Google Tests New Branded Search Controls in AI Max Campaigns

Advertisers running AI Max campaigns may soon gain a crucial new lever: the ability to directly control how those campaigns interact with branded search queries. This addresses a top frustration that has persisted since the campaign type first rolled out.

Several advertisers have reported seeing a new “Branded Searches” control within their AI Max campaign settings. According to these early sightings, the feature offers three distinct options for managing brand-related traffic:

• Show ads on all relevant searches (the current default behavior)Why this matters. Since AI Max launched, one of the loudest criticisms has been its tendency to capture branded traffic that advertisers already target through dedicated brand campaigns. This overlap creates a cascade of problems: higher costs for traffic that would likely convert anyway, messy attribution across campaign types, reduced visibility into true incremental performance, and persistent concerns about AI Max cannibalizing branded search activity.The newly spotted “unbranded only” option offers a more direct path to keeping AI Max focused on net-new demand and prospecting, rather than simply absorbing existing brand traffic.Between the lines. Until now, advertisers trying to prevent AI Max from serving on branded queries have largely relied on manual brand exclusion lists. A native, campaign-level setting would be far more straightforward and would likely provide greater transparency into how the system handles brand intent.The bigger picture. Google has been steadily adding more granular controls to its automated campaign types as advertisers demand greater visibility and governance over AI-driven systems. If this feature rolls out broadly, it would signal that Google is listening to advertiser concerns about brand traffic management, even as it continues to expand AI-powered campaign automation.What to watch. It remains unclear whether this is an official launch, a limited beta, or simply an experiment running in select accounts. Advertisers should keep an eye on their AI Max campaign settings and watch for official announcements from Google about expanded branded search controls.The bottom line. A new branded search setting spotted in AI Max could give advertisers one of their most requested controls: the ability to cleanly separate branded and non-branded traffic. For now, though, this appears to be an early sighting rather than a confirmed global rollout. The update was first spotted by Paid Search specialist Thomas Eccel, who shared the finding on LinkedIn.