Your Google ROAS might look great because Google is taking credit for customers you already earned.
That’s the problem with running Performance Max or AI Max without tight brand controls.
Someone searches your brand name.
Google serves them an ad.
They click.
They buy.
Your dashboard calls it paid acquisition.
But that customer was already looking for you.
They may have clicked your organic listing, typed in your URL, or converted through another channel without costing you another dollar.
But Google is rerouting existing demand through paid clicks.
And because branded searches convert at a much higher rate than cold prospecting traffic, your ROAS can look healthy while your actual customer acquisition is weaker than you think.
For 7-8 figure DTC operators, this is one of the easiest leaks to miss.
You see a clean dashboard.
Google sees an easy conversion.
Your budget quietly funds both.
This newsletter breaks down a 30-minute audit to find out if Performance Max or AI Max is inflating your ROAS AND how to build a simple brand defense system that keeps Google from charging you for customers you already won.
Let’s dive in:
When the welcome flow is doing the bulk of your email revenue, that's not a healthy email channel.
These flows should be your top revenue drivers:
> Browse abandonment
> Cart abandonment
> Checkout started
Firing every time a high-intent shopper takes action.
But most of the flows are static with a generic copy, and no idea which product the shopper looked at.
Take Karen Kane, for example.
Their browse abandonment flow had been live for years…
Revenue from it was nearly nothing…
Then they switched to Instant AI.
That one flow:
> Jumped 8.9x in revenue
> Became their #2 revenue driver overall
> Generated $2.7M in incremental revenue
> 91x ROI compared to what they paid for Instant
The automated price drop campaign also became a massive flow for them, driving 20% of their total flow revenue (which was 0 before Instant).
If your welcome flow is over-indexing on revenue and your abandonment flows are running on autopilot, book a demo with Instant because they're 50% off their first 60 days:
Two Ways Google AI Inflates Your ROAS
The audit checks for two specific problems. Here’s what each one does to your account.
1. Performance Max bidding on your own brand.
Performance Max takes credit for people who are already searching for your specific brand name.
- Branded searches convert at 2-3x the rate of non-branded searches, according to industry benchmark data.
- Your reported ROAS looks great
- Actual incremental revenue is smaller than what’s reported
The system gets credit for conversions that likely would have happened through organic search or direct traffic.
2. Competitors and affiliates bidding on your brand terms.
Google’s trademark policy permits competitor bidding on branded keywords as long as they don’t use your trademark in ad copy.
- Your branded search traffic gets split between you, your own Performance Max campaign, and competitor advertisers.
- Without a dedicated branded Search campaign with a strong impression share, you’re losing branded clicks.
- Competitors can bid on “[YourBrand] alternatives” or “[YourBrand] vs [CompetitorBrand]” and show up when people search for you
The exact split varies by account, but you’re likely losing brand traffic without knowing it.
Industry analysis from Smarter Ecommerce (March 2026) documented AI Max scaling into competitor brand traffic in ways operators didn’t intend.
In one case, 69% of the ad budget was spent on searches for competitor brand names rather than prospecting for new customers.
The pattern isn’t universal, but it happens often enough to check your own account.
The 30-Minute Audit
Run these five steps this week to find out if Google is charging you for customers you already won.
Step 1: Check Performance Max brand exclusions.
- Go to Performance Max settings → Additional settings → Brand exclusions.
- Confirm that the brand list exists and includes your brand name, common misspellings, and subsidiary brands, if applicable.
If the brand exclusions list is empty, Performance Max is bidding on your brand right now.
Step 2: Pull Search Impression Share on branded queries.
- Filter Search campaigns to keywords containing your brand name.
- Pull the Search Impression Share column for the trailing 30 days.
Search Impression Share shows what percentage of possible brand searches you’re actually showing up for. If it’s below 90%, someone else is winning those auctions - either competitors or your own Performance Max campaign.
Step 3: Check the Performance Max search query report.
- Open the search query report on your Performance Max campaign.
- Look for queries containing competitor brand names or your own brand name.
If you see your own brand name, Performance Max is bidding on it and taking credit for those conversions. If you see competitor brand names, Performance Max is spending budget on competitor traffic instead of finding new customers.
Step 4: Check AI Max brand settings.
- For Search campaigns running AI Max, check the AI Max settings panel for brand inclusions and exclusions.
