Performance Max asset groups: what to upload for a Shopify store
A practical checklist of images, videos, logos and text assets to upload per Performance Max asset group when running Shopify products.
Written by Mantas Jurgutis — Founder, Adsify — builds the Google & Meta automation merchants use daily
Editorially reviewed by Adsify Editorial on February 20, 2026 — Reviewed against Shopify, Google Ads and Meta official documentation.
Why the asset group, not the campaign, is the creative unit
In Performance Max, the campaign holds budget and bidding strategy, but the asset group is where creative actually lives, and each asset group should represent one theme — typically one product category or one audience signal, not your entire catalog. A Shopify store selling both running shoes and yoga mats gains nothing from combining them in one asset group; the images, headlines and audience signals that work for footwear dilute the ones that work for mats. Splitting by category also makes the per-asset performance reports (Low/Good/Best labels) meaningful instead of averaged across unrelated products.
Images: the specs that actually matter
Google's Performance Max image specifications call for landscape images at 1.91:1 (minimum 600x314px, recommended 1200x628px), square images at 1:1 (minimum 300x300px, recommended 1200x1200px), and Google recommends also including a portrait 4:5 option to serve well in Discover and YouTube Shorts-adjacent placements. You need at least 1 landscape and 1 square image to publish, but Google allows up to 20 of each — use that headroom. For Shopify stores, this means don't rely solely on your product listing's square photo; source or crop a proper 1.91:1 lifestyle shot too.
Logos: small but required
Every asset group needs at least one square logo (minimum 128x128px) and Google recommends also uploading a landscape logo at 4:1. This shows up in Display and YouTube placements where your brand mark, not the product photo, needs to be recognizable at small sizes. Use a version of your logo with adequate padding and contrast against both light and dark backgrounds — a logo that only looks right on white will render poorly on the darker Discover feed backgrounds some devices use.
Video: not optional if you want full reach
If you don't supply video assets, Google will generate one automatically from your images and text, per Google's Performance Max documentation — and auto-generated video is rarely your best-performing asset. Uploading even one intentional video (minimum 10 seconds, portrait, square and landscape orientations all supported, YouTube-hosted) gives Google a genuine option to serve in YouTube in-stream and Shorts placements, which auto-generated slideshows tend to underperform in. A simple 15-second product-in-use clip filmed on a phone outperforms a stitched image slideshow in most tested cases because it holds attention differently in a video feed context.
Text assets: the full slot count
Each asset group needs up to 15 short headlines (30 characters), 5 long headlines (90 characters), 5 descriptions (90 characters), and a business name (25 characters). Google also lets you add a final URL and, for Shopify catalogs, path fields. Fill closer to the maximum than the minimum — asset groups with only the required 3 short headlines and 1 long headline give Google's combination-matching far less to work with, and it shows up directly in the Ad Strength score as 'Poor' or 'Average' regardless of how good those few assets are.
Audience signals: guidance, not restriction
Audience signals (customer lists, custom segments, interests) in Performance Max are a starting point for Google's algorithm, not a hard targeting boundary — Google explicitly documents that PMax can and will serve outside the signal if it finds better-converting audiences. For a Shopify store, a strong signal to add is a customer list of past purchasers (for exclusion or for a separate re-engagement asset group) combined with an in-market or custom segment built from your top organic search queries. Weak or absent signals simply mean Google has less initial direction and a longer early learning phase.
Structuring asset groups by product category
A clean structure for a mid-size Shopify catalog: one asset group per top-level collection (e.g., 'Running Shoes', 'Yoga Mats', 'Recovery Tools'), each with its own images, headlines and audience signal reflecting that category's typical buyer. If one category, like a hero product line, drives a disproportionate share of revenue, give it its own dedicated asset group and campaign so budget allocation and reporting aren't muddied by lower-performing categories competing for the same shared budget pool inside a single campaign.
Sourcing images beyond the default product photo
Shopify's product feed typically syncs your primary product images automatically, but Performance Max rewards variety, so supplement with: a lifestyle or in-use shot, a close-up detail shot showing texture or material, a size/scale reference shot, and if applicable a packaging or unboxing shot. If you don't have a photo studio, a lightbox and a phone camera at a window for even daylight covers the close-up and detail categories adequately; lifestyle shots are the hardest to DIY convincingly and are worth outsourcing or generating from existing product photos if budget allows.
What Adsify automates in this step
Adsify pulls a Shopify product's existing catalog imagery and generates the square, landscape and portrait crops needed to fill out an asset group's image slots, along with multiple headline and description drafts sized to Google's exact character limits, rather than a merchant manually cropping and re-uploading each ratio from a single product photo. It doesn't replace sourcing a genuinely new lifestyle photo you don't already have, but for filling out the required ratio variants from existing assets it removes a meaningfully tedious step.
Video specs and simple ways to meet them
Google requires videos to be at least 10 seconds and hosted on YouTube (uploaded to your linked channel, public or unlisted). For a Shopify merchant with no video production process, the lowest-effort compliant option is a static product photo with subtle Ken Burns-style pan/zoom exported at 15-20 seconds through basic video editing software, though a genuine handheld product-in-use clip performs better where feasible. Either way, upload it to YouTube first — Performance Max cannot pull video files directly, only YouTube URLs.
Text callouts and structured snippets carry over
If you've built out Sitelinks, Callouts, or Structured Snippets at the account or campaign level in Google Ads, verify they're eligible to surface alongside Performance Max ads — these extensions add specifics like 'Free Returns' or 'Ships Same Day' beneath the ad without consuming any of your 90-character description budget. They're an easy way to communicate additional trust signals for a Shopify store without needing another creative asset slot.
Refreshing asset groups without starting over
When a specific image or headline is rated 'Low' in the per-asset report, replace just that asset rather than deleting and recreating the asset group — recreating resets all your accumulated learning and historical reporting. Google's per-asset performance report is available under the asset group's 'View asset details' view; check it monthly for established campaigns, weekly during the first month of a new asset group while performance data is still thin.
A pre-launch checklist
Before publishing an asset group, confirm: at least 3 image ratios covered (1:1, 1.91:1, and ideally 4:5), a square and landscape logo, at least one uploaded video beyond the auto-generated fallback, 10+ short headlines, 3+ long headlines, 3+ descriptions, and an audience signal reflecting either past purchasers or a relevant in-market segment. This checklist alone eliminates the majority of 'Poor' Ad Strength ratings seen on newly launched Shopify PMax campaigns.
The takeaway
Performance Max rewards asset groups that give it genuine variety to test across every placement it serves into — image ratios, video, and a full slate of text options, all organized around one coherent product theme with a relevant audience signal. Treat the minimums Google lists as a floor, not a target, and revisit asset-level performance data monthly rather than assuming a campaign set up once will keep performing without maintenance.