On 2 November 2026, new wording was spotted on the Google Ads help page that explains how Performance Max competes with other campaigns in the same account. The page now says Performance Max campaigns "may also filter out" navigational or brand-specific searches, so that a dedicated Search campaign serves them instead.
Put plainly: when someone types your business name into Google, the automated campaign may no longer take that search. Google would rather a regular, keyword-based Search campaign handle it.
Google made no announcement. The page carries no update date and does not say what it said before. Nothing on it limits the rule to a country, so it applies to every Google Ads account, Israeli businesses included.
The usual rule, and the new exception
When several campaigns in one account could show an ad for the same search, Google normally picks the one with the higher Ad Rank.
The page lists two exceptions. In the first, a Search campaign with a keyword that exactly matches the query, or the spell-corrected version of it, is preferred over Performance Max. The second is the brand filtering. Google's stated reason is that brand queries should go to campaigns that give the advertiser more precise control.
The word "may" matters. Google does not say the filtering always happens, and it publishes no share of searches where it does.
Who stands to lose
The risk sits with a business that runs a single Performance Max campaign and nothing else. In that kind of campaign the advertiser chooses no keywords, and Google decides on its own which searches get the ads.
Such a business relies on that campaign even when the customer already knows its name and searches for it. If Performance Max filters the search and the account has no other Search campaign, nothing is left to show the business's ad on its own name. The customer can still reach the site through the organic result, but the ad slot at the top of the page is open to anyone else bidding on that search.
A person typing your business name already knows you and means to reach you. That is the customer you can least afford to lose on the way.
Google's advice to account owners
The help page recommends two steps. First, make sure your dedicated brand Search campaign has enough budget and good-quality ads that are eligible to serve. Second, consider adding Search Themes to the Performance Max campaign: words and phrases that steer it toward particular searches.
A business with no Search campaign on its own name can set up a small one. An exact-match keyword for the business name is enough, and if the name is written several ways, in Hebrew and in English, add each of them. Under the first exception on the page, a keyword that matches what the person typed is preferred over Performance Max, so that campaign will pick up the searches for the name.
A business that already runs one can check that it is active, that its daily budget does not run out early, and that its ads are approved. A brand campaign set up years ago and forgotten, with a budget of a few shekels a day, can run dry by midday and leave searches for the name with no ad.
If an agency or a freelancer runs your ads, ask whether the account has a Search campaign on the business name and how it is budgeted. It takes a minute, and the answer is on the account's campaigns screen.