Google Ads channel prioritization lets advertisers cap partner spend

Google announced on 14 October that advertisers can now rank the channels inside a campaign and cap how much of the daily budget goes to the weaker ones. The Google Ads channel prioritization and budget allocation settings start rolling out on 15 October across Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen.

Google Ads splits channels into High and Low priority

Every channel starts at High priority, so nothing changes until an advertiser acts. Moving a channel to Low means Google funds the High channels first and sends what is left to the Low ones. In its announcement, Google said the aim is to give more choice than an all-or-nothing opt-out.

For Low priority channels, advertisers can also set a daily cap as a share of the campaign’s average daily budget. A 0% cap stops spend on that channel. Google calls the cap “best effort”, so spend can sometimes go over it.

Search partners and Display get their own switch in Search campaigns

Search campaigns can rank Google Search, Search partners and the Google Display Network separately. Shopping campaigns cover Search and Search partners. Performance Max and Demand Gen put Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover into one “Google channels” group, so those surfaces cannot be ranked against each other.

The settings work in the Google Ads interface and in Search Ads 360. Support in the API and in Google Ads Editor comes later, according to the Google help page quoted by PPC Land. Manager accounts cannot apply the settings in bulk, so each client account needs its own setup.

Target CPA and ROAS campaigns feel the cap, not the ranking

Google said ranking alone usually changes nothing in Target CPA or Target ROAS campaigns that are not limited by budget. In those campaigns the cap is the setting that does the work. PPC Land also found gaps between the blog post and the help pages. One example: the blog lists Demand Gen for the rollout, while the help page says the budget cap does not support it.

Display Expansion setup ends in February 2027

From February 2027, Google will remove the current spend split for Search campaigns that also run on the Display Network. Advertisers who want to keep today’s setup should set Display to Low priority with a 50% cap. The help page adds that Display will stop serving in Search campaigns that bid for Target Impression Share. February is already busy for Search accounts, because Google is also moving Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max that month.

The new card sits under “Channel Prioritization” at account level, and each campaign can override it. A campaign that runs on Search partners today can move them to Low with a small cap and compare results with Google Search over the same weeks. PPC Land gives the scale: a 5% cap on a $1,000 average daily budget is about $50 a day. The controls arrive as Google adds other pre-holiday features, such as automated promotions from 12 October.