TL;DR
- Google Search Partners is a network of non-Google search boxes, portals and some Google properties outside Google Search that can show your Search and Shopping ads.
- It is a campaign-level checkbox under Settings then Networks, ticked by default on new Search campaigns, and separate from the Display Network option.
- Performance reports separately: segment any campaign table by Network with search partners to see clicks, cost and conversions split out.
- Google publishes no list of partner sites and there is no placement report, so you can exclude the whole network but never an individual site.
- Decide per campaign on 90 days of segmented cost per conversion, and on downstream lead quality if your business has a sales cycle.
The Google Search Partners network is a set of non-Google sites and apps that can show your Search and Shopping ads alongside their own search results. It is controlled by a single checkbox in campaign settings, it reports separately in Google Ads, and it is on by default when you create a Search campaign. Whether it earns its place in your account depends entirely on what your own segmented data says, because Google does not publish a list of the sites in it.
What the Search Partners network is
Search Partners are third-party properties that have an arrangement with Google to display Google search results and the ads that go with them. In practice that covers three broad kinds of surface: other search engines and portals that syndicate Google results, site-search boxes on publisher and retailer websites, and some Google-owned properties outside Google Search itself, which is where YouTube search results appear for Search campaigns. Google Maps is not one of them: Google lists Maps and the Maps app under its own search sites, alongside the Shopping tab and Google Images.
The important structural point is that the ad still matches on a query. A Search Partners impression happens because someone typed something into a search box, not because they were browsing a page and your ad appeared beside the content. That makes Search Partners closer to Search than to Display, even though the inventory sits outside Google.
Google does not publish the list of partner sites, and there is no report in the Google Ads interface that names the individual placements your Search campaign appeared on. That is the single most important limitation to understand before you form an opinion about the network, because it means you cannot audit quality the way you can with Display placements.
How to turn Search Partners on or off
The setting lives in the campaign, not the ad group or the account, so it is decided once per campaign.
- Open the campaign, go to Settings, and expand Networks.
- The checkbox reads along the lines of including Google search partners. Untick it to exclude the network.
- Save. The change applies going forward and does not alter historical data.
Two things surprise people here. The box is ticked by default on new Search campaigns, so most accounts are opted in without anyone deciding to be. And the setting is independent of the Display Network checkbox that sits next to it, which is a different network with different inventory and should be evaluated separately.
Where the data lives
Search Partners performance is reported separately, which is what makes the decision answerable rather than a matter of opinion. Use the Segment control on any campaign or ad group table and choose Network with search partners. The table then splits into rows for Google Search, Search Partners and, where relevant, Display Network.
| Where to look | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Segment, then Network with search partners | Clicks, cost, conversions and conversion value split by network, on any date range |
| Campaign settings, Networks section | The on or off state for each campaign |
| Search terms report | Queries, but not the partner site each one came from |
| Placement report | Nothing for Search Partners. It covers Display and video inventory only |
Segment first, then judge. An account that looks at blended campaign numbers cannot tell whether Search Partners is helping or diluting, and the blended figure is where most of the folklore about this network comes from.
How Search Partners traffic usually differs from Google Search
There is no universal ratio, and any source quoting one is describing its own accounts rather than yours. What is consistent across accounts is the shape of the difference rather than its size.
Cost per click on Search Partners is often lower, because competition on syndicated inventory is thinner than on Google Search itself. Volume is usually a small fraction of total Search volume, frequently in the single digits as a percentage of clicks. Conversion rate is the variable that decides the whole question, and it moves in both directions depending on the vertical: some accounts see Search Partners convert at close to Google Search rates, and others see a fraction of it.
The reason it varies so much is the mix of surfaces. A query typed into a serious comparison site's search box carries different intent from a query typed into a site-search box on a content site by someone who was reading an article. Both count as Search Partners, and you cannot see which one you are buying.
How Search Partners interacts with Smart Bidding and Performance Max
If your campaign uses Target CPA or Target ROAS, Smart Bidding sets bids per auction across both networks, which means it is already pricing Search Partners traffic differently if that traffic converts differently. That is the argument for leaving it on: the bidding system has more data about the auction than you do, and it will pay less for worse inventory rather than paying the same and hoping.
The argument against is that Smart Bidding optimises toward the target you gave it using the conversion data you feed it. If your conversion tracking is thin, or if your conversions are of uneven quality and you are not passing values back, then a cheaper click that converts into a worse lead looks identical to a good one. In that situation the network can drag the whole campaign toward volume you do not want.
