Last Updated on August 2, 2023

Slowly but surely, Google’s goal-oriented ad campaign Performance Max started to dominate the world of Google Ads. 

Performance Max was initially designed as an optional campaign so businesses could complement their Search campaigns based on keywords and reach more customers across Google’s platforms, including Display, Search, Gmail, Maps, and YouTube. 

By the end of last year, however, Google Ads transformed the Performance Max campaign from an optional to a mandatory campaign type for all ecommerce businesses. 

And that leads us to why you’re probably here, looking into useful ways to master its tools and features. 

As some of you might have already heard, Google Ads introduced their Performance Max and Search campaigns’ latest feature – brand settings. By using these settings, you can quickly improve your branded traffic and target the right audience.

In this article, I’ll introduce you to brand lists, brand restrictions, and brand exclusions.

What Are Brand Lists in Google Ads Performance Max?

If you’d rather control where your ads appear, you should try out the latest feature in Performance Max known as brand lists. 

This feature lets you create various lists of brands (i.e., websites) where you’d like to place your ad, and you can also include sites where you don’t want to show your ad if they don’t target your potential customers. 

For example, let’s say the primary products in your product feed are high-quality Belgian chocolate products. (yummy! )

You can create brand lists that will include websites that sell high-quality chocolate, among other foods and products, such as online shopping marketplaces or food delivery service websites, and exclude those that have nothing to do with the products you sell. 

To create your first brand list, you’ll need to log in to Google Ads and go to “Tools.” There, you click on “Shared library” in the drop-down menu and click on “Brand lists.” 

Once you’re there, you can choose a name for your list and add all the websites of brands you’d like to include. 

Click on the “Save” button, and voila! 

The brand lists will be sorted in a table where you’ll see the brand names and the ad campaigns for which you created each brand list. 

What Is a Brand in Performance Max anyway?

There’s no specific definition of what brand means for Performance Max. However, as the name suggests, brands are trademarked products, services, or organizations with unique logos, branding, and websites. 

With the latest update in Performance Max, you can use lists of brands you want to include or exclude from your ad campaign instead of specific keywords. 

The most significant advantage of using brand lists is that you won’t need to enter variants and keyword versions in different languages. 

Did you know that I have a full course for everything you need to know about Performance Max campaigns? The course consists of 16 educational videos on Performance Max, and it’s the perfect asset for freelancers running ad campaigns in Google Ads for their clients and ecommerce businesses. 

Google Search Brand Restrictions Vs Performance Max Brand Exclusions

When it comes to Google Search and Google Shopping, the brand restrictions can decrease online traffic as the ads appear only when someone searches for a specific keyword on Google that’s somehow connected to the brands you want to include. 

On the other hand, brand exclusions via Performance Max will give you additional control over where your ads will and won’t appear because you can directly adjust your Google ad campaigns to include or exclude specific brands. 

Brand Exclusion Lists Vs Negative Keywords in Performance Max

Unlike brand exclusion lists, which let you list out all the brands you’d like your ads to avoid, negative keywords will keep your ad away from specific websites if there is a unique keyword or a phrase on the website that you place in your negative keyword list. 

Google also calls this situation a negative match. 

Here’s an example: if you add the phrase “free trial” to your list of negative keywords for an ad group or campaign, Google Ads’ algorithm will prevent your ad from appearing whenever someone googles the phrase “free trial.” 

As you can see, the most significant difference between brand exclusion lists and negative keywords is that the former is all about excluding brands, and the latter helps you prevent your ads from appearing whenever someone searches for one of your negative keywords. 

Brand Exclusion Lists are focused explicitly on excluding ads from appearing alongside specific brands. 

In contrast, Negative Keywords apply to search queries and prevent ads from showing based on particular keywords or phrases used by users in their search queries. 

Also, brand exclusion lists are used within Display Network (Performance Max), while negative keywords are mainly designed for Search Network ad campaigns. 

When Should You Consider Brand Exclusions in Google Performance Max?

In most cases, marketers choose to exclude specific brands from their Performance Max ad campaigns because of two completely different reasons. 

The first reason is due to the appearance of an inflated CPC (cost-per-click) for unique branded phrases or terms, and the second reason is that Google Ads’ algorithm is not capable of distinguishing generic conversions from branded ones. 

Although excluding brands might not necessarily be the correct answer for you, there’s a specific situation that each marketer should take into account and create a brand exclusion list. 

If you get a high percentage of conversions or online traffic from a specific branded search, chances are you’re paying a higher rate for cost-per-clicks than you need to in the first place. 

If that’s the case, consider excluding specific brands from your Performance Max campaign and see if that makes a positive difference in how your campaigns perform. 

You can target the right brands for your business through the rest of your campaigns by using the bid strategy on Target impression share. 

This way, you can save the funds in your budget and redirect your money to something else. 

If you’re already running a successful ecommerce business, you can start by excluding specific products you sell from your ad campaigns in Performance Max and target those products through your Shopping and Search campaigns.

On the other hand, when you’re working with lead generation and are still in the initial phase of developing your brand, try to get a higher percentage of conversions and online traffic from non-branded terms before you create your first Performance Max campaign.

TIP: Go to the tab called “Insights” in your Google Ads account, where you can find out all the details about generic and branded terms. You’ll see how they’re split into two separate categories. 

If you notice that at least 50% of the conversions and online traffic your website gets regularly is generated through queries with brand names, try to exclude a few brands and see how your website will perform in the following weeks. 

Step-by-step: How to Exclude Brand Terms From Performance Max Campaigns?

Excluding brand terms from Google Performance Max campaigns is a pretty simple task. The first thing you’ll need to do is log in to Google Ads and find the “Create” button in the menu on the left side. 

Once you do that, click on the category “Campaign” and create a brand-new campaign. 

Then, click the megaphone icon on the left side, and click “Campaign” in the drop-down menu. Go to “Settings” and choose the campaign you just created. 

Then, click on the category “Additional settings,” where you’ll notice “Brand exclusions”. Once you’re there, you can enter the names of the brands you’d like to exclude. 

Keep in mind that the brands will only be excluded from the Performance Max campaign you selected in the first place. 

You have to retake these steps if you’d like to exclude other brands for the rest of your campaigns.

Caption: “Additional settings” under “Settings” in a single campaign

Also, don’t forget that this feature is still pretty new, and Google Ads still hasn’t made it available for all of its users, so if you don’t see it in your account, wait for new updates from Google to find out when you’ll get it. 

Recap

Since the brand lists option is pretty new to Performance Max campaigns and our information on it is not as excessive as it will (probably) be in the near future, I can only say that it’s still too early to make my verdict on it. 

One thing that we certainly know of is that creating brand lists is not complicated at all and is an excellent alternative to using negative keywords. 

From what we know so far, brand lists sound like a promising feature that can be useful for many business owners to elevate their ad game to a whole new level. 

Let’s give it a few months and see how it turns out. 

The post Performance Max and Brand Exclusions: A Match Made in Google Ads Heaven appeared first on Store Growers.