PMax Partners Alpha: Google Is Testing a Search Partners and Display Opt-Out in Performance Max
The short version
Can you exclude Search Partners and the Display Network from Performance Max? Since PMax launched in 2021 the answer has been no. As of mid-July 2026, for a small group of accounts, it's yes: a new Partners (Alpha) setting with two checkboxes appeared in campaign settings, spotted in the wild on July 15 with no announcement behind it. Most accounts don't have it, and this brief doesn't pretend you do. The story is that the toggle exists at all, and the Monday move, quantifying what those two networks actually do inside your PMax spend, is worth making whether or not you ever see the checkbox.
What Google announced
Nothing. That's part of the story. The setting surfaced through screenshots shared on LinkedIn from a Dutch-language interface (labeled "Alfa," which set off its own thread), then got picked up by Search Engine Land and PPC Land around July 15. There's no Help Center page, no blog post, and no timeline.
What the screenshots show: a Partners (Alpha) section in Performance Max campaign settings with two checkboxes. One for Search partners, described as "hundreds of non-Google websites." One for the Google Display Network, described as "more than 2 million websites and apps." Both checked by default. Unchecking them is the first network-level opt-out Performance Max has ever offered.
What it actually means
Performance Max was built on a single premise: you give Google the assets and the goal, and the machine decides where ads run. No network controls, by design, for five years. Search Partners and Display have always been part of the deal because they're the bidder's ballast: large pools of cheap inventory the system leans on to smooth delivery and hit your targets. Take the ballast away and the same targets get harder to hit on premium surfaces alone.
Which is exactly why this is an alpha and not a beta. Google betas features it wants adopted, and alphas the concessions it's nervous about. Gating this behind a small test lets Google measure the thing it needs to know before any wider release: how much of PMax's reported efficiency evaporates when advertisers pull the cheap networks out.
Put this next to the August 17 bid target change and a pattern forms. Both moves shrink the bidder's slack: one makes your targets literal, the other lets you take away its favorite inventory. Google is slowly converting PMax from "trust the machine" to "negotiate with the machine," and the Partners checkbox is the first term of the negotiation. It also tells you what to ask your Google rep for this quarter, by name.
The pushback writes itself: it's an alpha, most accounts can't touch it, so who cares? Fair, and it misses the point. The toggle's existence reframes a question every PMax advertiser should have answered already and mostly hasn't: what are Search Partners and Display actually doing in your campaigns? Channel distribution reporting will tell you today. Almost nobody has pulled the number.
Google built a machine you could not steer, and just quietly installed the first steering wheel, for some drivers.
Signal or noise: Medium, high if the toggle is in your account
If the Partners (Alpha) checkboxes are in your campaign settings, this is high signal: you're inside the test Google is using to decide the future of PMax network controls, and a clean exclusion test is worth running this week. For everyone else it's a medium: no deadline, nothing breaks, but the audit it prompts is overdue in most accounts, and the alpha's existence is your early warning that network controls are coming. Read now, act this week if you're PMax-heavy, otherwise calendar it.
The Monday-morning playbook
- Check for the toggle. Open Performance Max campaign settings and look for a Partners (Alpha) section with Search partners and Google Display Network checkboxes. Two minutes per account.
- Pull the number nobody pulls. Open PMax channel distribution reporting and quantify what share of spend and conversions sits on Search Partners and Display inventory, and at what CPA or ROAS versus your Search and Shopping surfaces. This is the audit that makes every later decision easy.
- Use today's levers while you wait. Account-level placement exclusions and content suitability settings are the workaround available to every account right now. If step 2 surfaced junk placements, act on them today.
- Ask your rep for the alpha by name. "We'd like to be included in the Performance Max Partners alpha" costs you nothing and moves you from spectator to participant. Alphas fill from accounts that ask.
- If you have the toggle, test like you mean it. Pick one campaign, screenshot baseline channel distribution, uncheck one network (not both at once), and hold for at least two weeks: delivery reshuffles while the bidder re-equilibrates, so day-three panic reverts will poison the read. Judge on CPA or ROAS against the baseline, not on delivery volume.
The bottom line
Every page on the internet that answers "can you exclude Display from Performance Max" says no, because for five years that was true. It's stopped being reliably true, and the direction of travel matters more than the alpha's guest list. Spend the thirty minutes on the channel audit this week: if the toggle reaches you, you'll already know exactly what unchecking it is worth, and if it doesn't, you've finally priced the ballast Google's machine has been buying with your budget.
Frequently asked
Can I exclude Search Partners from Performance Max?
For most accounts, no. Since Performance Max launched in 2021 there has been no network-level opt-out. As of July 2026, Google is testing a Partners (Alpha) setting with a small group of advertisers that adds checkboxes for Search Partners and the Google Display Network. If you don't have the alpha, your levers are account-level placement exclusions and content suitability settings.
What is the Partners Alpha setting in Google Ads?
It is an early-stage test setting spotted in Performance Max campaign settings in mid-July 2026. It shows two checkboxes, Search partners and Google Display Network, both checked by default, letting alpha participants opt out of either network. Google has not announced it, documented it, or given a rollout timeline.
How do I see which networks Performance Max spends on?
Use Performance Max channel distribution reporting in Google Ads, which breaks PMax spend and performance out by surface, including Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. Pull it at the campaign level, then compare CPA or ROAS by channel to quantify what Search Partners and Display inventory contribute to your totals.