Google Ads Adds Channel Priorities and Budget Caps for Search, Shopping, PMax and Demand Gen

Google Ads is adding two controls that give advertisers more say over where automated campaigns spend. Tal Akabas, Director of Product Management at Google Ads, announced them on 14 October in Guide your campaign spending with new priority and allocation features.

The features are channel prioritization and budget allocation. They're rolling out to Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen "over the coming months", globally.

Channel prioritization

You can mark channels, or groups of channels, as High priority or Low priority. Google explains how that changes spend:

campaigns will fully fund high-priority channels (within their target when using Target CPA or Target ROAS) before allocating the remaining budget to lower-priority channels.

The bracketed part matters. "Fully fund" doesn't mean spend at any cost. If you're on Target CPA or Target ROAS, high-priority channels are funded only as far as they can hit your target. Leftover budget then goes to low-priority channels.

What counts as a channel depends on the campaign type:

• Search campaigns: Google Search, Search partners and the Google Display Network can each have their own priority.
• Performance Max and Demand Gen: Google channels are grouped. The post lists Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover.

The controls work at account and campaign level, and with shared budgets.

Budget allocation

For any channel set to Low priority, you can set a maximum percentage of daily budget it may spend. Google's wording is careful:

On a best-effort basis, our tools will aim to keep spend on those channels within that limit.

"Best-effort" means it's a target, not a hard cap. Expect some days to go over. Check the reporting rather than assuming the limit always holds.

The February 2027 change for Search campaigns

This is the part that requires action. Google says:

Starting in February 2027, for Search campaigns with the Google Display Network turned on, the current spend allocation setup will go away.

If you run Search campaigns with the Display Network enabled and want spend to behave as it does today, Google says to set the Display Network to Low priority with a 50% budget allocation. Note it in your diary now. The change happens automatically, and accounts that don't review it could see Display take a different share of spend.

Our usual advice applies too: most Search campaigns are better off with the Display Network turned off entirely and Display run as its own campaign, where you can control targeting and measure it separately.

Why this matters

Advertisers have long complained that Performance Max is a black box, with budget going to placements they wouldn't have chosen. These controls don't make PMax fully transparent, but they're the most direct way so far to tell it where to put money first.

Ways to use them:

• Lead generation: Prioritise Search and limit YouTube and Discover to a small share until you've proven they produce qualified leads.
• Retail: Prioritise Search and Shopping during peak trading and let other channels take what's left.
• Testing a new channel: Set it to low priority with a modest cap and watch the results before raising it.

What to check before you use them

1. Make sure conversion tracking is accurate. Priorities interact with Target CPA and ROAS, which depend on the conversions you report. If those are wrong, the controls will optimise the wrong thing.
2. Get a baseline. Record spend and conversions by channel before changing anything, using the channel reporting available for your campaign type.
3. Change one thing at a time. Automated bidding needs time to adjust. Changing priorities, budgets and targets together makes the result impossible to read.

Google's help article has the setup details. If you'd like help setting up channel priorities or planning for the February change, that's part of our PPC management service.

Sources

• Google: Guide your campaign spending with new priority and allocation features (14 October 2026)
• Google Ads Help: Channel prioritization and budget allocation