Introduction
Google Ads’ Performance Max (PMax) has been one of the most influential and debated additions to the digital marketing landscape since its launch. Designed to streamline campaign management by leveraging machine learning, Performance Max allows advertisers to access Google’s entire advertising inventory—including Search, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Maps, and the Google Display Network—from a single, unified campaign.
However, this all-in-one automation has long come at a cost: control. For years, PPC professionals and e-commerce brands have voiced frustration over the lack of transparency and granular targeting settings within Performance Max campaigns.
That dynamic may be on the verge of a major shift. Google is currently testing a new Partners (Alpha) setting within Performance Max campaigns. This experimental feature gives select advertisers the ability to directly opt in or out of Search Partners and the Google Display Network (GDN). This level of control represents a significant departure from Google’s traditional “black box” approach to PMax, and it could fundamentally change how digital marketers optimize their automated campaigns.
The Evolution of Performance Max and the Demand for Control
To understand why this Alpha test is generating so much buzz in the search marketing community, it is helpful to look at how Performance Max has evolved. When Google introduced PMax as the default campaign type for many retail and local businesses, the primary selling point was simplicity. By feeding Google’s machine learning algorithms creative assets, audience signals, and budget parameters, the system would automatically place ads where they were most likely to convert.
While this approach yielded impressive results for many advertisers looking to scale rapidly, advanced search marketers quickly identified several structural limitations:
- Lack of Placement Transparency: It was historically difficult to see exactly where budget was being spent across Google’s massive inventory.
- Budget Waste on Low-Value Networks: Performance Max automatically opted campaigns into Search Partners and the Google Display Network (GDN). For many brands, these networks produced lower conversion rates and higher rates of click fraud.
- Workaround Fatigue: Marketers had to rely on complex workarounds—such as account-level placement exclusions, custom scripts, or contacting Google support representatives—just to prevent their ads from showing on irrelevant mobile apps or low-quality partner websites.
The discovery of the new Partners (Alpha) setting, spotted and shared on LinkedIn by PPC Growth Strategist Saquib Syed, suggests that Google is actively listening to this long-standing advertiser feedback.
What is the Partners (Alpha) Setting?
The newly spotted Partners (Alpha) setting introduces a simple, user-friendly interface within the Performance Max campaign creation and settings menus. In the tested interface, advertisers are presented with checkboxes that allow them to manually toggle the inclusion of:
- Search Partners: This includes hundreds of non-Google websites, as well as other Google sites like Google Maps and Google Shopping, that partner with Google to show search ads.
- Google Display Network (GDN): A network of more than two million websites, videos, and apps where Google Ads can appear.
Prior to this test, these two networks were permanently bundled into the Performance Max ecosystem. Advertisers had to accept that a portion of their PMax budget would inevitably find its way onto third-party search engines or display placements, whether those channels aligned with their performance goals or not.
Why the Ability to Opt Out of Search Partners and GDN Matters
The introduction of these network toggles is a major development for performance-driven advertisers. Both Search Partners and the Google Display Network have unique characteristics that, while beneficial for some campaigns, can negatively impact others.
The Case for Controlling Search Partners
Google Search Partners extends the reach of Google Search ads to assistant search engines, directory sites, and specialized portals. While this can increase search volume, many advertisers find that traffic from Search Partners does not convert at the same rate as native Google Search traffic.
Furthermore, because Search Partners includes domain parking sites and smaller directories, search terms can sometimes be highly irrelevant or susceptible to low-intent clicks. Giving advertisers the option to quickly disable Search Partners in PMax allows them to protect their brand equity and concentrate their budget on high-intent searchers using Google’s primary search engine.
The Case for Controlling the Google Display Network (GDN)
The Google Display Network is massive, but it is notorious for attracting accidental clicks, particularly from mobile applications and “Made for Advertising” (MFA) websites. In a standard Performance Max campaign, the algorithm may shift budget toward the Display Network if it perceives a high volume of cheap clicks—even if those clicks do not translate into meaningful business outcomes like leads or sales.
For lead generation advertisers especially, GDN placements within PMax have frequently been a source of spam leads. By allowing advertisers to opt out of GDN entirely while keeping PMax active for high-intent search and shopping placements, Google is offering a powerful mechanism to safeguard lead quality and improve overall return on ad spend (ROAS).
Strategic Use Cases for the New Network Controls
If Google rolls out the Partners setting globally, it will open up several new strategic approaches for campaign optimization.
1. High-Intent Lead Generation Campaigns
Lead generation marketers often struggle with form-fill spam generated by automated display placements. With the new setting, a B2B SaaS company could set up a Performance Max campaign designed purely for high-intent conversion pathways, keeping Search, YouTube, and Gmail active while completely disabling GDN and Search Partners to eliminate low-quality referral traffic.
2. Lean E-Commerce Budget Allocation
For retail brands operating on tight margins, every dollar counts. These advertisers can use the new controls to focus their Performance Max budget strictly on Google’s core channels—Search and Shopping—where purchase intent is highest. Disabling the Display Network ensures that budget isn’t diverted to top-of-funnel brand awareness placements when the primary objective is immediate revenue generation.
3. Brand Safety and Control
For brands with strict compliance and safety standards, the Display Network and Search Partners can represent an unacceptable risk. Ads can occasionally appear alongside controversial content on third-party sites. The Partners (Alpha) toggle provides these brands with peace of mind, allowing them to leverage PMax’s automated bidding while restricting ad delivery to Google’s highly moderated first-party properties.
How Advertisers Managed Network Control Prior to This Alpha
To fully appreciate this update, it is worth looking at the cumbersome methods advertisers previously had to use to achieve similar results. Before this Alpha setting appeared, excluding these networks required a mix of account-level settings and manual intervention:
- Account-Level Placement Exclusions: Advertisers had to upload massive lists of mobile apps and junk websites at the account level to keep PMax ads from showing on them. This process required constant monitoring and updates as new apps and sites emerged.
- Google Support Requests: In some instances, advertisers had to contact their dedicated Google representatives or support teams to request backend exclusions for Search Partners or the Display Network, a process that was often slow and inconsistent.
- Google Ads Scripts: Advanced users developed complex API scripts designed to monitor PMax placements and automatically exclude poor-performing domains, requiring technical expertise and regular maintenance.
By integrating native, campaign-level checkboxes directly into the UI, Google is simplifying campaign management and making advanced optimization accessible to advertisers of all sizes.
What’s Next for the Partners (Alpha) Setting?
As this feature is currently designated as an “Alpha,” it is only visible to a select group of accounts chosen by Google for testing. Google has not yet made an official announcement regarding when—or if—this feature will transition to a wider Beta release or become a permanent fixture for all Google Ads users.
Historically, some Google Alphas are refined based on user feedback and eventually rolled out globally, while others are quietly retired if Google finds that the changes negatively impact overall ecosystem performance or ad revenue. However, given how vocal the advertising community has been regarding PMax control, a permanent rollout of this feature would likely be met with widespread approval from agencies and brands worldwide.
Marketers should monitor their Google Ads accounts closely to see if the Partners (Alpha) setting becomes available in their campaigns, presenting an immediate opportunity to test and compare Performance Max campaigns with and without Search Partners and the Google Display Network.