AI Max will automatically expand to match searches it thinks are relevant. Without brand exclusions configured, it can bid on your own brand name or competitor brands.
If a brand exclusion list isn’t set up, AI Max may be doing the same thing Performance Max does - bidding on branded searches.
Step 5: Check the standard Search Query report.
- Pull the search query report on standard search campaigns.
- Look for branded queries that should trigger your branded keywords but aren’t appearing in the report.
If you’re not seeing searches for your brand name in your standard Search campaigns, it means someone else is winning those auctions - either competitors are outbidding you, or your own Performance Max campaign is taking them.
If you’re not running Performance Max, skip steps 1 and 3. Steps 2, 4, and 5 still apply.
What You May Surface
Two patterns commonly appear when operators run this audit for the first time.
Pattern one: Performance Max has been bidding on brand search and inflating reported ROAS.
- Operators who add brand exclusions for the first time often see Performance Max ROAS drop in the first 30 days as the inflation disappears.
- Overall, account ROAS typically holds steady or improves because the budget previously allocated to branded searches is reallocated.
If you have a dedicated branded Search campaign (a campaign targeting only your brand name with exact/phrase match keywords), that’s where the budget goes - and those clicks are cheaper because you own your brand name.
If you don’t have one yet, you’ll need to build it (covered in the brand defense system below).
Magnitude varies by account.
Pattern two: Competitors or affiliates are bidding on your brand at meaningful volume.
If you find competitors bidding on your brand, you have two options.
- File trademark complaints through Google’s process if they’re using your trademark in their ad copy (which violates Google’s policy).
- Bid aggressively on your own brand keywords to push competitor ads down in the auction and reclaim that traffic.
Nord Media helps DTC brands between $1M – $100M+ by driving profitable growth utilizing Meta, Google and creative strategy. We implement systems and strategies that aim to drive growth for you brand without sacrificing your profit.
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The Brand Defense System
The audit above surfaces whether this is a problem. A brand defense system prevents it from recurring.
Build these three pieces once, so Google's AI stops taking credit for your existing customers. The monthly review (piece 3) keeps everything protected going forward.
Piece 1: Dedicated branded Search campaign
- Build a Search campaign that targets only your brand name.
- Use exact and phrase match keywords for your brand name and common variations.
- Set a goal of 95%+ Search Impression Share on your own brand.
This setup means you're showing up for virtually every search for your brand name. Quality Score will be high (your homepage is the most relevant landing page for your brand), which means CPC will be low.
Piece 2: Performance Max brand exclusions
- Configure brand exclusions in Performance Max settings.
- Your brand list should include your brand name, common misspellings, subsidiary brands, and any competitor brands you don’t want Performance Max scaling into.
This action forces Performance Max to find new customers rather than poach existing ones. Google’s brand exclusion control automatically blocks misspellings and foreign script variants, making it more comprehensive than negative keywords alone.
Piece 3: Monthly search query report review
Set a recurring calendar reminder for the first Monday of every month. Pull both Performance Max and standard Search query reports.
- Look for new competitor bidding patterns, affiliate misuse, and unintended AI Max expansion.
- File trademark complaints on any ad copy violations.
- Add new negative keywords or expand the brand list to block new variants as they emerge.
What to Do This Week
1. Run the 30-minute audit this week.
2. If Performance Max brand exclusions aren't configured, build the brand list and apply it this week. The change takes effect immediately.
3. If branded Search Impression Share is below 90%, raise bids on branded keywords or build a dedicated branded campaign if one doesn't exist.
4. File trademark complaints on any ad copy violations found this week through Google's process.
5. Set the recurring monthly review on the first Monday of every month. The audit takes 30 minutes. The recurring review takes 15.
Final Thoughts
Performance Max and AI Max can scale your account, but they need boundaries.
Without brand exclusions configured, you're paying to convert people who were already looking for you.
The reported ROAS looks healthy but the actual new customer acquisition is smaller than the dashboard suggests.
These settings are buried in submenus that don't get checked regularly.
You now know where to look.
Run the audit and set up the brand defense system.
Your campaign numbers will reflect real performance instead of inflated conversions.
If you want a growth partner who is invested in helping you build a profitable business, someone who is going to push you to make changes that focus on profitable growth. Book a call - let’s chat.
