From Monday 4 March 2024, changes are afoot concerning Performance Max campaigns and the Google Search Partner Network (SPN).
Advertisers using Performance Max campaigns within their Google Ads account will begin to have visibility on the sites their ads have appeared on within the SPN. However, please note that this will only be available at impression-level, so advertisers will not be able to see data such as clicks, cost, conversions etc.
Also, advertisers will be able to exclude unwanted Search Partner placements at account level, as well as YouTube and display placements.
These changes are coming following the report that was released by Adalytics back in November which accused Google of placing ads on unsolicited, non-Google sites containing untoward content. This is something that Google denies but it did trigger it to change the targeting options available for PMax campaigns.
Following the accusations, Google changed the rules regarding PMax campaigns, and allowed advertisers to opt out of the SPN but this will come to an end on 1 March 2024. This means that from 1 March, Performance Max ads that have been opted out will once again appear on Google’s search partners but Google will provide data on which ones the ads appeared on (impression-level). This means that advertisers will have to regularly review this list and then choose to exclude them one-by-one (if they want to) much like we do with the display network at present. For more information on how to optimise display campaigns, see: https://browsermedia.agency/blog/how-to-improve-the-performance-of-google-display-network-campaigns/
What is Google’s Network?
Basically, Google’s Network is anywhere a Google Ad can appear. Here is Google’s definition:
Google gives a definition of Search Partner to be:
Please note that these are not to be mistaken for Google’s Partners.
Google has not published a complete list of it’s Search Partners, so on-one knows exactly what sites they are but some include:
- Google sites: YouTube, Google Groups, Google Maps, Google Images, Google Shopping, etc.
- Search engines such as Ask.com
- Search results and product pages on partner sites: Amazon
How to opt out of Google’s Networks?
If you want to keep your Search campaigns restricted to just Google Search then you can opt out of showing them on the display network and/or search partners (please note that these are both opted in by default when setting up a campaign). To opt out simply click on the cog icon next to the name of the campaign that you’d like to alter (this can be seen by hovering over the campaign name) and then the ‘Settings’ will appear on the right hand side. Click the downward arrow next to Networks and choose appropriately:
However, I am still unable to find where you can manually opt out of Search Partners for Performance Max campaigns within Google Ads or Ads Editor – it appears that advertisers have to contact a Google rep to do this for them:
This being said, I’m assuming it’s going to be just as much hassle to exclude these search partners from next week (4 March 2024), if we wish to, but we’ll have to watch this space. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on it and report back.
