Search themes in Performance Max allow you to provide Google AI with valuable information about what your customers are searching for and which topics lead to conversions for your business.
Here are a few examples where search themes can be especially helpful if you have knowledge about your business or customers that AI can’t easily or quickly learn:
- Your landing page doesn’t have complete details or the latest updates about the products and services you offer.
- You’ve just expanded into a new market or launched a new product or service where your campaigns don’t have extensive performance history.
- You are launching a new promotion or sale for the holiday season where you don’t have extensive performance history.
- You want to expand your reach within Performance Max—including on Search inventory in Performance Max—and ensure you have comprehensive coverage on important business themes.
- You want to provide important information to help your campaign ramp up and optimize performance faster.
Instructions
Follow these steps to apply search themes to an existing campaign:
- In your Google Ads account, go to the left side navigation panel and select your Performance Max campaign.
- Select Campaigns, then select Asset group.
- Click the pencil icon
next to "Signals" on the right side of the asset group card to edit signals.
- On the “Signals” card, select Search themes.
- Add up to 25 unique search themes. For example, avoid “car” and “automobile,” as they’ll reach the same audience.
- As you enter the search themes, they become chips in the input area.
- Click Save.
next to "Signals" on the right side of the asset group card to edit signals.- If the search themes aren’t eligible, policy errors are shown when you hover over the interface.
- Search themes respect brand exclusions rules.
Validation errors
Validation errors remind you to enter search themes in the correct format. You can view the errors by hovering over the red search themes.
Validation errors may occur due to the following reasons:
- Copying and pasting search themes that aren’t separated by either a comma or a line break
- Pasting too many search themes (more than 25)
- Adding search themes that are too long (limit 80 characters)
- Adding duplicate search themes
You can correct validation errors by clicking the chip and editing the search themes.
All search themes are allowed to be used as long as they follow the Google Ads Policies.
Note: After you remove the excess chips if you've entered in more than 25 search themes, the error around the input disappears.
FAQs
Will search themes limit Performance Max traffic?
No, it may help identify new or incremental traffic that drives improved performance when that traffic can’t be found with keywordless AI technology through the final URL expansion feature.
For example, let’s say you manage ads for a museum that has a great outdoors space for kids, but you have limited resources to develop separate ads landing pages for each benefit. You can add “activities for children” and “outdoor recreation” as search themes, to ensure you reach customers across channels (in both Google Search and YouTube search results) that are interested in those offerings.
What's the maximum number of search themes that I can add?
You can add up to 25 search themes per asset group.
Are search themes required to use with Performance Max campaigns?
No. Search themes are an optional input you can use to drive better performance.
Can I turn off search themes after using it?
Yes. You can remove the search themes you don’t want to include in your Performance Max asset group at any time.
Can I copy and paste search themes into the field?
Yes. Use commas to separate each search theme you want to add.
