Search partners are the sites outside Google that show Google's search ads, and every new Search campaign includes them by default. Google's own help page warns that clicks from these sites “may not always reflect highly targeted traffic.” That doesn't make them bad for every account. Whether to keep them is a question your own data can answer: compare them with Google Search, check what their conversions really were, then keep them, turn them off or exclude the sites that don't work.
What search partners are
Search partners are publishers that partner with Google to show search ads. According to Google, your ads and listings can appear there in lists of search results, on site directory pages, on product detail pages, and in YouTube search results and Watch pages. Partners can change how the ads look on their sites, including placement, size and formatting.
Two details matter when you judge them. The click-through rate on partner sites doesn't affect your Quality Score on Google, so a low CTR there doesn't drag down your Google Search ads. And for Search campaigns, Google's help page says it doesn't tell you which website your ad appeared on, unless you run Performance Max.
Compare them with Google Search in your own account
The Network (with search partners) segment splits each campaign's numbers into Google Search and search partners rows. In the Campaigns table, select the segment icon and choose it.
- Pick a date range long enough for both networks to have conversions. A handful of conversions on either side can swing the comparison either way.
- Compare conversion rate and cost per conversion, not click-through rate. Each partner decides how your ad looks on its site, and partner CTR doesn't affect Quality Score, so it tells you little about whether the clicks are worth buying.
- Compare campaign by campaign. Search partners can work for one campaign and waste money in another, and you turn them off one campaign at a time.
- Check what the conversions were. If search partners show a cheaper cost per conversion than Google Search, look at those leads and orders before you scale them. A form that bots fill in produces conversions that cost almost nothing and are worth nothing. Our guide to fake leads from Google Ads explains how to check.
A cheap conversion can be a fake one
The network segment counts whatever your account counts as a conversion. If automated traffic is converting on your forms or carts, search partners can look better than Google Search for exactly the wrong reason. Compare outcomes you can verify, such as qualified leads or paid orders, wherever you can.
Your three options
| Option | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Keep them | Nothing to change | Ads keep showing on partner sites. Review the network segment regularly. |
| Turn them off for a campaign | Campaigns → hover over the campaign → gear icon → Networks → untick “Include Google search partners” → Save | That campaign's ads show only on Google Search |
| Exclude specific partner sites | Account-level placement exclusions, or exclusion lists created in a manager account | Keeps your ads off those sites in every campaign that serves on search partners: Search, Shopping, Performance Max, App and Smart campaigns |
Account-level placement exclusions have applied to the search partner network since March 2024, and an account can hold up to 65,000 of them. One limit is specific to partner sites: an exclusion for a subdomain, subsite or subpage doesn't work there. And as anywhere, each country domain needs its own entry.
Finding the sites is the hard part. For Search campaigns, Google's help page says it doesn't show which site an ad appeared on. Performance Max is the exception: its placement report has listed search partner sites alongside Display and Google-owned placements since March 2024. Google calls placement reports a brand-safety tool, not a performance report, because they don't include performance from every channel.
Make sure they stay off
“Expand your reach with Google search partners” is one of the recommendations Google Ads can apply automatically. If you turn search partners off and auto-apply recommendations are switched on, check your auto-apply settings, or the recommendation can switch them back on without anyone on your team changing it.
Sources: Google Ads Help, About the Google Search Network, Use segments in your tables, Exclude placements at the account level, Find or create placement reports for your Performance Max campaigns and About applying recommendations automatically.
Where AdProtektor fits
- It checks every ad click, whatever the network. AdProtektor scores each visit that arrives from a Google Ads click, so a visit from a partner site is checked like one from Google Search.
- It blocks repeat sources. Visitors who cross your threat threshold, such as bots and datacenter traffic, are blocked, and the strongest sources go on your Google Ads IP exclusion lists, ranked by threat score to fit Google's limits.
- It keeps the comparison honest. With ConversionOS and fraud protection on, a conversion from a visitor AdProtektor has blocked is withheld instead of being sent to Google Ads, Meta or GA4. Bot conversions then stop making a network look cheaper than it is.
- It supports a review request. The Google Ads Refund Report exports each flagged click with its GCLID, for an invalid click investigation. Our guide to invalid click refunds explains what Google credits.
Withholding doesn't certify every other conversion as a real customer. It removes the ones from visitors already blocked, so the numbers you compare carry less of the traffic you already know is fake.
Judge search partners on what their conversions turned into, not on what they cost.
To see what your ad clicks do on your site, start a free trial and connect Google Ads with your Customer ID.