How-to · Updated October 12, 2026
Fix the image or headline limit in a Performance Max asset group
Updated October 12, 2026
15 minutes
A Performance Max asset group holds at most 20 images in total, landscape, square and portrait combined, plus 15 headlines, 5 long headlines and 5 descriptions. When an upload is refused, open the group's assets, count every one, including assets you did not add, remove the weakest, and read the group again right before adding.
Before you start
- Standard or Admin access to the Google Ads account. Read-only access cannot edit an asset group.
- The new images or text, ready to upload, so you know how many free places you need.
Count what the group already holds
Count every asset in the group against its cap, with images of every shape counted together against 20.
- Click the Campaigns icon, then Campaigns, and select the Performance Max campaign. In the left panel under Campaigns, click Asset groups.
- On the card for the asset group you are adding to, select View details. The table lists the assets currently serving in the group.
- Count the images of every shape together against 20. Google's spec tables put Add up to 20 images beside each image shape, which reads as 20 of each, but the asset group page states Maximum total number for all images: 20. Count headlines against 15, long headlines against 5, descriptions against 5 and logos against 5.
- Read the Added by column. Text Google wrote from your site shows Google AI there (Google's other page calls it Automatically created in the Source column). Look for anything you do not remember adding: a colleague's edit takes places in the same group.
Make room, then add
Remove assets before you upload, only as many as you are about to add, then add into the places now free.
- Choose what to drop: an image that repeats another, or one that no longer fits the group's theme. Google calls asset-level ratios such as CTR and cost per conversion directional only, and suggests waiting 2 to 3 weeks after an edit before replacing low performers, so do not judge a new image on its first days.
- In the asset table, select the drop-down arrow next to the asset's status icon and choose Remove. Acknowledge that the asset will be permanently removed and select Confirm.
- Open View details again right before you upload and count once more. Anything a colleague added between your first count and the upload can fill the places again, and the upload is then refused.
- Add your new assets, no more than the places now free, and save the asset group.
- Agree who edits the asset group from now on. When two people add images in the same week, a group can reach 20 without either noticing.
Google's pages describe pausing some assets but do not say whether a paused asset still takes a place. When the point is room, remove rather than pause.
Check it worked
Open View details on the asset group and count again: 20 images or fewer, with yours in the list. Google says to allow a few days after an edit for Ad strength and the asset group status to update.
Judge the change at the asset group or campaign level after 2 to 3 weeks, not on single assets. Google says asset impressions may not add up to the group's, because one ad impression counts once for each asset it shows.
Google's pages give different caps for descriptions and videos
Google's pages disagree with each other and with themselves. How asset groups work lists up to 4 descriptions and up to 5 videos, while its own tables, and the spec page, say 5 descriptions and 15 videos across all shapes. The best practices page says 5 videos in one line and 15 in its table. If the account refuses a fifth description or a sixth video, the lower figure is the one it applies, and the fix is the same: remove one before adding.
Adding a logo to the asset group is refused
Google has moved business logos and business information to the campaign level, as brand guidelines, and asks advertisers not to split logos across asset groups. If the asset group refuses a logo, check whether the campaign's logos are now set in brand guidelines, and set them there. The asset group page caps logos at 5.
Headlines Google wrote: do they need removing?
Google customized text shows Google AI in the Added by column (Google's other page calls it Automatically created in the Source column), and Google says it serves only when predicted to do better than your own. Google does not say whether it counts toward the 15 headlines. Removing one is permanent. To stop it for the whole campaign, open the campaign's Settings, then Asset Optimization, then Text Customization, uncheck Generation and select Save. Google says the existing customized text is then reported as Removed.