TL;DR
- Google Ads Help answer 13810170 now says PMax may filter out navigational or brand-specific queries to prioritise serving them through dedicated Search campaigns.
- The paragraph was absent from the Internet Archive copy dated 17 June 2026; Search Engine Roundtable reported it on 3 November 2026. Google gave no start date.
- Google tells advertisers to give brand Search campaigns sufficient budget and eligible ads, and to consider Search Themes in PMax to capture brand traffic.
- Unchanged rules: highest Ad Rank serves on overlap, and an exact-match or spell-corrected Search keyword is preferred over Performance Max.
Google Ads has updated its help article on how Performance Max interacts with other campaigns to say that Performance Max may filter out navigational or brand-specific search queries to prioritise serving them through dedicated Search campaigns. The new paragraph appears in the "Exceptions" section of the Google Ads Help page How Performance Max interacts with other campaigns in your account, checked live on 4 November 2026. It was not in the Internet Archive's copy of the page from 17 June 2026. Search Engine Roundtable reported the change on 3 November after Hana Kobzová of PPC News Feed spotted it. Google has not given a date for when the behaviour started.
What the Google Ads help page now says
The new text sits under the heading about exceptions to how campaign types serve based on highest Ad Rank, directly after the long-standing rule about exact-match Search keywords. It makes three points.
- Performance Max campaigns may "filter out navigational or brand-specific search queries" so that dedicated Search campaigns serve them.
- Google says this ensures brand-related queries are handled by campaigns offering more precise control.
- To capture this traffic, Google tells advertisers to make sure their dedicated brand Search campaigns have enough budget and high-quality, eligible ads, and to consider adding Search Themes to the Performance Max campaign.
The wording is "may", not "will". The page does not describe a setting that turns the behaviour on or off, and it does not say the filtering applies in every account or every auction.
How it fits with the rest of the page
Most of the article restates rules Google has documented for some time. The table below sets out each rule on the page as it reads on 4 November 2026, with the new paragraph in the last row.
| Situation described on the help page | What Google says happens |
|---|---|
| Performance Max overlaps another campaign on the same inventory, for example a Display campaign | Google Ads prioritises the campaign with the highest Ad Rank |
| Performance Max and Demand Gen could serve for the same impression | They interact on normal auction dynamics; highest Ad Rank serves |
| A Search keyword exactly matches, or is spell-corrected to, the query | The Search campaign is preferred over Performance Max |
| No keyword exactly matches the query across match types | The campaign with the higher Ad Rank serves |
| Navigational or brand-specific query (new paragraph) | Performance Max may filter it out to prioritise serving it through dedicated Search campaigns |
The page also gives the familiar spelling example: for the search "plumbrs", an exact-match keyword [plumbers] is preferred over a broad-match keyword plumbrs. It notes that Performance Max does not support campaigns with app installs as a goal.
Why the new paragraph is different from the exact-match rule
The exact-match rule only applies when a Search campaign holds a keyword that matches the query. The new paragraph is framed around the query type instead. It says Performance Max itself may step back from brand and navigational searches to prioritise dedicated Search campaigns. The page does not say whether that requires the Search campaign to have an exact-match brand keyword, or any keyword at all.
What Google has not said
The paragraph is short, and several things an advertiser would want to know are absent from the help page and from the trade coverage.
- When it started: Google has not stated a date. The only fixed points are that the text was missing from the 17 June 2026 archive copy and present by early November.
- Definition: the page does not define a "navigational" query or explain how Google decides that a query is brand-specific.
- Accounts without a brand Search campaign: the page does not say whether Performance Max still serves brand queries when no dedicated brand Search campaign exists, or when that campaign is limited by budget or has no eligible ads.
- Interaction with brand exclusions: the paragraph does not mention the brand exclusion setting available in Performance Max.
- Reporting: there is no note on how filtered queries will show in Performance Max search term reporting.
- A formal announcement: no Google Ads blog post or announcement accompanied the edit in the sources reviewed for this article.
Google's own advice to consider Search Themes does suggest that Performance Max can still be pointed at brand traffic when the advertiser wants it there. Search Engine Roundtable read the paragraph the same way, noting that Google recommends Search Themes for advertisers who want Performance Max to target navigational and brand traffic. How strongly a Search Theme overrides the filtering is not explained.
