PPCleaner Blog

Performance Max

PMax hides its search terms and limits what you can exclude. What you can actually see, what you can actually block, and how to work inside the 10,000-negative ceiling per campaign.

Abstract diagram: a stream of search queries passing through a filter, some continuing through in green, others stopped in red.

Performance Max

Negative Keywords in Performance Max and the 10,000 Cap

Performance Max accepts up to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign and no shared lists, which turns a two-minute job into a maintenance problem across every campaign you run. Here is where the negatives go, which match type survives PMax, and the three things negatives will never fix.

September 6, 2026 · 11 min read

Stop the leak

Clean your search terms. Save time and money.

Every night, PPCleaner reviews the searches your campaigns actually paid for, groups them by intent, and excludes the ones that never convert. No spend threshold to wait for, nothing touched but negatives — and one click undoes any of it.

Start 7 days free

Search, Shopping and Performance Max · Cancel in one click