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The short answer
Performance Max chooses its own searches, and without negatives it can buy searches such as jobs, free or a competitor's name. It takes campaign negatives and shared lists now, but the list an account keeps for Search is rarely right for it as it is. Oppy lists the Performance Max campaigns with no negative list, and builds one for them from the account's own searches.
Why it matters
Performance Max chooses its own searches. Without negatives, it can buy the same junk a Search campaign learned to refuse years ago. Since 2025 its searches show in the search terms report, but few accounts read them.
Google lets advertisers add negatives to Performance Max, as campaign negatives or through a shared list. Copying the Search list as it is can block searches Performance Max should win, such as a product word your Search campaigns exclude for their own reasons.
How Oppy decides
The check runs on accounts with Performance Max campaigns whose settings could be read.
The task builds a list of its own from the account's real searches and the words that are wrong for most businesses, such as jobs or free. Each word is checked against your site so the list blocks nothing you sell, and it is attached to the campaign once you approve.
Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.
When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.
| This check | |
|---|---|
| Step of the audit | Structure |
| What it reads | Campaigns, their settings and their results |
| Needs trustworthy conversions | No. It does not wait for the tracking step. |
| What happens next | Oppy builds a negative list from the account's own searches and common junk words, checked against your site so it blocks nothing you sell, and attaches it to the campaign. Waits for your approval in both modes. |
Check it yourself in Google Ads
- In Google Ads, open Tools, then Shared library, then Exclusion lists, and see which negative keyword lists exist.
- Open each list and check which campaigns it is applied to.
- List the Performance Max campaigns with none.
- Open the search terms report for those campaigns and note the searches you would refuse.
What to do about it
Build a negative list for Performance Max from its own search terms, plus the words that are wrong everywhere for your business. Check it against what you sell before you attach it, rather than copying the Search list as it is.
Keep brand terms out of that list if you want Performance Max to show on brand searches, and use brand exclusions to control that separately.
Terms on this page
Other checks in this area
The checks next to this one in Shopping and feeds, each with its own page.