Google Ads Channel Prioritization
You Decide Where Your Budget Goes First

Key takeaways

• Two new settings: On October 14, 2026, Google Ads announced channel prioritization and budget allocation for Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen.
• High or low: High priority channels get funded first; only the remaining budget goes to low priority channels.
• A percentage cap: For low priority channels you set a maximum share of the average daily budget; at 0 percent, Google’s help page says it won’t spend on that channel.
• No guarantee: Google itself calls the cap a best-effort limit that can be exceeded on individual days.
• Mark February 2027: From then on, Google will no longer decide on its own how much of a Search campaign’s budget goes to the Display Network; to keep today’s behavior, Google recommends low priority with a 50 percent allocation.

Contents

1. What Google announced
2. Channel prioritization: who gets funded first
3. Budget allocation: a percentage cap
4. Where the new settings reach their limits
5. What changes in February 2027
6. What you can do now
7. Frequently asked questions

With two new settings, you decide in Google Ads which channel gets budget first and how much can go to Search partners or the Display Network at most. Google announced both on its blog on October 14, 2026, and according to that announcement is rolling them out worldwide over the coming months. Until now, the choice was mostly: channel on or channel off.

What Google announced

Where does my money actually go? In Google Ads, this could only be steered roughly so far. You could switch Search partners and the Display Network on or off in a Search campaign, but you couldn’t say: a little of that, and only once Google Search is covered.

Tal Akabas, Director of Product Management at Google Ads, sums up the change in one sentence on the Google blog on October 14, 2026: “Say goodbye to all-or-nothing channel targeting.”

The update has two parts, which Google describes as optional. They apply to Search campaigns, Shopping campaigns, Performance Max (a campaign type where Google spreads your ads across all of its own channels) and Demand Gen (ads mainly on YouTube, in Gmail and in Discover, the content feed in the Google app). According to Google’s help page, they can be set for the whole account, for a shared budget or for individual campaigns. Google doesn’t say exactly when the settings will appear in your account, only “over the coming months”.

Channel prioritization: who gets funded first

Every channel gets one of two levels: high or low priority. High priority channels are funded first, and only what’s left goes to low priority channels. By default, according to Google’s help page, all channels are set to high priority.

In a Search campaign, there are three channels: Google Search, Search partners (third-party websites with a Google search box) and the Display Network (ad placements on many third-party websites and apps). So you can say: Google Search matters to me, partners and Display only if there’s money left. Making that call is part of how I manage Google Ads accounts.

This matters most for campaigns that Google Ads marks as “Limited by budget”. There, the daily budget isn’t enough for every possible click, and that’s exactly when the order decides where the money goes.

Budget allocation: a percentage cap

For low priority channels, you can also set a maximum share of the average daily budget. A made-up example: with a daily budget of EUR 50 and 5 percent for Search partners, Google aims to spend no more than EUR 2.50 a day there. According to Google’s help page, the share applies per day, and unspent amounts don’t carry over to the next day.

If you set the share to 0 percent, Google’s own help page says it won’t spend on that channel. According to PPC Land, this is new mainly for Performance Max, where only a few advertisers could opt out of Search partners and the Display Network so far.

Campaigns with Target CPA or Target ROAS are a special case. With these bid strategies, you tell Google how much an inquiry may cost at most or how much revenue each ad dollar should bring. If such campaigns have enough budget, Google’s help page says priority usually changes nothing, because Google then aims to hit your target across all channels. According to Google, the percentage cap still applies there.

Where the new settings reach their limits

The cap is not a hard limit. Google states explicitly in its help page that spend on a channel may exceed the set share on individual days. So keep watching the numbers per channel instead of relying on the setting alone.

In Performance Max and Demand Gen, Google Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover stay bundled, according to the Google blog, as what Google calls “Google channels”. They only get a priority together. Moving YouTube down while keeping Google Search up is not possible. In Performance Max, according to PPC Land, only Search partners and the Display Network can be controlled separately.

And the settings don’t answer the real question: which channel brings you inquiries? Only clean conversion tracking shows that, meaning the measurement of which click led to an inquiry or a purchase. Without it, you set priorities by gut feeling. Whether ads are the right route for you at all is something I compared in Google Ads or SEO.

What changes in February 2027

Today, in Search campaigns with the Display Network turned on, Google decides on its own how much of the budget goes to Display; Google’s help page calls this “Display Expansion”. According to the Google blog, this rule goes away in February 2027, and the split between channels may shift. To keep today’s behavior, Google recommends setting the Display Network to low priority with a 50 percent budget allocation.

If you don’t set anything, you may only notice the change on your invoice. That’s what happened in June 2026, when Google changed how daily budgets are paced with ad schedules. In that post, I showed the numbers from one account I manage: from June 1, 2026, spend per weekday rose from just over EUR 19 to an average of EUR 27.70, with the daily budget unchanged at EUR 20. The first to notice were those who checked their numbers regularly.

What you can do now

If an agency or an employee manages your account, simply pass this list on.

1. Check your Search campaigns: Open a Search campaign in Google Ads, go to Settings and then Networks. Are Search partners or the Display Network checked?
2. See what each channel delivers: In the campaign overview, choose Segment and then Network (with search partners). Compare costs and inquiries per network, for example over the last three months.
3. Write down an order: Which channel brings inquiries at an acceptable cost? That one goes to high priority as soon as the setting appears in your account.
4. Set a cap: Once the setting is available, give weaker channels a maximum share. My suggestion as a starting value for weaker channels is 5 to 10 percent. Then adjust the value based on the numbers.
5. Put February 2027 in your calendar: By then, every Search campaign with the Display Network should have a deliberate setting.

Next step

The new settings give you back some control over your budget, but they don’t make the decision for you. If you want to know whether some of your money ends up outside Google Search, book a free consultation. You’ll get an initial assessment, with no contract commitment.

Frequently asked questions

When will channel prioritization be available in Google Ads?

Google has been rolling out the settings worldwide since mid-October 2026, according to its blog “over the coming months”. Google doesn’t give a date for individual countries. You can see in your campaign settings whether they’re already available to you.

Does the new setting cost anything?

Google mentions no fee in its blog or help page. Channel prioritization and budget allocation are account settings and only change how your existing budget is distributed.

Can I turn off Search partners completely?

Largely, yes. If you set the channel to low priority and the budget allocation to 0 percent, Google’s help page says it won’t spend there. In Search campaigns, you can also still deselect partners under Networks in the settings, as before.

Does Google always stay within the percentage cap?

Not always. Google describes the cap as a best-effort limit and says that spend may exceed it on individual days. A look at the report segmented by network shows whether it holds on average.

What happens if I don’t set anything by February 2027?

Then Google will no longer follow the old rule for Search campaigns with the Display Network, and spend per channel may shift, according to Google. To keep today’s behavior, Google recommends the Display Network at low priority with 50 percent.

Sources

1. Tal Akabas, Google: “Guide your campaign spending with new priority and allocation features”, Google blog, Oct 14, 2026, blog.google, last checked Oct 29, 2026
2. Google Ads Help: “About channel prioritization and budget allocation”, support.google.com, last checked Oct 29, 2026
3. Barry Schwartz: “Google Ads Channel Prioritization and Budget Allocation”, Search Engine Roundtable, Oct 14, 2026, seroundtable.com, last checked Oct 29, 2026
4. Luis Rijo: “Google Ads lets advertisers limit Display and partner spend by percentage”, PPC Land, Oct 14, 2026, ppc.land, last checked Oct 29, 2026