Brand exclusions in Google Ads are a feature designed to prevent your Performance Max (PMax), Search, an Standard Shopping (with AI Max) ads from appearing when users search for terms related to specific brands.

Unlike traditional negative keywords, brand exclusions work at the entity/concept level, meaning they automatically cover brand variations, misspellings, and variants in different languages.

1. How do they work and what are they used for?

Google maintains a database of registered and recognized brands. When you apply a brand exclusion list to a campaign:

• Block specific searches: Prevent your ads from appearing in searches that include those brands (whether they are your competitors or your own brand).
• Control spending: Avoid paying for clicks from users who were already searching for a specific brand and are probably not interested in your offering.
• Traffic segmentation: Allow you to clearly separate "Branded" campaigns (targeting your own brand) from pure acquisition campaigns ("Non-Branded").

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2. When should you use them?

a. Exclude your own brand: Ideal for acquisition or Performance Max campaigns where you only want to attract new customers who are not familiar with your company.

For example, if you already have a branded Search campaign, it would make sense to apply a brand exclusion to the rest of your campaigns.

b. Exclude competitors: Avoid appearing in searches directly related to competitors if your strategy does not involve brand conquesting or if the CPC for their brand names is very high.

You don't necessarily have to do this for every competitor: only for those you don't want to appear alongside, whether because your product is different, you don't want to be associated with them, you don't share the same target audience, or the CPC is too high to be profitable.

c. Useful if your product has the same or a similar name to a major brand in the market but is unrelated to it.

For example, if you run a nail salon, you wouldn't want your ads to appear alongside Amazon and other platforms selling DIY nail products.

Additionally, brand exclusions also cover the main variations of a brand's name and its most common misspellings.

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3. Steps to configure brand exclusions

1. Create a brand list: Go to Tools and Settings > Shared Library > Brand Lists in the Google Ads interface. Click the + button and give your list a name.

2. Add brands to the list: Enter the name of the brand you want to exclude. Google will suggest options from its database. If the brand doesn't appear, you can submit a request for Google to review and add it.

3. Apply the list to your campaign: Go to your campaign settings (Search or Performance Max), find the Advanced Settings or Brand Exclusions section, and select the list you just created.

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