The advertiser's side of the story

Every dollar an arbitrageur earns began as a dollar an advertiser spent. A plumber, an insurer or a software company bid on a keyword in Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising, expecting to reach someone searching for what they sell. Some of those clicks came from Google or Bing. Some came from a page like yours. To understand why the rules keep tightening, look at the business from that advertiser's chair.

You hire a leaflet company to hand out flyers outside the train station. Later you learn that part of the batch was passed to subcontractors who handed them out somewhere else, to people you cannot see. Some of those people became customers. Some leaflets went in the bin. You were charged for all of them. Your first question would be: where did they go, and can I choose?

What Search Partners means to an advertiser

When an advertiser creates a search campaign, a setting decides whether ads may also run on the search partner network: non-Google sites that show Google search ads, plus Google properties such as YouTube. Google's help pages say partner ads can appear on search results pages, site directory pages and product pages, and that users reach them by typing a search, picking a suggested search or clicking a related search term. That last route is RSOC. In automated campaign types such as Performance Max, partner inventory is part of the mix by default.

1. An advertiser buys a keyword: A car leasing firm creates a search campaign in Google Ads and bids on “SUV lease deals”. It expects its ad to appear when people search for that on Google.
2. One setting widens the reach: Search campaigns include an option to show ads on Google’s search partners as well as Google.com. It is switched on unless the advertiser turns it off. It is all or nothing: partners cannot be picked one by one, only excluded.
3. The ad appears on an arbitrage page: A visitor on a partner site taps a related search for “SUV lease deals”. The firm’s ad appears in the results there, and a click costs it about $1.00 (illustrative), the same budget as a click on Google.com.
4. Does it convert?: What matters to the advertiser is the conversion rate: do these clicks become enquiries? Some partner traffic performs well. Where it converts less, Google says it lowers the price automatically (smart pricing), and invalid clicks are credited back.
5. Seeing where the ads ran: For years partner sites were a black box. Since 2025 Google has reported the individual partner sites where Search, Shopping, App and Performance Max ads appeared, so an advertiser can see each Placement by name.
6. Excluding what does not work: A site that spends money without results can be added to an account-level placement exclusion list, and ads stop showing there. The blunt alternative is the opt-out: switch search partners off for the campaign.
7. One whole category removed: Google went further with parked domains: advertisers were opted out by default in 2025, and on 10 February 2026 parked domains stopped being part of the search partner network altogether.
8. Why arbitrageurs should care: Every exclusion removes a bidder from that page, and fewer bidders mean lower prices. A page that sends advertisers real customers keeps its demand. A page that does not is slowly switched off, one exclusion list at a time.

Why advertisers complain

• They could not see where ads ran. For years reports showed one line, 'search partners', with no list of sites.
• Intent may be weaker. Someone who typed 'emergency plumber near me' into Google is ready to call. Someone who clicked a related search under an article they reached from a social ad may only be curious. The click costs money either way.
• Brand safety. An ad beside unsuitable content can damage a brand, even if few people see it.
• Invalid clicks. Partner sites earn a share of every click, which gives a dishonest minority a reason to manufacture them (click fraud, invalid traffic).
• Control arrived late. Until the end of 2023, Performance Max campaigns could not opt out of search partners.

The Adalytics report

On 28 November 2023 the ad research firm Adalytics published a report on Google Search Partners. As covered by AdExchanger and others, it alleged that search ads from major brands and even US government agencies had appeared on sites carrying adult content, pirated material and on sites in sanctioned countries, as well as on large numbers of parked domains, and that advertisers had no practical way of knowing. AdExchanger reported Adalytics' estimate that the programme was worth roughly $10.5 billion a year. That figure is Adalytics' estimate, not a Google number.

Google's reply

Google disputed the report firmly. In a document for advertisers it said the examples came from sites using its free Programmable Search Engine product, that such sites accounted for less than 1% of search partner impressions, and that about 90% of search partner impressions in a 30-day sample came from the top 100 sites and apps, including YouTube. A Google executive publicly criticised Adalytics' record for accuracy. Google also said it valued the concern that even a few misplaced impressions cause, and that it would stop serving ads on certain low-traffic sites and look at better controls.

Both things can be true: the problem placements may have been a tiny share of impressions, and advertisers may still have been right that they could not check. What is not in dispute is what Google did next.

The controls advertisers now have

An advertiser can now switch partners off for a campaign, apply a verification firm's list, read a report of the sites where its ads ran, and ask Google to exclude individual partner domains (placement exclusion). Microsoft advertisers have similar site-exclusion tools for its syndication network.

What this means for your revenue

The price of your click is set in the ad auction. Each advertiser who opts out or excludes your domain is one bidder fewer, and fewer bidders mean lower prices. Here is an illustration with made-up numbers. Suppose five advertisers compete on a keyword shown on your page and a click earns you $0.60. Two of them review their placement report, see poor results from your domain and exclude it. With three bidders left the price falls, say to $0.42. Nothing changed on your page. Your RPC dropped 30% because of what happened after the click, on someone else's website.

Search engines also adjust automatically. Google has long discounted clicks from partner sites whose visitors are less likely to convert, a mechanism known as smart pricing, and refunds advertisers for clicks it later judges invalid, which reaches you as a clawback. The advertiser conversion, something you never see, is the number your income finally depends on.