Google quietly kills parked domain ads from Search Partner Network
Google removed parked domains (AFD) from Search Partner Network on February 10, 2026, permanently ending a legacy ad surface known for poor conversion rates.
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Google removed parked domains - also known as AdSense for Domains, or AFD - as an ad surface within its Search Partner Network on February 10, 2026, completing a process that began with a gradual opt-out rollout in early 2025. The change was applied automatically across all accounts. Advertisers no longer have the option to serve ads on these sites, and the setting to include them in an account's Content suitability controls has been removed entirely.
The move marks the end of a monetization category that dates back to the early years of online advertising, when domain registrars and speculators routinely purchased web addresses in bulk and monetized them with search-related text ads.
What parked domains actually are
According to the Google Ads Help Center, a parked domain is "a web address that was purchased but not thoroughly developed. This webpage typically has little or no content because the page is, for example, in development or waiting for a new owner." Within the Search Partner Network, parked domains could display related search terms tied to the URL or any existing page content. A click on a related search term led to a page of sponsored search ads, with advertisers charged on a cost-per-click basis - the same model used across all search partner inventory.
These pages served several purposes over the years: reserving a web address for future development, providing placeholder content on domains whose registration had lapsed, or simply monetizing idle registrations. The technical mechanism was straightforward. A parked domain owner enrolled in AdSense for Domains, which placed a related-search unit on the page. That unit pulled contextually relevant queries, and clicking them triggered a search results page populated by Google Ads inventory synced through the Search Partner Network.
For advertisers, the experience was considerably less tidy. Parked domains offered minimal contextual signals, no genuine user intent beyond an accidental navigation, and conversion rates that consistently underperformed against standard search inventory. One commenter on Search Engine Roundtable observed that "parked domains never delivered high quality traffic or strong commercial intent. For performance focused campaigns, they mostly added noise and inefficient spend."
The timeline of removal
The February 10 cutoff did not arrive without warning. Google began communicating the change in February 2025, when it emailed some advertisers about a shift in default settings. The email, a screenshot of which was posted to X by Kirk Williams, owner of ZATO Marketing, stated: "This message contains important changes to parked domains, which are a part of Google Ads Search Partner Network. Over a series of months, we are transitioning the default parked domain setting for all Google Ads accounts."
The original rollout was set for March 19, 2025, but Google subsequently delayed it. A later version of the email showed a revised date of May 5, 2025. The initial change - affecting existing accounts - moved them to an automatic opt-out, meaning ads would no longer serve on parked domains unless an advertiser manually re-enabled the setting inside Content suitability.
Previously, according to reporting from Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz, Google had already opted new Google Ads accounts out of parked domain inventory. The February 2026 change extended that policy to its logical conclusion: not merely defaulting accounts to opt-out, but removing the opt-in option entirely.
According to the official Search Partner Network Announcements page within Google Ads Help: "Parked Domains (AFD) will cease to be an ad surface within the Search Partner Network effective February 10, 2026. The option to include Parked Domains in the account's Content suitability settings will be removed at that time. The change will be applied automatically on February 10, 2026."
Kirk Williams, reacting to the earlier February 2025 announcement on X, captured the sentiment of many search advertising professionals: "Woh, this seems like a... good... change, right??? Ads will no longer appear on parked domains by default. Yay, thanks @googleads! #ppcchat."
Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable noted the reaction from Navah Hopkins, then Microsoft Ads Liaison, who commented on LinkedIn: "Love to see this! Parked domains being purged from Search Partners unless you opt into them."
Part of a broader Search Partner Network overhaul
The parked domain removal did not happen in isolation. It was one element in a sustained, multi-year effort by Google to improve the quality, transparency, and advertiser control available within the Search Partner Network - a network that syndicates Google search text ads to third-party publishers and search properties beyond Google.com.
Google's full placement reporting for Search Partner Network, announced in August 2025, gave advertisers site-level impression data for Search, Shopping, and App campaigns for the first time. The feature had been requested for decades and represented one of the most substantive transparency additions to SPN in its history. That announcement noted that Google had already implemented "Default opt-out of Parked Domains for new campaigns" with plans for "gradual expansion to all campaigns by the end of 2025" - a commitment that has now been fulfilled, albeit extending slightly into 2026.