Performance Max is a separate case. It runs across Google's inventory including search partners as part of its channel mix, and historically it has not offered the same simple campaign-level checkbox that a Search campaign does. Treat the two decisions as unrelated, and do not assume that excluding Search Partners on your Search campaigns has done anything to Performance Max.
When excluding Search Partners makes sense
The honest default is to leave it on and measure, then exclude only on evidence. Reasons that do stand up:
- Segmented data over a period long enough to contain a meaningful number of conversions shows a materially worse cost per conversion on Search Partners, and the gap holds across more than one month.
- Lead quality is measured downstream and Search Partners leads are consistently worse, which conversion-rate parity in Google Ads will not reveal on its own.
- The budget is small enough that you would rather concentrate every baht on the highest-intent inventory than spread it thinner for incremental volume.
- You are running a controlled test and need to remove a variable.
Reasons that do not stand up: a blog post saying the network is low quality, a blended campaign metric that was never segmented, or a single bad week. Also worth noting that excluding the network removes volume, and on a campaign that is already limited by impression share, that trade may cost more than it saves.
What you cannot find out
Being clear about the limits is more useful than pretending the data is richer than it is. You cannot see which partner sites served your ads. You cannot exclude an individual partner site, only the whole network. There is no published list of partners, and the composition changes over time without announcement. You also cannot see Search Partners data broken down by device and placement together in the way Display reporting allows.
So the practical method is a whole-network decision made on whole-network data, reviewed periodically rather than once and forgotten.
What this means in the Thai market
Two local factors change the weighting. Thai accounts frequently run against a fixed monthly budget, which makes the concentration argument stronger than it would be for an advertiser with room to spend: if the budget will be exhausted either way, spending it on the highest-intent inventory is a reasonable default. On the other hand, Thai search volumes on specific commercial terms are often thin, and campaigns starved of volume struggle to give Smart Bidding enough conversions to learn from. For those accounts the incremental volume from Search Partners can be the difference between a bidding strategy that has data and one that does not.
There is also a language dimension. Thai-language queries on syndicated partner inventory behave less predictably than English ones, simply because the partner mix serving Thai queries is different and smaller. That is another reason to segment your own data rather than importing a conclusion from an English-language case study.
If you are reviewing network settings as part of a wider account clean-up, the same session should cover bid strategy, budget pacing and conversion tracking, since all four interact. Our Google Ads management team runs that review, and accounts that also buy display advertising should keep the two network decisions separate. For retail accounts, the equivalent question on the Shopping side belongs with your e-commerce marketing plan, and measurement of any of it depends on clean data in GA4.
A simple review routine
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1. Segment | Split the last 90 days by Network with search partners on every Search and Shopping campaign |
| 2. Size it | Note what share of clicks, cost and conversions the partner rows represent |
| 3. Compare | Cost per conversion and conversion rate, partners versus Google Search, per campaign |
| 4. Check downstream | If you track lead quality in a CRM, compare closed rates rather than form fills |
| 5. Decide per campaign | Exclude only where the gap is material and repeated, and re-check in 90 days |
Frequently asked questions
What sites are in the Google Search Partners network?
Google does not publish the list. The network includes third-party search engines and portals, site-search boxes on publisher and retailer sites, and some Google properties outside Google Search. Because no list exists and the composition changes, you cannot audit it site by site and there is no placement report for it.
Is Search Partners on by default?
Yes, new Search campaigns are created with the search partners option included. It is a campaign-level setting found under Settings and then Networks, and it is separate from the Display Network option next to it.
Can I exclude a single Search Partners site?
No. The only control is the whole network, on or off, per campaign. Individual placement exclusions apply to Display and video inventory, not to Search Partners.
Does Search Partners traffic hurt Quality Score?
Quality Score is calculated on Google Search traffic. Performance on Search Partners is reported separately and is not what the Quality Score columns describe, which is another reason to segment before drawing conclusions about either.
Should I turn Search Partners off?
Only if your own segmented data says so. Split the last 90 days by network, compare cost per conversion and, where you can, downstream lead quality. Turn it off when the gap is material and repeats across months, and leave it on when the traffic is cheap, converts acceptably and your campaign needs the volume.
The decision in one paragraph
Search Partners is a volume-and-price trade you can measure but cannot inspect. Segment the data, look at cost per conversion rather than cost per click, check quality downstream if your business has a sales cycle, and then decide per campaign rather than as an account-wide article of faith. Re-run the same check quarterly, because the partner mix changes without telling you.
