How to Exclude Brand Keywords from Performance Max (Brand Exclusions)
9 min read · AstraLoop Studio
Open the report of a Performance Max campaign that's been running for a few months and there's a good chance you'll find this: a sizable chunk of conversions come from people who searched for your company's name. It looks like a win. In reality, it's often money down the drain. That person was already looking for you: they'd have clicked your organic result or a branded Search campaign, almost always at a much lower cost. Performance Max simply stepped in between and took the credit (and your budget).
Brand exclusions exist for exactly this: telling PMax not to intercept searches that contain your brand name. Until recently you had to go through Google support to get this; today it's a native feature in the interface. In this guide we'll look at why the problem exists, how to set up exclusions step by step, what they do (and do NOT do), and when it's actually worth turning them on.
Why Performance Max eats your brand traffic
Performance Max is a "black box" campaign by definition: you give Google a budget, assets, and a conversion goal, and the algorithm decides where, when, and to whom to show ads, spanning Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discover. The problem is that among all the inventory it touches is the search network, and there, branded searches are by far the easiest to convert.
The smart bidding algorithm aims to maximize conversions within your target. Branded queries have an extremely high conversion rate and a rock-bottom cost per acquisition, so PMax loves them: they're the fastest way to "look" high-performing. The result is cannibalization. The campaign claims conversions that would have happened anyway, inflates its apparent ROAS, and has you spending on traffic that was already yours.
This causes two concrete forms of damage:
- You pay for traffic that was free, or nearly free. Whoever searches for your name would have found you through organic results, your Google Business Profile, or a branded Search campaign running at a few cents a click. With PMax in the middle, those clicks cost more.
- The data becomes unreadable. If PMax mixes red-hot branded traffic with cold prospecting traffic in the same pool, you can no longer tell which part of the campaign is actually acquiring new customers and which is just harvesting demand that already existed.
The key point: branded traffic is demand you already generated through other efforts (word of mouth, content, past campaigns). Paying for it again inside PMax means crediting the campaign with something it didn't do. It's the same reasoning behind the debate over whether it's worth running dedicated branded Search campaigns: before deciding how much to spend on your own name, you at least need to know where you're spending it.
What brand exclusions are (and how they differ from negative keywords)
Brand exclusions are lists of brands (yours or others') that you tell Performance Max not to intercept on the search network. When you activate the exclusion for a brand, PMax stops serving text and Shopping ads for search queries associated with that brand.
Until 2023-2024 this only existed as a manual request submitted to Google support. Today, in 2026, it's a native feature: you set it directly from the campaign panel in a few clicks, and you can even manage it at the account level as shared lists. It's the clean, officially supported way to take back control of this slice of spend.
Be careful not to confuse them with classic negative keywords. They're two different things:
| Aspect | Brand exclusions | Negative keywords |
|---|---|---|
| What they exclude | An entire brand and the variants/misspellings Google recognizes | The exact keywords you enter, with a given match type |
| Scope | Only the Search/Shopping component of PMax | Search, Shopping, PMax (account-level, with limits) |
| Management | A brand list, with intelligent matching | Manual, keyword by keyword |
| Typical use | Excluding your own brand from PMax | Filtering irrelevant queries, free-intent terms, competitors |
In practice: brand exclusions intelligently handle every variation of a brand name (including common misspellings), while with negatives you'd have to anticipate and enter each variant by hand. For branded traffic, exclusions are the right tool. Negatives remain essential for everything else, and help you avoid burning budget on off-target searches.
How to set up brand exclusions step by step
Before you can exclude your brand, you need to "register" it as a brand in the account. Google requires this step to make sure exclusions match a real, verifiable brand. Here's the full flow.
1. Create (or check) the account-level brand list
- Go to Account settings and open the section dedicated to brands ("Brand lists," now part of the standard interface).
- Create a new list and add your brand. Google will ask for the brand name and, typically, the official associated website, so it can automatically recognize variants and typos.
- Save. The list becomes reusable across multiple PMax campaigns.
2. Apply the brand exclusion to the Performance Max campaign
- Open the PMax campaign in question.
- Go to the campaign settings section and look for the brand exclusions entry ("Brand exclusions").
- Select the brand list you created in the previous step and apply it.
- Save. From that point on, PMax stops intercepting searches associated with that brand.
3. Consider competitor brands too (optional)
The same feature lets you exclude third-party brands, not just your own. If you don't want PMax spending budget showing your ads when someone explicitly searches for a competitor (traffic that's usually cold and low-converting), you can add those brands to the list too. It's a strategic choice: some advertisers want to intercept competitor traffic, others prefer not to waste budget on it. Before deciding, it's worth thinking more broadly about how to position yourself against competitors on Google Ads.
4. Wait, then measure
Exclusions aren't 100% instant: give the system a few days to settle. Then compare before/after data. If you have a Looker Studio dashboard with historical data, the jump is obvious: PMax spend on branded queries drops, and you should see branded traffic resurface on your dedicated Search campaign or in organic.
