How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Stop Performance Max sending ads to pages you don't want
Updated October 11, 2026
20 minutes
To stop Performance Max sending ads to pages you don't want, open the campaign's settings, expand Asset optimization and add a URL exclusion for each unwanted page or path, one rule per path. If a single page is the only place customers convert, turn off Final URL expansion instead, then confirm in the landing pages report.
Before you start
- Google Ads access that can edit campaigns. Exclusions and Final URL expansion are campaign settings.
- A list of the sections you never want advertised. Blog posts, careers, about, privacy and discontinued products are the usual ones, written down as their address paths, such as /blog/ or /careers/.
See which pages Performance Max chose
Final URL expansion, on by default in Performance Max, lets Google replace your final URL with any page on the same domain that it judges more relevant to the search and write a headline to match, so start with the pages it picked.
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. From the drop-down, choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max.
- Set a date range of 30 days or more and read the landing page beside each search. Note every page you would not send a customer to.
- For each ad, open the campaign's asset report and select the Expanded Final URL assets tab. It lists each asset with the expanded final URL it served with, and its impressions and conversions.
- Group the unwanted pages by path. A dental office might find 40 blog posts, all under /blog/; a software company might find its job listings under /careers/.
Exclude pages and sections
If the unwanted pages fall into a few sections, keep expansion on and exclude those sections, one rule per path, which is Google's recommended route.
- Open Campaigns, then click the gear icon beside the Performance Max campaign to open its settings.
- Expand Asset optimization and click the URL exclusions link. Google's own pages label it Add URL exclusions or Exclude some URLs.
- For single pages, list each full URL and click Add.
- For whole sections, open the Rules tab and add one rule per path: one rule for /blog/, a separate rule for /careers/. Do not put several paths into one rule.
- Click Apply, then Save.
Two limits Google states: exclusions can only be added while Final URL expansion is on, and the campaign's own final URL cannot be excluded. If the homepage is the final URL and it should not serve, set a more specific page as the final URL first, then exclude the homepage.
Or turn Final URL expansion off
If one page is the only place a customer can convert, such as a booking or quote form, turn Final URL expansion off and make that page the asset group's Final URL, which is Google's answer for a single conversion path.
- Open Campaigns, click the gear icon beside the Performance Max campaign, and under Campaign settings select Asset optimization.
- Under Text, untick Final URL. Leave Text customization as it is unless you also want to stop generated headlines.
- Click Save.
With expansion off, the campaign sends people only to the final URLs in its asset groups and the URLs in any page feed attached to it.
Check it worked
Google says changes to these settings can take 24 to 48 hours to fully take effect. After a week, open Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max again with a date range that starts the day after you saved.
The excluded paths should be gone from the landing pages. If one section still shows, check that no asset group uses a page in it as its final URL, and that its rule holds a single path. If the campaign uses a Merchant Center feed, Google says the homepage may still serve on some inventory, such as Shopping ads on Gmail, even when excluded.
Why each path gets its own rule
Google's Ads API reference for webpage rules says the conditions inside one rule are joined with AND. If a single rule held both /blog/ and /careers/, it would match only a page whose address contains both, which is usually no page at all. Google's help pages do not describe how the Rules tab combines conditions, so one rule per path is the safe setup.
Separate rules each exclude the pages they match.
Does a page feed limit where ads go?
Only with Final URL expansion off. With expansion on, Google says a page feed helps it index the pages you list but does not restrict ads to them: ads may still go to any page on the final URL's domain.
To keep expansion on but block some pages from a feed, give those rows a custom label and add the label under the Custom labels tab of the URL exclusions panel.