On 2 November, Google brand searches changed twice in a few hours. Google’s help page now says Performance Max “may also filter out navigational or brand-specific search queries” and leave them to dedicated brand Search campaigns. On desktop, AI Overviews for many brand names moved into the right-hand column, where the knowledge panel used to sit.
Black Friday falls on 27 November. If your brand traffic runs through Performance Max today, you have about three weeks to check where it will land.
Key takeaways
- Performance Max may now hand brand queries to your brand Search campaign, if you have one.
- Without a funded brand campaign, some brand searches may go to a competitor.
- The right-column AI Overview has only been documented on desktop, in US examples.
What the help page now says
Hana Kobzová spotted the change, and PPC News Feed reported it on 2 November. It sits in the help article on Performance Max and other campaigns. Google gives its reason in one sentence. “This ensures brand-related queries are handled by campaigns offering more precise control.” The page then asks advertisers to give brand Search campaigns “sufficient budget and high-quality, eligible ads”.
There is no date and no announcement, and the wording is “may”. We read it as a direction of travel that is probably already live in some accounts, and we would plan for it now.
The older priority rule still applies. A Search keyword that exactly matches the query, or a spell-corrected version of it, wins over Performance Max. Otherwise the campaign with the higher Ad Rank serves. The novelty is that Performance Max may step aside on brand queries even when no other campaign claims them.
Who is exposed
The accounts at risk are the ones that dropped their brand campaign when Performance Max arrived. Performance Max picked up brand searches, reported a healthy ROAS, and the brand campaign looked redundant.
If Performance Max filters those queries out and nothing catches them, a competitor bidding on your name can take the top ad slot. In late November, that is an expensive gap.
A quieter effect follows. Brand conversions are usually the cheapest in the account. When they leave Performance Max, its reported ROAS will likely fall even if nothing else changed. A team that reads that drop as a performance problem may cut a campaign that was prospecting well.
The right-column AI Overview, in its real scope
Barry Schwartz reported the layout change on Search Engine Roundtable on 2 November, with Apple, Zillow and Coke among the examples. On those pages the AI Overview sits in the right-hand column on desktop and effectively replaces the brand knowledge panel. According to PPC Land, every published example came from US results, and Google made no announcement. Nobody has said whether it is a test, and mobile has not been documented.
If you advertise in France or the UK, check your own brand searches on desktop before planning around it.
It still matters for the budget. Ahrefs, cited by PPC Land, found AI Overviews on 82.91% of branded keyword results on 29 September. When the summary moves aside, the main column gives room back to the ad and the organic result. Read what the panel says, too. PPC Land noted that the AI text on Zillow’s panel gave 2006 as the founding year, while a fact row in the same panel said 2004.
PAID MEDIA
Check your brand and Performance Max split before the peak
We review where your brand queries land and how the budget is shared, then fix the setup before Black Friday.
Should you keep a brand Search campaign?
For most accounts that run Performance Max, yes. Google’s help page now tells you to fund one, and going without costs most in the weeks when competitors bid hardest.
The usual objection is that you would get the click organically anyway. Sometimes that holds, mainly when nobody bids on your name. The way to know is a holdout test, pausing brand ads in some regions and comparing total brand traffic and sales. Run it in January. The fortnight before Black Friday is the worst moment to learn that a competitor was waiting for your slot.
Costs are rising too. According to Digiday, Tinuiti saw branded CPCs rise about 5% in the third quarter, roughly in step with non-brand terms. The same piece, based on 18 media buyers, quotes one agency seeing 10% to 30% of Google search budgets being reallocated.
How to set it up alongside Performance Max
This is what we do at MyDigipal on accounts that run both.
- Give brand its own Search campaign and its own budget. A budget shared with non-brand gets eaten on peak days.
- Use exact and phrase match brand keywords, with the common misspellings. Exact match is what guarantees priority over Performance Max.
- Add a brand list with your own brand to Performance Max, under Brand exclusions. Google says these apply to Search, Shopping and YouTube search inventory. Retailers can tick Allow Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands.
- Check account-level negative keyword lists. A brand term blocked there stops the brand campaign too.
- Report brand Search and Performance Max conversions as one total, and compare it with the period before the change.
The exclusion makes the routing explicit, so you no longer depend on a “may” in a help page.
What to watch until 27 November
| Indicator | Where in Google Ads | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Brand campaign status | Status column | Limited by budget before Black Friday |
| Share lost to budget | Search lost IS (budget) | Any meaningful share on your own name |
| Brand terms in Performance Max | Search terms report | Brand queries still converting there |
| Brand cost per click | Avg. CPC | A sharp jump, often a new competitor |
| Combined conversions | Brand plus Performance Max | A fall in the total |
Make structural changes by around 18 November. After that, we stick to budget increases. Smart bidding needs time to settle after large changes, and Black Friday week is a bad time for a learning period.
Why Google is moving now
Alphabet reported $63.35 billion in Search and other revenue for the third quarter, up 12% year on year. PPC Land notes that growth was 19% in the first quarter and 17% in the second. Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, named AI Mode among three causes, a format that carries fewer ads than a classic results page, according to PPC Land. “The strong growth in AI Mode queries had an impact,” he said.
Nobody at Google has linked the brand change to revenue. Either way, the practical reading is the same. Brand search needs its own funded line, and someone who looks at it every week.
Brand search deserves its own budget line. Letting Performance Max absorb it was a shortcut, and Google has just narrowed it. MyDigipal
If nobody can give you a combined brand figure, start with our tracking and reporting work. For the organic side, see ranking in AI Mode and classic search. For ads inside AI Mode, read our earlier article.
Sources: Google Ads Help, Performance Max and other campaigns - Google Ads Help, brand exclusions - PPC News Feed - Search Engine Roundtable - PPC Land, brand AI Overviews - Alphabet Q3 2026 - PPC Land, Alphabet Q3 - PPC Land, Search growth - Digiday
