Understanding bidding basics

Google Ads gives you several ways to bid for your ads, depending on what matters most to you and your business. Most advertisers focus on clicks, impressions, conversions, or views (for video ads). Now that you're advertising on Google Ads, you probably have a clear goal in mind for your ads. If you sell coffee, maybe you want to get more people to visit your shop. If you run a hiking club, maybe you're aiming to get more people to sign up for your newsletter. And so on. Knowing what you want your ads to do will help you decide how to bid. Google Ads runs an auction every single time it has an ad space available -- on a search result, or on a blog, news site, or some other page. Each auction decides which ads will show at that moment in that space. Your bid puts you in the auction. You can focus on different things when you bid: clicks, impressions, conversions, views, or engagements, depending on your campaign type. Which would you choose? Let's look at these more closely. Focus on clicks (for Search and Display ads) If your main goal is to have people visit your website, then clicks are a good place to start. Using cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, you'll pay only when someone actually clicks on your ad and comes to your site. Example : If you run a hiking club in Vermont, you might want to bid a lot for direct-hit keywords like "Vermont hiking" and a different amount for broader keywords like "hiking maps." Focus on impressions If your campaign is targeting just the Search Network and your main goal is to increase your brand visibility, consider using Target Impression Share. With this bidding strategy, Google Ads will automatically set your bids to help achieve your Impression Share goal. For example, if you choose an Impression Share target of 65% on the absolute top of the page, Google Ads will automatically set your bids to help show your ads on the absolute top of the page 65% of the total possible amount of times they could show. If your campaign is targeting just the Display Network, instead of paying by the click, you can pay by the number of times your ad is visibly shown. That's called cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (vCPM) bidding, since you pay for every 1,000 times your ad appears and is viewable. If you're mostly interested in getting your name or logo in front of lots of people, this is a smart option. Learn how ads are measured as viewable . Viewable CPM bidding, like CPC manual bidding, lets you set bids at the ad group level, or for individual placements. Focus on conversions (for Search and Display ads) With this advanced bidding method, you tell Google Ads the amount you're willing to pay for a conversion, or cost per action (CPA). A conversion (sometimes called an acquisition) is a particular action you want to happen on your website. Often that's a sale, but it could be an email sign-up or some other action. You pay for each engaged view and click on Display ads, but Google Ads will automatically set your bids for you to try to get you as many conversions as possible at the cost per action you specified. To use CPA bidding you must have conversion tracking turned on, among other things, so CPA bidding is suited for intermediate and advanced Google Ads users. Focus on views (for video ads only) If your main goal is to evaluate how engaged viewers are with your video content, where they choose to watch your videos, and when they drop off from watching your content, you'll use cost-per-view (CPV) bidding . With CPV bidding, you'll pay for video views and other video interactions, such as clicks on the calls-to-action overlay (CTAs), cards, and companion banners. To set a target CPV bid, you enter the average price you want to pay for a view while setting up your Video views campaign. Your bid is called your target CPV bid, or tCPV. This bid applies at the campaign level. Related links About Target CPA bidding Determine a bid strategy based on your goals

