Performance Max controls: how to steer what you can

Key takeaways

• Performance Max still decides where your ads run, but you now have real Performance Max controls: negative keywords, brand exclusions, a search terms report, channel and asset reporting, URL rules, and device and age settings.
• Negative keywords and brand exclusions only affect Search and Shopping inventory. They don’t touch YouTube, Display or Gmail.
• The biggest lever is still the conversion you feed it. If Performance Max counts junk leads, every control below just helps it find junk more efficiently.
• Keep exact match Search campaigns for your most important terms. Google prefers a Search keyword that matches the query exactly over Performance Max.

Your Performance Max campaign reports a healthy cost per conversion. Then the client asks why sales are flat and why ads keep showing on their own brand name.

It’s less of a black box than it was at launch. Google added most of the missing Performance Max controls in 2025. This article walks through each one, what it does and doesn’t do, how to structure the campaign, and the warning signs that mean it’s time to step in.

What Performance Max controls do you actually have?

You control the goal, the conversion data, the guardrails and the creative. You can block search queries and brands, exclude pages and placements, limit devices and ages, choose which landing pages it may use, and see results by search term, channel and asset. You can’t set bids or budgets by channel.

Control	What it affects	Where to find it
Campaign-level and account-level negative keywords	Search and Shopping inventory only	Keywords, then the Negative keywords tab; account-level negatives in account settings
Brand exclusions	Search and Shopping inventory	Campaign settings, under Other settings
Search terms report	Reporting only	Insights and reports, then Search terms
Channel performance report	Reporting and diagnostics	Insights and reports, then Channel performance
Final URL expansion and URL exclusions	Which landing pages can be used	Campaign settings, under Asset optimization
Account-level placement exclusions	Sites, apps and videos	Tools, then Content suitability
Device and age settings	Who and where ads reach	Campaign settings
New customer acquisition goal	How bids treat new vs existing customers	Campaign settings

How do you block bad search queries in Performance Max?

Add negative keywords at the campaign level, or apply a shared negative keyword list. Google now supports both in Performance Max. Account-level negatives also apply to Performance Max automatically. All of them only block Search and Shopping traffic. To keep ads away from topics on YouTube or Display, use excluded content keywords in Content suitability instead.

To add campaign negatives, open Keywords, go to the Negative keywords tab, select the plus button, choose your Performance Max campaign, then enter terms or pick an existing list. Account-level negatives (up to 1,000) suit terms you never want anywhere, like “jobs”.

If you don’t have shared lists yet, start with the ones in our guide to negative keyword lists every Canadian account should start with. If you advertise in Quebec, add French versions. An English negative won’t catch “emploi” or “gratuit”.

Use the search terms report every week

Go to Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms, and choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max from the dropdown. You’ll see each search term with its landing page and ad format. A source column shows whether a query came from your search themes or from Performance Max on its own.

Judge terms on conversions, not clicks. Google notes Performance Max can drive conversions on YouTube without a direct click, which skews click-based numbers. Sort by cost and negate irrelevant terms that spent more than your target CPA without converting.

How do you stop Performance Max from taking your brand searches?

Apply a brand exclusion list to the campaign. Google says brand exclusions are generally the better way to keep Performance Max off branded queries, ahead of negative keywords. They block Search and Shopping traffic for the brands on the list, including your own, and they catch spelling and language variants through broad matching.

Brand lists are created at the account level, then applied in each campaign’s settings. If your brand isn’t in Google’s library, you can request it. Exclusions limit reach, so expect fewer reported conversions. Many were people who’d have found you anyway.

Excluding your brand only makes sense if a separate Search campaign covers brand terms. Otherwise you’ve simply switched off your cheapest traffic.

How do you see which channels and assets are spending?

Use the channel performance report. Go to Insights and reports, then Channel performance, and pick your campaign. It breaks results down across Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Maps, Gmail and Search partners, with cost, conversions and value for each, plus a status column that flags problems like missing assets or policy issues.

Know its limits. You can’t move budget between channels directly. Google says you can only influence the mix through assets, audience signals, conversion tracking and exclusions. If a channel isn’t serving and shows no issue, the system is usually putting budget where it expects better returns.

Then check asset reporting. Full asset stats now show conversions, cost and clicks by asset. Replace assets that get spend but no results.

How do you control which landing pages Performance Max uses?

Final URL expansion is on by default. It lets Google send people to whichever page on your domain it thinks fits the search. Turn it off under Asset optimization in campaign settings if only one page converts, or use Exclude some URLs to block careers, blog, login or support pages while leaving it on.

For lead generation, the safest default is expansion off with the asset group’s final URL set to your best landing page. Google’s own advice for a single conversion page matches this. If you leave it on, review the landing pages in the search terms report and the final URL expansion assets, which Google now lets you view and remove. Changes can take 24 to 48 hours to apply.

