Performance Max can be challenging enough without worrying about inflated conversion data. Campaign Goals, Asset Groups, Audience Signals, Clear Tracking, and so much more. Over the course of fully adopting PMAX across a wide range of different industry accounts I realized you can’t trust your PMAX data because it’s inflated with branded search conversions, making it look better than it actually is.

Performance Max heavily cannibalizes your other campaigns and based on the Goals you set, and loves to take credit for every single conversion. People who search for your brand would’ve converted anyway, so why would you spend marketing dollars and let PMAX take credit for it?

On average, we've seen 15% (up to 45%) of conversions on PMAX are generated from branded searches. Not an efficient use of your marketing dollars. Again the individuals are already searching your brand, the most relevant search will be your organic result.

One interesting trend we also noticed is that even if you have tight branded search campaigns [eg: Exact Match Brand], misspellings did slip through.

First take a look at your insights data - If you have a big share of branded search conversions in Performance Max, you simply cannot trust the data. This will lead to you making wrong decisions, and your account as a whole becomes less scalable.


- Brand Exclusions in Performance Max -

To address this, Google has introduced the Brand Exclusions feature. This allows advertisers to exclude specific brand names from their Performance Max campaigns, ensuring that data reflects non-branded search performance more accurately.


- Steps to Set Up Brand Exclusions in Google Ads -

1. Access Campaign Settings: Navigate to your Performance Max campaign and click on 'Settings'.

2. Create a New Brand List: Within the settings, find the 'Brand Exclusions' section. Here, you can create a new list by entering the brand names you wish to exclude.

3. Save and Apply the List: After adding the desired brands, save the list and ensure it's applied to the appropriate campaigns.

4. Monitor Search Terms: Regularly check the 'Search Term Insights' under the 'Insights' tab to confirm that branded terms are no longer triggering your ads.


** Important Considerations for E-commerce Advertisers **

Excluding brand terms means your ads won't appear for users specifically searching for your brand. Allowing you to tighten spend to allow for maximum efficiency and results.

To maintain visibility, it's essential to set up dedicated Branded Search and Branded Standard Shopping campaigns. This ensures that the business will have sufficient coverage across Google's inventory while still allowing potential customers still find your products when searching directly for your brand.

Utilizing the Brand Exclusions feature in Performance Max campaigns helps in obtaining a clearer picture of your advertising performance by focusing on non-branded searches. Remember to implement separate campaigns for branded terms to maintain comprehensive coverage and accurate data analysis.