Google Ads channel priority, before February

Google Ads now lets you rank where a campaign’s money goes instead of only switching networks on or off. If your Search campaign also runs on search partners or the Display Network, spend ten minutes this week deciding whether each stays at High priority, drops to Low with a daily cap, or goes to zero. Next February, Search campaigns with Display on lose the spending setup they run on today.

Google announced it on October 14 in a post by Tal Akabas, Director of Product Management for Google Ads, calling the controls optional and “rolling out globally across Search, Shopping, Performance Max, and Demand Gen.” It also said plainly that for Search campaigns with the Display Network turned on, “the current spend allocation setup will go away, and advertisers may see a shift in channel spending.” The rollout takes months, so your account may not show it yet.

What High and Low priority actually do

Google’s help page on channel prioritization and budget allocation says every channel starts at High, and a Low channel is funded only after the High ones.

In a Search campaign the channels are Google Search, search partners and Display. What priority does depends on the bid strategy:

• Maximize Conversions, Maximize Clicks or Manual CPC: Low channels get only what High could not spend.
• Target CPA or Target ROAS, limited by budget: Low channels get budget when they can also hit your target.
• Target CPA or Target ROAS, not limited by budget: priority changes nothing. Only a cap does.

The cap, which Google calls a budget allocation, is a percentage of the average daily budget. On a $40 budget, Display at Low with 25% aims to keep Display at or below $10 a day. It resets daily and is best effort, so a single day can run over.

Why a capped test beats the old on-or-off box

Until now each network was a checkbox. An owner with one bad month on partner sites could only switch them off, never learning whether a small slice would have paid.

Low with a cap sits in between. Google says people who opted out can “test these networks with more confidence and clearer limits, rather than turning them off entirely.” In fairness, Google’s Display Expansion help page claims Search campaigns with spare budget can get “up to 15% more conversions at similar CPA to Search.” A cap tests that on your own numbers without betting half the budget.

To judge it, segment the Campaigns table by “Network (with search partners)”, which Google describes as the way to compare all three networks, and count only calls and forms.

	The old Networks checkboxes	High or Low priority with a cap
What you choose	On or off for each network	High or Low per channel, plus an optional daily cap on Low
Display on a Search campaign	Up to half the budget, set by Google out of sight	The percentage you type, and 0% stops it
When it moves money	Whenever the box is ticked	Priority only when budget runs short; a cap every day
Next February	The Display setup goes away	Already in force from the day you saved it

What happens next February if nobody acts

Search campaigns with Display on use Display Expansion, which today runs with what Google calls “a 50% budget allocation applied in the backend.” Next February that ends, and Google warns spend may shift between Search, search partners and Display.

To keep things as they are, Google says to set Display to Low with a 50% allocation. We would not copy that blindly: for a plumber whose calls come from people searching, half a Search budget on Display is a lot to keep by default.

Performance Max works differently: Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover share one priority as “Google channels,” with search partners and Display set on their own, so you cannot rank Maps above YouTube. If your Local Services Ads are moving into Performance Max, our owner’s checklist for that move covers what else to save first.

The 10-minute check

Once per campaign that matters:

1. Read the Networks setting. On the Campaigns page, open the campaign’s Settings, then Networks, and note whether “Include Google search partners” and “Include Google Display Network” are ticked.
2. Read the network segment. Last 90 days, segment by “Network (with search partners)” and note cost and trusted conversions per row.
3. Note the bid strategy and status. Limited by budget means priority will move money; otherwise only a cap will.
4. Set priority and cap. In Account settings, open the Channel Prioritization card, choose Search campaigns and set each channel. For one campaign, use its own settings instead. Save.
5. Write the date down and compare the network segment two weeks later.

Our starting point for a local service business: Google Search at High; search partners at Low with a small cap if partner rows show real calls, or 0% if they show none; Display at 0% unless it has produced leads you can name. Too tight a cap can starve a channel that was quietly working, which is why step 2 comes first.

Doing it yourself or with us

	Leave it as it is	Set it yourself this week	Have us review it
Fits	Campaigns with both boxes already unticked	Owners at home in Google Ads	Several campaigns, or no time to read the data
Next February	Search campaigns with Display on change over unasked	You chose the cap	The cap is set with you before then
Whose login	Yours	Yours	Yours; we work with the access you grant
Who does it	Nobody	You	One team, nothing subcontracted, serving businesses since 2015
What you keep	Today’s setup, until February	Your own notes	A written plan, whether or not you hire us

The other settings that quietly cost local accounts money are in six Google Ads settings that leak a local budget.

See how we run Google Ads for local businesses, or send your account details through the form below and we will send back a priority and cap for each campaign before February.