How to Use Search Categories in PMax to Your Advantage

The biggest hidden lever in Performance Max usually isn’t a fancy bid strategy or a new asset group. It’s the unglamorous list of search categories quietly sitting in your Insights tab, telling you exactly what Google thinks your customers are looking for. With more than one million advertisers now running Performance Max campaigns according to Google’s own data, the brands that win are the ones that actually listen to those categories and act on them.

Used well, search categories turn PMax from a black box into a campaign you can steer. They reveal the queries driving performance, where Google’s automation is helping, and where it’s wasting money on the wrong intent. They also give you some of the control you might feel you lost when moving from pure Search campaigns to Performance Max.

This guide breaks down how search categories work inside PMax, how to read them like a performance strategist, and practical ways to turn those insights into better targeting, stronger creative, and cleaner spend. It also shows how smart brands and agencies are pairing search categories with new channel-level reporting to squeeze more profit from the same budget.

What “Search Categories” in Performance Max Actually Are

Search categories in Performance Max are clusters of real search queries that Google groups under shared themes. Instead of showing hundreds of individual search terms, PMax rolls them up into intent buckets such as “project management software for agencies” or “affordable winter jackets,” then reports back on impressions, clicks, conversions, and conversion value for each cluster.

These categories typically surface inside the Insights section, under Search term insights. Google takes the raw queries your PMax campaigns match to, evaluates user intent, and organizes those queries into the categories you see. Each category includes the top example queries, plus aggregated performance data. That roll‑up is what makes them valuable: you can see how a whole chunk of intent is performing, not just one or two random terms.

Advertisers now get much more clarity here than they did in early PMax. As Brooke Osmundson put it, advertisers “can now see the actual queries driving performance-similar to what’s available in standard Search and Shopping campaigns” in her coverage on Search Engine Journal. That shift moves search categories from a vague curiosity to a core optimization surface.

Why Search Categories Matter More in 2025

Performance Max has grown fast. Google reports that over one million advertisers are now using PMax campaigns across its network, backed by more than 90 improvements rolled out in 2024 that drove measurable gains in both conversions and conversion value for adopters. That level of adoption means competition inside the auctions is hotter, and the cost of letting automation run without guardrails is higher.

At the same time, results are not uniformly rosy. For B2B SaaS brands, for example, Varos reported that the median Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) on Google Ads in April 2025 was 1.29, a 13.03% drop from the previous month. That kind of month‑to‑month volatility makes it risky to treat PMax as a set‑and‑forget solution. Search categories give you a way to see whether that drop is coming from misaligned intent, low‑quality queries, or simply market conditions.

Another reason search categories matter: they capture the combined effect of paid search and what happens off Google, especially social proof. An experimental study by Yanwu Yang and colleagues found that when electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) effects were present, both market profit and advertising metrics like impressions and clicks were higher for search engine advertising. When people hear about a brand on social or through peers, they often turn to Google with more specific, high‑intent queries. Those queries show up inside your PMax search categories. If you ignore them, you miss the chance to lean into what the market is already saying about you.

How to Read and Interpret Search Categories

Many advertisers glance at search categories, nod, and move on. That’s a mistake. The way you read these categories determines whether they actually improve performance or just become another report you export once a month.

Start by grouping categories into three simple buckets: “perfect intent,” “adjacent intent,” and “bad intent.” Perfect intent categories reflect exactly what you want: clear buying signals for your core product or service. A category like “time tracking software for architects” would be perfect for a time‑tracking SaaS focused on architecture firms.

Adjacent intent includes queries that are related but not quite right. For that same SaaS, categories like “time tracking templates” or “architecture project templates” might indicate interest from the right audience, but at an earlier stage or looking for free resources. Bad intent is everything that clearly doesn’t belong: job seekers, researchers, support queries, or irrelevant products. A category such as “architect salary expectations” or “time tracking job description” would fall here.

Once you have these three buckets in mind, pay attention to three metrics for each category: conversion rate, cost per conversion, and conversion value. High‑cost, low‑conversion “adjacent” or “bad” categories are prime candidates for tightening targeting. Low‑cost, high‑conversion “perfect” categories suggest that PMax has found a pocket of profitable demand you should feed with more budget or specific creative.

Using Search Categories to Shape Your PMax Strategy

Search categories are not just a diagnostic tool. They should actively shape how you structure your PMax campaigns, build asset groups, and control traffic quality with negatives and signals.

Think of each strong search category-especially those in the “perfect intent” bucket-as a micro‑segment you can lean into. Create a mental map: which categories map to which audience segment, which to which product line, and which to which stage of the funnel. Then use that map when you design or refine your campaigns.

Refine asset groups and search themes based on categories

If a handful of search categories are driving the bulk of profitable conversions, they deserve dedicated attention. Consider splitting those into their own asset groups with highly tailored headlines, descriptions, images, and video creative that directly echo the language inside those categories.

For example, if you see categories around “construction project management software” and “field service management app” performing well, build an asset group with messaging, creative, and landing pages that speak specifically to those use cases. Use search themes (where available) to reinforce these intents so Google understands that these clusters are especially important.

This structure helps PMax connect the dots between what people search for and what they see in your ads. The closer your creative mirrors the language of top‑performing categories, the stronger your click‑through and conversion rates tend to be, because prospects feel they’ve landed in the right place.

Use categories to guide negative keywords and exclusions

Search categories also make it easier to identify where PMax is drifting into poor intent. When you see entire categories filled with job searches, competitor brand support queries, or informational research that rarely converts, that’s a signal to tighten things up.

Use account‑level negative keywords (or brand negatives shared via your rep or manager account, where eligible) to carve out the worst offenders. If you repeatedly see “free,” “salary,” “definition,” or “tutorial” inside low‑value categories, build a focused negative list around those patterns. If a specific competing brand’s support queries keep showing, exclude those too.

