A new household income exclusion feature spotted in Performance Max campaigns lets advertisers filter out high-earners or focus on specific income brackets directly at campaign setup.
Google is testing a new audience control in Performance Max campaigns that lets you exclude users based on estimated household income. Instead of hoping your budget reaches the right customer tier, you now filter directly by income bracket at the campaign level.
The exclusion options spotted in European campaigns include: top 10%, 11-20%, 21-30%, 31-40%, and likely more tiers below. You pick which income segments to block, and Performance Max skips those users.
Performance Max runs on Google's automation, which means you haven't had direct control over audience income targeting until now. You could use audience lists or third-party data, but household income exclusions are built into the campaign itself.
Budget-focused brands (discount retailers, value services, financing offers) can exclude high-income earners who rarely buy at lower price points. Premium brands can exclude lower-income brackets and concentrate spend on affluent users. Niche service providers can dial in the exact middle-class or upper-middle-class segments that fit their sweet spot.
Once the feature is live in your account, you'll see household income exclusion options in your Performance Max campaign settings. Select the income brackets you want to exclude, and Performance Max will avoid serving ads to users in those segments. No rebuild needed, no separate audiences to manage.
The feature works alongside your existing audience and bidding strategies, so you can layer it on top of current setups without disrupting live campaigns.
Performance Max just got more precise. Household income exclusions give you a new way to protect your budget and focus on the income tiers that actually buy from you. Watch for the feature in your account in the coming weeks, and adjust your campaigns as soon as it's available.
How WebKing runs this
WebKing's paid search team monitors Google's audience controls and rolls new features into your PMax strategy within days of release, ensuring your budget flows to the right income segments from day one.
If your product targets budget-conscious buyers or mid-market customers, showing ads to the top 10% earners wastes budget on unlikely buyers. Income exclusions let you focus spend on the segments most likely to convert.
It was spotted in European Performance Max campaigns as of July 2026, so it may be rolling out gradually. Check your Performance Max campaign settings, or ask your WebKing team to enable it as soon as Google releases it to your account.
No. This is a setting added directly at the campaign level in Performance Max, so you can apply it to existing campaigns without restructuring or restarting.
The feature appears to offer exclusion options in 10% increments: top 10%, 11-20%, 21-30%, 31-40%, and likely continuing down the income distribution, giving you precise control over which earners see your ads.
Sources
The Lab is original analysis by WebKing. We summarize and interpret developments from the sources above for industrial, commercial, and small business owners. Figures are reported as published by their sources.
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