Google is giving advertisers more control over where their campaign budgets are spent, with new channel prioritisation and budget controls now rolling out globally.
The update applies across Search, Shopping, Demand Gen and Performance Max. Advertisers can set channels as higher or lower priority, with budget directed towards the higher-priority channels first. There is also the option to limit how much daily budget can be spent on lower-priority channels.
For Performance Max, Google's own inventory - including Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and Discover - will remain grouped together, while Search Partners and the Google Display Network can be given their own priority and budget settings.
It's not full control over where PMax spends, but it does give advertisers more say than they've had previously.
What does this mean for advertisers?
Performance Max was built around automation. Advertisers provide the objective, assets, audience signals and conversion data, while Google decides where and how to spend the budget to get the best result.
That works well when performance is strong. It can be more difficult when you want to understand why budget is being spent in a particular place, or test whether a different mix could deliver a better result.
The new controls offer a bit more flexibility. If, for example, you want to test Search Partners or Display without allowing them to take a significant share of the budget, you can now put some parameters around that spend rather than switching the channel off completely.
There is a balance to getting it right though. A channel that looks less efficient when viewed on its own isn't necessarily adding less value to the overall campaign. Restricting spend based purely on short term performance could mean reducing activity that's helping to create demand earlier in the journey.
It's also worth being clear about what hasn't changed. Advertisers still can't tell PMax to spend more on Search and less on YouTube, for example. Google's main inventory remains grouped together, with its algorithm deciding the mix.
Google has gradually added more visibility into PMax, including channel-level reporting, and these latest controls give advertisers another way to influence how campaigns run.
For advertisers, that extra control is useful. The important part will be knowing when there's a good reason to use it, rather than restricting automation simply because we now can.
