Google documents possible filtering of brand queries in Performance Max

What changed

The paragraph appears in Google’s explanation of how campaigns in the same account interact. It sits alongside the separate prioritisation rule for Search keywords that match a query exactly or after spell correction. Those rules should not be conflated: the new wording describes possible filtering, while keyword prioritisation describes which eligible campaign is preferred in a specified situation.

Google recommends keeping dedicated brand Search campaigns adequately funded and their ads eligible. It also mentions Search Themes for Performance Max. The documentation does not give a numerical filtering threshold, a country list or a dated rollout schedule. It therefore supports a review of campaign overlap, but not a claim that Google has switched off every advertiser’s brand traffic.

For account analysis, compare brand-query coverage across Search and Performance Max over the same period. Look at eligibility, budget constraints and actual search-term evidence before attributing a traffic shift to this paragraph. A change in reported branded conversions alone cannot establish which mechanism caused it.

Hana Kobzová identified the documentation update in PPC News Feed on 2 November. Barry Schwartz subsequently showed a comparison with an earlier version. Google is the source for the current behaviour; the coverage date is not a verified engineering-release date. The accompanying image is the documentation screenshot reproduced by Search Engine Roundtable, with the source’s highlighting retained. The wording does not identify an advertiser-controlled switch.