How to add Performance Max negative keywords (and when not to)

Last checked against Google’s documentation on 29 September 2026.

Performance Max negative keywords: the short answer

Yes, you can add Performance Max negative keywords yourself now, at the campaign level, through a shared negative keyword list, or at the account level. Google documents up to 10,000 negative keywords per Performance Max campaign, and they apply to Search and Shopping inventory only.

The workflow is the same as for Search: open the Performance Max search terms report, find the searches that spent without converting or are unrelated to your business, and exclude them. To keep PMax off brand searches (yours or a competitor’s), use brand exclusions rather than negative keywords.

What changed, and when

Negative keyword control in Performance Max has grown in steps, as Google’s own announcements describe. If you last looked a while ago, the options are wider now:

• Campaign-level negative keywords. Google’s Performance Max update says campaign-level negatives were introduced with a 100-keyword limit, later raised to 10,000 per campaign, which Google describes as available now.
• Negative keyword lists and full search terms reporting. In an announcement dated 7 August 2025, Google said it was adding the ability to apply campaign-level negative keyword lists to Performance Max, that search terms reporting was now available for all Performance Max campaigns and through the API, and that the search theme limit per asset group went from 25 to 50.

If your account still doesn’t show one of these options, check again later or confirm with Google support; Google rolls features out gradually and doesn’t always give a completion date.

Read the PMax search terms report first

Don’t add negatives from a list of ideas. Start with what the campaign actually served on. Google’s Performance Max search terms report shows the search terms behind your results, along with their landing pages and ad formats, with data from March 2023 onward.

1. Click Campaigns and open the Search terms report under Insights and reports.
2. Use the report’s view drop-down to switch to Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max.
3. Filter to one Performance Max campaign and a date range of at least 30 days.
4. Sort by cost. Look for searches with spend and no conversions, and for searches that are simply wrong for your business.
5. Look for repeated words across many small searches (“free”, “jobs”, “login”). One negative on the word does the work of many.

Use the same thresholds you would use in Search: a term that has spent roughly your cost per conversion with nothing to show for it is worth reviewing, and one that has spent about twice that with no conversions is usually a safe negative unless it is central to what you sell. The full method, including word grouping, is in how to find negative keywords.

How to add negatives to Performance Max

There are three places a negative can live. Pick the narrowest one that solves the problem.

Campaign level

Google’s steps for a single Performance Max campaign:

1. Under Campaigns, go to Keywords.
2. Open the Negative keywords tab and click the plus button.
3. Choose your Performance Max campaign.
4. Enter one negative per line, using match type symbols if you want phrase or exact, or pick an existing negative keyword list.
5. Click Save.

Google also lets you review the predicted performance impact of adding negatives to a Performance Max campaign before you save. Use it: if the estimate shows a large drop in conversions, the negative is too broad.

Account level

Account-level negative keywords apply to Search and Shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns, up to 1,000 per account. Add them under Admin > Account settings > Negative keywords. Only put terms here that are wrong for every campaign.

Match types still matter

Negatives in Performance Max follow the same rules as elsewhere: broad, phrase and exact negatives behave differently, and Google’s negative keyword documentation is clear that negatives don’t match close variants. Add plurals and synonyms yourself.

Using a PMax negative keyword list

If you run several Performance Max campaigns, or Performance Max alongside Search, a shared list saves you from adding the same term in five places. Google documents up to 20 negative keyword lists per account, with 5,000 keywords each.

1. Click the Tools icon, open Shared library and click Exclusion lists.
2. On the Negative keyword lists tab, click the plus button, add your terms and name the list.
3. Select the list, click Apply to campaigns, and choose the Performance Max campaigns (and any Search campaigns) it should cover.

A useful split: one list for terms that are wrong for the whole business (job searches, support searches), and separate lists for terms that are wrong only for a product line. Name them so a colleague knows what each one is for.

PMax brand exclusions vs negative keywords

If the problem is Performance Max serving on brand searches, a negative keyword is the wrong tool. Google recommends brand exclusions, which use brand lists instead of typed keywords. Google’s Performance Max FAQ says brand exclusions block misspellings and searches in other scripts that negative keywords would miss.

To apply one to an existing campaign:

1. Go to Campaigns and open the Settings tab.
2. Select the Performance Max campaign and open Additional settings.
3. Click Brand exclusions, pick a brand list or click + New brand list, and save.

For Performance Max, Google says brand exclusions apply to Search, Shopping and YouTube search inventory, and there is an option to still allow Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands. That option matters for online stores that sell other brands’ products. Whether to exclude your own brand from Performance Max is covered in Performance Max cannibalizing brand search.

Display and video: content exclusions instead

Performance Max also serves on Display, YouTube and other inventory where negative keywords don’t apply. Google’s guidance for those is to use excluded content keywords in the Content Suitability center, which keep your ads away from content about topics you don’t want to appear next to. To see how much of your spend goes to each channel before deciding where to act, read the Performance Max channel performance report guide.

Mistakes that cost Performance Max volume

• Pasting a generic list of hundreds of words. Every negative narrows what the campaign can learn from. Add what your own search terms justify.
• Using single-word broad negatives that appear in good searches. Check each one against the searches that convert.
• Judging too early. Performance Max needs time and conversions. A term with a handful of clicks and no conversions is not yet evidence.
• Forgetting the account level. A term added there applies to every eligible campaign, not just the one you were looking at.
• Treating negatives as the only lever. If Performance Max keeps drifting toward weak searches, look at search themes, assets, landing pages and the conversion goal the campaign optimizes for.

Boxoo’s search terms and keywords agent reads Performance Max search terms alongside Search, files a case when a term or word keeps spending without results, and prepares the negative keyword for you to apply, with an undo. The performance and structure agent looks at how Performance Max sits next to your other campaigns. Both work only from your account’s data, and nothing changes until you press Apply. Get a free Google Ads audit to see the first cases.