Brand exclusions are the most effective way to control how your ads appear on searches for your brand. They offer a more comprehensive solution than negative keywords by automatically blocking your ads from showing on searches for your brand name, common misspellings, and even related subsidiary brands. This allows you to strategically manage "brand traffic" and avoid paying for clicks from users who are already navigating to your site.
In Performance Max campaigns, brand exclusions apply to both Search and Shopping ads. You can also allow your Shopping ads to continue serving for these excluded brand terms. You can add brand exclusions to any new or existing Performance Max or Search campaign.
Usage recommendation: Use brand exclusions to prevent your Performance Max campaign from serving on specific brand searches, such as your own or a competitor's. This is the recommended strategy if you manage brand traffic in a separate campaign and want to avoid paying for those clicks. While this control is restrictive, it is the most precise and comprehensive tool available for this purpose.
