Performance Max can now skip your website for your Business Profile

Google Ads has added a new destination to Performance Max, the campaign type that runs one ad across Search, Maps, YouTube and Gmail. It is called "Google Business Profile (optimised for ads)". Search Engine Watch reported it on 9 October 2026, after the Google Ads specialist Thomas Eccel posted the setup screen on X. With it, a paid click can land on a Google-hosted version of your Business Profile instead of your website.

For a locksmith whose customers only ever ring, that may cost nothing. For a clinic or a consultancy that wins work through an enquiry form, it moves the most expensive visit you buy onto a page you don't control, and swaps your inbox for a count Google keeps.

TL;DR: Performance Max can now send ad clicks to a Google-hosted Business Profile instead of your website. Results then show up as call and direction clicks that Google counts, while your enquiry form gets fewer visits. Accept it only when you really sell by phone or in person, and check Final URL expansion, which is on by default.

What does the Business Profile destination in Performance Max change?

The change is where the person lands after they click. Until now, a Performance Max ad sent people to a page on your site: the final URL you chose, or another page Google picked from your domain. In Eccel's words, "instead of always sending users to your website, PMax can now take them to a Google-hosted Business Profile experience designed for ads." The visitor sees your name, photos, reviews and opening hours, with buttons to call or get directions, laid out by Google.

Search Engine Watch put the consequence plainly: advertisers "may see traffic and conversion data shift to calls, directions, and other profile actions, and their website may get fewer visits." What changes is the page that answers the click, and who holds the record of what happened next.

At the time of writing we couldn't find a Google help page for the option, so the open details (which countries have it, whether it comes pre-selected, which campaign goals it works with) rest on that one setup screen. Look at your own account before you act on anyone's summary, ours included.

Who loses most when the ad skips the website?

Picture a physiotherapy clinic in Porto running Performance Max for new patients. Its website has a page for each treatment, an explanation of the first appointment and a booking form that asks what hurts and which week suits. A visitor who fills that form in arrives as a lead with context, even at eleven at night with the phone off.

Send the same visitor to the Business Profile and the best they can do is tap call. If the call comes in during a session and nobody answers, Google Ads still records a call click. The campaign counts a result; the clinic never meets the patient.

A business that sells through a considered decision loses the most. It needs the page that answers the questions people have before they book, and the form that catches them when nobody can pick up. It also needs a number it can check. A form enquiry lands in your inbox with a name on it. A direction click lands in a report.

When is a Google-hosted profile the better landing page?

Sometimes the profile is closer to the sale than the website. Google already builds campaigns around exactly these actions: it describes Performance Max for store goals as maximising "store visits, store sales, and local actions such as call clicks, or direction clicks", with ads on Search, Maps, Waze, YouTube and Gmail. For a tyre fitter, a takeaway or an emergency plumber, the customer wants the number or the route, now. A website page between them and the button is one more tap.

So the test is where a new customer becomes a customer. If it happens on a call that someone reliably picks up, or when a person walks in, the profile is a reasonable place to send paid clicks. If it happens through a form, a quote request, a booking with choices or a decision made after reading, the website is where the sale happens and the profile is a detour around it.

What to check in Performance Max before you accept it

Four checks, in this order, for every Performance Max campaign you run:

1. The destination. Open the campaign settings and see where clicks go. If the Business Profile option is selected and you never chose it, make the decision yourself.
2. Final URL expansion. Google's help page says it "is turned on by default for Performance Max campaigns" and lets the campaign "replace your Final URL with a more relevant landing page" from your domain. The same page warns it "can sometimes lead to ads pointing to unintended pages if not managed carefully with URL exclusions." If one enquiry page is your only route to a lead, switch it off: Google says the campaign then sends people only to the URLs in your page feed and asset groups.
3. What counts as a conversion. If call clicks and direction clicks are set as conversions, the campaign will chase them. Decide whether a tap on a call button is worth as much to you as a filled-in enquiry, given that the tap only means someone pressed the button.
4. Your own numbers. Put the campaign's reported conversions for the last few weeks next to the enquiries that reached your inbox and the calls you actually took. If Google reports more results while your inbox stays flat, the destination is the first place to look.

Why the website still has to do the selling

I'm strict about one part of every site we build: the enquiry form. On our own Foundation page, the form saves the enquiry first and only then offers a 30-minute call time, so a lead exists somewhere we own before anything else can go wrong. Paid traffic deserves the same rule.

Keep your Business Profile current; it is often the first thing a local customer sees. But it is Google's page about you. Your website is the one place where the ad's promise, your answers and your form sit together and every enquiry arrives with a name. If you are going to pay for a click, send it to the page that can close. If that page isn't ready for paid traffic yet, fix the page before you buy more clicks. Our Ads Management and website work start from that order.

Frequently asked questions

What is "Google Business Profile (optimised for ads)"?

It is a destination option inside Google Ads Performance Max, reported on 9 October 2026, that sends people who click an ad to a Google-hosted version of your Business Profile instead of a page on your website. The visitor sees your profile details with call and directions buttons, and your website gets fewer of those visits.

Can Final URL expansion send my ads to the wrong page?

It can. Google turns Final URL expansion on by default in Performance Max and lets the campaign swap your chosen page for another page on your domain. Google's own help page warns this "can sometimes lead to ads pointing to unintended pages" unless you exclude URLs. Switch it off when one page is your only route to an enquiry.

Is a call click the same as a phone call?

No. A call click records that someone tapped a call button in your ad or profile. It doesn't confirm that the call connected, that anyone answered, or that the caller booked. Compare call clicks with the calls you actually took in the same weeks before you treat them as leads.

Should I stop using my Google Business Profile?

No. Your profile is often the first thing a local customer sees, so keep its hours, photos and services current. The question here is narrower: where a paid click should land. Send it to the profile when the sale happens by phone or in person, and to your website when it happens through an enquiry.

If you'd like a second opinion on whether your enquiry page is ready for paid clicks, book a 30-minute call and bring the campaign with you.