Google Ads Introduces Channel Prioritization and Budget Allocation
Google Ads now lets you label channels as high or low priority and cap spend on lower‑priority inventory. Here’s how to set it up and why it matters for your campaigns.
Google announced new controls called Channel Prioritization and Budget Allocation that let advertisers decide which Google‑owned inventory and partner networks should receive budget first. The features will roll out globally across Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns over the coming months, according to Search Engine Journal.
Why it matters: the defaults will treat every channel as high priority, so if you’ve been relying on Search Partners or the Display Network for a portion of your spend, the new settings could shift that budget toward Google Search or other owned placements unless you adjust the priorities.
Set High‑ and Low‑Priority Channels
At the account level you can label each channel as either “High priority” or “Low priority.” The options differ by campaign type:
- Search campaigns – you can prioritize Google Search and demote Search Partners or the Display Network.
- Performance Max and Demand Gen – Google groups its owned channels (Search, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps) together, so you can only set a priority for the whole group, not individual placements.
Cap Spend on Lower‑Priority Inventory
The Budget Allocation control lets you set a percentage limit on how much of your daily budget can flow to low‑priority channels. For example, you could limit spend on Search Partners to 20 % of the daily budget. Google will try to stay within that limit on a best‑effort basis, but the percentage isn’t a hard cap.
- 0 % is an option – you can completely block a channel or channel group, even inside Performance Max.
- The limits work with shared budgets and apply at both account and individual campaign levels.
What to Do About the Upcoming Display Change
Google will retire the existing Display‑spending allocation setup for Search campaigns in February 2027. The product team recommends setting the Display Network to “Low priority” and capping its allocation at 50 % if you want to preserve the current split.
Practical Steps for Advertisers
- Log into your Google Ads account and navigate to the new Channel Prioritization settings – you’ll find them at the account level and can override them per campaign.
- Identify the channels that currently deliver the best ROI for your business (often Google Search) and mark them as High priority.
- For any partner inventory you want to keep testing (e.g., Search Partners, Display), set them to Low priority and apply a budget cap that reflects how much you’re comfortable spending, such as the 20 % example from the source.
- If you run Performance Max or Demand Gen, decide whether you want the whole owned‑channel group to stay High priority or whether you need to limit the entire group with a budget cap.
- Before February 2027, review any Search campaigns that have Display enabled and adjust the priority and cap as recommended to avoid unexpected shifts.
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Frequently asked questions.
Yes. The product team said the controls work alongside automated bidding. They won’t change the way Target CPA or Target ROAS optimises, but they give you a way to steer where the budget is spent before the algorithm allocates it.
The roundtable notes indicate that for campaigns with ample budget, channel prioritisation alone may not shift spend much, but the percentage caps still let you limit exposure to lower‑priority inventory even when there’s plenty of budget available.
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