Regarding optimization levers for Microsoft PMax

Question

お世話になっております。

MicrosoftのPMAXにおいて、クエリや配信面が見れない仕様かと認識しておりますが、実績が変化した時にどこを見て要因を推測しに行けばよいかご教示いただきたいです。

調整レバーにどのようなものがあるのか併せてご教示いただけますと幸いです。

Answer 1

Hello 田原 優和,

Thank you for using our Microsoft Advertising Learn Q&A Platform! 

Based on what I understood through translation, you are inquiring about monitoring the performance changes on your PMAX campaigns. Please note that we currently only provide English support on our Learn platform, but we will be more than happy to put you in touch with our Japanese speaking support advocates. I hope the response and resources provided here will be of some help to you. You are also welcome to respond to my private message by elaborating on your query. Rest assured, we will do our best to provide you with the best answers we possibly can.

For Microsoft Advertising Performance Max (PMAX) campaigns, diagnosing performance changes requires reviewing several key areas and understanding which levers you can adjust. Below is a structured approach to help identify causes and take action.

Where to Look for Causes

Performance Trends by Asset Group Start by analyzing how different asset groups are performing. Identify whether specific groups are driving changes in impressions, clicks, or conversions. Shifts in performance across asset groups may signal creative fatigue or changes in audience behavior.

Search Term Insights Review the search categories and queries your PMax campaign is matching against. A noticeable change in query mix can directly affect click-through rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), and conversion rates.

Audience Signals Evaluate whether your audience composition has changed. For example, an increase in remarketing traffic versus prospecting can significantly influence performance. Variations in audience quality often impact conversion rates.

Budget Utilization Check whether your daily budget is being fully spent or if there is under delivery. Budget limitations can restrict impression share and reduce overall conversions.

Bid Strategy and CPA/ROAS Targets If you have recently adjusted your target CPA or ROAS, be aware that the system may still be recalibrating. These changes can affect bidding behavior and the types of traffic your campaign attracts.

Seasonality and External Factors Consider external influences such as seasonal demand shifts, competitor activity, or broader market trends. These factors can have a meaningful impact on campaign performance.

Auction Insights Analyze metrics like impression share, overlap rate, and position above rate. Changes in these indicators can reveal increased competition or shifts in auction dynamics.

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Adjustment Levers Available

Budget Adjust your daily budget to either scale performance or control spend. Make sure your budget aligns with your goals and reflects seasonal demand patterns.

Bid Strategy Targets Modify your target CPA or ROAS to influence bidding aggressiveness. Lower CPA targets or higher ROAS targets can improve efficiency but may reduce volume.

Creative Assets Refresh your creatives regularly, including headlines, descriptions, images, and videos. Testing new variations can help combat ad fatigue and improve engagement.

Audience Signals Refine or expand your audience signals to guide the algorithm toward higher-quality users. Consider incorporating customer match lists, remarketing audiences, or in-market segments.

Product Feed Optimization (for Shopping Inventory) Ensure your product feed is accurate and up to date. Optimize titles, descriptions, and images to improve visibility and performance.

Geo and Language Targeting Adjust geographic and language targeting to focus on high-performing regions or to expand into new opportunities.

Seasonality Adjustments Use seasonality bid adjustments when anticipating short-term changes in conversion rates, such as during promotions or peak sales periods.

For further information, please see:
Best practices for Performance Max campaigns

About Performance Max campaigns

About asset reporting

Our support teams are happy to discuss your account in more detail via phone, chat or email to provide review assistance, please see our support page (エキスパートに問い合わせる).

I hope the information provided here will at least partly answer your question.  If you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to reach out to our support. As mentioned, I have also sent you a private message asking for further details. You are more than welcome to respond to me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards, 

Vahid | Microsoft Advertising Support Specialist | 800-518-5689

Answer 2

You are very welcome.

You can see search queries and audience performance for PMAX campaigns in Microsoft Advertising, but the way they’re reported is different from Search campaigns.

• Search queries:
  • Use the Search terms insights report (Reporting > Performance > Search terms insights).
  • This shows search categories (auto‑grouped search terms) with performance metrics like clicks, CTR, conversions, conversion value, impressions, and search volume.
  • It’s only available for PMAX campaigns and can take up to 3 days to populate.
  • You can also run a Search term report at the campaign, ad group, or asset group level, but it’s designed to highlight only terms with significant impression volume — so it won’t list every query like in Search campaigns.
• Audience performance:
  • Viewable in two places:
    1. Audiences table — add performance columns (impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions, ROAS, etc.) for each audience association.
    2. Audience performance report — includes audience attributes (ID, name, campaign/ad group association) and performance metrics.
  • You cannot download audience lists from the Audience Library due to privacy rules.

Please note that for Search campaigns, you can run the Search term reportto see individual queries that triggered your ads, often with more granular detail than PMAX provides. Search insights (trending searches) are available for Search campaigns, but not for PMAX. In Search campaigns, you can see a more complete list of individual search terms. n PMAX, you get aggregated search categories in Search terms insights, plus a filtered Search term report for high‑volume queries. Therefore, visibility is more limited and focused on actionable data.

You are welcome to reach out with any other questions you may have. If you wish to discuss your account specifics, you can respond to my private message.

Kind regards, 

Vahid | Microsoft Advertising Support Specialist | 800-518-5689

Answer 3

ありがとうございます。

PMAXについてクエリやオーディエンスはどこで見れますか？

検索では見れるが、PMAXでは見れない認識なのですが…