Google Ads adds channel prioritization and budget allocation controls for Search, Shopping, PMax and Demand Gen
Google announced on October 14, 2026 that advertisers can mark channels as High or Low priority so campaigns fully fund high-priority channels first (within the Target CPA or Target ROAS goal) before spending on low-priority ones. For low-priority channels, advertisers can set a maximum percentage of average daily budget; Google describes this cap as best effort, and 0% means no spend on that channel. According to the Help Center, the feature becomes available progressively from October 15, 2026 at account, shared-budget and campaign level. It covers Search (Google Search, search partners, Display Network), Shopping (Google Search, search partners), Performance Max (Google channels, search partners, Display Network) and Demand Gen (prioritization only, no budget allocation). It can be managed in Google Ads and Search Ads 360; Google Ads API and Editor support is listed as coming soon, and it cannot be set from a manager account.
Impact
Advertisers get explicit control over how much budget flows to search partners and the Display Network in Search, Shopping and Performance Max, a long-standing transparency concern for agencies. The February 2027 automatic migration of Display Expansion means Search campaigns that rely on today's default behaviour will change unless settings are reviewed. Because API and Editor support is not yet available, agencies managing at scale will have to configure settings in the UI or Search Ads 360 for now.
Recommendations
- Audit Search, Shopping and PMax campaigns for search partner and Display Network spend and decide which channels should be Low priority
- To keep today's Display Expansion behaviour after February 2027, set Display Network to Low priority with a 50% allocation as Google advises
- Review Search campaigns using Target Impression Share, as Display Network serving will stop for them
- Track the API and Editor rollout before building bulk workflows around the new settings
Source: Google Ads Help