In April 2025, Google introduced an SPN Pre-Screen Solution, an independent third-party verified brand safety layer for Search Partner Network campaigns. The solution works with DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Sciences, and Zefr, who perform independent assessments and create bespoke exclusion lists for advertisers. According to the SPN Announcements page, these third parties "perform independent assessments and classification on Search Partner Network inventory" and "use established industry brand safety and suitability standards to create bespoke exclusion lists."
The same month, Google implemented geo-targeting improvements within SPN, more closely aligning area-of-interest and area-of-presence targeting with advertiser expectations. That update aimed to eliminate scenarios where clicks arrived from unexpected user locations, a persistent complaint about the quality of traffic from partner inventory.
In February 2025, Google upgraded its Smart Bidding system specifically for SPN traffic. According to the SPN Announcements page, "By opting into SPN and using the Smart Bidding strategies (tCPA, tROAS), you can expect a better ROI and targeting accuracy, and improved performance for bids related to inventory constrained traffic."
December 2025 brought new performance claims for the network. Google stated that advertisers where SPN spend represented at least 5% of total ad spend could "typically see an 11% uplift in conversions when using volume-focused Smart Bidding strategies (Target CPA or Maximize Conversions), specifically in campaigns that were not constrained by budget." A parallel claim cited a 7% uplift in conversion value for advertisers using value-focused strategies such as Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value under the same conditions.
January 2026 added Performance Max channel reporting with SPN segmentation, available across all Customer IDs. The feature extended to Search Ads 360 as well, providing campaign-level performance summaries and data visualizations showing how SPN traffic contributed to conversion goals.
What the SPN overhaul looks like in aggregate
Taken together, the changes since 2023 reflect a systematic effort to reposition SPN from a relatively opaque traffic channel into one with meaningful controls and measurable quality thresholds. The SPN Announcements page lists the progression: enhanced Smart Bidding for performance; safety upgrades including enhanced sampling, measurement, and the blocking of ads from adult domains; updated publisher monetization requirements; default opt-out of parked domains for new campaigns; account-level placement exclusions that apply across Display Network, YouTube, and SPN simultaneously; full placement reporting for PMax campaigns; and now the complete removal of parked domain inventory.
Google's account-level placement exclusion feature, which arrived in January 2026, allows a single unified exclusion list to function across Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube, and Display campaigns simultaneously. That development, which removed the need to replicate exclusion lists across individual campaigns, complemented the transparency improvements to SPN by giving advertisers a single point of control.
The pattern is not unique to SPN. Across AdSense for Search, stricter Referrer Ad Creative requirements were introduced in October 2025, requiring publishers who direct traffic from third-party sources to provide precise and complete creative text via the referrerAdCreative parameter - enforcement began November 1, 2025. These requirements affected publishers relying on affiliate networks, content recommendation platforms, and influencer partnerships to drive traffic toward Related Search for Content pages.
A former Google insider's assessment of Search Partner Network quality, published in October 2025, offered a stark characterization: "Sadly, this inventory is all trash - as we can now see from the new content reporting." The statement came in the context of a broader review of advertising practices that Google had once encouraged but which have since been identified as counterproductive.
Why advertisers and publishers noticed
The industry reaction to the February 2026 change was largely positive among practitioners, though measured. Comments circulating on LinkedIn after Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable reported the change reflected a view that the removal was long overdue. Stefano Galloni, Head of SEO at K-Hub, described parked domains as "always a legacy monetization layer," adding that the change suggested Google was "tightening ad quality and partner trust - especially as Search shifts into an AI-first interface." Tudor Daniel, an AI digital marketing professional, offered a single-word response: "Finally."
The reaction among advertisers managing performance-focused campaigns has been similarly affirmative. Parked domains represent a category where click-through rates and conversion rates have historically diverged sharply from intent-driven search inventory. Without genuine content or organic user interest tied to the domain, user behavior on these pages is difficult to model and even harder to attribute meaningfully.
For publishers who operated parked domain inventories, the change represents the closure of a revenue stream that has been shrinking for years as registration speculation declined and domain monetization patterns shifted. AdSense for Domains was never a major component of the AdSense ecosystem for quality publishers, but for registrars and speculative domain holders, it provided a passive income mechanism. That mechanism is now unavailable for Google Ads inventory.
