Aaron YoungGoogle Ads Coach | Define Digital Academy

The future of PMAX

19 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief interview, Aaron Young discusses the evolving role of Google Performance Max (PMAX) for e‑commerce advertisers. He predicts that within roughly 18 months PMAX will become a niche "smart shop" tool that few brands actively use, as account structures shift toward dedicated search, shopping, and demand‑generation campaigns. Despite this forward‑looking view, Young stresses that PMAX remains essential today—he cannot envision any e‑commerce account without it, though it typically accounts for only 20‑30% of total ad spend. The segment serves as both a warning against premature abandonment of PMAX and a strategic glimpse into future campaign architecture.

Chapters

So you said something interesting there, which is you're using shopping campaigns heavily over— yes. How are you thinking through that?
I do see a world in sort of 18 months from now where Performance Max will essentially become the smart shop— sorry, essentially become the smart campaign that no one really uses. And if you look at it in terms of an e-commerce brand, more and more we would see account structures being built around search, shopping, and demand gen. As opposed to Performance Max. But the big warning is you need Performance Max now. So that's the big warning. So please don't run with that because we are still running Performance Max. I can't think of any e-commerce account that we don't have Performance Max running, but in a lot of accounts now, Performance Max is only 20 to 30% of the spend.