network for those terms.
   
7. To track performance, Google now lets advertisers use search terms insights to see whether queries are coming from Performance Max’s keywordless targeting or from the search themes they’ve added.

Note: In the latest update release from Google, there are new insights and reporting tools. They are: A source column in Search Terms Insights will tell advertisers whether traffic is coming from keywordless targeting or from the manually added search themes. An indicator next to each search theme informs you about the usefulness of a particular search theme.

And that’s how you set up and run PMax ad campaigns! Simple, right?

Now, you must wonder if they have any impact on your other campaigns having different keywords. Let’s explore that in the next section.

Also read: Learn about Performance Max Assets and AI Max for Search campaigns in detail.

PMax Search Themes Best Practices

Follow these practices to get the most from search themes in your Performance Max campaigns:

• Start small, then scale: Begin with 5 to 10 strong themes drawn from your top converting search terms. Expand toward the 50 theme limit only as data justifies it. Too many at once dilutes the signal.
• Pull themes from real data: Use Keyword Planner for search volume and pull best-performing queries from your standard Search campaign search term reports. Avoid guesswork.
• Pick high intent phrases: Use distinct themes that reflect a clear buying intent, like “buy Shopify SEO app” or “trail running shoes women”. Skip generic or informational terms like “shoes” or “how to fix”.
• Fill landing page gaps: Add themes that describe features, benefits, or use cases your product page misses, so Google’s AI has the context it cannot pull from your site alone.
• Avoid duplicates and synonyms: Skip near identical pairs like “car” and “automobile” since they reach the same audience and waste slots.
• Add location modifiers for local intent: “Shopify developer Vadodara” performs better than “Shopify developer” when you target a specific region.
• Test competitor terms where allowed: New brands can use competitor names to help Google identify the right prospect audience. Check trademark and policy rules first.
• Protect Search campaigns with exact match: Search themes share priority with phrase and broad match keywords. Use exact match in your Search campaigns to prevent PMax from cannibalizing them.
• Measure through controlled tests: Search themes have no dedicated report. Compare PMax performance with and without themes, or track shifts in overall campaign metrics.

How to Tell If Your Search Themes Are Actually Working

For a long time, search themes ran as a blind input. You added phrases, then guessed whether they helped. Google fixed this in 2025 with two reporting upgrades that work together: the Source column in the search terms insights report and the Usefulness Indicator next to each theme.

Source Column in the Search Terms Insights Report

The Source column lives inside the search terms insights report and labels each search category with the input that triggered it. To find it, open your PMax campaign, go to Insights and reports, click Insights, then scroll to the Search terms insights section.

The column shows whether a query came from:

• Your search themes
• Your final URLs
• Your creative assets
• Keywordless AI targeting

This matters because it ends the guesswork on attribution. If a converting search category lists search themes as the source, your theme is doing real work. If most converting queries trace back to URLs or assets, your themes are likely redundant.

Usefulness Indicator for Search Themes

The Usefulness Indicator sits next to each individual search theme in the asset group. It rates how much incremental traffic that theme drives beyond what PMax would have found on its own through keywordless targeting.

A high rating means the theme is unlocking new queries. A low rating means the theme overlaps with signals Google already picks up from your feeds, landing pages, and assets, so it adds no new value.

How to Act on These Signals

Use both indicators together to clean your theme list:

• Keep themes marked useful and showing as a source for converting queries.
• Replace themes with low usefulness ratings. Swap them for phrases that fill a different intent gap.
• Promote winners by adding strong converting queries from the Source column as exact match keywords in your Search campaigns.
• Suppress losers with campaign or account-level negative keywords if the source traces back to themes that waste spend.

Review these signals every two to four weeks. Treat search themes as a testable input, not a set and forget setting.

Understanding Keyword Prioritization Between PMax and Search Campaigns

When your Search campaign and Performance Max campaign have the same or similar keywords, there can be an overlap. Advertisers worry that this will jeopardize the customer’s ad experience.

To solve this issue, Google developed keyword prioritization, which helps advertisers understand how specific keywords can impact their campaigns. Here’s how it looks: 

Explanation: 

Priority 1 – When “exact match” gets preference: 

When the customer’s search term matches exactly with the keyword you have added in the Search Campaign, Google picks the exact match keyword in the Search campaign over Pmax campaigns (or over phrase or broad keyword). In this case, it is also important to note that match type and campaign priorities also play a role in prioritization.

Suppose a customer is looking for “fresh mandarins,” in the Search campaign and you have fetched “fresh mandarins,” then the exact match is chosen. 

