Digital marketing is changing: more & more solutions are driven by AI to achieve better results in an automated way. Broad Match in search campaigns & Performance Max campaigns are constantly optimized by Google and perform better and better. But one thing that bothers us as online marketing experts about it – the lack of control over PMax & Broad Match campaigns. That’s why Google has now introduced two new features to better manage and control Google’s AI: Brand Restrictions for Broad-Match Keywords in Search Campaigns and Brand Exclusions in Performance Max.
Brand restrictions for broad-match search campaigns
Until now, broad-match keywords in brand campaigns also triggered search terms that went beyond that brand/brand’s products. From now on, you have the possibility to define up to 10 brands per campaign. Our broad-match keywords thus only trigger search terms that are clearly related to the specified brands.
This feature can be used only if we have enabled the broad match keywords campaign setting.
Thus, we can regain a bit more control over broad-match keywords and limit the playout of our ads by brand name.
Excluding brand traffic from Performance Max campaigns
Brand exclusions for Performance Max campaigns are now available to all advertisers. Unlike brand exclusions in broad-match search campaigns, brand exclusions in PMax campaigns let us choose which brands to exclude, rather than deciding which brands to serve ads to. These exclusions provide additional control to ensure that our Performance Max campaigns are not served for brand terms that we want to avoid in the search and shopping network. We can choose from a list of brands to exclude here, including your own brand terms or third-party terms.
2 Meaningful Updates
So, with this Google Ads update, we get a new chance to regain some more control over AI-driven campaigns.
Nonetheless, we should still keep an eye on the performance impact of these settings.
