Knowledge base
What conversions is Performance Max really taking credit for?
Some real conversions, plus a share of demand you already had, plus whatever your tracking setup happens to count.
Three different things get mixed into one number, and Performance Max's limited reporting makes them hard to pull apart without deliberate checking.
- Real new demand the campaign's Display, YouTube, or Discover placements surfaced that would not have converted otherwise.
- Branded search you already had. Without a brand exclusion, the campaign can serve on your own brand name and take credit for a customer who was already looking for you.
- Whatever your conversion tracking is actually configured to count, which may include duplicate conversions, low-value micro-actions, or events that do not match a real sale, all optimized for equally by the bidding model.
Checking a brand-exclusion setting and comparing reported conversions against real CRM or order data at least once a quarter is the only way to know which of the three you are mostly looking at. See the Performance Max guide for the full checklist.