What Are the Character Limits for Google Performance Max Headlines and Descriptions?

Google Performance Max text assets break into three fields with separate character limits: headlines cap at 30 characters each and require 3 to 15 of them, long headlines cap at 90 characters each and require 1 to 5, and descriptions cap at 90 characters each and require 2 to 5, per Google Ads Help Center documentation on text assets for Performance Max campaigns.

The Full Set of Text Fields

• Headlines — 30 characters maximum, minimum of 3 needed to publish, up to 15 allowed. Google recommends at least one headline of 15 characters or fewer, since some placements have less room to display longer ones.
• Long headlines — 90 characters maximum, minimum of 1, up to 5 allowed. Google suggests writing long headlines at 30 characters or more so they actually read as a fuller message rather than duplicating a short headline.
• Descriptions — 90 characters maximum, minimum of 2, up to 5 allowed.
• Business name — 25 characters maximum, and Google requires it to match the advertiser's actual domain name or legally verified business name rather than a promotional tagline.
• Display URL paths — 15 characters maximum each, with 1 to 2 paths allowed, appended after the domain in the ad's visible URL.

Why There Are Two Kinds of Headlines

The split between short headlines and long headlines exists because Performance Max serves ads across placements with very different amounts of visible space — a Search results headline has far less room than a Discover feed card. Short headlines fill the tighter Search-style placements, while long headlines give the system a fuller message to use on placements like YouTube and Discover that can show more text at once.

Double-Width Languages Count Differently

As with Google's other text ad formats, every character in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean counts as two toward each limit instead of one. A 30-character headline effectively becomes a 15-character headline in those languages, which means copy translated directly from English often needs to be rewritten shorter rather than translated character-for-character.

Recommended Counts Exceed the Minimums

Google's help documentation recommends 11 or more headlines even though only 3 are required, because Performance Max's machine-learning system tests combinations of assets against different placements and audiences, and a thin set of headlines gives it fewer combinations to learn from. The required minimums are a publishing floor, not a performance target.

How This Differs From Standard Responsive Search Ads

A standard Google Ads responsive search ad allows up to 15 headlines at 30 characters and 4 descriptions at 90 characters, with no separate long-headline field. Performance Max adds the long-headline field on top of that structure specifically because its placements extend beyond Search into Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps, surfaces that can accommodate a longer message than a search results page can.

Bottom Line

Fill in more than the required minimum of 3 headlines, 1 long headline, and 2 descriptions — Google's own 11-headline recommendation reflects how much the system relies on having multiple options to combine across different Performance Max placements.

Source: Google Ads Help Center, "About text assets for Performance Max campaigns" (support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14528373).