About Maximize conversion value bidding

Our guided troubleshooter can help you identify, explain, and address potential causes of unexpected fluctuations in your Performance Max campaign spending. Troubleshoot spending Maximize the total conversion value of your campaign within your specified budget with the Maximize conversion value bidding strategy. Notes : You’ll find optional target fields in Search campaigns for new Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value bid strategies. Be aware that for Video Action campaigns, these are 2 different bidding strategies. When you're using Maximize conversion value without a Target ROAS set, we'll aim to spend your budget to maximize conversion value for your campaigns. If this doesn't align with your goals, we recommend setting a target ROAS that you'd like the campaign to achieve. When you're using Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS set, we'll help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS). This bidding strategy uses advanced AI to optimize and set bids. It also offers auction-time bidding capabilities that tailor bids for each auction. You define the value that you want to maximize, such as sales revenue or profit margins, when you set up conversion tracking for your account. Before you begin Familiarize yourself with automated bidding . Before you can use Maximize conversion value bidding, you’ll also need to set up conversion tracking with transaction-specific values . You can adjust your conversion values with conversion value rules for higher value types of customers, devices, or locations. For Search campaigns, if you recently started reporting conversion value or changed the way conversion value is reported, we recommend you include the new values in the "Conversions" column and wait for 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles for your campaign to receive conversion values at a similar rate before adopting. Note : This bidding strategy is only available for Search and Demand Gen campaigns. How it works Using your historical performance and evaluating the contextual signals present at auction-time, Maximize conversion value bidding finds an optimal bid for your ad each time it's eligible to appear. Google sets these bids to help get conversions that are the most valuable for your campaign while spending your budget. Before switching to Maximize conversion value bidding: Check your average daily budget amount. If a target return on ad spend (ROAS) isn't set, Maximize conversion value will try to fully spend your average daily budget, so if you’re currently spending much less than your budget, maximize conversion value could increase spend significantly . Check your return-on-investment (ROI) goals. If you have an ROI goal for your campaign, such as a target ROAS, you may want to add a target ROAS to your bid strategy. Maximize conversion value bidding eligibility for Demand Gen campaigns To be eligible for Maximize conversion value bidding for Demand Gen campaigns, you should have either of the following Demand Gen conversion values: At least 50 Demand Gen conversions with value within the past 35 days, including a minimum of 10 conversions with value within the past 7 days. At least 100 conversions with value across all Demand Gen campaigns within the past 35 days. Note : The Maximize conversion value bidding strategy is only available for selection if your campaign is eligible. Maximize conversions bidding versus Maximize conversion value bidding Maximize conversion bidding will attempt to generate the most conversions for a given budget, regardless of the value of the conversions. Maximize conversion value bidding will attempt to generate the most conversion value for a given budget. It may bid higher for auctions that would result in greater conversion value than auctions with lower conversion value. Create a Maximize conversion value bid strategy You can create a Maximum conversion value bid strategy for a single campaign (standard strategy) or multiple campaigns ( portfolio bid strategy ) in the following ways: Create with a new campaign. Create or change from campaign settings. Create from the “ Bid strategies ” page. To create a bid strategy, read Set up Smart Bidding . Bid adjustments and Maximize conversion value Bid adjustments allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search. Because Maximize conversion value helps optimize your bids based on real-time data, your existing bid adjustments are not used. There is one exception: You can still set device bid adjustments of -100%. Note : If you switch to Maximize conversion value bidding, you don’t need to remove your existing bid adjustments, because they won’t be used. Related links About automated bidding About Smart Bidding Set up Smart Bidding About Target CPA bidding About conversion value About conversion value rules Set up Target ROAS bidding for Hotel Ads Changes to how Smart Bidding strategies are organized for Search campaigns

