HUGE News! Search Partners Revealed (Episode 521)

Google has finally revealed which websites make up its long-opaque Search Partner Network, but the new report offers only impression-level data with no ability to block, adjust bids, or see clicks or conversions by domain. In this episode of The Paid Search Podcast, host Chris Schaefer walks through what the report shows, what it does not show, and why he believes the transparency is largely performative.

What the new report actually contains

Google now provides a "content suitability" report under the Reports tab (not to be confused with the similarly named "when and where ads showed" section elsewhere in the interface). The report lists every domain within the Search Partner Network that has served an impression for a given campaign, including shopping and Performance Max campaigns. However, the only metric available is impressions. Columns for clicks, cost, conversions, click-through rate, and cost per click are grayed out and cannot be added. Schaefer notes that the report only shows data from the point it was enabled — there is no historical view of the decades of search partner activity that preceded it.

The reality behind the partner network