If you run Google Ads Search campaigns with a small budget and have ever ticked the box to include the Google Display Network, this change affects you. Google’s help page says that from February 2027, Search campaigns using Display Expansion will move to a new channel prioritization model. This guide is for small advertisers, freelancers and in-house marketers who want to know what changes, how to find the campaigns involved and what to set before the switch.
Everything below about dates, menus and settings comes from Google’s own pages (listed under Sources). Where a detail comes only from trade press, it is labelled as reported rather than confirmed.
Contents
What Display Expansion does today
Display Expansion lets a Search campaign also show ads on the Google Display Network, using the campaign’s existing settings. Google’s help page describes it as fully automated, with ads created from your Search ads. Google says the old behaviour used unspent budget at a cost per conversion similar to Search, with a 50% budget allocation applied in the backend.
To use it, the campaign must be a Search Network campaign with “Include Google Display Network” selected. Google recommends adding Responsive Display Ads to widen reach, and says that if you upload image assets, it may create responsive display ads automatically.
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What changes in February 2027
Google’s “About Display Expansion on Search campaigns” page says Display Expansion is transitioning to a new channel prioritization model. It states that in February 2027, Search campaigns with Display Expansion will automatically move to channel prioritization, and the current spend allocation setup will go away. Spending may shift between Google Search, Search partners and the Google Display Network. Google’s October 2026 announcement on its Ads and Commerce blog repeats the February 2027 timing without naming a day, and it refers to the Google Display Network rather than Display Expansion.
So the February 2027 date is confirmed by two official Google pages. No exact day within the month is given on either page, so do not plan around a specific date.
The practical point is the one Google itself makes: if you want to keep your current setup, set the Google Display Network to “Low priority” with a 50% daily budget allocation. If you do nothing, your campaign still moves to the new model and your spend mix may change.
How the new controls work
Channel prioritization has two parts, both optional according to Google’s announcement.
- Priority tier. Each channel is marked High or Low. On Search campaigns the channels are Google Search, Search partners and the Google Display Network. High priority channels are funded first, within your target if you use Target CPA or Target ROAS, and what is left goes to Low priority channels.
- Budget allocation. For a channel set to Low priority, you can enter a maximum percentage of the daily budget. Google describes this as best-effort, not a guaranteed cap. The help page calls it a percentage of the average daily budget.
You can set these at the account level as defaults and override them at the campaign level. They also apply to campaigns that use shared budgets of the same campaign type, and to custom campaign experiments.
How bidding strategy changes the effect
With Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value, Google says High priority channels are funded before Low priority ones, subject to any custom allocation. With Target CPA or Target ROAS campaigns that are not limited by budget, Google’s blog says prioritization alone usually has little effect, and that the percentage cap matters more there. If you use those strategies, the allocation percentage is the lever to watch.
| Setting | What Google says it does |
|---|---|
| High priority | Channel is funded first, within any CPA or ROAS target |
| Low priority | Channel gets remaining budget after High channels |
| Allocation percentage | Best-effort cap on a Low priority channel’s share of daily budget |
| Low priority + 50% on Display | Google’s stated way to keep the current setup |
How to find affected Search campaigns
Google’s help page does not describe a report or column that lists campaigns using Display Expansion, so you need to check campaign settings. The steps it gives are:
- Click the Campaigns icon, then the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu, then Campaigns.
- Open the Search campaign, or use the filters at the top to narrow the list.
- Click the Settings icon for the campaign.
- Open the Networks drop-down and choose View network settings.
- Under Display Network, check whether Include Google Display Network is selected. Any Search campaign where it is ticked is affected.
- Under Channel Prioritization, set priority tiers and allocation, or choose to use account-level settings, then click Save.
Go campaign by campaign and note which ones have the box ticked, their bidding strategy and their daily budget. A simple spreadsheet is enough for a small account.
How to decide what to set
The right answer depends on what Display has done for you. These are decision aids, not guarantees, and Google has not published recommended values for small accounts.
Step 1: check whether Display earns its keep
Look at conversions and cost per conversion by network for each affected campaign. This only works if your conversion tracking is sound; our guide to Google Ads conversion tracking: tag vs GA4 import covers common setup problems. If Display conversions are few or poor quality, a lower allocation is easier to justify.
Step 2: pick a goal for each campaign
- Keep things as they are: set Google Display Network to Low priority with 50% allocation, as Google suggests.
- Protect Search intent traffic: keep Search High, set Display to Low and choose a smaller percentage. Some trade coverage reports that a 0% setting blocks spend on a channel, but Google’s pages do not confirm that, so check the setting in your account before relying on it.
- Prioritise reach: raising Display to High means it is funded before Low channels, which could pull budget away from Search. Do this only for a campaign where you want that trade.
Because Search partners also sit in the model, decide on them at the same time. If you already review which queries trigger your ads, the Google Ads search terms report helps judge intent quality on Search, and PPC keyword strategy and the marketing funnel helps decide how much budget awareness-style traffic deserves.
Step 3: set it before the switch and watch it
Set your chosen values in each campaign, or at account level with campaign overrides, before February 2027. Afterwards, compare network-level spend and cost per conversion for a few weeks. Google warns spending may shift, so avoid changing bids and budgets at the same time, which makes the cause hard to see.
Common mistakes
- Assuming nothing changes. Google says affected campaigns move automatically.
- Setting High on every channel, which gives no real ordering.
- Treating the percentage as a hard limit. Google calls it best-effort.
- Expecting priority alone to steer a Target CPA or Target ROAS campaign that is not budget-limited.
- Judging Display by clicks or impressions instead of conversions.
What is confirmed and what is only reported
Confirmed on Google’s pages: the February 2027 transition, the High and Low tiers, the optional best-effort percentage, the account and campaign levels, and the Low priority with 50% equivalent for keeping your current setup. Google’s help page also claims Search campaigns with spare budget and Display Expansion can deliver up to 15% more conversions at similar cost per conversion to Search. That is Google’s own claim about the previous behaviour, not an independent result, and it should not be read as a promise for your account.
Reported by industry sites but not confirmed on Google’s pages: that a 0% allocation fully blocks a channel, and that the Display Network will stop serving on campaigns using the Target Impression Share strategy. Treat both as unconfirmed until you see them in the Google Ads interface or official help.
Key takeaways
- Google says Search campaigns with Display Expansion move to channel prioritization in February 2027, with no exact day given.
- Find affected campaigns in Settings, then Networks, then View network settings, by checking Include Google Display Network.
- Controls are a High or Low tier plus an optional best-effort percentage cap on Low priority channels.
- To keep today’s behaviour, Google says set Display to Low priority with 50% allocation.
- Decide using conversion data by network, then monitor spend after the change.
FAQ
Do I have to do anything before February 2027?
Google says affected campaigns move automatically, so nothing is required. But if you want spend to behave as it does now, set Display to Low priority with 50% allocation yourself.
Is the February 2027 date confirmed?
Yes, as a month. Google’s Display Expansion help page and its October 2026 Ads blog post both state February 2027. Neither gives a specific day, and a separate Display Expansion in Editor help page does not mention the date.
Can I set this in Google Ads Editor?
Google’s Editor help page says configuring priority tiers and percentages directly in Editor will be supported in an upcoming release, with no date. For now, use the Google Ads web interface.
Will this raise or lower my conversions?
Google only says spend may shift between channels. It does not say how results will change, so measure your own account.
