On 14 October 2026, Google Ads announced two new controls, channel prioritisation and budget allocation. They let advertisers decide which networks get funded first and cap how much of the daily budget the weaker ones can take. A related change follows in February 2027, when Google retires the current Display spend setup on Search campaigns. The details come from Google's own announcement on the Google blog, written by Tal Akabas, Director of Product Management for Google Ads.
For a UK owner running their own account, this is one of the more practical controls Google has given small advertisers in recent years. It also comes with a deadline that will quietly change some campaigns if nobody looks at them. This guide covers what changed, what it means for a typical small account, and what to do before the Christmas rush and before February.
What did Google Ads change on 14 October 2026?
According to Google's announcement, High priority channels are funded first, up to your target if you use Target CPA or Target ROAS, and the rest goes to Low priority channels. On Search campaigns, Google Search, Search partners and the Google Display Network can each get their own priority level. Google sums up the change with the line "Say goodbye to all-or-nothing channel targeting."
Search Engine Journal's coverage by Brooke Osmundson adds that every channel starts at High priority. Nothing changes unless you change it. The controls are rolling out across Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen "over the coming months".
How does High and Low priority actually decide where your money goes?
The order matters most when you do not have enough budget for everything. Many small UK accounts are in that position. A £30 a day Search campaign for a dentist or a roofer is often limited by budget, so Google already has to choose where each pound goes. Until now, that choice sat with the algorithm. Now you can tell it that Google Search comes first.
The second control is the cap. PPC Land's report quotes Google's own example: a 5% allocation on a $1,000 average daily budget keeps that channel at about $50 a day. In UK terms, a 10% cap on a £30 daily budget aims to keep a Low priority channel at about £3 a day.
There is one trap. Google says prioritisation alone will have little effect on Target CPA or Target ROAS campaigns that are not limited by budget. If your campaign has budget to spare, labelling Display as Low priority changes nothing until you add a percentage cap as well.
Which UK small business campaigns does this affect?
The channel groups are not the same in each campaign type. PPC Land reports that Search, Shopping and Performance Max get both prioritisation and budget allocation, while Demand Gen gets prioritisation only. In Performance Max, Google's announcement confirms that Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover are grouped together as "Google channels". You cannot tell Performance Max to favour Maps over YouTube.
Two more limits matter for owners who work with a freelancer or agency. PPC Land reports that the controls cannot be set from manager accounts, so they have to be configured inside each client account. Search Engine Journal adds that limited Demand Gen testing begins in November.
What happens in February 2027 if you do nothing?
This is the part that catches people out. Google states that from February 2027 the current spend allocation for Search campaigns with Display turned on will be removed, and advertisers "may see changes in channel spending". Google's suggested way to keep your current setup is Display at Low priority with a 50% budget allocation. Search Engine Journal reports that a one-click migration option is available at launch.
How should a UK small business decide its settings?
Pull the data first. In your campaigns view, segment by network to see results for Google Search, Search partners and Display separately. Search Engine Journal notes that this existing network segmentation stays available until expanded Search channel reporting arrives, which is expected in Q1 2027. Then work through this checklist:
- If the campaign is Search only, with partners and Display already off: the February migration does not affect you. You can test Search partners at Low priority with a 10 to 20% cap.
- If Display is on and it costs more than twice as much per enquiry as Google Search: set Display to Low priority with a cap of 0 to 10%, not the 50% default.
- If Display is on and its cost per enquiry is close to Search: set Low priority at around Google's 50% suggestion and review it monthly.
- If the campaign is limited by budget: prioritisation alone will shift spend towards Google Search. Caps are optional.
- If you use Target CPA or Target ROAS and you are not limited by budget: you must add a percentage cap, or the change will do very little.
- If you run Performance Max: cap Search partners and Display, and accept that YouTube, Maps and Gmail stay grouped together.
- If you run Demand Gen: use priority labels only, because caps are not supported.
- If your network data shows fewer than about 10 conversions per channel: treat it as unproven, not as a loser. Use a small cap rather than 0%.
What does this look like with real numbers?
Here is a worked example with illustrative figures, not sourced data. A plumber runs a Search campaign at £40 a day with Display switched on, about £1,200 a month. Segmenting by network shows:
The owner sets Display to Low priority with a 10% cap. That aims to hold Display near £4 a day, about £120 a month, and frees roughly £240 for Google Search. If the campaign was losing impression share to budget, that £240 at the existing £40 cost per enquiry is worth about six more enquiries a month. At an illustrative average job value of £250, that is around £1,500 in extra quoted work from the same total spend.
Two caveats apply. The extra enquiries only appear if Search really was short of budget, so check lost impression share (budget) before counting on them. And because the cap is best-effort, Display may still go slightly over £4 on some days.