How should you structure Performance Max asset groups?

Google recommends consolidating. Use separate campaigns only when you need different budgets, targets, settings, or language-specific assets. Inside a campaign, create asset groups by themes that need different creative, such as service lines or product categories. Fewer, fuller campaigns give the system more data. For the wider account, see the Canadian Google Ads playbook.

A practical structure for a Canadian service business:

1. One campaign per budget and target that genuinely differs. Brand stays in Search.
2. One asset group per service line, each with its own landing page, headlines, images and search themes.
3. A separate campaign for French if you advertise in Quebec, since that needs French assets and pages. See running bilingual Google Ads campaigns.
4. Audience signals built from your customer list and site visitors. These are hints, not targeting.

Why does conversion data matter more than any setting?

Performance Max optimizes toward whatever you count as a conversion, including spam form fills. Google recommends conversion goals close to the sale, such as qualified leads or booked appointments, plus enhanced conversions for leads to connect CRM outcomes back to Google Ads.

Do these before touching any other control:

1. Make the primary conversion a real business outcome, not a page view or click.
2. Import qualified leads or sales from your CRM, or set up enhanced conversions for leads.
3. Set a target CPA from your margins, not a guess. Our guide to calculating target CPA from your real margins shows how.
4. If you mostly want new customers, use the new customer acquisition goal. Google recommends the “new customers only” mode for lead generation. It needs a customer list and the Google tag.

An illustrative example

These numbers are made up for illustration. A Halifax HVAC company spends $4,000 CAD a month on Performance Max and gets 80 form fills at $50 each. Its CRM shows only 12 became booked installs, about $333 per install. Search terms show heavy spend on the company’s own name, and Display takes a large share of spend with few booked jobs.

The fix isn’t one setting. Add a brand exclusion and move brand to Search, import booked installs as the primary conversion, turn off final URL expansion, then judge the result on cost per booked install after two to three weeks.

Should you keep Search campaigns alongside Performance Max?

Yes, for your most valuable terms. Google says that when a Search keyword matches the query exactly, or is spell-corrected to it, the Search campaign is preferred over Performance Max. Otherwise the campaign with the higher Ad Rank serves.

Keep brand and top-margin services in exact match Search. Let Performance Max cover discovery and the channels Search can’t reach. If you use broad match or AI Max in Search too, read our take on when broad match and Smart Bidding work before layering both.

Warning signs and common mistakes

• Conversions rise but qualified leads or sales stay flat.
• Brand search terms make up a big share of conversions.
• Landing pages in the search terms report include careers, blog or support pages.
• Spam form fills climb. Google says lead-gen goals such as “qualified lead” trigger built-in invalid traffic protections.
• The channel report shows “Missing required assets” or policy issues.

The most common mistakes: expecting negatives to block YouTube or Display, excluding your brand with no Search campaign to catch it, splitting into small campaigns that each lack data, and changing settings every few days before results settle.

Frequently asked questions

Can you add negative keywords to Performance Max?

Yes. You can add negative keywords directly to a Performance Max campaign, apply a shared negative keyword list, or use account-level negatives, which apply to all Search and Shopping inventory. They don’t affect YouTube, Display, Gmail or Discover. For those, use excluded content keywords and placement exclusions in Content suitability.

Can you turn off specific channels in Performance Max?

No. Google doesn’t let you switch individual channels on or off or set a budget per channel. The channel performance report shows where money goes, and you influence the mix through assets, audience signals, conversion goals, placement exclusions and device settings.

Does Performance Max steal traffic from Search campaigns?

It can overlap. Google says a Search keyword that exactly matches the query, or is spell-corrected to it, is preferred over Performance Max. For other queries the higher Ad Rank wins, so Performance Max can serve on searches close to your phrase or broad keywords. Use brand exclusions and exact match Search for your key terms.

How long should you wait after changing Performance Max?

Google says significant changes can take one to two weeks to stabilize in channel reporting. Wait at least that long, longer if leads take weeks to close, and make one meaningful change at a time.

Sources: Unlock more visibility and control in Performance Max, Google Ads Help · New Performance Max features, Google Ads & Commerce Blog · Negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns, Google Ads Help · About the search terms report in Performance Max, Google Ads Help · About brand settings for Search and Performance Max, Google Ads Help · About the channel performance report for Performance Max, Google Ads Help · About Final URL expansion in Performance Max, Google Ads Help · How to use brand suitability features in Performance Max, Google Ads Help · About customer lifecycle goals, Google Ads Help · Answering your top questions about Performance Max, Google Ads Help · How Performance Max interacts with other campaigns, Google Ads Help

Platform details as of November 2026.