Google Ads Search Campaign Settings That Matter
The short answer
Five settings decide where a Google Ads Search campaign spends its money: the networks (Google Search, search partners, Display Network), the location option (presence or interest), AI Max with its text customization, the bid strategy and the keyword match type. For a new campaign without conversion history, a safe start is Google Search only, presence-only locations, AI Max off and Maximize clicks with a maximum CPC.
Google's defaults are built to reach more people. That is not always wrong, but on a new or small campaign it usually means paying for traffic you cannot yet measure. This guide goes through each setting, what Google sets by default, and when the default is the better choice.
On this page
- Which settings matter most at a glance?
- Should you include Google search partners?
- Should you turn off Display expansion?
- Presence or interest: which location option should you use?
- What happened to automatically created assets?
- Which bid strategy and match type should a new campaign use?
- Other settings to check before you publish
- How Odak does this
- Sources
Which settings matter most at a glance?
| Setting | Google's default | Safe start for a new campaign | When the default is fine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search partners | Included | Off | You have conversion tracking and partner traffic meets your cost per conversion |
| Display Network (Display expansion) | Check the box: it depends on how the campaign is created | Off | You want extra reach and accept display traffic on the same budget |
| Location option | People in, regularly in, or who've shown interest in your locations | Presence: people in or regularly in your locations | You sell to people planning travel or relocation to the area |
| AI Max (text customization, final URL expansion, search term matching) | Check the AI Max panel: campaigns that used text customization were upgraded to it from September 2026 | Off until the campaign has a baseline | You have enough conversions to judge it and review its assets |
| Bid strategy | Depends on the goal you choose when you create the campaign | Maximize clicks with a maximum CPC bid limit | The account already has steady conversion data |
| Match type | Broad match is the keyword default | Phrase | You use Smart Bidding with enough conversions |
Values as of October 2026. Google changes these screens often; the steps below name the settings so you can find them even if the menu moves.
Should you include Google search partners?
Search partners are sites in the Search Network that partner with Google to show ads: hundreds of non-Google websites, as well as YouTube search results. When you create a Search campaign, search partners are included by default.
Arguments for turning them off on a new campaign:
- Google itself says clicks from these sites "may not always reflect highly targeted traffic".
- Google Ads does not show which partner site your Search ad appeared on, so you cannot exclude the weak ones one by one from a report.
Arguments for keeping them:
- Partner traffic often adds volume when Google Search alone is saturated.
- Partner click-through rate does not affect your Quality Score on Google.
The fair test: keep partners on for a few weeks with conversion tracking, then segment the campaign table by network and compare cost per conversion on Google Search and on search partners. If partners convert at your target cost, keep them.
How to change it: open the campaign's Settings, expand Networks and tick or untick Include Google search partners. To show ads only on Google Search, leave only Google Search selected.
Should you turn off Display expansion?
Display expansion lets a Search campaign also show ads on the Google Display Network, using the same budget. In the network settings it is the Include Google Display Network box.
For a lead generation campaign it is usually best off at the start: display placements bring a different kind of visitor, and mixing them into a Search campaign makes it harder to read what the searches are doing. If you want display reach, a separate Display campaign gives you its own budget and its own reporting.
Google changed this setting in 2026, according to its help page on Display expansion:
- Since October 2026, Display expansion has priority tiers (High or Low) and an optional daily budget allocation percentage, under Channel prioritization.
- From February 2027, Search campaigns with Display expansion move to channel prioritization and the old spend allocation is removed; spend may shift between Google Search, search partners and the Display Network. Google says that to keep today's behaviour, set the Display Network to Low priority with a 50% daily budget allocation before the change.
How to change it: in the campaign's Settings, expand Networks, click View network settings and tick or untick Include Google Display Network under Display Network. Save.
Presence or interest: which location option should you use?
Location targeting has two options for the people you include:
- Presence or interest (Google's default and its recommendation for Search): people in, regularly in, or who have shown interest in your targeted locations.
- Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations.
For a business that serves people locally, such as a clinic, a plumber or a shop, presence is usually right. With the default, someone in another country who searches for your city can see the ad, and you pay for the click. Interest makes sense when people decide from elsewhere: hotels, tours, relocation, property.
Exclusions in Search campaigns always use presence, so an excluded city blocks people who are there, not people interested in it.
How to change it: go to Campaigns, open the Settings tab, expand Locations, choose Location options, select Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations and save.
What happened to automatically created assets?
Automatically created assets are now called text customization: Google writes extra headlines and descriptions from your landing page and ads. It lives inside AI Max for Search campaigns, next to final URL expansion (Google picks the landing page) and search term matching (broader matching of searches to your keywords). Google's help says campaigns using text customization are upgraded to AI Max starting in September 2026, and that after you turn off the legacy automatically created assets setting, you cannot turn it back on except through AI Max.
Keep it off on a new campaign if you need every line of ad text approved first, as regulated businesses often do, or if you want a clean baseline before testing AI Max. Turn it on when you have enough conversions to compare and you review the generated assets.
How to change it: go to Campaigns, open the Settings tab, tick the campaign, choose AI Max, and in the Asset optimization panel tick or untick Text customization. Save. Note that turning off text customization also turns off final URL expansion if it was on.
Which bid strategy and match type should a new campaign use?
Smart Bidding strategies (Maximize conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS) set a bid for every auction from conversion data. They need that data to learn. A new campaign, or an account with only a few conversions a month, gives them little to work with.
A common safe start:
- Maximize clicks with a maximum CPC bid limit. Without a cap, Maximize clicks can pay far more for a click than the search is worth. A cap around the top-of-page bid range Keyword Planner shows for your keywords is a reasonable first value.
- Phrase match keywords. Phrase match reaches searches that include the meaning of your keyword; broad match reaches searches related to it, which is much wider.
- Switch to Maximize conversions once the campaign records conversions steadily. Google recommends broad match with Smart Bidding, because the wider set of searches gives the strategy more to learn from. That advice holds when there are conversions to learn from; without them, broad match mainly brings more searches to review.
Whatever you choose, check the search terms report after the first week. How to find wasted spend in Google Ads shows what to look for.
Other settings to check before you publish
- Languages. Match the language your customers search in, not only the country's main language.
- Ad rotation. "Optimize" lets Google prefer the better ad; leave it unless you are running a strict test.
- Negative keywords from day one. Add obvious ones (jobs, free, course, if they do not apply) before the first click. See the negative keywords guide.
- Budget. The daily budget is an average. Google says a campaign might spend up to twice the average daily budget on a given day, but no more than 30.4 times it over a month.
Sources
- Google Ads Help: About the Google Search Network
- Google Ads Help: About search partners
- Google Ads Help: About Display Expansion on Search campaigns
- Google Ads Help: About advanced location options
- Google Ads Help: Prevent clicks outside of your geo-targeted locations
- Google Ads Help: Turn text customization on or off in Search campaigns
- Google Ads Help: Text customization frequently asked questions
- Google Ads Help: About keyword matching options
- Google Ads Help: About average daily budgets