If you sell products online, you’ve likely asked this question: Which Google Ads campaign gets better ROAS? In 2025, we’re down to two heavyweights—Performance Max and Standard Shopping. Both have their pros. Both want your budget. But only one can be king when it comes to return on ad spend (ROAS).
Let’s break it down in a way that’s fun, easy to follow, and actually useful.
What Is ROAS, Anyway?
First, a quick recap. ROAS stands for Return on Ad Spend. It’s how much money you make for every dollar you spend on ads. For example, if you spend $100 and make $400, your ROAS is 4x.
In 2025, brands are battling rising costs and shrinking margins. So a high ROAS isn’t just nice—it’s survival.
Meet the Contenders
Standard Shopping
This is the traditional way of advertising products on Google. You feed in your product data. You choose bids. The ads show up in the Shopping tab, Search results, and image searches.
Easy to understand. Easy to control.
Performance Max
PMax is Google’s flashy new AI-powered campaign type. It uses machine learning to automate targeting and bidding across all of Google’s properties. We’re talking Search, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Maps, and Shopping—with just one campaign.
You just plug in your product feed, give it some assets (text, images, video), set goals, and let the algorithm go wild.
How Do They Work?
Let’s compare them like a video game battle. Performance Max is the high-level wizard. Standard Shopping is the skilled warrior.
- Standard Shopping gives you control over bidding, searches, and keywords—but you need to manage it manually.
- Performance Max automates everything using AI—but you give up direct control.
Sounds like a trade-off, right? You’re not wrong.
What’s Changed in 2025?
Three big updates in 2025 have changed the game for ROAS:
- Improved AI Targeting: Google’s AI has gotten smarter. It predicts buying behavior with better accuracy, especially for Performance Max.
- Audience Signals Matter More: Feeding first-party data into PMax (like email lists) boosts ROAS by 20% on average.
- Cost-Per-Click (CPC) Inflation: Manual bidding in Standard Shopping is getting pricey. More advertisers are going automated, raising the bar.
ROAS Showdown: Who Wins?
Let’s look at how they perform based on thousands of campaigns run in late 2024 and early 2025.
Performance Max ROAS (Average: 5.2x)
- Best for: Brands with first-party data
- Great for: Cross-channel exposure
- Pros: Automation saves time, better reach, strong mobile performance
- Cons: Less transparency, hard to see which placements are working
Standard Shopping ROAS (Average: 4.1x)
- Best for: Brands that want full control
- Great for: Testing product-level bids
- Pros: Easy reporting, transparent performance
- Cons: High CPCs, time consuming optimizations
At first glance, Performance Max wins. But there’s a catch.
Why ROAS Isn’t Everything
ROAS might be great, but what if customers don’t come back? What if most conversions are from brand terms? Understanding customer lifetime value (LTV) is just as important in 2025.
Here’s the thing—Performance Max is great at top-of-funnel and cross-sell. It may have a higher ROAS, but that could include customers already close to buying. You need to dig deeper to know if it’s truly driving new demand.
When to Use Each
Go with Performance Max when:
- You want automation to save time
- You have multiple types of assets (video, copy, images)
- You’re willing to give Google room to test
- You have CRM or email data to upload
Stick with Standard Shopping if:
- You need tight control over budget and bids
- Your products have very specific seasonal demand
- You want full reporting down to search terms
- You have a small number of hero products
Strategy: Best of Both Worlds
Here’s what many 7-figure advertisers are doing now. Instead of choosing just one, they combine both.
Example strategy:
- Use Performance Max for new customer acquisition and top-of-funnel browsing
- Use Standard Shopping campaigns with high-priority bids for high-margin items
- Separate brand terms into a manual campaign to monitor ROAS more accurately
This “double-stack” approach helps protect ROAS while still letting Google’s AI flex its targeting muscle.
Tips to Improve ROAS in Both Campaigns
- Optimize Your Product Feed: Better titles and images lead to cheaper clicks and better conversions.
- Add Negative Keywords (for Standard Shopping): Shield your budget from poor-performing queries.
- Set Clear Goals (for Performance Max): Tell Google what a conversion is worth. Let it work smarter.
- Review Asset Group Performance: Even if Google is vague, look at engagement rates on visuals, text, and videos.
Let’s Talk Budget
If you’re on a tight budget, Standard Shopping still offers the best chance to control spend. You can pause ads, tweak bids, and isolate poor performers. But if you have scale and want speed—Performance Max is tough to beat.
A lot of advertisers in 2025 are saying: “I just doubled my sales without increasing my team—thanks to PMax!”
Final Verdict
So, which one wins in 2025?
- Performance Max wins for automation, scale, and average ROAS.
- Standard Shopping wins for transparency and control.
But the real winner? The smart advertiser who uses both and plays to each one’s strengths.
Because in 2025, the best ROAS comes from strategy—not just software.
One Last Thought
Don’t just chase a high ROAS. Look at profit, growth, and how well you’re using your data. Performance Max is powerful, but if you’re flying blind—you’re not getting your money’s worth.
Test, optimize, and most importantly—keep having fun growing your store!