When you have ‘Include Google Search Partners on in your Google Ads’, you’ll get a lot of junk syndicated search traffic
There is a little-known setting inside Google Ads that quietly drains budget while delivering clicks from people who will never become customers. It’s called syndicated search.
In this article you will learn:
If your Google Ads campaigns are generating clicks but few enquiries or sales, this could be a hidden cause so a few minutes reviewing your settings could make a significant difference.
You may also be interested in the many other ways that Google Ads can waste your budget without you realising it.
Syndicated search refers to clicks that come from websites that are within the Google Ad network of overall visibility, but are websites other than Google directly – and that still use Google’s search engine or show Google’s search ads.
In theory, these sources extend your reach. In practice, many of them are poorly designed, cluttered with ads, or built solely to generate accidental clicks.
Google groups this traffic under “Search Partners” in your Google Ads campaign settings, so it is often mistaken for genuine search traffic.
People actively searching on Google are often searching with intent. They are researching a problem, exploring solutions, or actively looking to buy.
Syndicated search clicks come from different behaviour patterns on non-Google sites that use Google’s search technology or results.
Here are just some of the issues I see:
These clicks can often be lower cost than those from a normal Google Search, but they have none of the conversion potential.
The most misleading part is how the traffic is labelled.
In the Google Ads interface, you might see a campaign marked as “Search” and assume that means traffic from Google’s own search engine. But if the “Include Google search partners” box is ticked (which it is by default), your ads are showing elsewhere too.
You can’t see a full list of partner sites. You can’t block specific ones. You can’t fine-tune where your ads show within that network.
That means if performance is poor, there is little you can do about it – other than switch it off entirely.
In this video I show a website that has syndicated search clicks via Google Ads, and how the majority went no further than the page they landed on, including what’s highly likely to be many fraudulent clicks:
This issue is not new – and many others talk about it. Here’s a sample of what others have reported:
These sources all echo the same message: Search Partner traffic is unreliable, unaccountable, and often harmful to campaign performance.
Here are four actions you can take (one if you take just the first one!):
Go into each Search campaign and look for the “Networks” section. If “Include Google search partners” is ticked, that is your starting point – untick it and save!
Use tools like Microsoft Clarity or Web Success Insights to track and watch what those visitors do. Do they leave quickly? Click erratically? Bounce without scrolling?
If you’re still keen to keep it active, use the “Segment > Network (with search partners)” function in Google Ads to split your results. Compare clicks, bounce rates, cost per conversion, and time on site between Google Search and partners.
Again, if you really want to keep the option switched on, you could try duplicating a campaign and running it with search partners excluded. After a few weeks, compare the quality of leads or sales between the two.
For many advertisers, simply unchecking that one box improves lead quality and return on ad spend. Personally, I never have that option switched on for any campaigns – it’s like writing a blank cheque to Google and the fraudulent sites where your ads appear.