Google may be quietly testing one of the most requested features in Performance Max (PMax) campaigns—negative keyword lists. Despite its current official documentation denying the availability of such controls, several advertisers have reported seeing negative keyword options in their campaign settings.

What’s Happening?

Multiple screenshots surfaced online show active negative keyword lists within PMax campaign settings. This unexpected feature was first brought to light by PPC expert Adriaan Dekker on LinkedIn, with credit to Jeremy Young and Alyssa Knab from Young & Digital.

If accurate, this feature goes against Google’s current help documentation, which clearly states:

“Negative keyword lists aren’t available to use in your Performance Max campaigns.”

This inconsistency raises questions: Is this a backend A/B test? A slow feature rollout? Or just a glitch in the interface?

Why It Matters

For years, advertisers have asked for more targeting transparency and brand safety in PMax campaigns. Without negative keywords, irrelevant or brand-damaging placements can eat into budgets. If this is a sign of change, it could bring much-needed precision to one of Google Ads’ most automated formats.

What’s Next?

As of now, Google has issued no official statement. Whether this change is permanent or experimental remains to be seen. PPC professionals should monitor their PMax campaigns and stay updated in case the feature becomes widely available.

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