What brand exclusions do NOT do (the limits you need to know)
This is where many people expect more than the feature actually delivers. Let's set the record straight.
- They don't exclude 100% of every imaginable variant. The matching is smart but not perfect. Very lateral queries or unusual combinations (brand + generic term) can still slip through. For those cases, pair exclusions with a few targeted account-level negatives.
- They only act on Search and Shopping. They don't touch Display, YouTube, Gmail, or Discover. That makes sense: brand cannibalization lives almost entirely in search.
- They don't affect generic product searches. They exclude your name, not category queries. If you sell "running shoes," that search stays in play: it's exactly the prospecting you want from PMax.
- They don't shift budget to other campaigns on their own. They free up spend from PMax, but it's on you to make sure you have an active branded Search campaign ready to capture those queries in a controlled, cost-effective way.
This last point is crucial. Excluding your brand from PMax without a follow-up strategy is only half a solution. The setup that actually works is: a dedicated branded Search campaign (rock-bottom CPC, full control) + PMax with the brand excluded (focused on acquiring new demand). That way each campaign does its own job and the data becomes readable again.
Want to know how much of your Performance Max budget is paying for traffic you'd have gotten for free? Request an audit of your account: we separate brand from prospecting and tell you where to act.
When it's worth turning them on (and when it isn't)
Brand exclusions aren't a switch to flip on regardless of context. It depends on the situation.
It's worth it if
- You have a brand with its own search volume (people search for you by name). The stronger your brand, the more PMax will tend to cannibalize it.
- Your report shows a significant share of PMax conversions coming from branded queries.
- You want clean data to understand the true cost of acquiring new customers, without the branded-traffic "trick" artificially lowering CPA. It's the same principle behind any serious look at which KPIs to track on Google Ads.
- You run an ecommerce store with Shopping active: there, the overlap between PMax and branded searches is especially frequent.
Think twice if
- You have a new or rarely searched brand: if no one searches for your name, there's no branded traffic to exclude, and the feature is pointless.
- You don't have a branded Search campaign ready to capture the freed-up queries: you risk leaving your hottest traffic uncovered and handing it to competitors bidding on your name.
- Your overall volume is so low that removing brand from PMax risks slowing down the algorithm's learning phase (fewer conversions = a longer learning period).
The practical rule: measure first, then decide. Look at the search terms report (where available) and the PMax campaign insights to estimate how much of your spend and conversions depend on brand. If it's marginal, leave it alone. If it's a big chunk, exclusions give you back control and clarity.
The bigger picture: control and attribution
Brand exclusions are one piece of a bigger issue: truly understanding what's bringing you new customers instead of rewarding campaigns that take credit for someone else's work. A healthy acquisition system doesn't settle for an apparent ROAS: it separates existing demand (brand) from new demand (prospecting), tracks conversions through to real value, and feeds the CRM with qualified leads.
PMax remains a powerful tool for capturing new demand, but it needs to be kept on a leash: brand excluded, negatives kept up to date, a branded Search campaign guarding your name. If you're building (or rethinking) your entire acquisition engine, it makes sense to start from the foundations rather than a single setting: how a coherent customer acquisition system is structured, and how paid channels integrate with lead generation on Google Ads without waste. A single brand exclusion is the tip of the iceberg: underneath it is the strategy.
The takeaway is simple: don't pay twice for the same customer. Whoever searches for you by name is already yours. Brand exclusions in Performance Max are the native tool, now easy to use, for putting a stop to wasted budget on demand you already generated, and for starting to read your numbers for what they really are.
Frequently asked questions
Are brand exclusions in Performance Max still something you have to request from Google support?
No. They used to require a manual request to support, but today brand exclusions are a native feature: you set them directly from the PMax campaign settings and manage them as brand lists at the account level.
What's the difference between brand exclusions and negative keywords?
Brand exclusions exclude an entire brand and its variants (including common misspellings) from PMax's Search/Shopping component, with intelligent matching. Negatives only exclude the exact keywords you enter. For branded traffic, exclusions are more effective; negatives remain useful for filtering everything else.
Does excluding brand from PMax mean losing conversions?
Branded conversions don't disappear: they shift to other channels where you capture people searching for you by name, such as your branded Search campaign or organic, usually at a much lower cost. That's why it's important to have an active branded Search campaign before excluding brand from PMax.
Do brand exclusions also block Display and YouTube?
No. They only act on the search network (Search and Shopping), where brand cannibalization is concentrated. Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discover are not affected by the feature.
Can I also exclude competitor brands from Performance Max?
Yes. The same feature lets you add third-party brands to the list too, so PMax won't serve your ads on explicit searches for a competitor. It's a strategic choice: it depends on whether you want to capture that traffic (often cold) or save the budget instead.
How often should you review brand exclusions?
It's worth checking shortly after activation (a few days for things to settle) and then periodically, comparing PMax spend on branded queries before and after. If you launch new products or your brand's search volume changes, update the list accordingly.
If you're building a customer acquisition system that doesn't waste budget and gives you readable data, let's talk: we start from your actual numbers.