Search Themes Come to All New Performance Max Campaigns
Google made Search Themes a standard input in new PMax campaigns — a small UX change with real consequences for how you feed intent into automated campaigns.
Search Themes rolled out to every new Performance Max campaign in July 2025, nudging advertisers to tell the algorithm which search topics matter — instead of leaving discovery entirely to the machine.
What you need to know
The update in four points:
- Search Themes are now a first-class input, not buried in an optional panel
- Feeding 6–8 high-intent themes per asset group beats leaving the field blank
- Themes are suggestions, not negatives — they broaden, they don't block
- Old-style 'search thesaurus' hacks now have a native home
What this means for advertisers
The move confirms what the platform itself has always said about PMax: the algorithm improves as your inputs improve. Clean negatives and honest themes are what separate a strong PMax from a spray-and-pray PMax.
Next step
Add search themes drawn from your actual search-term report, not guesswork. Three to four themes per asset group, refreshed after every negative-keyword cleanup round.
Platform updates move budgets. Get the playbook applied to your campaigns with a free ad audit from ADZBE (Bengaluru & Hyderabad) — Google Ads, Meta Ads, ChatGPT Ads, JioHotstar, LinkedIn and Moj.
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