Why your Performance Max conversions look inflated
Performance Max frequently reports gaudy conversion numbers that do not match your actual growth. PMax is not necessarily lying, but it claims credit in ways that flatter it, and knowing how lets you judge its real contribution.
Why PMax over-reports
- Brand traffic: PMax can absorb searches from people already looking for you and claim those conversions as its own.
- View-through: it counts view-through conversions from display and video impressions.
- Overlap: it can take credit for conversions your other campaigns or channels also influenced, as with cross-platform double counting.
How to see its true value
Look at incrementality, not the raw conversion count. Did total business grow when PMax scaled, or did it just reassign conversions that would have happened anyway? Compare PMax-reported conversions against your actual orders and your GA4 last-click view for the same period.
Practical steps
- Use brand exclusions so PMax does not harvest your own brand searches.
- Watch total blended ROAS (MER), not just PMax's self-reported ROAS, see ROAS per platform.
- Make sure your conversion actions are clean so you are not feeding it duplicates.
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