Google Ads Developer Blog: PMax

What you need to know about the business name and logo asset migration in PMax Campaigns

Monday, July 14, 2025

What’s changed? Today, we're excited to announce that the brand guidelines rollout is now complete for all new Performance Max campaigns created through the Google Ads UI, with API-created accounts soon to follow. As was first announced in December, this means that new PMax campaigns initiated in the UI will have brand guidelines enabled by default, offering advertisers greater control over their brand's representation. With brand guidelines rolling out to more Performance Max campaigns, it is crucial to understand how this impacts campaigns you interact with via the API, and for you to update your code in advance to prepare for it. What do API Users need to update now? Previously, brand assets such as your business name and logo were associated with Asset Groups. Currently, for any PMax campaign with brand guidelines enabled, these brand assets are now stored at the campaign level. This means if your application queries or modifies brand assets for PMax campaigns, you must adjust your code to look for these assets in CampaignAsset instead of AssetGroupAsset for these campaigns. Accounting for both asset locations in your application is vital to ensure your integrations continue to function as expected. To determine if brand guidelines are enabled for a PMax Campaign, check the Campaign.brand_guidelines_enabled field. What do API Users need to plan for in the future? Brand guidelines will be enabled by default when creating PMax Campaigns using the API beginning in v21. You can optionally disable brand guidelines by setting the Campaign.brand_guidelines_enabled field to false on-creation. The default behavior for brand guidelines on new Performance Max campaigns created via the API remain disabled for all supported versions through v20. To manually turn on brand guidelines through the API, you have two options:

Starting in v19, all API users can choose to manually enable brand guidelines when creating a new PMax campaign. To do so, you need to set the Campaign.brand_guidelines_enabled field to true during campaign creation. You can refer to the “Add Performance Max Campaign” code sample for an example of how to create a campaign with brand guidelines enabled.

To manually enable brand guidelines for an existing campaign, use CampaignService.EnablePMaxBrandGuidelines. Set auto_populate_brand_assets to true to automatically populate the campaign with top-performing brand assets. Disabling brand guidelines for a campaign after its creation is not supported.

There is an in-progress automatic migration to enable brand guidelines for existing campaigns. As previously announced, this migration has already begun on a rolling basis by CID. Only campaigns that use the same logos and business name across all asset groups will be automatically migrated. We anticipate the migration to be completed for all applicable CIDs by October 30th. In the meantime, we encourage you to use the existing migration endpoint to manually update your campaigns to brand guidelines at your own pace.

- Sarah Pollack, Google Ads API Team

New UI-Only Image Optimization Features for Performance Max Campaigns

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

This post was recently updated to reflect that API support for these settings will be included in v21. We're providing an important update regarding new image optimization features rolling out in the Google Ads user interface, specifically impacting Performance Max campaigns. What are these new UI features?

Landing Page Images: This setting allows Google AI to automatically source relevant images directly from your ad's landing page. The aim is to dynamically incorporate these visuals into your ads, potentially improving relevance and extending your reach across more placements.

Image Enhancements: With this feature, Google AI can automatically make improvements to your uploaded image assets. This can include smart cropping to create different versions of your images, helping to unlock more ad inventory and boost performance. Future enhancements may also include capabilities like uncropping or animating images.

You can find more information about these features in the Google Ads Help Center. Default behavior: Image enhancements will be enabled for all Performance Max users. For Landing Page Images, the setting will be enabled on PMax only if the account level Dynamic Image setting is active. Note that enabling the account-level Dynamic Image setting requires manual opt-in through the UI. Key Information for API Users: At this time these new UI features for Performance Max campaigns can only be managed with the Google Ads user interface. API control of these settings will become available in version 21.

These features will not be viewable through the Google Ads API.

At this time, you will not be able to opt-in or opt-out of these new settings (Landing Page Images and Image Enhancements) using the Google Ads API. To change the status of these settings you must use the Google Ads UI.

API Integration Impact: Your existing API integrations will continue to function for the features and settings currently supported by the API. However, these new additional Performance Max settings will need to be managed by your users directly in the Google Ads interface. We encourage you to familiarize yourselves with the details provided in the Google Ads Help Center to understand the scope of these UI changes for Performance Max campaigns. This will enable you to effectively support your users and clarify what can and cannot be controlled via the API. We are committed to keeping our developer community informed. Stay tuned to this blog for further updates on control of these image optimization settings in the Google Ads API.

