A Performance Max campaign in Europe now shows a setting that excludes users by Google’s estimated household income bracket, according to a sighting paid-search specialist Thomas Eccel shared on LinkedIn and reported by Search Engine Land. Advertisers can remove any of six income tiers, ranging from the top decile down to the lower half of earners, plus an unknown-income tier, while PMax’s automated optimization otherwise continues untouched.
This is a sighting from a single account, not a Google announcement, so availability and scope remain unconfirmed. Categories where income predicts purchase intent, such as automotive, luxury goods, financial services and premium home services, stand to gain most if the control rolls out broadly.
The bigger pattern matters more than the setting itself. Google has spent years stripping granular controls out of Performance Max in favor of automated bidding and audience signals. An income exclusion, if it holds, marks another concession of manual control back into the black box, a direction worth tracking as PMax matures rather than a one-off feature.
Search Engine Land, reported by Anu Adegbola on July 24, 2026.
