Frequently asked questions about changes to Target-based bid strategies

The current bidding behavior, where budget-constrained campaigns may overperform their stated targets, can be confusing and create unpredictable results when budgets are adjusted. By ensuring campaigns optimize consistently toward your set target regardless of budget, Google Ads aims to provide more reliable control, predictable scaling, and simplified management for your campaigns.

Bidding systems that tried to optimize performance sometimes caused volatility for budget-constrained campaigns. This made adjusting budgets unpredictable, and could cause unexpected channel shifts on multi-channel campaigns like Performance Max and Demand Gen.

No. This is specifically a bidding change. Google Ads auction mechanisms will not change. For more information on how our auctions work, visit the About the Google Ads auction.

No. Target CPA and Target ROAS campaigns that are not budget-constrained will not change their behavior. Campaigns with unconstrained budgets scale performance inline with the stated target and will continue to do so after this update.

This change applies to Target CPA and Target ROAS across most campaign types (see the eligibility section on this page for details), and specifically Target CPC for Demand Gen campaigns. It does not impact manual CPC or Target Impression Share bid strategies.

Generally, no. Smart Bidding Exploration works best with unconstrained budgets, whereas this update specifically impacts target-based bid strategy campaigns that are limited by budget.

Yes. This update will impact bidding for all of your conversion types (from both online and offline sources) within affected campaign types. This includes click-through conversions, view-through conversions, and engaged-view conversions where applicable.

After August 17, campaigns will optimize more consistently toward their set target. This may impact campaigns that are overperforming on bidding targets if you take no action. To maintain current performance, you should update targets to match recent performance before August 17. You can also set a different bid target of your choosing, or switch to Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value to maximize your ROI within a set budget.

No. This change will not directly result in increased spend for you. Your daily and monthly budget limits will always be respected. The purpose of this change is to ensure that you can consistently scale your campaigns at a predictable target, regardless of the budget you have set.

The overall effect of this bidding system update will be the same regardless of the campaign type. However, you may see changes in spend allocation across channels compared to before the update. If you’d like to adjust your targets to account for these changes, review the provided options to keep or adjust your targets.

This change applies to portfolio bidding and shared budget setups, but any actions to adjust targets must be taken at the portfolio bidding or shared budget level. In portfolio strategies with non-shared budgets, only budget-constrained campaigns are impacted. For constrained shared budgets, the impact is distributed uniformly across all campaigns in that group.

Behavior for campaigns using campaign total budgets will not change. This feature will maximize budget utilization over the defined date range, unless the campaign is target constrained.

If you adopt demand-led budgeting, you are free to set higher daily budgets, but you should not expect those daily budgets to be spent in full. The key is to input an accurate target that reflects your business goals. After this update, campaign performance will deliver inline with your targets, even when budgets are adjusted. Daily spend may fluctuate to capture all additional profitable scale from new innovations, increased demand, and overall system improvements.

If you don’t bid toward a purchase or have long conversion delays, you should follow the same core guidance. In particular, if you have longer conversion delays, make sure to wait 1–2 conversion cycles to evaluate your campaign performance.

Google Ads planning tools, like Performance Planner, will be updated to reflect the new bidding behavior. However, there will be a short transition period where forecasts may have some inaccuracies. Please use caution when using forecasts from August 17 to August 31.

Prepare by reviewing limited by budget campaigns that use a target-based bid strategy, particularly those that are performing better than your current targets.

To help you achieve more consistent performance, Google Ads is updating how the system optimizes campaigns that are in a "Limited by budget" status and using the following Target-based bid strategies:

• Target CPA
• Target ROAS
• Target CPC (Demand Gen only)

These changes will go into effect starting August 17, 2026. This update applies to Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Travel campaigns managed in Google Ads or Search Ads 360, as well as Demand Gen campaigns managed in Display & Video 360.

You can continue to adjust your targets as your business needs dictate, both before and after the bidding system update. Smart Bidding reacts to target changes in real time, whether they are large or small, and can perform well with rapid adjustments. Whichever approach you choose, it’s recommended to wait 1–2 conversion cycles before evaluating actual performance in your bid strategy report.

Yes. You should continue to adjust your targets to align with your business goals. Bid strategies with a target will consistently optimize toward your stated target regardless of the budget in the system, resulting in more predictable and scalable performance as budgets are adjusted.

Yes. You can set a more efficient target than your current performance at any time to reflect your business goals. If you set a more efficient target, keep in mind that your daily spend will likely be impacted. You can model these potential changes using the bid simulator tool.

If you choose to align your target with your actual performance before August 17, you should not experience noticeable volatility or changes to your existing performance. That said, you can make both large and small target changes, and Smart Bidding will react in real time. Whichever approach you choose, it’s recommended to wait 1–2 conversion cycles before evaluating actual performance in your bid strategy report.

To maximize scale at your set target, we recommend providing a budget buffer while setting a target that reflects your desired efficiency. If your budget is strictly inflexible and you are comfortable with ROI fluctuations when budgets are adjusted, you can switch your campaign to a Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value bid strategy.

If your current bid targets reflect your business goals, you should try to provide as much budget buffer as possible during periods when your campaigns are limited by budget, and scale your campaign budgets when you can. You can also adjust your bid targets to manage campaign spend. If the opportunity is available, you can consolidate your campaigns under Portfolio Bidding or Shared Budgets to make better use of your limited budgets.

No. Taking actions like applying data exclusions or new bid limits solely in response to this update is not recommended, as it can cause performance fluctuations. You should continue making changes to your targets and budgets based on your business needs.

Between now and August, we encourage you to make any standard improvements to your account. To fully take advantage of this update, it is important to follow best practices and ensure your campaigns are not budget-constrained. Once the changes are rolled out, we recommend waiting 1-2 conversion cycles to ensure bidding performance stabilizes before making any account transitions.