Google PMax spending all budget on Search instead of Shopping? Help

[WealthpilotZ]

Hey guys,

Running a PMax campaign for a Shopify store

When I check the insights, it looks like Google's AI is pushing like 80% of my daily budget into search text ads rather than the actual Google Shopping feed. Because of this, my CPA is skyrocketing and conversions dropped.

Is there a hidden way to force PMax to focus only on Shopping feeds now, or should I just kill the PMax campaign and go back to a standard Smart Shopping setup?

Appreciate any advice on this.

 

[Fostack]

go back to a normal shopping setup, this is the best joke Google has ever come up with

 

[SEOGami]

I'd do what @Fostack recommended, but I'd break it down into a legitimate transition.

For starters, I wouldn’t kill PMax just because it’s spending heavily on Search. You can;t set it to Shopping only.

If your goal is to force tighter control over Shopping traffic, I’d test a separate Standard Shopping campaign alongside PMax rather than immediately reverting everything. That gives you much more control over bids, product groups, and where the budget goes.

Also, I’d check whether the reported 80% is actually spend by channel and whether Search is driving genuinely poor-quality conversions before making the call. If PMax’s CPA has deteriorated significantly, you can gradually pull budget from it and shift more into Standard Shopping.

Treat this as a campaign-structure issue.

 

[Apex_Ghost]

PMax algorithms often shift heavy allocation to Search if product feed attributes in Merchant Center are incomplete or if asset groups yield higher predicted intent. Adding custom labels and tightening your target ROAS forces the algorithm to re balance budget distribution back toward Shopping.

 

[socksnode]

I’m pretty new to PMax myself, but isn’t it normal for Google to move the budget around based on where it expects conversions? I’d probably check the conversion tracking first. Curious what others are doing here.

 

[Apex_Ghost]

I’m pretty new to PMax myself, but isn’t it normal for Google to move the budget around based on where it expects conversions? I’d probably check the conversion tracking first. Curious what others are doing here.

You're spot on Google shifts budget toward where it predicts conversions. But if conversion tracking isn't set up cleanly (like missing server side tags or incomplete feed attributes), the AI gets fed noisy data and defaults to high volume Search. Checking server side conversion fires is usually step one.

 

[ROIStack]

PMax is using more budget on Search because Google thinks it can get better results there. You cannot force it only to Shopping. Check your product feed and tracking, improve them, and if results are still bad, try Standard Shopping.

 

[ads studio]

go back to a normal shopping setup, this is the best joke Google has ever come up with

this is just the right option to be honest Pmax is more complex and i wont advice you use it anymore

 

[james.col]

There’s no toggle on PMax to make it run only Shopping campaigns. I would review feed quality, audience indicators, keyword performance, and conversion tracking before taking it down.

 

[Ruslan0001]

same issue here, fixing the feed in merchant center helped me more than anything. dont kill pmax yet, just add a standard shopping campaign next to it and give it a few weeks

 

[lawer stick]

can u help me