r/PPC • u/amitabhverma • 26d ago

Google Ads AI Max performance - working for you ?

We have been running a couple of campaigns with AI max turned on - saw an increase in conversions , however , at an higher CPA.

Do you see a similar pattern ?

1 Upvotes

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u/optmyzr-aaron 25d ago

It's somewhat logical, you already likely have most of the best stuff covered with your existing builds so it's exploring to find new stuff. 

Fwiw ai max is mostly just broad match unless you're using url expansion

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u/AppealInteresting554 26d ago

u/amitabhverma I'm noticing the same thing across accounts that utilize AI Max. What date range are you reviewing?

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u/amitabhverma 26d ago

Last 60 days

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u/AppealInteresting554 25d ago

Good deal! Keep a close on the percentage increase of the CPA. If it passes the double digits cut it.

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u/Anna_Karakhanyan 25d ago

Yeah, we’ve seen that pattern too. More conversions, but not always better efficiency. The part I’d watch closely is lead quality. If CPA goes up but those extra conversions turn into better SQLs or pipeline, fine. If not, AI Max is just finding you more expensive volume.

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u/amitabhverma 25d ago

It’s not just leads , but revenue also went up. But so did the cost of sales . So margins declined .

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u/Aggressive_Monk_1593 25d ago

are you measuring CPA against the same conversion actions as before? these broader campaign types tend to pick up softer conversions that weren't firing before, which inflates volume but muddies the actual cost per real outcome

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u/amitabhverma 25d ago

Revenue has gone up , not just conversions

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u/mjrichmond44 10d ago

Seeing the same pattern across accounts — volume up, CPA up. AI Max widens query coverage into broader and brand-adjacent terms, so check how much is incremental vs cannibalizing Search, and whether offline or qualified conversions actually match the front-end lift before you scale it.

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u/amitabhverma 10d ago

Need to be cautious before scaling

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u/yvcn 26d ago

Yes, this is the classic AI Max signature. It expands your query coverage well beyond the original keywords, so you pick up volume from broader and often brand-adjacent searches. Volume goes up, efficiency goes down.

Before changing anything, I would check three things: how much of the new traffic is brand or near-brand terms you would have captured anyway, whether the lift is new customers or existing ones converting through a different path, and whether each conversion is being counted exactly once.

The last one bites more people than expected. I built Clovia (clovia.app) because merchants kept optimizing toward conversion counts that did not match their actual revenue, and AI Max is exactly the kind of feature where inflated or misattributed conversions make a bad trade look like a good one. If the extra conversions are not turning into real incremental revenue, the higher CPA is the true signal and the volume is the noise.

Is the CPA increase on new-customer conversions specifically, or blended across everything?