Performance Max Channel Prioritization

TL;DR: Channel prioritization is a documented, optional Google Ads setting that began rolling out progressively on October 15, 2026, including in Performance Max. Google's help page says every channel defaults to High priority, and you can mark Search partners or the Display Network Low priority with a best-effort daily percentage cap. Google's own surfaces are grouped and can't be ranked separately. Rollout is gradual, so it may not be in your account yet.

A tip making the rounds says Performance Max campaigns now have a setting to control spend between channels, and that everything defaults to high priority, so you should check it if you only want certain channels. That tip is real. Google calls the feature channel prioritization and budget allocation, it's documented in Google's help center, and the "high priority by default" part is stated there too. Most of the rest of what you'll see repeated online is either confirmed, reported by trade press, or still unknown, and I've split those apart below.

What channel prioritization is

Google's help article is titled "About channel prioritization and budget allocation". Google announced it on October 14, 2026, in a post titled "Guide your campaign spending with new priority and allocation features" by Tal Akabas, Director of Product Management for Google Ads. The help page says the controls start becoming available progressively on October 15, 2026, for Search, Shopping, Performance Max, and Demand Gen campaigns.

The idea is simple. Each channel gets one of two tiers, High priority or Low priority. Google funds the High priority channels first, and whatever budget is left goes to the Low priority ones. For Low priority channels only, you can also add an optional daily budget allocation, a percentage cap.

This is separate from an earlier Performance Max test. In August 2026, PPC News Feed and Search Engine Land covered an alpha "Channels" slider that adjusted how much CPA Google would accept per channel. That was a bid-side lever, not a budget split. Search Engine Journal reports that a small alpha of those more advanced controls continues alongside this launch.

How the controls work

Control	What it does	Where it applies
High priority	Channel is funded first	Default for every channel, per Google's help page
Low priority	Channel gets only what's left after High priority channels	Set per channel
Budget allocation (percentage)	Optional daily cap on a Low priority channel	Low priority channels only
0% allocation	Google won't spend on that channel	Low priority channels only

A few mechanics from Google's documentation worth knowing:

The percentage is based on your average daily budget, not actual spend. Google's example is a 5% allocation on a $1,000 average daily budget, which targets roughly $50 a day on that channel.
It's best-effort, not a hard cap. Google says "Google AI will aim to limit the spend on that channel to within the percentage of budget that you specified, but this isn't a guarantee." Spend can occasionally exceed it. Allocations reset daily, and nothing carries over.
Account-level and campaign-level settings both exist. You can set a default at the account level, and a campaign can override it. The campaign-level setting wins for that campaign, and you can switch back to the account default.
You can't set it from a manager account. It has to be set inside each client account or on the campaign.
Priority alone only matters if you're budget-limited. If a Target CPA or Target ROAS campaign isn't limited by budget, Google says priority generally won't change spend distribution. The percentage allocation on a Low priority channel still applies.
Campaign total budgets aren't supported for Performance Max. Google's page says prioritization works with campaign total budgets only for Demand Gen.

Which Performance Max channels you can control

In Performance Max, Google groups Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail, and Discover together as "Google channels" and prioritizes them as one unit. You can't rank them against each other. Search partners and the Google Display Network can each get their own tier.

So there are three buckets: Google channels, Search partners, and the Display Network. That means this isn't a way to run "Shopping only" or "no YouTube." The most you can do is push the two partner and Display buckets down. PPC Land also notes this isn't the separate Search partner and Display on/off opt-out that was tested in a limited Performance Max pilot, so don't assume the two behave the same.

One piece of Performance Max-specific news: Ginny Marvin, Google's Ads Product Liaison, said in an October 16 newsletter that Performance Max advertisers can set the Search partners allocation to 0%. PPC Land covered it. Google's help page backs the 0% behavior in general terms, but it also calls allocations best-effort, and I couldn't find anything saying whether 0% is exempt from that.

Reading the panel in your account

The interface wording varies. The version in a UK-English screenshot I was shown calls the section "Channel prioritisation," marks it new, and offers two options: "Use account settings" and "Customise for this campaign." Google's help page describes the campaign-level switch as "Use campaign-level settings," so expect the labels to differ by interface version and region.

In that screenshot, "Google channels" is shown as High priority and greyed out, which fits Google's documentation that they're grouped. Search partners and the Display Network each had a priority dropdown and a "Max. daily budget" percentage.

Important: the values in that screenshot (Search partners 1%, Display 10%, both Low priority) were one advertiser's own settings. They are not defaults. Per Google's help page, the default is High priority for every channel with no cap.

Each row also showed a note along the lines of "on most of the past 28 days, Display made up X% of your daily active Performance Max spend." I could not find that note, or a "past 28 days" window, described in Google's help page, the Google blog post, or any trade coverage I checked. It looks like in-product guidance showing your recent share per channel. My reading is that it's a baseline for choosing a cap, but treat that as my interpretation. One thing I'd keep in mind: Google's percentage is calculated against average daily budget, while the note describes share of active spend, so the two numbers aren't directly comparable.