- Sarah Pollack, Google Ads API Team

Upcoming Performance Max campaign migration to enable brand guidelines

Friday, March 28, 2025

May 1, 2025BUSINESS_NAMELOGOLANDSCAPE_LOGO

For Google Ads UI users: The process will begin on May 1, 2025 for customer IDs that exclusively manage their campaigns using the UI.

For API users: This process will begin on June 1, 2025.

July 31, 2025Important Notes:

Only campaigns using consistent business names and logo assets across all asset groups will be automatically migrated. Campaigns with variations in these assets will not be migrated.

All eligible Performance Max campaigns under a customer ID will be migrated simultaneously.

After migration, each migrated campaign will have its own set of brand assets stored at the campaign level using CampaignAsset.

You can tell if a campaign has been migrated by checking its Campaign.brand_guidelines_enabled field.

Actions RequiredCampaign.brand_guidelines_enabledCampaign.brand_guidelines_enabledCampaignAssetAssetGroupAssetCampaignService.EnablePMaxBrandGuidelinesCampaignService.EnablePMaxBrandGuidelinesEnableOperationssupport page

- Sarah Pollack, Google Ads API Team

Upcoming changes to enable brand guidelines in Performance Max

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Starting on January 20, 2025, new Performance Max (PMax) campaigns created with the UI will have brand guidelines enabled and require business name and logo brand assets to be linked at the campaign level rather than the asset group level. Brand guidelines is a new feature that allows you to control how your brand is represented in your Performance Max campaign automated assets or formats. What this means for API users New PMax campaigns created in the UI with brand guidelines enabled will automatically link BUSINESS_NAME, LOGO, and LANDSCAPE_LOGO via the CampaignAsset resource rather than by using the AssetGroupAsset resource, which may impact integrations that attempt to report on or update these assets. You can check if brand guidelines are enabled for a PMax campaign by referencing the Campaign.brand_guidelines_enabled field. As of v18 of the Google Ads API, it is not possible to create brand guidelines-enabled PMax campaigns via the API, which means new campaigns must link BUSINESS_NAME, LOGO, and LANDSCAPE_LOGO assets using the AssetGroupAsset resource. In a future release, you will be able to create and fully manage PMax campaigns with brand guidelines enabled. It is important to note that the same asset requirements will continue to apply to all PMax campaigns regardless of whether or not brand guidelines are enabled. However, BUSINESS_NAME, LOGO, and LANDSCAPE_LOGO asset requirements will be evaluated at the campaign level for campaigns with brand guidelines enabled and the asset group level for campaigns without brand guidelines enabled. You can reference the relevant section of our Performance Max optimization and troubleshooting guide for more information, and as always, contact our team if you need support.

- Devin Chasanoff, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Introducing the Performance Max Developer Guide

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Today we are pleased to announce the release of a dedicated Performance Max developer guide. With this release, we’ve moved Performance Max content to its own tab in the main navigation of our developer documentation with a dedicated landing page and updated navigation to help you more easily find the information you need to build Performance Max integrations.

Other notable improvements include:

Adding a new Structure requests guide that details many of the intricacies of constructing requests that create and update Performance Max campaigns

More clearly identifying and renaming business goals in the developer documentation

Standard Performance Max is now referred to as Performance Max for online sales or lead generation
Performance Max for Retail is now referred to as Performance Max for online sales with a product feed

Improving Performance Max integrations Blog Series This article is part of a series that discusses new and upcoming features that you have been asking for. Keep an eye out for further updates and improvements on our developer blog, continue providing feedback on Performance Max integrations with the Google Ads API, and as always, contact our team if you need support.

- Devin Chasanoff, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Performance Max Guide Enhancements

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Today, we are pleased to announce several guide enhancements to improve the experience of creating, managing and reporting on Performance Max campaigns with the Google Ads API.

