Google Ads Brand Exclusions and Brand Lists

The sources are Google's own Google Ads Help pages: About brand settings for Search and Performance Max, Manage a brand list, Manage brands within your brand list, Apply brand exclusions to Performance Max or Search campaigns, Apply brand inclusions to Search campaigns, and the Performance Max pages About brand exclusions and About negative keywords.

Brand settings: inclusions and exclusions

Google Ads has two brand settings, and both work from brand lists you build once at account level. Google's overview describes them like this:

Google adds a caution to both: it recommends that you only use them for campaigns that really need them so as not to limit your conversion opportunities. In other words, they are traffic filters, and a filter always removes some traffic.

This guide covers the brand settings themselves. How Performance Max works overall is in our Performance Max guide, and the search terms report and negative keyword lists are in our guide to search terms and negative keywords.

What Google counts as a brand

Google separates brands from keywords. A brand is an organization or trademarked product or service with its own branding, logo or website; a keyword is a word or phrase people use to find products and services. Google's examples are Nike (a brand) and sports shoes (a keyword).

For a brand to be added to the Google Ads brand library, Google says it must have at least one of these:

• a logo
• a trademark
• a domain name (even one that redirects to a parent website)
• a product name that dominates the packaging or website
• a business name, which may count as a brand for small and medium-sized businesses

The practical gain over keywords is coverage. Google says one benefit of brand lists is not having to enter misspellings, variants, or versions in multiple languages. Brand lists work with the newest version of broad match, so Google's example brand YouTube also matches the way people write it in Korean, Thai, Persian and Hebrew script.

Variants and related brands

Two rules from the FAQ decide how many entries a list needs:

• When variants share a word, such as Google and Google LLC, the simplest one typically captures the rest. You do not need to add them all.
• When related names share no word, such as Google, YouTube and Alphabet, add each one. Otherwise the general brand will often, but not always capture the traffic.

An old product name that people still search for counts as a variant too. Google's example is YouTube Red, the former name of YouTube Premium.

Building a brand list

Brand lists live in the shared library, so one list can be applied to many campaigns. Per Manage a brand list, a list can hold your own brand, competitors, or any brands within the Google Ads library. To create one:

1. Click the Tools icon, open Shared library and click Brand lists.
2. Click Create a brand list (or the plus button if you already have lists).
3. Name the list, add brands from the library, and click Save.

The table of lists shows how many brands each list holds and how many campaigns use it, which is the quickest way to see where a list is applied before you edit it. From the same screen you can rename a list or remove brands from it. The Help pages we used do not publish a maximum number of lists or brands per list.

When your brand is not in the library

You can only pick brands that exist in Google's brand library. Smaller businesses often are not there yet. In that case, per Manage brands within your brand list, type the name in the list editor, choose Request a brand and fill in the details. If the brand is both a company and a product or service, Google asks you to choose "Product" or "Service" as the category.

• The brand shows in your list with an "(under review)" tag. Google says Requests to add new brands will receive a response within 3-6 weeks.
• While under review, the brand can already be used in a campaign, but its reach may be limited.
• If approved, it joins the library and becomes available to all advertisers. If not, it shows as "Not eligible" and cannot be used, and you can remove it from the list.

The URL you give only tells similar brands apart. Google states that the brand URL does not change how branded traffic is filtered, so a country site does not need its own entry, and requests for a different URL for an existing brand will be rejected.

Brand exclusions in Performance Max

Performance Max picks searches without keywords, and for keeping it off brand searches Google points to brand exclusions rather than negative keywords. Google's Performance Max page calls them the most effective way to control how your ads appear on searches for your brand, because they block the brand name, common misspellings and related subsidiary brands automatically.

On which placements they cover, Google's pages differ slightly. The Performance Max page says exclusions apply to both Search and Shopping ads; the setup page says they apply to only Search, Shopping, and YouTube search inventory. Neither page lists Display or Gmail placements, which are not triggered by a search.

To add them, open the campaign's Settings, go to Additional settings and click Brand exclusions, then choose one or more brand lists (or create a new one). New campaigns have the same option under More settings.

The Shopping ads checkbox

There is one extra option: Allow Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands. Ticked, your Shopping ads can still appear for the excluded brand while the other ad formats stay off it. That is useful for a retailer that sells the excluded brand's products and wants to keep its product listings on those searches. The bulk editor has the same switch, as "Allow Shopping ads" or "Don't allow Shopping ads", for many Performance Max campaigns at once.

