Google Search Partners:
Toggled On or Off?
Geoff Graham
Geoff Graham
Google Ads Search Partners extends your ad reach to third-party sites and platforms, offering additional visibility. While it’s a useful tool, it’s not always the best choice for every campaign.
Let’s break down the pros and cons of using Google Ads Search Partners, and when it’s a good idea to enable or disable this feature in your paid search campaigns.
Search Partners are third-party sites, apps, and platforms that display your Google Ads within relevant search results or webpagesoffering more opportunities for your ads to be viewed.
While they expand reach, their effectiveness depends on your campaign goals.
Although savvy advertisers should carefully consider if Google Ads Search Partners is the right fit for their campaigns, toggling this feature on can be beneficial in certain situations.
If your goal is maximum visibility and you have a large budget, Search Partners can help. It increases impressions and clicks, which is useful for building brand recognitioneven if traffic isn’t high-converting.
For e-commerce campaigns, Search Partners may connect your ads to shoppers on major retailer sites (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc.). If your high-performing keywords or product listings align with shoppers’ search activity, you could see incremental improvements in ad performance.
If you have API access through tools like SuperMetrics, you can track Google Ads placements within the partner network. These insights allow you to measure performance on third-party sites and refine your strategy, similar to how you can access website publisher data in Microsoft Ads.
For advertisers seeking high-quality leads or sales, disabling Search Partners may be the better choice. The increased reach the Search Partners feature offers does come with a few notable drawbacks.
For niche audiences, Search Partners may dilute targeting precision and reduce your lead generation efficacy. This is especially true for B2B or highly specific products.
In such cases, Google’s own search engine may offer better alignment with user intent.
Search Partners doesn’t let you control where your ads appear. This can lead to wasted spend on low-quality or irrelevant sites.
Although you can’t prevent ads from showing up on less-than-ideal sites, you can monitor campaign performance and exclude sites that underperform through Google Ads’ placement exclusion feature.
Clicks from Search Partners are often cheaper but are typically less likely to convert. If your goal is ROI or high-quality leads, sticking with Google’s core search network may be smarter.
As with any aspect of paid search advertising, testing is essential to gauge the value of Search Partners.
Before committing to Search Partners integration, run separate campaigns to measure the impact without affecting your main efforts. Focus on high-performing keywords and product tiles. Evaluate metrics like click-through rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), and conversion rates against campaigns without Search Partners enabled.
Regularly review geo-targeting, device settings, and bidding strategies. These elements influence performance and can reveal whether Search Partners are helping or hurting your results.
Google Ads Search Partners can offer extended reach, but they aren’t ideal for every campaign.
For large budgets or e-commerce, the feature is worth testing. For precision or ROI-focused campaigns, it may fall short of your marketing needs. If Search Partners performance metrics are off the mark, refine your strategy or opt out.
Consistent testing and analysis can unlock the potential of Google Ads Search Partners, helping you make informed choices and optimize your marketing ROI.