About Maximize conversions bidding

Our guided troubleshooter can help you identify, explain, and address potential causes of unexpected fluctuations in your Performance Max campaign spending. Troubleshoot spending Note : Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value bid strategies have optional target fields in Search campaigns. With an optional target, Smart Bidding optimizes to these goals the same way it would for Target CPA (cost per action) and Target ROAS (return on ad spend). Maximize conversions with a set target CPA behaves like a Target CPA strategy does, and similarly, Maximize conversion value with a set target ROAS will behave like a Target ROAS strategy. Learn more about Changes to how Smart Bidding strategies are organized . Maximize conversions uses Google's AI to set bids to help get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget. It uses advanced AI to optimize bids and offers auction-time bidding capabilities that tailor bids for every auction. This article explains how Maximize conversions work. On this page Before you begin When to use Maximize conversions Bid adjustments and Maximize conversions Maximize conversions versus Maximize conversion value Create a Maximize conversions bid strategy Before you begin When you're using Maximize conversions without a Target CPA set, we'll aim to spend your budget to maximize conversions for your campaigns. When you're using Maximize conversions with a Target CPA set, we'll help to get as many conversions as possible at the target cost-per-action (CPA). Note : When using Maximize conversions bidding or Maximize conversions value bidding , we recommend that you use tools such as budget simulator and impression share metrics to understand the budget opportunity available on your campaign. This only applies when the Target CPA or Target ROAS isn't set to Maximize conversion strategies. We don’t recommend using the impression share “Lost IS (budget)” column in Google Ads with Maximize conversions because the column is incompatible with the bid strategy. Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value bid strategies are designed to spend the full daily budget, and are ”limited by budget” by design as campaigns are considered constrained by the budget you set. Whereas the budget simulator accounts for this, the “Lost IS (budget)” column doesn't currently account for this, and uses a different definition to account for lost impressions. When to use Maximize conversions Check your average daily budget amount. Maximize conversions will try to fully spend your average daily budget, so if you’re currently spending much less than your budget, Maximize conversions could increase spend significantly. Check your return-on-investment (ROI) goals. If you have an ROI goal for your campaign, such as a target cost per install (CPI), target cost-per-action (CPA), or return on ad spend (ROAS), you may want to switch to a Target CPI, Target CPA , or Target ROAS bid strategy. Like Maximize conversions, these strategies set bids for each auction, but the goal will be to achieve the average CPI, CPA, or ROAS target you set, rather than spending your full budget to maximize conversions. For Search and Shopping campaigns, you can choose to set a Target CPA or Target ROAS bid strategy. Bid adjustments and Maximize conversions Bid adjustments allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search. Because Maximize conversions help optimize your bids based on real-time data, your existing bid adjustments aren't used. There is one exception: You can still set device bid adjustments to -100%. Note : If you switch to Maximize conversions bidding, you don’t need to remove existing bid adjustments, because they won’t be used. Maximize conversions versus Maximize conversion value Maximize conversions bidding, or customer actions that convert to sales or service, will help you optimize towards conversions. You have the option to set a Target CPA on your Maximize conversions bidding strategy, which means Smart Bidding will try to get as many conversions as possible at the target CPA that you set. If the Target CPA option isn't set, then Maximize conversions will aim to spend your budget to get as many conversions as possible. Maximize conversion value bidding will still occur for every conversion, but the value varies on the type of conversion, or low impact versus high impact, and the cost stays within your specified budget. When you create a maximize conversion value bid strategy, you'll set a Target ROAS. When you are using Maximize conversion value without a Target ROAS set, we'll aim to spend your budget to maximize conversion value for your campaigns. When you are using Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS set, we'll help to get as much conversion value as possible at the target ROAS. You’ll need to provide transaction-specific conversion values . Create a Maximize conversions bid strategy You can create a Maximize conversions bid strategy in the following ways: Create through a new campaign . Create or change from campaign settings . Create from the Shared library “Bid strategies” page . Related links About automated bidding About Smart Bidding Set up Smart Bidding About Target CPA bidding

About Manual CPC bidding [Locked go/locked-cake-article]