Priority 2 – “Phrase & broad match vs search themes” which one gets preferred:

In this case, the one that is closer to the customer’s search query will get picked. Suppose the customer enters “blue nike air max” and the phrase match has “nike air max” and the search theme has “blue nike air max” added, then search theme one gets picked.

In certain cases, ad relevance and expected performance can still influence selection beyond just how closely the keyword matches the search.

Priority 3 – AI Relevance

Suppose you have two ad groups. The first ad group contains “mens sports shoes,” and the second ad group contains “lightweight running shoes.” The customer searches for “mens sports shoes near me,” in that case, the first ad group gets picked. 

Priority 4 – Ad Rank 

When a customer searches for “best running shoes for flat feet,” and both of your ad groups have relevant keywords and have equal priority, Google selects the ad with the higher Ad Rank.

Ad Rank is determined by factors like your bid amount, the quality of your ads and landing pages, and the expected impact of ad extensions and other ad formats.

Also read: Difference between Performance Max vs Search Campaigns and Performance Max vs Standard Shopping.

Pros & Cons of Using Search Themes in PMax Campaigns

Let’s explore the pros and cons of PMax search themes in your PMax ad campaigns: 

Pros

Cons

1. Using search themes has the potential to boost conversions through the Google Network–Search, Display, Shopping, etc. 2. Great way to provide signals to Google AI to enhance reach and also optimize ad campaigns with better search queries. Using it, you’re also enabling Google AI to get the right placement across the Network. 3. It’s super easy to manage ad campaigns across multiple channels.

1. PMax search themes compete with your Search campaign’s phrase and broad match keywords at the same auction priority — only exact-match keywords outrank them. So if your Search campaign relies on phrase/broad keywords, PMax can quietly steal that traffic, with AdRank deciding the winner. The fix: use exact-match keywords for queries you want your Search campaign to win. 2. It’s important to view search themes as guidance signals, not a method for precise targeting. So, they shouldn’t be your sole strategy. This is because search themes can guide the AI to the right track, but cannot guarantee results.

Also, if you wish to explore Performance Max Best Practices, visit this detailed guide.

PMax Search Themes vs. Audience Signals

Search themes and audience signals are complementary inputs in PMax, but they serve different functions. Here is how they differ:

• Purpose: Search themes guide which search queries PMax should target. Audience signals tell PMax who to target.
• Focus: Search themes work on search intent. Audience signals work on demographics, user behavior, and interests.
• Data source: Search themes rely on the textual phrases you add. Audience signals use data from website visitors, customer lists, and similar audience inputs.

Conclusion

To sum up, PMax search themes are the guiding light for your PMax campaigns. However, you must be aware of how and when to use them. The best strategy is to use a mix of different signals and strategies while aiming to make your ads visible to potential customers. 

With the right queries and keyword strategy, you can take your online business to new heights! 

FAQs

Are search themes directly targeting?
No, search themes are more like guiding signals—not direct targeting. They guide Google AI to find more relevant Performance Max placements, helping your ads appear in contexts that align with user intent.

Where do search themes apply?
Search themes in Performance Max campaigns apply at the asset group level.

Are search themes mandatory?
Yes, now PMax search themes are mandatory to add. Earlier (back in 2025), they were in a beta stage and optional.

How many search themes can I add?
You can add up to 50 Search Themes per asset group in Performance Max campaigns.

Can branded terms be used as search themes?
Yes, branded terms can be used, but exact match keywords will still take priority in Search campaigns over PMax campaigns.

Do custom segments still exist?
Custom segments based on interests, affinities, app activity, and URLs visited still work in PMax; only the search-activity-based ones were upgraded to search themes in early 2024.

How do I create search themes in PMax campaigns?
In your Performance Max campaign, open Asset groups, switch to Summary view, click the pencil next to Signals, choose Search themes, and add up to 50 unique phrases your customers use. Press Enter after each, then Save.

Do search themes respect negative keywords?
Yes, they respect account-level negative keywords. Account-level negative keywords help you opt out of content not aligning with your business goals. In the account settings, these keywords help create a single account-level list that applies negative keywords to Search and Shopping ads in your account. 

Learn more about Google Ads:

• 15+ Google Ads Examples
• AI Max for Search campaigns
• How To Set Up Product Listing Ads (PLAs)?
• Search Ads 360 Vs. Google Ads: Pros, Cons & Key Differences
• Demand Gen vs. Performance Max