TPE #76: how to exclude anything from pMax
Jan 15, 2024Read time: 3 minutes
Happy Monday and welcome back to The PPC Edge!
Don’t you hate how Performance Max can be such a black box?
Well, today we have something for you that you can implement right away to gain some much-needed control.
It’s a relatively unknown way to exclude any keyword, topic, or placement from your pMax campaigns.
Some of you may already know about this method (especially if you’re one of our Performance Max Mastery students).
But if you don’t know about this hack yet…
Well, you’re in for a treat!
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Quick note from Miles before we dive in:
I’ve finally started posting on X and I’m really enjoying it.
If you have a minute, I’d really appreciate a follow (you can do that here).
In return, I’m gonna share tons of advanced Google Ads tips.
And I’m also gonna post new behind-the-scenes insights on how we grow PPC Mastery.
If that interests you, be sure to follow me on X (@milesmcnair9)
Ok, done?
Let’s dive back into The PPC Edge!
How to exclude any keyword, topic, or placement from your pMax campaigns.
Performance Max campaigns were launched 2 years ago.
Since then, it’s been extremely hard to exclude keywords, topic, or placements.
But that’s about to change for you.
Introducing the “Performance Max Campaign Modification Request Form”:
It’s a simple form that you can fill out to ask Google to exclude any keyword, topic, or placement.
You can find the link at the bottom of this newsletter issue — let’s first look at how it works.
How to use this form (it really speaks for itself):
1: Fill out all relevant details about your account.
Add your name, email, and Google Ads account ID.
2: Select what you want to exclude.
Choose from keyword, topic, or placement exclusions.
3: Select the exclusion level and upload your exclusions.
Excluding keywords? Do this:
- Choose between account-level or campaign-level exclusions.
- Select “For another performance or automation guiding way”
- Download the “pMAX: Request Template” file, fill it out, and upload it as an attachment.
The pMAX: Request Template file contains tabs to add your keyword, topic, and placement exclusions and looks like this:
Quick note: be mindful of how account-level exclusions impact ALL of your campaigns, not only a specific pMax campaign.
We recommend using campaign-level exclusions unless it’s something that you truly want to exclude on the entire account (e.g. for brand safety reasons).
4: Give consent and submit the form.
The last step is to give Google a one-time approval to make the changes in your account(s). All you have to do now is wait!
Final note: happy excluding (here’s the link to the form).
And just like that, you can easily exclude any keyword, topic, or placement from your Performance Max campaigns.
Here’s the link to the “Performance Max Campaign Modification Form”.
A big shoutout to Petya Yildizgoren for bringing this to our attention last year!
Happy excluding! :)
Thank you for reading.
Have a great week and see you in Friday’s issue of the Friday Roundup!
Cheers,
Bob & Miles
p.s. last message from Miles: I’ve finally started posting on X. If you want, be sure to follow me for more advanced Google Ads tips and behind-the-scenes insights on how we grow PPC Mastery. Follow me via this link or look for @milesmcnair9. See you there!