With Manual Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bidding, you can set a maximum price on the cost of someone clicking on your ads. You can get good value with this bidding method because you pay only when a viewer is interested enough to click your ad and learn more. Think about billboards: Advertisers pay for billboard space based on how many people might see their ad as they drive by, whether those people actually notice the ad or not. Internet ads are different: With CPC bidding, you only pay for Google's "billboard space" when you know users saw your ad and were motivated enough to click. If 100 people view your ad and three click it, you pay for the 3 clicks, not for the other 97 views. How CPC bidding works For CPC bidding campaigns, you set a maximum cost-per-click bid - or simply "max. CPC", that's the highest amount that you're willing to pay for a click on your ad (unless you're setting bid adjustments , or using Enhanced CPC ). Example If you think it's worth $0.25 USD to have someone visit your website, you can set $0.25 USD as your max. CPC. You'll pay a maximum of $0.25 USD when a person clicks your ad, and you pay nothing if they don't click. Let's say you create a text ad and set a max. CPC bid of $0.25 USD. If 500 people see the ad, and 23 of them click to learn more, you pay only for those 23 clicks. Your max. CPC bid was $0.25 USD, so you'll pay no more than 23 clicks x $0.25 USD, or $5.75 USD. Often you'll pay less than your max. CPC. Read the section below on actual CPC to learn more about the final amount you're charged for a click. The power of Google Ads automated bidding Google Ads automated bidding takes much of the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals. Conversion-based bidding is powered by auction-time technology, optimizing bids with precision on actual search queries for each and every auction. It also factors in a wide range of auction-time signals including device, location, time of day, language, and operating system to capture the unique context of every search. Learn more about Google Ads automated bidding How to decide what CPC bid amount to set How do you know what CPC to set? You can figure this out based on what you know about your business and the value of a sale. For example, if you sell $5,000 USD worth diamond rings, one new customer is probably worth more than if you sell $0.99 USD packs of gum. A default max. CPC bid will be set for you when you select Manual CPC. You can change this to max. CPC amounts that you're comfortable with, see how many clicks your ads begin to accrue, and whether those clicks lead to business results on your website. Keep in mind that Internet traffic is always changing, so it's advised to re-evaluate your CPC bids regularly. Using Google tools to help you decide CPC bids Bid Simulator runs "what-if" scenarios like, "How many more impressions would I have gotten if my bid had been $0.10 USD higher last week?" Keyword Planner shows you how often some keywords get searched, and gives you cost estimates at a glance. First-page bid estimates helps you see how much you may need to bid to put your ad on the first page of Google search results. Using bid adjustments to reach the right customers You can set bid adjustments that increase or decrease your max. CPC bids for searches occurring on mobile devices or in specific locations. If your campaign targets the Display Network, you can also set bid adjustments for targeting methods in your ad group, like topics or placements, to help your ad show to the most relevant audience. Bid adjustments give you more control over when and where your ad appears, and are applied on top of your existing bids. The final amount you're charged Your max. CPC bid is the most you'll be charged for a click, but you'll often be charged less, sometimes much less. That final amount you're charged for a click is called the actual CPC . Actual CPC is often less than max. CPC because with the Google Ads auction, the most you'll pay is what's minimally required to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the AdRank of the competitor with the next highest Ad Rank for a given position (if any). How a max. CPC bid affects your Ad Rank In the Search Network , your Ad Rank helps determine your eligibility, and if eligible, where on the search results pages your ads are shown (if at all) relative to other advertisers’ ads. If you run your ads on the Display Network , Ad Rank plays the same key role there. As Ad Rank is a score that's based on your max. CPC bid and the quality of your ad compared to other advertisers' ads, raising your max. CPC will probably increase your ad's chances of appearing. Max. CPC bidding options You can apply your max. CPC bid several ways. Let's say you have a bakery, and you've set up a "breakfast" ad group with keywords like donuts , crullers , and apple fritters . Here's how you might set your bids: If you want all the keywords in an ad group to have the same bid: Set an ad group default bid. If you choose a $1 USD CPC, then that's your max. CPC when someone searches for donuts , crullers , or apple fritters - any of your keywords. The same bid applies to placements if you're running your ad on the Display Network. This is the easiest way to manage your CPCs. If you want the keywords in an ad group to have different bids: Set keyword bids. For instance, if you know that people who search for apple fritters tend to buy more than people searching for donuts , then you might bid $1.25 USD for each click on apple fritters and $1 USD for each click on donuts . If you want your Display Network targeting methods to have different bids: You can set a max. CPC for placements, topics, or other targeting methods. For instance, you can try to help your ad show on a donut recipes website by setting a custom bid for that particular placement on the Display Network. Related links Choose your bid and budget Actual cost-per-click (CPC): Definition About bid adjustments

About Enhanced CPC (ECPC)

