The PMax problem nobody puts in the monthly report
Left alone, Performance Max goes for the cheapest conversions it can find. Very often that means people who already typed your business name into Google, or people who were on your site yesterday and would have come back anyway.
The report shows a lovely cost per conversion. Your total number of new customers barely moves. I see this in maybe two out of three PMax accounts I audit in the UAE.
The fix is not complicated, but it is fiddly: brand exclusions, separate brand Search, conversion goals that only count qualified leads, and asset groups built around how your buyers think rather than your product catalogue.
Lead gen PMax is a different animal from ecommerce PMax
Most PMax advice online is written for online stores with a product feed. For a clinic, a law firm or a property developer, the risk is different. Without guardrails, PMax will fill your CRM with spam form fills from Display and YouTube placements.
So for lead gen I usually start with Search plus a tightly controlled PMax, feed it offline conversion data from your CRM where possible, and let it loose only when the lead quality data says it has earned it.
