Google Search Partners: Evaluate Performance Before Changing Your Campaign
Search Partners should earn their place in your advertising plan through measured results. A lower click price alone does not establish value, and a broad claim that the network wastes money does not establish that your campaign should exclude it. Start with what your account spent and what the resulting inquiries became.
Check the campaign and network setting
Google's Search Network includes Google Search and search partner sites. Google says Search Partners are included by default when you create a Search Network campaign, and you can change that setting. Inspect your actual campaign rather than assuming an existing account still uses the default. See Google's Search Network guidance.
This review concerns the Search Partners setting for a Search campaign. Do not apply the same menu instructions indiscriminately to Performance Max, Shopping, or other campaign types.
Compare results with the same definitions
In the campaign performance table, use the Network (with search partners) segment to compare Google Search and Search Partners. Google's segmentation guidance explains the network breakdown. Record the campaign, date range, selected conversion actions, cost, clicks, and conversions so a later comparison uses the same scope.
Before interpreting cost per conversion, check what counts as a conversion. A phone-link click, submitted form, qualified inquiry, and completed job are different events. Do not label all of them booked work. Where your measurement can connect advertising to CRM outcomes, compare qualified leads and completed jobs as well. State the limitation when network-level downstream attribution is unavailable.
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| Measure | Question it helps answer |
|---|---|
| Cost per recorded conversion | What did we spend for the specific action being counted? |
| Qualified leads | How many inquiries matched our service and customer requirements? |
| Bookings and completed jobs | How much of that inquiry volume became actual work? |
| Collected revenue and delivery costs | Did the resulting work support the economics of acquiring it? |
Allow time for outcomes to arrive
Recent results can look worse because conversions have not yet been reported. Google's conversion lag guidance explains why this can inflate apparent cost per acquisition. Use your observed conversion cycle when choosing the reporting period.
A preset number of clicks or days does not make every comparison conclusive. Check how many relevant outcomes were observed, whether tracking changed, and whether the periods differ in seasonality, offers, staffing, or available appointments. If a small number of bookings could reverse the conclusion, document that uncertainty before making a broad change.
Review where partner ads appeared
Google documents a Search Partner Network placement report in Report editor under When and where ads showed, then Content suitability. It lists sites and impressions for supported campaigns. Reporting thresholds apply, so absence from the report is not proof that a placement never served. See the full placement reporting instructions.
Use that report to investigate placement suitability, without treating impressions as proof of lead quality. Google also supports account-level placement exclusions that apply to Search Partner traffic. Check their scope before saving: an account-level exclusion can affect more than the campaign you are reviewing.
Make and document a campaign-specific decision
If measured partner results do not meet your business requirements, you can disable Include Google search partners in that Search campaign's Networks settings and save the change. Record the date, baseline, reason, and intended outcome. If partner traffic provides acceptable qualified work, keeping it enabled may be reasonable.
Choose the review period around your conversion cycle and lead volume. Avoid changing several unrelated settings at the same time if you want to understand the result. Track total qualified work and acquisition cost after the change, not just the disappearance of partner impressions.
A before-and-after improvement is useful evidence, but seasonality and other changes can also influence it. A different campaign is not automatically a comparable control. Keep the conclusion proportional to what you measured, and revisit the decision when the business, market, or tracking changes.