How to Apply Performance Max Brand Exclusions

Write down which branded queries the campaign should avoid and why. Separate your own brand, competitor brands, retailers, product sub-brands, and generic words that happen to appear in a brand name. The control should answer a routing question, not express a vague preference for nonbrand growth. Write the control before changing production: the brand entities and inventory surfaces in scope. Name the accountable owner and preserve the decision date so later reporting uses the rule that actually existed.

Decide whether branded Shopping traffic should remain eligible while Search text ads are excluded. Google exposes that choice for feed-based Performance Max. Record the intended inventory scope before configuration so a later reviewer can distinguish a deliberate exception from an incomplete exclusion. Retain a dated intent statement and current campaign settings as the evidence set. Verify exceptions separately, and do not infer ranking, demand, savings, or causal business impact from the configuration or report alone.

Create or reuse an account-level brand list and verify every entity shown in the interface. Google treats brands as entities associated with identifiers such as domains, logos, trademarks, products, or business names. Include parent and child brands when both are relevant to the boundary. Write the control before changing production: the canonical brand entity list and variants. Name the accountable owner and preserve the decision date so later reporting uses the rule that actually existed.

Review alternative names that do not share a common word. Google says brand lists can match variants, misspellings, and multiple languages, but separate entities may still need separate entries. Request a missing brand through the supported interface instead of substituting a loose keyword and assuming equivalent coverage. Retain screenshots or exports of the resolved brand entries as the evidence set. Verify exceptions separately, and do not infer ranking, demand, savings, or causal business impact from the configuration or report alone.

Use a brand exclusion for an entity-level boundary. Use campaign-level negative keywords for specific unwanted queries and account-level negatives only when the restriction truly belongs across campaigns. These controls differ in matching behavior and scope, so do not migrate between them without a query-level review. Write the control before changing production: one named purpose for each targeting control. Name the accountable owner and preserve the decision date so later reporting uses the rule that actually existed.

Avoid layering overlapping controls until no one can explain which setting blocked traffic. Maintain a control map that names the campaign, list, keyword set, owner, and reason. When two controls are necessary, document which one is authoritative and how removal will be tested. Retain the control map and representative query examples as the evidence set. Verify exceptions separately, and do not infer ranking, demand, savings, or causal business impact from the configuration or report alone.

Open the campaign settings, expand the additional settings, choose Brand exclusions, and attach the approved brand list. For a new campaign, the setting is available during campaign setup. For existing campaigns, save only after checking that the selected list and Shopping exception match the written boundary. Write the control before changing production: campaign-by-campaign approval and rollback evidence. Name the accountable owner and preserve the decision date so later reporting uses the rule that actually existed.

Bulk editing can apply exclusions to multiple campaigns, but treat each campaign as a separate decision. Preview the change, confirm campaign selection, and avoid a blanket rollout when brand-routing strategies differ. Capture the before and after settings for rollback. Retain the preview, selected campaigns, list name, and saved state as the evidence set. Verify exceptions separately, and do not infer ranking, demand, savings, or causal business impact from the configuration or report alone.

Check the campaign's settings after save and monitor search-category or query evidence available in the account. Confirm that relevant brand traffic declines on the intended surfaces while permitted Shopping behavior remains consistent with the selected exception. Allow for reporting latency before declaring the control ineffective. Write the control before changing production: a bounded verification window and expected query examples. Name the accountable owner and preserve the decision date so later reporting uses the rule that actually existed.

Look for unintended reach loss, especially when a word can refer to a brand and a generic concept. Google warns that brand settings can constrain traffic. Preserve unknowns and investigate concrete query categories rather than claiming that all brand traffic disappeared immediately. Retain settings, report dates, and observed categories as the evidence set. Verify exceptions separately, and do not infer ranking, demand, savings, or causal business impact from the configuration or report alone.

If a separate Search or Shopping campaign owns branded demand, verify its budgets, eligibility, landing pages, and measurement before excluding that traffic from Performance Max. An exclusion does not guarantee that another campaign will capture every eligible query or impression. Write the control before changing production: the intended owner of excluded brand demand. Name the accountable owner and preserve the decision date so later reporting uses the rule that actually existed.

Keep conversion goals and attribution settings aligned enough to compare routing. Do not read a change in one campaign's conversions as incremental business impact. Reconcile account totals, branded campaign delivery, and query mix before making a business conclusion. Retain account totals and the receiving campaign's delivery evidence as the evidence set. Verify exceptions separately, and do not infer ranking, demand, savings, or causal business impact from the configuration or report alone.

Review brand lists when products, retailers, partnerships, naming, or campaign architecture changes. Remove obsolete entities only after confirming the desired traffic owner. A shared account-level list can affect several campaigns, so assess every consumer before editing it. Write the control before changing production: change control for shared brand lists. Name the accountable owner and preserve the decision date so later reporting uses the rule that actually existed.

Log list changes with date, operator, reason, affected campaigns, and verification result. If performance changes, preserve other simultaneous edits and market conditions. The goal is explainable brand routing, not a guaranteed efficiency improvement. Retain history entries and post-change campaign checks as the evidence set. Verify exceptions separately, and do not infer ranking, demand, savings, or causal business impact from the configuration or report alone.