Are the budget caps reliable enough to trust?
PPC Land quotes Google directly: "On a best-effort basis, our tools will aim to keep spend on those channels within that limit." Search Engine Journal is equally clear that advertisers should not treat the percentages as hard caps. The exception is 0%, which Search Engine Journal reports Google confirmed will block spend on a channel, including within Performance Max.
In practice, the right habit is a weekly look at the network segment. If a capped channel keeps going well over its share, drop the cap further or set it to 0%. Treat any setting change like a controlled test, changing one thing at a time, as covered in this guide to A/B testing for small businesses.
Should you switch Search partners and Display off entirely?
Google's announcement says advertisers who have opted out of Search partners or Display can now use these limits to test those networks rather than switching them off completely. For a UK business, the trade-off is simple. A 10% capped test on a £30 a day budget risks about £90 a month. If the channel converts, you have found extra reach. If it does not, set it to 0% and you have lost very little.
Some cases still justify 0% from day one. Examples include a business that only serves one postcode area, an account that has already proven Display wastes money, and a campaign in a sensitive sector where placement quality matters. If you would rather have someone else run these decisions and track the results, that is the kind of work a paid media service handles.
What should you do this week?
- Today, 15 minutes. Open each Search and Performance Max campaign and segment by network for the last 90 days. Note the spend, conversions and cost per conversion for each network.
- Check budget limits. Note which campaigns are limited by budget. Prioritisation does most of the work in those campaigns. For the others, you will need caps.
- Set priorities. Keep Google Search at High priority. Move Search partners and Display to Low priority wherever their cost per enquiry is worse.
- Set caps from evidence. Use 0% for proven waste, 10 to 20% for unproven channels you want to test, and around 50% only where Display performs close to Search.
- Before the Christmas trading peak, check spend by network every Monday, so a channel overshooting its best-effort cap does not eat into your busiest weeks.
- Put a reminder in for late January 2027. Confirm that every Search campaign with Display switched on has a deliberate setting before the February change.
- Plan a Q1 2027 review for when expanded Search channel reporting arrives, and adjust the caps using the new data.
Google Ads Channel Priority Controls — FAQ
What are Google Ads channel prioritisation and budget allocation?
They are two new controls Google announced on 14 October 2026. Channel prioritisation lets you mark each channel in a campaign, such as Google Search, Search partners or the Display Network, as High or Low priority. Google funds the High priority channels first and gives Low priority channels whatever is left. Budget allocation lets you set a maximum percentage of your daily budget for a Low priority channel. Google calls that limit best-effort, not a guaranteed cap. Setting it to 0% stops spend on that channel. Both controls are rolling out across Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns over the coming months. Demand Gen gets prioritisation only, without the percentage caps.
Do I need to change anything before February 2027?
Only if you run a Search campaign with the Display Network switched on. Google says the current Display spend allocation setup on those campaigns will be removed from February 2027, and that spend between networks may change. To keep things as they are, Google recommends setting Display to Low priority with a 50% budget allocation. For most UK local service businesses, a better move is to check what Display has actually produced first. If it has brought in very few enquiries, a much lower cap or 0% is usually the sensible choice. Search-only campaigns with Display and Search partners already off are not affected by the migration.
Should a small UK business turn off Search partners completely?
Not automatically. Before this update the choice was all or nothing, so many owners switched Search partners off and never tested it again. The new controls let you set Search partners to Low priority and cap them at a small share of your budget, for example 10 to 20%, so you can test cheaply without risking the main budget. Run that for four to six weeks. Then compare cost per enquiry or cost per sale by network. If partners convert at a similar cost to Google Search, keep the cap. If they deliver clicks but no real enquiries, set the allocation to 0%.
Will setting a channel to Low priority save me money on Target CPA campaigns?
Usually not on its own. Google's announcement says prioritisation alone will have little effect on Target CPA or Target ROAS campaigns that are not limited by budget, because the system can already afford every channel. If your campaign does not show as limited by budget, you need to pair Low priority with a budget allocation percentage before anything changes. If your campaign is limited by budget, which is common on smaller daily budgets, prioritisation on its own can make a real difference, because there is not enough money to fund every channel fully.
Can I control YouTube and Maps separately inside Performance Max?
No. In Performance Max and Demand Gen, Google groups its own surfaces, including Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover, into a single group called Google channels, and you cannot prioritise them separately. What you can control is the inventory outside that group, such as Search partners and the Display Network. For owners who worry that Performance Max spends too much on low-value placements, the practical step is to set those non-Google channels to Low priority with a modest cap and to watch the existing Performance Max channel reporting.