Just as important: consider excluding audiences that PMax is over‑reaching into through your signals. If categories show a lot of generic searches by people clearly outside your ICP, revisit your audience signals and remove segments that might be too broad or misleading.

Adjust bidding and budgets using category performance

PMax hides a lot of the levers you might be used to in standard Search, but you still have options. If your best search categories cluster around high‑value segments, that’s a sign you can be more aggressive with your overall targets. For instance, seeing strong performance from “enterprise contract management software” categories should nudge you toward a higher tROAS target or a more ambitious tCPA, because those deals often justify higher acquisition costs.

On the other hand, if you notice that most of your budget is flowing into “adjacent intent” categories that bring in low‑value leads, your tROAS target might be too loose or your tCPA too generous. Tightening those targets, or shifting budget to a separate PMax campaign focused on higher‑intent categories, can re‑align spend with profit.

The key is not just to change bids in isolation, but to match bidding aggressiveness to the mix of categories you see. High‑intent categories with healthy margins get more freedom; low‑intent, expensive categories trigger more conservative settings or structural changes.

Shape messaging and offers with category language

Search categories also act as a live copywriting lab. They show the exact words and phrases people use when they’re ready to take action. Instead of guessing what to highlight, you can mirror the terms with the strongest performance directly in your ads and landing pages.

If your best category examples include phrases like “no‑code CRM for small business” or “AI meeting notes for remote teams,” weave those into headlines and on‑page copy. Align your offers to what those searchers clearly want: free migrations for CRM searchers, or instant transcription for meeting‑notes searchers.

Refreshing creative based on search categories keeps PMax from going stale. It also helps your brand language stay anchored to how your market actually talks, rather than how internal teams describe the product.

Combining Search Categories with Channel-Level Reporting

Search categories tell you what people are looking for. Channel‑level reporting, which Google rolled out to Performance Max in April 2025, tells you where that demand is being captured across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, and other Google surfaces. When you put those two views together, PMax stops feeling like a single monolithic campaign and starts to look more like a coordinated portfolio.

Suppose a set of high‑intent categories is performing incredibly well, but most of the spend for those categories is landing on YouTube, not Search. That might be fine for awareness, but if the conversion rate on those YouTube impressions is weak, you might want to encourage Google to lean more heavily on Search and Shopping for that audience. You can’t flip a switch per category, but you can guide the system by tailoring creative and asset groups by channel.

For categories that skew heavily toward Search and Shopping, prioritize strong text assets, feed quality, and landing page experience. For categories performing best on YouTube or Display, emphasize video and image creative that matches the category’s language and use cases. In both cases, the category tells you what to say; the channel‑level data tells you where to say it.

Building channel-specific asset strategies from category data

One practical approach is to tag internal reporting around your main search categories, then cross‑reference that with channel performance weekly. Identify three or four “hero” categories and treat them as mini‑campaigns inside PMax.

For each hero category, design a cluster of assets optimized for the channel where that category performs best. If a high‑value category drives most of its conversions via Search, give it extra variations of responsive search ads and highly tailored sitelinks. If another category converts well from YouTube, build more mid‑length explainer videos that speak directly to that intent and audience.

Over time, you’re effectively teaching PMax which combinations of category intent and channel creative produce the best outcomes. That feedback loop is far more powerful than simply increasing or decreasing budgets without understanding the underlying mix.

When to Bring in an Expert Agency (and What Great Ones Actually Do)

There’s a point where internal teams hit a ceiling with PMax. They know how to read basic reports and tweak targets, but they struggle to turn granular data like search categories into a cohesive strategy. That gap is exactly where a strong agency partnership pays off.

At North Country Consulting, we build entire account strategies around search categories, especially for brands that live and die by lead quality or margin. We start by auditing every existing PMax campaign to understand which categories are silently driving profit and which are draining budget. Then we re‑map asset groups, audiences, and bidding to elevate the best categories and suppress the worst.

For B2B SaaS clients staring at slipping ROAS numbers similar to the 1.29 median Varos reported for April 2025, we use category data to separate “researcher” queries from “buyer” queries, then build separate PMax structures with different goals and budgets. That separation alone often stabilizes performance and gives leadership a clearer view of where revenue is truly coming from.

We also pair search categories with off‑platform signals. Remember that eWOM study showing how social buzz amplifies search engine advertising results. When our clients launch a big PR moment, social campaign, or partner integration, we watch for new search categories to appear that reference those messages or partners. Then we quickly adjust creative and budgets to capitalize on that wave while it’s hot, instead of waiting for quarterly reporting cycles.

This is why North Country Consulting positions PMax not as a black box, but as a responsive system you can train. We use search categories, channel‑level reporting, and conversion data together to continually re‑shape how the algorithm sees your business. The result is a setup where automation does the heavy lifting, but your strategy-not Google’s default assumptions-decides where your money goes.

If your team is staring at confusing search category lists, uneven performance, or unexplained swings in ROAS, partnering with us turns that noise into a clear roadmap. We step in as both strategist and operator, making sure every insight from PMax translates into concrete changes in structure, creative, and spend that actually move revenue, not just vanity metrics.

Ready to harness the full potential of search categories in your PMax campaigns and drive meaningful results? At North Country Consulting, our expertise in digital marketing and revops, particularly with Google Ads, sets us apart. With a founder who not only has extensive experience at Google Ads but also led revenue teams at industry giants like Stripe and Apollo.io, we bring a wealth of knowledge and proven success to the table. Don't let the complexities of Performance Max campaigns hold you back. Book a free consultation with us today and let's unlock the true potential of your digital advertising efforts.