Stop Performance Max from bidding on your brand name

Performance Max (PMax) is winning auctions for your own brand name. The campaign looks efficient because those clicks convert, but you are paying for people who were already looking for you, often at a higher cost than a dedicated Search campaign would charge.

PMax is built to find converting queries. Your brand is the easiest converting query in the account. Without an exclusion, Google will keep buying it.

This post covers how to confirm PMax is taking brand traffic, how to apply brand exclusions the way Google documents them, and what the control will not cover.

Stop PMax from bidding on your brand by adding a brand exclusion list to the campaign. Google treats that as the right control, covering the brand name, common misspellings, and related brand queries on Search, Shopping, and YouTube search. Keep branded search in its own campaign if you still want to show for those queries. Negative keywords are a weaker substitute.

Confirm PMax is buying the brand

Open the campaign's search terms or insights view and look for the company name, product names that are the brand, and obvious misspellings. If those queries have spend inside PMax, the campaign is competing with, or replacing, your brand Search ads.

Compare cost and conversion volume on those terms against a brand Search campaign if you have one. PMax often looks cheaper on last-click because it sits on the same branded query. That is cannibalization, not a new customer.

Use brand exclusions, not a pile of negatives

Google's brand exclusions help says they are the most effective way to control ads on searches for a brand. The list blocks the brand, common misspellings, and related subsidiary brands. That is broader than typing a few negative keywords and hoping they stick.

For Performance Max, exclusions apply to Search, Shopping, and YouTube search inventory. Display and other PMax surfaces are a different problem. If the job is "stop paying for people who typed our name into Google," this is the setting.

Build and apply the list

Google's steps to apply brand exclusions put the control in campaign settings.

1. Create or open a brand list that includes your company name as Google has it in the brand registry, plus any product brands you own that PMax is matching.
2. Open the Performance Max campaign, go to Settings, then Additional settings (some accounts still label this Other settings).
3. Open Brand exclusions and select that list. Save.
4. Leave "Allow Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands" unchecked if the goal is to stop paying for brand in this campaign entirely. Check it only if Shopping should still appear when someone searches the brand.
5. Repeat on every PMax campaign that should not buy brand. A list on one campaign does not protect the others.

Keep brand somewhere else

If you still want to show when someone searches the brand, run that traffic in a Search campaign you control. Google's own usage note is that exclusions are the right move when brand is managed separately and you do not want PMax to pay for those clicks.

What still leaks through

Brand exclusions only work for brands Google can match in its list. If your name is generic, or the registry has the wrong entity, the control will miss queries. In that case the leftover terms still need monitoring in search insights, not a second PMax campaign.

The setting also does not pause brand spend overnight in reports. Existing queries can take time to fall out. Recheck search terms after the next full week of delivery before deciding the list failed.

Do not expect account-wide placement exclusions to do this job. Those are for YouTube and website placements, not for branded search queries.

When to leave brand inside PMax

A brand exclusion is the wrong fix if there is no Search campaign to catch the queries, and you still need to appear for the name. Turning PMax off brand with nothing else in the account can hand those auctions to competitors.

It is also the wrong first move if the real leak is a Shopping feed stuffed with the brand name on every title, and you actually want Shopping on those searches. Use the Shopping checkbox instead of arguing with the exclusion.

Separating brand from prospecting inside Google Ads is part of performance marketing work. For a look at whether PMax is currently paying for your name, start with Get Free Assessment.