Performance Max brand searches: why it buys your name and what to do

What this means

Performance Max (PMax) is Google's all-in-one campaign type. It runs across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps from 1 campaign, plus Shopping ads from your product feed. Unless you add a brand exclusion, nothing in the campaign keeps it off searches for your own store name. So when someone types "yourbrand jacket" or "yourbrand returns", PMax can enter the auction for that ad spot and buy the click.

Google has 1 clear rule for which of your campaigns wins. A Search campaign with a keyword that exactly matches or is spell-corrected to a person's query will be preferred over Performance Max. An exact match keyword is written in brackets, like [yourbrand]. Google's top priority goes to exact match keywords that are identical to the search term. So [yourbrand] gets priority on "yourbrand" but not on "yourbrand jacket". If no keyword matches exactly, the campaign with the higher Ad Rank will serve. Ad Rank is Google's score that decides whether your ads are eligible to show and where. That can be PMax.

Shopping ads sit outside that rule. Google says that even with an identical exact match keyword, a Shopping ad format may still be shown alongside the ad for your exact keyword. So PMax can keep buying brand clicks through your product ads while your brand campaign runs. A brand campaign that runs short of money also loses ground, because a keyword in a budget-restricted campaign won't always show.

Google adds that Performance Max campaigns may also filter out navigational or brand-specific search queries and leave them to a brand Search campaign. That only works if your brand campaigns have sufficient budget and high-quality, eligible ads. If you have no brand campaign, or it runs out of budget, PMax can still show on those searches.

Google sorts the searches a PMax campaign showed on into auto-generated groupings called search categories. When the categories built around your brand name collect a large part of the clicks, the campaign is mostly catching people who were already looking for you.

Why it costs you money

Google describes brand clicks as clicks from users who are already navigating to your site. When PMax pays for them, its return on ad spend (ROAS, sales value per $1 of ads, shown as a percentage) looks great while it adds few new customers.

The bigger risk is the decision it leads to. You see a high return and raise the PMax budget. The extra money goes to searches that aren't your name, and those may earn far less than the average suggested. If an agency runs your ads, ask whether the PMax return it reports includes brand. Add it to your questions for checking an agency's work.

Here's a worked example. Over 90 days, a PMax campaign spent $9,000 and brought in $36,000 in sales, a 400% return. In the PMax search terms report, the searches with the brand name cost $1,200 and brought in $14,400. Without them, the campaign spent $7,800 for $21,600, a 277% return. That's the number to judge it on. Compare it with your break-even ROAS before you add budget.

Don't price brand clicks with the campaign's average cost per click. In the same example, brand categories had 1,800 of the 6,000 clicks on the insights card. The card only covers Google Search, the Search Partner Network, and Google Maps, so the whole campaign had more: 7,500 clicks, or $1.20 a click on average. 1,800 clicks at $1.20 gives $2,160, almost twice the $1,200 the report shows, because, if the report caught all 1,800, these brand clicks cost about $0.67 each.

Google keeps some searches out of the report for privacy. Search terms insights take all search terms into account, including those not exposed in the search terms report. So treat the brand cost you add up as the least you paid.

How to check your account in 2 minutes

1. In Google Ads, go to Insights within the Campaigns menu and select the PMax campaign.
2. Scroll to the Search terms insights card. Each row is a search category with clicks, impressions, conversions and conversion value. Impressions are times your ad was shown. Conversions are the sales Google Ads counted. Conversion value is the money those sales brought in.
3. Mark every category that is your brand name, a misspelling of it, or your brand plus a product word. Google says that if a brand name is the best representation of the grouping of terms, then it will be used as a category label.
4. Add up the clicks in those rows and divide by the total clicks on the card. 1,800 of 6,000 is 30%.
5. To price it, go to the Search terms report within the Campaigns menu and choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max. Filter for searches with your brand name and add up their cost and conversion value.
6. Add the Ad format segment. It splits each search between "Shopping ads" and "Text ads", so you see how much of your brand traffic is product ads.

PerfoAds runs this check only when the account has a brand Search campaign. It reads the top 50 search categories by clicks for up to 5 PMax campaigns over the audit period. It flags a campaign when brand categories take more than 20% of those clicks. When it finds your brand name in the PMax search terms, the card shows the campaign's return with and without those searches, and the brand cost is marked as a sample.

When it is not a problem

• You chose PMax as your brand coverage. Some small stores run no brand Search campaign at all. Then brand clicks in PMax are expected, and PerfoAds skips this check. Judge the PMax return without brand before you scale it.
• Your Shopping ads sell on brand searches. If the Ad format segment shows most brand clicks are Shopping ads, those product ads may be doing real work. PerfoAds' card takes this view: keep brand in PMax and judge the campaign on its return without brand, or move brand into its own brand-only campaign.
• Competitors bid on your name. If rival ads appear when people search for you, some paid brand coverage protects those sales. The open question is which campaign pays for it. A brand Search campaign with your name as an exact match keyword gets priority on that search and reports it on its own. Searches with extra words, and Shopping ads, can still go to PMax.
• Brand already takes a big share of your spend. PerfoAds flags this separately when brand campaigns take 30% or more of total spend. Then the account depends heavily on people who already know you. Look at that first, because excluding brand from PMax only moves that spend into your brand campaign.
• Your brand campaign leaks the other way. If your brand Search campaign is buying searches that aren't your name, sort that out before touching PMax. Otherwise you're moving traffic between 2 campaigns that both mix brand and non-brand searches.
• Very low volume. A few dozen brand clicks a month in a small campaign won't move your results. Fix it when it's convenient.

How to fix it

Read the return without brand first. PerfoAds' card keeps brand in PMax by default and judges the campaign on that return, because brand searches in PMax show your products as Shopping ads, which a brand text ad can't replace. If that return is above your break-even, you may be done. If you want brand results kept apart, PerfoAds suggests moving brand into its own brand-only Shopping or PMax campaign. If you'd rather have a brand Search campaign take your name, do this:

1. Give brand searches a home. Make sure you have a Search campaign with your brand name as exact match keywords, approved ads and enough budget that it doesn't run out. Google asks for brand campaigns with sufficient budget and high-quality, eligible ads.
2. Create a brand list. A brand list is a saved list of brands you can apply to campaigns. Click the Tools icon, open Shared library, then Brand lists. Click Create a brand list (or the plus button if you already have one), name it, add your brand and save (Google's steps). If your brand isn't in Google's library, edit the list, type the name and click Request a brand. Google says requests to add new brands will receive a response within 3-6 weeks. A pending brand is usable in a campaign, though its reach may be limited.
3. Apply it to the PMax campaign. Go to Campaigns, open the Settings tab, select the campaign, scroll to Additional settings, click Brand exclusions, pick your list and click Save (Google's steps).
4. Decide about Shopping. The same panel has a box called Allow Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands. Tick it unless another campaign already shows your products on brand searches. With it off and no brand-only Shopping campaign, PerfoAds treats that as handing your brand searches to other sellers' product ads.
5. Watch the handover. Google warns that brand settings limit the reach of a campaign and performance may decrease. Over the next few weeks, check that the brand Search campaign picks up the clicks PMax gave up. Judge by total brand sales across both campaigns, and by the PMax return without brand.

A brand list covers more than a negative keyword (a search you block by hand). Google says brand lists mean not having to enter misspellings, variants, or versions in multiple languages. In PMax they apply to only Search, Shopping, and YouTube search inventory, so your Display and Gmail ads carry on as before. If you'd rather block a few brand searches by hand, Google supports adding negative keywords to your Performance Max campaigns or account. They work on Search and Shopping inventory only.