Effective the week of March 31, 2025 Enhanced CPC (ECPC) is no longer available for Search and Display campaigns. Campaigns that were not proactively migrated to another bid strategy prior to deprecation are now effectively using Manual CPC. Note that ECPC will reflect in the user interface until May while we complete the update. Keep the following in mind : While transitioning to a new bid strategy, it’s important to closely monitor performance and minimize fluctuations as bidding gradually adjusts to your new strategy. Manage spend and performance by adjusting budgets and targets as needed. Consider the following bidding strategies and goals: Maximize conversions or Target CPA : If your goal is to get as many conversions as possible within your budget and target CPA constraints (if applicable) . More details here Maximize conversions value or Target ROAS : If your goal is to maximize the return on the ad spend you set within your budget and target ROAS constraints (if applicable). Before switching goals, ensure you have sufficient conversions with value enabled (two or more differentiated values). More details here and on the value based bidding hub Maximize clicks or target Impressions/Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM): if your primary goal is to increase site visits or impressions. Pay per conversion (Display only): If eligible, you can use Pay for Conversions to increase conversion volume while only paying for those conversions. Find more details on eligibility here . For more information on different bid strategies refer to About automated bidding and Your Guide to Smart Bidding Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) helps you get more conversions from manual bidding. ECPC works by automatically adjusting your manual bids for clicks that seem more or less likely to lead to a sale or conversion on your website. Unlike Target CPA and Target ROAS Smart Bidding, which automatically set bids based on your cost per conversion and return-on-ad-spend targets, ECPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max CPC you set (including bid adjustments) when optimizing for conversions. For Search, Display, and Hotel campaigns, ECPC helps increase conversions while trying to keep your cost-per-conversion the same as you would get with manual bidding. You can also set ECPC to optimize for conversion value, allowing you to prioritize high-value conversions and properly value different conversion actions. Optimizing for conversion value with ECPC is available for Search campaigns. In this article, we’ll explain how ECPC works and how it can help you get more value for your ad budget. Before you begin To use Enhanced CPC with Search or Hotel campaigns, you’ll need to set up conversion tracking . You don’t need conversion tracking to use ECPC with Display campaigns, but conversions will help you learn whether your ads are effective. Learn more About Enhanced CPC bids for hotel campaigns . How conversion tracking works with ECPC The Google Ads system looks for patterns of clicks and conversions and compares them to your past results. If certain locations lead to more sales, for instance, it will know. You'll get optimal performance if you use conversion tracking with ECPC. Make sure to review your conversion counting method for each conversion action to ensure it matches your goals. If you're tracking leads (such as sign-ups), you probably only want to count one conversion per ad click. If you're tracking sales, you probably want to count every conversion. If you aren’t using conversion tracking If you aren’t using conversion tracking, you can still use ECPC on your Display network only. You may find higher quality traffic and more conversions because Google Ads will raise and lower your bids according to the quality of the traffic we perceive for each auction. Your daily spend might increase as a result. If you're using manual CPC and want to keep your spend at around the same level it is currently, you should adjust your CPC target to your 30-day average spend. How ECPC works Available as an optional feature with Manual CPC bidding, ECPC is a form of Smart Bidding that uses a wide range of auction-time signals such as browser, location, and time of day to tailor bids to the unique context of each search, but not to the full extent of other Smart Bidding strategies, such as Target CPA and Target ROAS. Optimizing for conversions ECPC looks for ad auctions that are more likely to lead to conversions, and then raises your max CPC bid (after applying any bid adjustments you've set) to compete harder for those clicks. If a click seems less likely to convert, Google Ads will lower your bid. ECPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max CPC you set (including bid adjustments), but may exceed your max CPC for short periods of time. Example Suppose you sell shoes both on your site and at a physical location, you’ve set your max CPC to $1 USD, and you have ECPC bidding turned on. If you set the value of store visit conversions to be higher than visits to your website, and Google Ads finds an auction that looks likely to lead someone to a store visit, it might set your bid to $1.70 USD for that auction. If another auction looks likely to lead to a website visit instead of a store visit, ECPC might lower your bid to $0.30 USD for that auction. Optimizing for conversion value ECPC also looks for ad auctions that