Google Tests New Channel Prioritization Controls for Performance Max Campaigns
TLDR
Google is testing new Performance Max channel controls that let advertisers adjust how the algorithm prioritizes Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps through positive or negative CPA adjustments.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Google is testing alpha-stage channel prioritization controls for Performance Max that allow advertisers to make positive or negative adjustments to individual channels' cost-per-action targets, effectively signaling which channels they value more without assigning fixed budget percentages. The feature covers Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps, and represents a significant departure from PMax's historically automated approach to channel allocation. Search Engine Land notes the test follows Google's earlier introduction of channel-level reporting, giving advertisers tools to act on performance insights—though the outlet cautions that direct attribution may not reflect actual channel value across multi-touch customer journeys.
From Visibility to Control: What's Different About This PMax Test
Performance Max has historically given advertisers very little direct influence over how it distributes spend across Google's inventory — audience signals, assets, and search themes could shape behavior indirectly, but Google's own documentation has been explicit that advertisers can't set channel-level budget directly. This test would change that, following an earlier rollout of channel-level reporting that gave advertisers visibility into where their PMax budget was actually going, without any way to act on it.
That earlier reporting update matters here: it's what surfaced the channel-level performance data that's now prompting demand for a control like this one. But channel-level performance and channel-level value aren't the same thing. A conversion credited to Search might have been influenced by an earlier YouTube impression the reporting doesn't fully capture — so an advertiser reacting to what looks like an underperforming channel could end up suppressing demand the campaign was actually generating elsewhere.
Google has described the setting as an alpha test, the earliest stage before beta, with no confirmed timeline for a wider release.