Since Performance Max launched in 2021, you've had no say in which networks your campaigns run on. Google Search, Search Partners, Display Network, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Maps — PMax claimed them all and there was no opt-out. The only way around it was to exit PMax entirely and rebuild in Standard Shopping or Search, where network choices have always existed. For five years, that was the deal.
That deal is changing for some accounts. According to reporting from PPC Land and Search Engine Land, Google is alpha-testing a "Partners (Alpha)" setting inside Performance Max campaign settings that exposes two separate checkboxes: one for the Search Partner Network and one for the Google Display Network. If your account has it, you can now opt out of either — independently, at the campaign level.
Most accounts don't have it yet. Google hasn't announced a rollout timeline.
Why this took five years
Performance Max was designed around full network automation. The pitch was straightforward: give Google every network, every signal, every format, and the algorithm finds the best allocation. Network choice was treated as human interference that would degrade performance. So Google removed it at launch.
That logic ran into a real problem when Google added channel-level performance reporting to PMax earlier this year. For the first time, advertisers could see exactly where their PMax budget was going — broken out by Search, Search Partners, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
What a lot of accounts found wasn't comfortable. Search Partners are third-party sites that show your ads alongside their own search results — comparison directories, affiliate portals, search aggregators. The conversion intent there is meaningfully different from someone searching directly on Google. For many verticals, Search Partner ROAS ran below core Google Search even before accounting for traffic quality differences.
GDN inside PMax raised a separate set of concerns. Display placements brought long-standing complaints about ghost conversions and invalid clicks, and inside PMax they'd been fully opaque. Account-level placement exclusions — which Google made broadly available this year — let you block specific URLs, but they don't let you turn off an entire network type.
The channel reporting gave advertisers the data to make the case. The Partners alpha is Google's response to the pressure that data generated.
How to check if your account has it
According to PPC Land's reporting on the feature, the setting appears inside your PMax campaign settings, in the Networks section — the same area where Google lists which networks the campaign is eligible to run on. Look for a "Partners (Alpha)" option with sub-checkboxes for Search Partners and Display Network.
The alpha first appeared in some accounts in April 2026, disappeared, then returned in a broader but still limited wave in mid-July 2026. PPC Land documented both appearances. Search Engine Land first reported on the July wave on July 15, 2026. Google has made no formal announcement.
If you don't see the setting, your account isn't in the test group. There's no known way to request access.
How to use it without destabilizing your campaigns
The immediate instinct is to disable both networks right away. That's the wrong move.
PMax's Smart Bidding model learned on your existing traffic mix. If Search Partners and Display have been running in your campaigns since day one, the model assigned optimization weight to signals from those networks. Turning both off at once forces a partial relearn, which can produce unstable performance in the weeks that follow before the model recalibrates.
Work from data first. Pull 90 days of channel-level performance. Look at which network is underperforming on the metrics that matter to your account — ROAS, CPA, or conversion volume relative to spend. If one network is clearly the outlier, exclude it alone and run for 3-4 weeks before touching the other.
GDN is typically the higher-priority first test. For premium brands, brands in compliance-sensitive categories, and anyone who's seen anomalous conversion patterns in their PMax reporting, Display exclusion is the logical starting point. Search Partners requires more careful analysis — some verticals, particularly those with strong branded query volume and high-commercial-intent product searches, see reasonable conversion rates from partner sites. Check what share of your PMax impressions and budget are going to Search Partners before assuming it's a problem. If it's a small fraction of total spend and converting in proportion, it's probably not your biggest lever right now.
What to do if you don't have the alpha
Account-level placement exclusions remain your best current control. They apply across PMax, Demand Gen, YouTube, and Display campaigns simultaneously. If you've built URL exclusion lists in other campaign types, applying those at the account level will catch PMax inventory too.
For Search Partners specifically, there's no exclusion path outside the alpha. Your option is to pull the channel performance breakdown, understand the numbers, and wait. Given that the feature has appeared in two separate waves since April, a broader rollout seems more likely than not. When it arrives, you'll want the data already pulled so you can act quickly.
What this actually tells you
Adding network controls to PMax fits the pattern Google has run all year: channel-level reporting earlier this year, asset group and audience segment spend breakdowns in June, household income exclusions last week, network toggles now. Every one of these is a control that advertisers had in Standard Shopping or Search before PMax absorbed those budgets.
None of this is a strategy reversal. It's a retention move. When the channel reporting made visible that Display and Search Partners were consuming meaningful budget with weaker results, the path of least resistance for advertisers was to exit PMax and rebuild. Google doesn't want that.
The alpha is a test of whether partial network control is enough to keep advertisers in PMax without producing performance regression. If the data holds, full rollout is a reasonable expectation before the end of the year.
If you want to see how your PMax campaigns are actually distributing budget across channels and audience segments, the free audit at gromerce.com/audit breaks it down in a few minutes.
Five years of mandatory network inclusion inside PMax. The toggle is coming.
Sources: PPC Land, Search Engine Land, July 2026