are more likely to lead to high-value conversions, and then raises your max CPC bid to compete harder for those clicks. If a click seems less likely to convert or if the value of the conversion is lower than other conversions, Google Ads will lower your bid. ECPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max CPC you set but may exceed your max CPC for short periods of time. Learn more About conversion values Example Suppose your ad features a specific designer shirt, and you’ve set your max CPC bid at $1 USD and you have ECPC bidding turned on. If you set total cart value as the conversion value, and Google Ads finds an auction likely to lead to a purchase of just that shirt, it might bid $0.40 USD for that auction. If another auction looks likely to lead to a purchase of several items of clothing and accessories at a much higher total price, ECPC might raise the bid to $1.10 USD for that auction. ECPC is available on the Search Network and the Display Network, but not for app installs campaigns. For Hotel ads, ECPC works when a traveler clicks a hotel booking link. Tip Because ECPC will increase your max CPC bid when it finds a good opportunity, don't be surprised if your Google Ads report occasionally shows average CPCs that are over your max CPC. ECPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max you set, but your average CPC may exceed your max CPC for short periods of time. How ECPC is different from other conversion-based Smart Bidding strategies Both ECPC and other Smart bidding bid strategies work to get you more conversions and conversion value. The key difference is that ECPC partially automates your manual bids by adjusting your max CPC (after applying any bid adjustments you've set), and doesn't allow you to set an explicit target. Other Smart Bidding bid strategies fully automate your bid strategy based on the CPA, ROAS, or budget target that you set, and don't require you to set manual bids. Smart Bidding gives you the very best chance to improve your results. However, ECPC provides a level of manual control that some people prefer. ECPC and other conversion-based Smart Bidding strategies Use conversion tracking or Google Analytics data from your account Predict a conversion rate for each auction Adjust your bids to help you win the most promising clicks ECPC Works with all your campaign settings and max CPC bids Raises or lowers your manual bids to help you get more conversions or conversion value Works with third-party bidding systems, even if they're automating your bids Other conversion-based Smart Bidding strategies Use targets you set Automatically sets your CPC bid for each auction to increase the chance of a conversion Include Target CPA , Target ROAS , Maximize conversions , and Maximize conversion value Bid adjustments with ECPC ECPC automatically takes into account different conversion rates for all types of traffic, but sets bids separately for mobile devices. This means you don’t need to set any bid adjustments (aside from mobile) for ECPC to maximize conversions. However, if you want to bid more aggressively for certain types of traffic you can still choose to set a bid adjustment. This adjustment will be applied on top of ECPC’s automatic adjustments. Mobile adjustments can also help incorporate any additional conversions that aren’t tracked using the Google Ads conversion tracking tag (such as in-store visits). ECPC will continue to automatically set bid adjustments for desktop traffic versus tablet traffic based on differences in conversion rates. Learn more About bid adjustments . Optimizing for conversion value on Search ECPC for value on Search factors in the difference between conversion rates on mobile and desktop, so mobile bid adjustments aren't required, and won't be used if they're applied. How to enable ECPC Keep in mind that ECPC works slightly differently for Hotel campaigns than it does on Search and Display. Learn more about Enhanced CPC bids for hotel campaigns . Instructions In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu. Click Campaigns . Click the name of the campaign you want to work with. Click Settings in the page menu. Click the Bidding section, then click Change bid strategy . Select Manual CPC from the drop-down menu, and check the Enable Enhanced CPC option. When you choose ECPC, Google Ads automatically sets your ad rotation setting to "Optimize", even if it's currently set to "Do not optimize". Select Save . Read about creating a portfolio bid strategy to create a portfolio bid strategy for ECPC. Tip: Choose which conversions to bid for The Include in "Conversions" setting lets you decide whether or not to include individual conversion actions in your "Conversions" and "Conversion value" reporting columns. The data in these columns are used by bid strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, and ECPC, so your bid strategy will only optimize based on the conversions that you've chosen to include. Learn more About account-default conversion goals . Smart Bidding will learn across all conversion actions reported in the “Conversions” column, even if they are configured for different goals and/or use different bidding strategy types. Cross-device conversions from Display Network, Video, Search, and Shopping campaigns are included by default. This isn't applicable for Hotel campaigns. Related links Different ways to track conversions About automated bidding

