Performance Max Spending on Brand Searches? Fix It

Performance Max often spends on searches for your own brand because those convert easily, which makes results look better than they are. Check the search terms report to see how much goes to brand searches, then add a brand exclusion list and run brand terms in a separate Search campaign.

Performance Max spending on brand searches is one of the most common reasons a campaign looks excellent in Google Ads while total store sales barely move. The fix takes a few minutes. Reading the numbers correctly afterward takes more care, so this guide covers both.

Why does Performance Max target brand searches?

Performance Max goes after brand searches because it is built to find the conversions most likely to happen, and people searching your name are the most likely buyers there are. The campaign is doing what you asked. It just cannot tell a sale it caused from a sale it stood in front of.

Three things make brand traffic attractive to the system:

• High conversion rate. A shopper who searches “[your store] running shoes” already knows you and often already intends to buy.
• Low cost per click. You are the most relevant result for your own name, so those clicks tend to be cheap.
• A target to hit. If the campaign has a return target, brand searches are the easiest way to reach it.

None of this means Performance Max is a bad campaign type. It means its headline return mixes two different kinds of sale. For the wider picture, see whether Performance Max is worth it for ecommerce.

One definition before going further: “brand” here means your own store or company name. If you resell products made by other companies, searches for those product brands are your core demand, not brand traffic in this sense. A store that sells well-known power tools wants to show for the tool maker’s name. It only needs to separate out searches for the store itself.

How do you check how much it spends on brand?

Open the search terms report for the Performance Max campaign, filter for your brand name, and compare that slice with the campaign total. That tells you how much of the campaign’s reported result comes from people who were already looking for you.

As of October 2026, the steps in Google Ads are:

1. Open the Campaigns menu and go to the Search terms report.
2. From the drop-down, choose “Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max”.
3. Set a date range long enough to be meaningful, such as the last full month or quarter.
4. Filter search terms that contain your brand name. Repeat for common misspellings, your domain name and any short form customers use.
5. Note the cost, conversions and conversion value for those terms, then compare with the campaign totals for the same dates.
6. Segment by ad format to see whether brand searches were served as Shopping ads or text ads.

Then read the result:

We deliberately give no “normal” percentage here. The right share depends on how well known your store is, and a figure borrowed from another business would mislead you.

Does it really take sales you would get anyway?

Partly. Some people who search your name would have clicked your free listing and bought anyway, and some would have clicked a competitor’s ad or been distracted along the way. Performance Max reports all of them as its own wins.

So when owners ask “does Performance Max cannibalize brand search”, the fair answer has two halves:

• Yes, in reporting. If you also run a brand Search campaign, sales can shift from that campaign to Performance Max without the store selling anything extra. And sales that would have come through an unpaid click now show as paid.
• Not entirely, in reality. Showing on your own name has some value. It keeps competitors from taking the top spot and lets you choose the landing page and message.

The practical point is control. Brand demand is worth covering, but in a campaign where you can see what it costs and cap it, not blended into a campaign whose job is to find new customers.

How it tends to look by type of business:

• Established store with repeat customers. Usually the largest brand share, because many buyers return by searching the store name.
• Store that also advertises on social, TV or podcasts. Those ads create brand searches, and Performance Max can end up taking credit for sales they started.
• Reseller of other companies’ products. Store-name searches are often few. The bigger question is which product brands earn their spend.
• New store. Little brand search exists yet, so there is little to exclude.

How do you add brand exclusions?

Create a brand list containing your brand, then apply it to the Performance Max campaign under its brand exclusion setting. This is the direct answer to how to exclude brand searches from Performance Max.

Google describes brand exclusions as the most effective way to control how your ads appear on searches for your brand. Unlike a negative keyword, an exclusion also covers common misspellings and related brands (as of October 2026).

For an existing campaign, as of October 2026:

1. Create a brand list in your account’s shared library and add your own brand to it.
2. Go to Campaigns and open the Settings tab.
3. Select the Performance Max campaign and open Additional settings.
4. Choose Brand exclusions and select your brand list.
5. Decide whether Shopping ads may keep showing on searches that mention the excluded brand (see below).
6. Save.

Two details matter with Performance Max brand exclusions:

• They cover Search and Shopping ads. Google states that in Performance Max, brand exclusions apply to both. Other placements, such as Display and most of YouTube, are not affected.
• You can let Shopping ads continue. There is an option to allow Shopping ads to keep serving on excluded brand terms. That suits stores where a brand search often includes a product, such as “[your store] cast iron skillet”, and you still want the product image and price to show.

If you have several Performance Max campaigns, apply the list to each one. An exclusion on one campaign does not carry over to the others.

Should brand run in a separate campaign?

Yes, in most cases. A separate brand Search campaign lets you see exactly what brand traffic costs, set its budget on purpose and control the ad text and landing page.

It also settles which campaign serves. Google states that a Search campaign with an exact match keyword is prioritized over Performance Max for that search. The exception is a Search campaign limited by budget, where Performance Max may occasionally serve instead (as of October 2026). So give the brand campaign enough budget to cover the searches.

A simple setup:

☐ One Search campaign for brand only, with your brand name and close variants as exact match keywords.

☐ A budget high enough that the campaign is not limited.

☐ Ad text that sends people to the right page: home page, best sellers or a current offer.

☐ The brand list applied as an exclusion on every Performance Max campaign.

☐ A monthly look at the brand campaign’s search terms to catch searches that are not really about you.

Our guide to Performance Max vs Search campaigns explains how the two share traffic. If you would like the brand campaign built and managed with the rest of your account, that is part of our Google Ads service.

One caution from Google itself: it advises using brand settings only for campaigns that really need them, because they limit reach and performance may decrease. Measure your brand share first. If it is small, the exclusion may not be worth adding.

What happens to results after you exclude brand?

Performance Max will usually report fewer conversions and a lower return, because its easiest sales have moved elsewhere. That is a change in where sales are counted, and not necessarily a change in how many you make.

Sometimes total results do get worse after the split. When that happens, the cause is usually one of these:

• The return target is now too high. A target set when brand sales were included may be out of reach without them, so the campaign spends less. Lower the target to match what non-brand traffic can deliver.
• The brand campaign is limited by budget. Brand searches go unanswered, or competitors pick them up.
• Too many changes at once. A new exclusion, a new target and a new budget in the same week make it hard to tell what did what.
• Judging too early. A campaign may need up to two weeks to learn after a significant change, according to Google (as of October 2026).

If the campaign slows right down afterward, see Performance Max not spending. And if you want someone to check your brand share and set this up properly, our Shopping Ads team can do it as part of a free audit. JuvioX works on a flat monthly management fee, month to month with no lock-in.