The broader question for the advertising community concerns the remaining inventory within SPN. Parked domains were perhaps the most identifiable low-quality category within the network, but the full placement reporting introduced in August 2025 has given advertisers their first clear view of the remaining partner inventory. That transparency was specifically described as addressing "decades of advertiser demands." The data it generates will continue to inform how advertisers evaluate SPN participation more broadly.
According to Google's SPN performance data, advertisers using Smart Bidding with at least 5% of spend on SPN can expect material conversion uplifts compared to Google-only campaigns. The claim is grounded in aggregate platform data rather than independently audited figures, and its validity depends substantially on campaign structure, budget constraints, and vertical. Removing parked domain inventory from the calculation improves the baseline against which those claims are measured.
Timeline
- July 2023 - Google implements manual bid strategy improvements for SPN, introducing Smart Pricing for campaigns with manual bidding and no conversion tracking, and Smart Bidding for campaigns with sufficient conversion volume.
- February 19, 2025 - Kirk Williams of ZATO Marketing posts a screenshot on X of a Google Ads email announcing the transition of parked domain default settings for all accounts, originally targeting March 19, 2025. The post receives 14 likes and 804 views.
- February 2025 - Google upgrades Smart Bidding for SPN, improving bidding processes and ROI for inventory-constrained traffic.
- March-May 2025 - Google delays the initial parked domain opt-out rollout, revising the date to May 5, 2025.
- April 2025 - Google launches the SPN Pre-Screen Solution with DoubleVerify, IAS, and Zefr, providing independent third-party brand safety exclusion lists for SPN-enabled campaigns.
- April 2025 - Google implements geo-targeting product enhancements within SPN, reducing spend driven by clicks from unexpected user locations.
- August 20, 2025 - Google announces full placement reporting for Search Partner Network for Search, Shopping, and App campaigns, providing site-level impression data for the first time.
- October 7, 2025 - Google notifies AdSense for Search publishers of new Referrer Ad Creative requirements for Related Search for Content pages, effective November 1, 2025.
- October 28, 2025 - Former Google employee publicly characterizes SPN inventory quality as "trash," citing new placement reporting data as confirmation.
- December 2025 - Google publishes new SPN performance claims: 11% conversion uplift for volume-focused Smart Bidding, and 7% conversion value uplift for value-focused strategies, for qualifying advertisers.
- January 2026 - Google rolls out Performance Max channel reporting with SPN segmentation to all Customer IDs, extending the feature to Search Ads 360. Account-level placement exclusions also arrive, applying a single exclusion list across Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube, and Display.
- February 10, 2026 - Google permanently removes parked domains (AFD) as an ad surface within the Search Partner Network. The Content suitability opt-in is deleted from all accounts. The change is applied automatically with no advertiser action required.
- February 16, 2026 - Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable and Barry Schwartz on LinkedIn report the completed removal, citing the official Google Ads Help documentation.
Summary
Who: Google Ads, affecting all advertisers running campaigns on the Search Partner Network, as well as publishers who operated parked domain inventories monetized through AdSense for Domains (AFD).
What: Google permanently removed parked domains as an ad surface within the Search Partner Network, eliminating the option to serve ads on web addresses that were purchased but not thoroughly developed. The Content suitability setting that previously allowed advertisers to opt in to parked domain inventory was deleted from all accounts simultaneously.
When: The change took effect on February 10, 2026. The process leading to it began in February 2025, when Google first announced the transition of default settings, with intermediate steps throughout 2025 including opt-outs for new and then existing accounts.
Where: The change applies globally across all Google Ads accounts participating in the Search Partner Network. There are no regional exceptions or phased rollouts by geography. The removal is documented in Google's official Search Partner Network Announcements page and the Google Ads Help Center entry for "Parked domain site."
Why: Parked domains represent a category of low-quality ad inventory with minimal genuine user intent and poor conversion performance relative to standard search placements. The removal is part of a sustained effort by Google to improve the quality, transparency, and brand safety of its Search Partner Network, which has also included full placement reporting, third-party pre-screen brand safety tools, upgraded Smart Bidding, and account-level exclusion controls. The parked domain category was the most identifiable low-quality ad surface within SPN, and its removal eliminates a placement type that Google Ads policy had already prohibited for advertisers' own landing pages - creating a consistency between advertiser policy and publisher inventory standards.