About Maximize clicks bidding

This article explains how the automated Maximize Clicks bid strategy works and what its settings are. If you don’t yet know what type of automated bid strategy is right for you, review About automated bidding first. How it works Maximize Clicks is an automated bid strategy that adjusts maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and sets your bids to help get as many clicks as possible within your budget. Note that the Maximize Clicks Bid Strategy doesn’t optimize towards impression share . You can use Maximize Clicks for a single campaign, or you can set it up as a portfolio bid strategy . Portfolio strategies group together multiple campaigns into a single strategy. Note : Demand Gen campaigns support Maximize Clicks bid strategy but not portfolio bidding or maximum CPC bid limits. Maximum CPC bid limit Maximum CPC (cost per click) allows you to set a cap on bids when using a Maximize Clicks bid strategy. It lets you steer the maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click. If you don't enter a maximum CPC bid limit, Google Ads adjusts your bids to try to get you as many clicks as possible while spending your budget, and setting a maximum CPC bid limit can help you to control costs if you find your CPCs are higher than desired. Note: Bid adjustments apply on top of the maximum CPC bid limit you've set. Related link Create a portfolio bid strategy

About Target impression share bidding [Locked go/locked-cake-article]

Target impression share is an automated bidding strategy that sets bids with the goal of showing your ad among top ads , the very first ad among top ads , or elsewhere among the results. Target impression share is available either as a standard strategy in a single campaign or as a portfolio strategy across multiple campaigns. This article explains how Target impression share bidding works and what its settings are. Before you begin If you don’t yet know what type of automated bid strategy is right for you, read About automated bidding first. How it works Target impression share can be useful for campaigns with brand terms. For example, let’s say you want your ad to show 100% of the time when a user searches for your brand. You can set the Target impression share to 100% and the system will then try to show your ad on 100% of auctions in that campaign. This bid strategy can also be useful in raising awareness of your brand. Let’s say you run ads for a local shoe store but you’re competing with larger shoe stores. You could focus on Target impression share to ensure your brand is showing up when customers are conducting important searches nearby. Target impression share won’t be applicable for every situation, so continue to align your bidding strategies to your campaigns’ goals. Note : Impression share only includes the Google Search Network (excluding Search Partners). Settings Placement There are 3 options for the Target impression share strategy, depending on where you want your ads to show: Top - The ads adjacent to the top organic search results. Top ads are generally above the top organic results, although top ads may show below the top organic results in some instances. Placement of top ads is dynamic and may change based on the user's query. Absolute top - The first ad among top ads . Anywhere - Anywhere among search results. Google Ads sets your bids to show your ad, based on your placement settings. For example, if you choose an impression share target of 65% on the absolute top of the page, Google Ads will set your CPC bids to help show your ads on the absolute top of the page 65% of the total possible amount of times they could show. Bid limits The Max CPC bid limit is a cap on bids set by this bid strategy. It's important not to set this limit too low. Otherwise it can restrict the bids set by the strategy and prevent you from reaching your impression share goal. Bid adjustments and Target impression share Bid adjustments allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search. As Target impression share helps optimize your bids based on real-time data, your existing bid adjustments won’t be used. You can still set device bid adjustments of -100% to prevent your ad from showing on devices. You don’t need to remove any existing bid adjustments—they just won’t be used. Related links Understanding bidding basics Create a portfolio bid strategy About the Google Search Network About automated bidding

About YouTube's cost-per-view (CPV) bidding

For Video campaigns, the TrueView cost-per-view (CPV) bid strategy is available when you set up a Video views or Ad sequence campaign under the Awareness and consideration campaign objective. With CPV bidding, you'll pay for TrueView views and interactions (such as clicks on call-to-action overlays, cards, and companion banners). A TrueView view is counted different for each ad format: In-stream ads : When someone watches 30 seconds of your video ad (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with the ad, whichever comes first. In-feed ads : When a viewer clicks on a video thumbnail to watch your video ad, or watches the ad autoplay for at least 10 seconds (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 10 seconds). YouTube Shorts ads : When someone watches 10 seconds of your video ad (or until the end of the ad if it's shorter than 10 seconds) or clicks the call to action (CTA). Note : In reporting, the TrueView cost-per-view metric only includes cost that was eligible for TrueView views. Some ad formats like bumper ads or non-skippable in-stream ads aren’t eligible for TrueView views. Views that don’t meet the above criteria aren’t counted as TrueView views, but may be counted as YouTube public views. YouTube public views are counted when users watch the video ad for a similar amount of time as an organic view. This applies to the following cases: In-Stream ads: Bumper & Non-Skip formats will begin counting YouTube public views, but not TrueView views. Previously, only Skippable formats generated view counts. YouTube Shorts ads: Shorts ads will count a YouTube public view as soon as the video starts playing With traditional online text or image ads, customers on the web may view your ad, read its text, and click your URL to go directly to your site. This type of interaction doesn't take interactive content like video ads into account. With CPV and video ads reporting , you can evaluate how engaged viewers are with your content, where they choose to watch your videos, and when they drop off from watching your content. This article describes how CPV bidding works. How it works If you use a Video view campaign with multi-format ads, your bid is TrueView target cost-per-view (tCPV). With tCPV, you set the average amount that you're willing to pay for each TrueView view that your campaign receives from the TrueView target CPV that you've set, we'll optimize bids to help get as many TrueView views as possible. Some TrueView views may cost more or less than your target. Learn more About video views . How to decide what CPV bid amount to set How do you know what CPV to set? You can base this amount on the TrueView view we estimate based on the campaign parameters and CPV bid you set when building a new campaign. The estimation is available on the right side of the screen in the campaign construction flow. The bid you set not only affects the amount of TrueView views your campaign receives, it also affects the budget utilization of your campaign. Using a bid that is too low will inhibit your campaign from effectively participating in the auction. We recommend adjusting the bid based on the estimation for a satisfactory campaign delivery. What you're charged The tCPV bid is optimized to charge you with the lowest amount available for a video TrueView view. Wherever possible, we'll try to charge you only what's necessary for your ad to appear on the page. The final amount you actually pay for a TrueView view is called the actual CPV . How TrueView CPV affects your Ad Rank The TrueView CPV bid you set helps determine your ad's chances of winning the auction and appearing to viewers. For in-feed video ads running on YouTube search results, it can also affect your ad’s position among other ads on the search results page. A higher TrueView CPV increases your ad's chances of appearing, and increases your ad's chances of appearing in a higher position compared to other ads, if applicable. Related links About video ad formats About targeting for Video campaigns

