Google launched a new channel performance timeline view inside Performance Max, giving advertisers a clearer breakdown of how individual channels — Search, YouTube, Display, and others — are contributing to campaign results over time.

What’s new. A timeline graph now shows channel-level contributions over a selected period, paired with investment and performance filters. Advertisers can see at a glance which channels are pulling their weight — and which aren’t.

Pmax GraphPmax Graph

Yellow box – Channel Performance Evolution Over Time

Pink box (right) – All Ads, Ads Using Product Lists, Ads Using Video

Why we care. Performance Max campaigns span multiple channels simultaneously, which makes it genuinely difficult to know where budget is being spent most effectively. This update gives advertisers a timeline view of channel-level contributions — so if YouTube is underperforming while Search is driving most conversions, that’s now visible without having to dig through export data or rely on guesswork.

This allows you to spot channel-level trends earlier and adjust asset strategy or budget accordingly.

The big picture. The view gives advertisers a more actionable way to evaluate PMAX performance without having to rely solely on Google’s automated decisions. If YouTube is consistently underdelivering while Search drives the bulk of conversions, that’s now visible — and can inform budget and asset strategy going forward.

The bottom line. It’s not full transparency, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction. Advertisers have a cleaner way to spot PMax trend anomalies early and adjust accordingly.

First spotted. This update was first spotted by Head of Search at Le Mage du SEA, Axel Falck, who shared spotting this update on LinkedIn.


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Anu AdegbolaAnu Adegbola

Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.

In 2008, Anu started her career delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side. Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live and host of weekly podcast PPC Live The Podcast.

She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US, UK, Munich, Berlin), Friends of Search (Amsterdam, NL), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna, IT) and more.