AI Max expands query matching automatically -- which makes negative keyword management more critical than in any previous Google Ads campaign type. For US advertisers with established brand campaigns, the cannibalization risk is significant: without brand exclusions, AI Max learns that branded queries convert well and pulls budget toward them, undermining your non-branded growth targets.
How AI Max Query Expansion Works
AI Max matches queries based on landing page content, asset combinations, and conversion signals -- not keyword lists. Traditional negative keyword strategy (blocking specific terms) is necessary but not sufficient: you need proactive exclusion lists built from historical search term data before you launch.
The US market has the highest AI Max adoption rate globally. Competitive categories -- legal, financial, healthcare, SaaS -- see aggressive query expansion as AI Max tries to find converting queries. Tight negative management is essential from day one.
Brand Exclusions: Core Setting
Brand exclusions in AI Max prevent your campaign from targeting your own branded queries. Navigate to campaign settings > Brand Exclusions to add your brand name and common variations.
Without this, AI Max will consistently shift budget toward branded queries -- they convert at a higher rate, which the optimization system learns and reinforces. The result: branded impression share grows, non-branded stays flat, and your growth metrics stagnate.
Interaction with the July 2026 ToS update -- specifically around AI-generated assets mentioning brand names: https://yositeup.com/blog/google-ads-tos-july-2026-ai-automation-what-changed
Campaign Negatives Before Launch
Export all search term reports from existing campaigns. Build category-based negative lists:
- Competitor brands (unless you want to target comparison queries)
- Job/career queries (triggered by service pages)
- Unrelated industry terms
- Informational-only queries that have never converted
Apply these as campaign-level negatives before AI Max launch. The first 4 weeks of AI Max operation set the optimization trajectory -- starting with a clean negative list is faster than cleaning up after.
DSA Migration and Negative Carry-Over
DSA negatives do not transfer to AI Max automatically. For the full migration checklist: https://yositeup.com/blog/google-ads-dsa-ai-max-migration-february-2027
Rebuilding Search Term Baselines
The June 2026 reporting deletion removed historical search term data: https://yositeup.com/blog/google-ads-reporting-data-deleted-june-2026
For US advertisers building new AI Max campaigns without that historical data: pull search term reports from any remaining campaigns weekly and accumulate before finalizing your negative list.
