Before you copy Google's 50% Display setting, check you want Display

A 50% budget cap is the number in Google's October announcement. If you currently use the Google Display Network, it says, set it to 'Low priority' with a 50% budget cap by February 2027 to maintain your existing configuration.

The reason is a change to Search campaigns. Starting in February 2027, Google says, for Search campaigns with the Google Display Network turned on, the current spend allocation setup will go away, and advertisers may see a shift in channel spending.

Two new controls arrive with it. Channel prioritisation, in Google's description, lets marketers decide where their budgets go first by categorising inventory as 'High priority' or 'Low priority' for specific channels or channel groupings, and campaigns will fully fund high-priority channels (within their target when using Target CPA or Target ROAS) before allocating the remaining budget to lower-priority channels. On Search campaigns, Google says, Google Search, Search partners and the Google Display Network can be set to different priority levels; in Performance Max and Demand Gen, Google surfaces like Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover are prioritised together as 'Google channels'.

Budget allocation is the second. When a channel or channel grouping is set as 'Low priority', Google says advertisers will be able to specify a maximum percentage of their daily budget, and that on a best-effort basis its tools will aim to keep spend on those channels within that limit. Google says the controls are optional, are rolling out at the account and campaign levels, also apply to shared budgets, and will roll out globally over the coming months, so they may not be in your account yet.

This part is our argument, not Google's. The instruction answers one question: how do I keep what I have? It does not ask whether what you have is right. A Search campaign exists to meet people while they search, and Google's own pages describe Display as a different job: while the Search Network can reach people while they search for specific goods or services, Google says, the Display Network can help you capture someone's attention earlier in the buying cycle.

Both networks also arrive switched on. Google's Google Network page says that, by default, new ad campaigns are set up to show ads across the entire network, and its Search Network page says search partners are included by default when you create a campaign for the Search Network. Our reading: a default is a setting nobody chose, and February 2027 is a natural moment to choose it.

Partners are the harder of the two to see. Google Ads doesn't provide information detailing the website where your ad was shown on the Search Network, Google says, unless you are running a Performance Max campaign. Google also notes that clicks from partner sites that display and link to products for sale may not always reflect highly-targeted traffic, and asks advertisers to consider carefully whether including these networks aligns with their campaign goals.

This is Riibon's practice, not Google's. Before touching a priority, we segment each Search campaign by Network (with search partners), a segment Google says compares Google Search, search partners and Display Network performance. Then we put the cost of each network next to the outcomes the business recorded outside Google Ads: bookings from the calendar, payments from the payment processor, deals from the CRM.

Two thresholds tell us where to look, and both are ours, not measured benchmarks. On a Search campaign, we expect the Display share of spend to be zero, and anything above it needs a reason. We look harder at search partners once their cost per acquisition drifts past about 120% of Google Search's in the same campaign.

These are our recommendations, in Riibon's own words. If Display is on in a Search campaign and the network split shows it producing no recorded sales, turn Display off rather than carry it into February at Low priority and 50%. If it is producing sales you can see in your own records, Google's setting keeps your current configuration and nothing more needs deciding.

If you switched search partners or Display off long ago, Google's pitch is aimed at you: it says marketers who have historically opted out can use the new lever to test these networks with more confidence and clearer limits, rather than turning them off entirely. Our reading: a cap limits what a test can cost. It does not make the result readable, and for partners the network segment is still the only view you get, so set the cap low enough that you would not mind spending it to learn nothing.

If the campaign bids to Target CPA or Target ROAS and is not limited by budget, the priority alone will probably do nothing. Google says budget allocation is particularly helpful for those campaigns, since channel prioritisation alone will generally not have an impact there. The cap is the control that matters.

Whatever you set, check the network split a week later. Google describes the cap as best-effort, not a hard limit. And write the date of the change into the account's change log, because a shift in channel spending in February 2027 will otherwise look like a campaign problem to whoever reads the numbers next.