Google Ads Brand Exclusion Won’t Prevent Your Ads For Showing For Random Firms

The other day we reported about the new Google Ads brand controls. But as we gain more and more clarity, it seems it does not give advertisers all the controls they need.

Brand inclusion is a way to get branded traffic only on your brand for Search Ads and Performance Max campaigns.

So you need to specifically request exclusion for all the brands you do not want your ads to show for. And of course, there are endless brands and excluding all those infinite number of brands, is virtually impossible. Now with brand exclusions, you can block other brands from matching to your regular keywords in Search Ads and Performance Max campaigns and that will be available to all match types in the future but it is not yet available.

To be fair to Google’s, Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, wrote on X, “this is an area we are continuing to look at.”

This came up with Joe posted on X, “Will this brand exclusion technology gives the ability to prevent our ads from showing for searches for random lawyers’ names?”

Anthony Higman, who spent a considerable amount of time (in my frame of reference of time) helping me understand this so I can write this story (which is painful for me, because I normally do not ask people for help with stories), added, “That would be AWESOME!!!!!! If the answer is yes to this, this will be my favorite update of the last two years! But……coming in the coming months for other match tyoes. So hoping it actually comes through.”

Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, responded, “Yes, though you’ll need to know the brands (firm/lawyer names in this case) and request to include them in a brand list for exclusion.”
“This is also an area we’re continuing to look at – and the feedback we’ve received has been very helpful (thank you!),” she added.

Ginny also added, “I will note, If you’re running branded campaigns and seeing unwanted matches to other firm names, this is where using brand inclusions with broad match (and Smart Bidding) can really help. Brand inclusions will focus traffic solely on your brand queries while also using the additional signals available to broad match, including landing pages, keywords in your ad group, previous searches, and more.”

Here are those posts:

That would be AWESOME!!!!!! If the answer is yes to this, this will be my favorite update of the last two years! But……coming in the coming months for other match tyoes. So hoping it actually comes through

— Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) June 27, 2024

Hi Joe and Anthony, Yes, though you’ll need to know the brands (firm/lawyer names in this case) and request to include them in a brand list for exclusion. This is also an area we’re continuing to look at – and the feedback we’ve received has been very helpful (thank you!).

I…

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) July 2, 2024

I’ll underscore this is an area we are continuing to look at.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) July 2, 2024

Does this make sense? If so, please thank Anthony Higman of ADSQUIRE, if not, blame me.

Oh, and this moving does not make it less confusing:

Hey Yall, Brand Lists That Used To Be In Campaign Settings Have Moved To The Shared Library! #PPCchat pic.twitter.com/N5EXEql1NQ

— Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) July 2, 2024

Forum discussion at X.