Campaign priority
Campaign priority is a Standard Shopping setting that decides which of your Shopping campaigns bids for a product when several of them include it.
How it works
When one product sits in several Shopping campaigns for the same country, only one of them bids for it. Priority decides which: the campaign with the higher priority bids, even if its bid is lower. New campaigns start at Low.
Priority only chooses whose bid goes into the auction. The product’s relevance and its chance to show stay the same.
Since October 2024, when Performance Max and a Standard Shopping campaign target the same product, the one with the higher Ad Rank serves, whatever the Standard Shopping priority. Query sculpting in Standard Shopping shows how to use priorities step by step.
Where you see it
In Google Ads, in the settings of a Standard Shopping campaign: Campaign priority, with the values Low, Medium and High.
Example
Example store, not client data.
The tableware shop runs two Standard Shopping campaigns. “All products” has Low priority and bids 6 per click on its frying pans. “Frying pans” has High priority and bids 4. For a search where either could show a frying pan, the bid of 4 enters the auction, not the higher 6.
Not to be confused with
- Query sculpting — a technique built on priority: together with negative keywords, priorities send broad and specific searches to campaigns with different bids.
- Campaign overlap — the situation priority settles: one product in several campaigns. Between Performance Max and Standard Shopping, Ad Rank settles it instead.
Right and wrong readings
- Wrong: “High priority makes Google show my products more often.” Right: priority picks which of your own campaigns bids; relevance and the chance to show stay the same.
- Wrong: “A High-priority Standard Shopping campaign wins over Performance Max.” Right: between these two campaign types, Ad Rank decides.
Sources
- Set campaign priority — Google Ads API Shopping guide: priority sets the preferred bid for one product across Shopping campaigns in a country; Low by default; no effect on relevance. Checked 2 October 2026.
- Create a Shopping campaign — Google Ads API guide: campaigns with numerically higher priorities take precedence. Checked 2 October 2026.
- Google Ads Performance Max Won’t Take Priority Over Standard Shopping In Same Account — Search Engine Roundtable, 22 October 2024, quoting Google’s notice: the highest Ad Rank serves. Checked 2 October 2026.