Analysis: why brand traffic inside Performance Max matters
This section is Relevant Audience's reading of the help-page text, not a statement from Google.
If brand searches convert at a lower cost than other queries in an account, a Performance Max campaign that picks up a large share of them can show blended results that look stronger than the prospecting work it does on non-brand queries, Shopping, YouTube and Display. That makes it hard to tell what the campaign adds.
The help-page change points toward a cleaner split, with brand searches in a Search campaign the advertiser controls directly and Performance Max focused elsewhere. If the filtering is applied widely, two things could follow for accounts that relied on Performance Max for brand coverage. Performance Max volume and reported return could fall, because the easier conversions move out. And brand searches could go unserved, or be served less, in an account with no funded brand Search campaign, since the help page asks advertisers to have one ready. Neither effect has been measured or confirmed by Google; both follow from the wording.
The opposite risk also exists. An advertiser that wants Performance Max to keep some brand traffic, for example to use Shopping formats on brand queries, now has documented guidance to add Search Themes rather than assuming Performance Max will pick that traffic up by default.
What to check in your account
- Confirm you have a dedicated brand Search campaign, and that it covers the brand and navigational terms people actually use, including product-line names and common misspellings.
- Check that campaign's status for budget limits. The help page explicitly asks for sufficient budget; a brand campaign that runs out of money mid-day cannot pick up what Performance Max filters out.
- Review ad approval and eligibility in the brand campaign. The page asks for high-quality, eligible ads, so disapproved or limited ads matter here.
- Compare brand-query volume in Performance Max search term insights over recent weeks with earlier periods. A drop may indicate the filtering is active in your account, though Google has not said how to confirm it.
- Decide deliberately whether brand traffic belongs in Performance Max. If it does, follow Google's suggestion and test Search Themes; if it does not, review the brand exclusion setting alongside the brand Search campaign.
- Recheck reporting that splits brand and non-brand results, since the mix inside Performance Max may shift.
What this means for Thai marketers
The help-page text is global and does not name any market, so it applies to accounts in Thailand in the same way as elsewhere. The Thai-language version of the same help page carries the same paragraph, checked on 4 November 2026. Google has not said whether the behaviour is live in any specific country.
For Thai e-commerce brands that run Performance Max as their main campaign without a separate brand Search campaign, the guidance is a prompt to review the structure. A brand whose name is searched in both Thai and Latin script needs keywords in both scripts in its brand Search campaign to cover the navigational queries Performance Max may now leave to it. Teams managing Google Ads campaigns should check that a funded brand Search campaign is in place. Online retailers that judge e-commerce marketing performance mainly through Performance Max return on ad spend should also expect that figure to move if brand traffic shifts out, and should read results with that in mind.
FAQ: Performance Max and brand searches
Does Performance Max still show ads on my brand searches?
It may not, because the Google Ads help page now says Performance Max may filter out navigational or brand-specific queries to prioritise serving them through dedicated Search campaigns. The wording is "may", and Google has not said how often this happens or in which accounts.
When did Google make this change?
Google has not given a date. The paragraph was absent from the Internet Archive copy of the help page dated 17 June 2026, was live when checked on 4 November 2026, and was reported by Search Engine Roundtable on 3 November 2026.
Do I need a separate brand Search campaign?
Google's guidance points that way: to capture this traffic, it tells advertisers to make sure dedicated brand Search campaigns have sufficient budget and high-quality, eligible ads. The page does not say what happens to brand queries in accounts that have no such campaign.
How can I keep some brand traffic in Performance Max?
Google suggests considering Search Themes in the Performance Max campaign. The help page does not explain how much influence Search Themes have over the filtering.
Is this live in Thailand?
Google has not said whether the filtering is active in Thai accounts. The paragraph appears in both the English and the Thai-language versions of the help page and names no country, so Thai accounts should assume the same guidance applies and check their brand campaign setup.
Splitting brand and non-brand demand correctly between Performance Max and Search affects both spend and how results are read. If you want a review of how your campaigns share brand traffic, Relevant Audience's Google Ads team can help.
