How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Stop your Search campaign showing on websites and apps
Updated October 11, 2026
10 minutes
To stop a Search campaign showing on websites and apps, open its settings, expand Networks, click View network settings, untick Include Google Display Network and click Save. First split cost by network to see what Display spent, and untick Use Display expansion in auto-apply so it stays off.
Before you start
- Standard or Admin access to the Google Ads account. Read-only access can view campaigns but cannot edit them.
- Your own count of leads for the last 30 days, such as calls, form fills or orders, to compare against what each network reports.
See what the Display Network spent
Split the campaign's numbers by network first, so the decision rests on what Display actually spent and returned, not on the setting alone.
- In Google Ads, click the Campaigns icon, open the Campaigns drop-down and click Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 30 days or longer.
- Click the segment icon above the table and choose Network (with search partners). Each Search campaign splits into a row per network: Google Search, search partners and Google Display Network.
- Read the Google Display Network row: its cost, its conversions and its cost per conversion. A campaign with no Display row has not shown there in that range.
- Compare the Display conversions with your own lead records. Google says call assets run on Search and Smart campaigns, and that a call asset added to a Display campaign may not serve. So for a business whose leads mostly come by phone, Display clicks can bring few calls from the call button even when the row shows other conversions.
Google says Display expansion aims to use unspent Search budget at a similar cost per conversion to Search. That is Google's aim, on average; the row above is your own result.
Untick the Display Network
Display expansion is one checkbox in each Search campaign's network settings, so untick it in every campaign where Display is not paying off.
- Click the Campaigns icon, open the Campaigns drop-down and click Campaigns.
- Hover over the Search campaign and click the Settings icon (the gear) beside its name.
- Click the Networks drop-down to expand it, then click View network settings if it appears.
- Under Display Network, untick Include Google Display Network.
- Click Save, then repeat for each Search campaign that had a Display row.
Include Google search partners sits in the same drop-down and is a separate choice. If only Google Search should remain ticked, the how-to on turning off search partners covers that box.
Keep auto-apply from turning it back on
Google lists Use Display expansion among the recommendations it can apply automatically, so turn that one off or the setting can come back.
- In the Campaigns menu, click Recommendations, then Auto-apply settings.
- On the Manage tab, find Use Display expansion, which Google lists under keywords and targeting, and untick it if it is ticked. Opening the Maintain your ads or Grow your business drop-down shows each recommendation.
- Click Save.
- Open the History tab to see whether a recommendation was applied, how many times in the past week and when it was first turned on.
Check it worked
Reopen each campaign's Networks drop-down: only the networks you kept should be ticked.
After a week, run the Network (with search partners) segment again with a date range that starts the day after you saved. The Google Display Network row should show no new cost. If the campaign uses Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value or Maximize clicks, Google says those strategies consume the full budget by design and Display expansion shared it with Search, so the budget Display used can now go to Search instead.
When Display expansion can be worth keeping
Google says Search campaigns with spare budget that are opted into Display expansion can deliver up to 15% more conversions at a similar cost per action, and that it serves on Display only when it predicts unused Search budget, though with the Maximize bid strategies it shares the budget with Search.
Keeping it is a judgment call: if the Display row's conversions match real orders or leads in your own records, such as an online store's sales, it can earn its place. If they do not show up in your records, untick it.
What the ads look like on websites and apps
Google builds the Display ads automatically from your Search ads, and may create responsive display ads from image assets already in the account.