If you want to see where your spend goes before touching anything, Google's channel performance report lives under Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then channel performance. It lists Google Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Maps, Gmail, and Search partners. Google's own advice there is to judge Performance Max as a whole rather than channel by channel, since it optimizes for marginal return across channels. A Google help page says Search partners are being added to that report, so it may not show in your account yet.

What's confirmed, what's reported, what's unknown

Confirmed by Google (help page or blog post):

The feature exists, with the name above, and rolls out progressively from October 15, 2026.
Two tiers, High and Low priority, with an optional percentage allocation on Low priority channels only.
The default for all channels is High priority, per the help page. The blog post itself doesn't state the default.
The percentage is based on average daily budget and is best-effort.
Google channels are grouped in Performance Max. Search partners and Display can be set separately.
Campaign-level settings override account-level ones, and manager accounts can't set them.

Reported by trade press or Google staff, not on the help page:

Marvin's statement that Performance Max can set Search partners to 0%, and that the controls are available in the Google Ads API at launch. The help page still said API and Editor support was "coming soon" when Relevant Audience checked on October 18, so those two sources conflict.
Search Engine Journal reports, from a product team roundtable, that expanded Search channel reporting is expected in Q1 2027, and that restricting inventory on campaigns already hitting their targets could reduce the options Google's bidding has to work with.

Unknown or not stated by Google:

How much volume, conversion, or cost-per-conversion change to expect from low-priority settings. I haven't seen Google publish any, and I'm not going to guess.
The "past 28 days" notes and exactly how they're calculated.
Exactly which accounts have it today. Google says availability varies by account and campaign type, and timing may shift, so verify before planning around a date.

What it means for a local service or ecommerce advertiser

Based only on how the feature works:

It's a throttle on two buckets, not a channel selector. If your goal is "mostly Search and Shopping surfaces," the realistic lever is setting Search partners and Display to Low priority, optionally with a low cap.
It may do nothing for a campaign that isn't budget-limited. Google says priority alone generally won't change spend there. In that case the percentage cap is the control that matters.
Lower-priority settings shrink the inventory the bidding can use. Google hasn't said that costs or saves conversions. Watch conversions and cost per conversion, not just the spend-share notes.
If your Performance Max campaign came from a Local Services Ads migration, it serves only on Search and Maps, so there's little here to prioritize. That's my inference from how those campaigns are described, so check the settings panel in the account. I cover the migration in LSA to Performance Max: what's changing.
For local businesses, this sits alongside other Performance Max changes like sending clicks to your Business Profile. Both are settings that can quietly change where your budget goes and how much you can measure.

One more date to note: Google says that starting in February 2027, Search campaigns with the Display Network turned on will lose their current spend allocation setup, and it suggests Display at Low priority with a 50% allocation to keep today's behavior. That's a Search campaign change, not a Performance Max one, but if you run both, check it.

What to check in your account right now

Find the setting. Open a Performance Max campaign's settings and look for the channel prioritization section. Account-level defaults are reported to sit under Account settings. If you don't see either, it likely hasn't reached your account yet.
Look at the channel performance report first. See what Search partners and Display actually spent and converted before deciding anything.
Make one change at a time and write down the date. Changing channel settings alongside a bid or budget change makes the result unreadable. The same logic applies to Smart Bidding calibration: judge by conversion volume, not calendar days.
Judge by conversions and cost per conversion, not by whether the Display share dropped.
Confirm nothing was changed for you. Per Google, the default is High priority and nothing moves until someone acts, but check any campaign a colleague or agency has touched.

Frequently asked questions

What is channel prioritization in Performance Max? It's a Google Ads setting that lets you label channels High or Low priority so Google funds the High priority ones first. In Performance Max you can set Google channels, Search partners, and the Display Network, and optionally cap a Low priority channel at a percentage of your average daily budget.

Can I stop Performance Max from showing on Display? Partly. You can set the Display Network to Low priority and give it a low or 0% allocation. Google says 0% means it won't spend there, but also calls allocations best-effort, so I'd verify in the channel performance report after the change.

Is Performance Max channel prioritization available in every account? Not yet, as far as I can tell. Google's help page says it becomes available progressively from October 15, 2026, and the blog post says it's rolling out over the next months. Availability varies by account, and Google's timing can shift.

Are all Performance Max channels set to high priority by default? Yes, according to Google's help page. Every channel starts at High priority, and nothing changes until you set something to Low. The values in any screenshot, such as 1% or 10% caps, are one advertiser's choices, not defaults.

Can I turn off YouTube or Maps in Performance Max with this? No. Google groups Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail, and Discover as "Google channels" in Performance Max and prioritizes them together. Only Search partners and the Display Network can be given their own priority level and cap.

If you run Performance Max and aren't sure where your spend actually goes, or whether a channel change would help or hurt, that's part of what Performance Max and Google Ads management covers. I check the channel report, change one setting at a time, and measure against real conversions.

If you'd rather have the whole account looked at first, including channel mix, conversion setup, and wasted spend, a PPC account audit is the natural starting point.