Brand exclusions and inclusions in Search campaigns

For Search campaigns, brand settings moved into AI Max. Google's setup page says that starting May 27, 2025, brand exclusions will begin upgrading into AI Max, and that this change does not affect Performance Max. What that means in practice:

• To add brand settings to a Search campaign that has none, you turn on AI Max at campaign level to reach the brand settings panel.
• A campaign that already had brand settings can keep them outside AI Max and remove brands or add brands to existing lists, but adding a new list requires AI Max.
• If AI Max is later switched off, the brand exclusions set through it are switched off too. Our AI Max guide covers that and the other AI Max controls.

You can also add exclusions to many campaigns at once: select them on the Settings tab, click Edit, then Change brands and Brand exclusions.

Brand inclusions

Inclusions are the opposite filter, for Search only. Google's brand inclusions page warns that they will prevent ads from showing on queries that do not contain a brand name. A few rules from that page and the FAQ:

• Inclusions can be set at campaign or ad group level. An ad group's inclusions override the campaign's for that ad group only.
• Negative keywords that match brands in your inclusion list may reduce performance, so check your negatives when you add inclusions.
• Campaigns with Dynamic Search Ads and keywords support inclusions, and they apply to all the campaign's traffic.
• If a campaign has both, Brand exclusions will be prioritized over brand inclusions.

Brand exclusions or negative keywords?

Both stop ads showing on a search, but they work differently. Google's Performance Max negative keywords page is direct about which to use for a brand: It is strongly recommended to use brand exclusions to exclude brand searches instead of negative keywords.

Negative keywords are still the right tool for generic terms: "free", "jobs", a service you do not offer. Brand lists cannot do that, because only brands from the library can go in them.

What changes after you apply them

Google states there is no additional cost to apply brand lists to campaigns, but that brand settings limit the reach of a campaign and performance may decrease. Its FAQ explains both directions:

• Performance drops: a Search campaign with inclusions loses traffic that did not match the listed brands; a Performance Max campaign with exclusions loses brand traffic on Search and Shopping. If those brand searches converted well, that campaign's conversions can fall even when the account as a whole does fine.
• Performance rises: if your branded keywords were switched to broad match when you applied brand inclusions, broad match can reach more searches.

Judge the change at account level. If your brand Search campaign picks up the searches Performance Max no longer takes, the total may barely move while the split between campaigns changes. Our auction insights guide helps when you also want to see who else bids on your name.

Common setups

These are the setups we see most and what we would check for each. They are our suggestions, built on Google's rules above, not Google's wording.

• Brand Search campaign + Performance Max: exclude your own brand from Performance Max, which matches Google's own usage recommendation for advertisers who manage brand traffic in a separate campaign. Then make sure the brand Search campaign has the budget to cover those searches.
• Generic Search campaign: exclude your own brand, so the generic campaign's numbers show how well you win new customers, not people already looking for you.
• Brand-only Search campaign: use a brand inclusion list with your brand and its sub-brands, and do not put the same brands in an exclusion list on that campaign, since exclusions win over inclusions.
• Competitor names: if you do not want to appear on competitor searches, add them to an exclusion list. If you do, keep them out of any exclusion list applied to that campaign.
• Resellers: if you sell another company's products, think before excluding that brand. The Shopping checkbox in Performance Max lets product ads keep showing.

Whatever the setup, keep one clearly named list per purpose ("Own brand", "Competitors") so the "campaigns using this list" column tells you at a glance where each filter is in force. After any change, review the search terms report for a few weeks.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use brand exclusions in Display or Demand Gen campaigns?

The brand settings pages cover Search and Performance Max only. Exclusions are available for both; inclusions for Search.

My business is not in the brand list. What do I do?

Request it from the brand list editor. Google says a response comes within 3-6 weeks; the brand can be used while under review, but its reach may be limited.

Do I need a separate entry for each country site?

No. Google says the brand URL does not change how branded traffic is filtered, and requests for a different URL for an existing brand are rejected.

Does applying a brand list cost anything?

No. There is no additional cost, but brand settings limit a campaign's reach, so its performance may decrease.

Will my Shopping ads still show for an excluded brand?

Only in Performance Max, and only if you tick "Allow Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands".

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