New Getting Started guide that outlines the steps to create

Reorganized guide structure to better reflect entity relationships in Performance Max campaigns

Clarified asset requirements

Revamped Performance Max reporting guide

Better surfaced features such as campaign-level conversion goals and asset group signals

Additional troubleshooting content

- Devin Chasanoff, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Change to updates of Google Ads custom audience types

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Starting September 27, 2023 you will see a change if you use custom audiences. You will no longer be able to update a custom audience type once you create the custom audience. For example, if you set the type to AUTO or INTEREST, then you cannot update it to the type SEARCH in the Google Ads API. This change ensures that your campaign continues to serve by making sure that your custom audience remains eligible. What do I need to change? Modify your code so it avoids attempting to update the type of an existing CustomAudience. If your code attempts to update the type field after September 27, 2023 then the API will return a CustomAudienceError.INVALID_TYPE_CHANGE error. Where can I get support? If you have questions, please reach out to us on the forum or at googleadsapi-support@google.com.

Nadine Wang, Google Ads API Team

Changes to location targeting in Google Ads Search, Shopping, Display, and Performance Max campaigns

Monday, February 27, 2023

April 14, 2023location targeting settingsGoogle Ads API

Campaign.geo_target_type_setting fields

positive_geo_target_type can no longer be set to SEARCH_INTEREST for Search, Shopping, and Display campaigns. The default value is PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST.

negative_geo_target_type can no longer be set to PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST for Performance Max, Search, Shopping, and Display campaigns. The default value is PRESENCE.

SettingError.SETTING_VALUE_NOT_COMPATIBLE_WITH_CAMPAIGNApril 24, 2023SELECT campaign.id, campaign.geo_target_type_setting.positive_geo_target_type, campaign.advertising_channel_type FROM campaign WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type IN ('DISPLAY', 'SEARCH', 'SHOPPING') AND campaign.geo_target_type_setting.positive_geo_target_type = 'SEARCH_INTEREST' LIMIT 1SELECT campaign.id, campaign.advertising_channel_type, campaign.geo_target_type_setting.negative_geo_target_type FROM campaign WHERE campaign.geo_target_type_setting.negative_geo_target_type = 'PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST' AND campaign.advertising_channel_type IN ('DISPLAY', 'PERFORMANCE_MAX', 'SEARCH', 'SHOPPING') LIMIT 1Where can I get support?forumgoogleadsapi-support@google.com

Nadine Wang, Google Ads API Team

Google Ads API Video Roundup - Feb 2023

Thursday, February 2, 2023

The Google Ads Developers Channel is your source for release notes, best practices, new feature integrations, code walkthroughs, and video tutorials. Check out some of the recently released and popular videos and playlists below, and remember to subscribe to our channel to stay up to date with the latest video content. Performance Max for Developers [New Series] In this series, we navigate the entire developer journey of creating standard Performance Max campaigns and Performance Max campaigns for online sales with a product feed. We discuss how to think about Performance Max as compared with other campaign types and walk through the process of creating Performance Max campaigns conceptually. In addition, we explore several implementation options with the use of the new Performance Max Interactive Guide, which you can use to easily follow along and jumpstart your integration. Five episodes have been published with an additional three more on the way. Subscribe to our channel to be notified when new episodes are released. Testing Your Integration [New Series] In the first two episodes of this miniseries, we begin to look at testing with the Google Ads API. In the introductory episode, we discuss Google Ads test accounts and test account alternatives. In the second episode, we demonstrate test account usage in practice. Subscribe to our channel to be notified when the next episode about testing best practices becomes available. Campaign Primary Status [New Video] The Google Ads API introduced two new fields on the campaign resource in v12, called primary_status and primary_status_reason. In this video, we discuss how they can help you understand what is going on with your campaigns and how to optimize their serving. Meet the Team [New Episodes] Check out the two new episodes in our Meet the Team series to catch in-depth discussions with Eric Schwelm, who is a Software Engineer and Tech Lead on the Google Ads API, and Carolyn Chou, who is a Product Manager working on Performance Max campaigns in the Google Ads API. For additional topics, including Release Notes, Authentication and Authorization and Working with REST, check out the Google Ads Developers YouTube channel. As always, feel free to reach out to us with any questions via the Google Ads API forum or at googleadsapi-support@google.com.