About spending limits

For most campaigns, given your average daily budget , you'll never pay more than: Your daily spending limit (2 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) on any particular day. Your monthly spending limit (30.4 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) in any particular month. Visit the budget report to learn more about your served cost and spending limits. Daily spending limit The daily spending limit is the maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign on a given day. Diagram legend: = $ For most campaigns, including Hotel Commission Campaigns, the daily spending limit is your average daily budget multiplied by 2. On a given day, your campaign might spend up to twice your average daily budget to take advantage of fluctuations of traffic. At the end of month, the amount you will have spent on average every day will match your average daily budget. For instance, if your average daily budget is set to $10 USD, your daily spending limit is going to be $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD. If you've set up a "Pay for Conversions" campaign type, there is no daily spending limit but the campaign will always stay within the monthly spending limits (your average daily budget multiplied by 30.4). Review the section below to learn more about monthly spending limits. Note : Making changes to your average daily budget will impact your daily spending limit. Learn more about how budget changes take effect Monthly spending limit The monthly spending limit is the maximum amount you can pay for a campaign over a month. You can calculate it by multiplying the average daily budget you set by the average number of days in a month, which is 30.4 (365 days in a year divided by 12 months). If your campaign starts during a calendar month, we'll only take into account the days the campaign was running. For instance, if your average daily budget is set to $10 USD, your monthly spending limit is going to be $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD. Note : Making changes to your average daily budget will impact your monthly spending limit. Learn more about how budget changes take effect What happens when served costs exceed daily or monthly spending limits In rare circumstances, your “served costs” may exceed your spending limits, but you’ll never actually pay more than your spending limits. To understand how this works, you’ll need to understand the difference between served costs and billed costs. Served cost is the cost of all the clicks or impressions that the campaign received. Billed cost is the actual amount you're responsible for paying after adjustments have been made to your account for items like invalid activity. While served costs might exceed daily or monthly spending limits, you'll never pay more than these two limits . When such a situation occurs, Google will cover the difference. Learn more about how to view daily costs at the campaign and account level Example: Exceeding daily spending limit Let's say a campaign has the following settings: Average daily budget: $10 USD Daily spending limit: $20 USD ($10 USD x 2) Now assume that, on a particular day when consumer demand is very high, the campaign receives total clicks that cost $23 USD, which is more than the $20 USD daily spending limit for this campaign. Even though our systems are designed to stop showing ads when the $20 USD daily spending limit hits, it's possible in rare circumstances that our systems won’t detect discrepancies right away. This isn't how much you pay. Your billed cost, or the amount you’re responsible for paying, will never exceed your spending limits. Therefore, in this case your billed cost is going to be the daily spending limit, $20 USD, and Google will cover the remaining $3 USD. Example: Exceeding monthly spending limit Let’s say a campaign has the following settings: Average daily budget: $10 USD Monthly Spending Limit: $304 USD ($10 USD x 30.4) Now assume that, on a particular month when consumer demand is very high, the campaign receives total clicks that cost $310 USD, which is more than the $304 monthly spending limit for this campaign. Even though our systems are designed to stop showing ads when the $304 monthly spending limit hits, it's possible in rare circumstances that our systems won’t detect discrepancies right away. $310 USD is the served cost for the campaign, or the cost of all the clicks or impressions that the campaign received. This isn't how much you pay. Your billed cost, or the amount you’re responsible for paying, will never exceed your spending limits. Therefore, in this case, your billed cost is going to be the monthly spending limit, $304 USD, and Google will cover the remaining $6 USD. Check your billed cost and served cost In rare cases, campaigns may deliver more clicks and impressions than expected. However, it’s important to note that you'll never pay more than your spending limits. If you'd like to determine whether your campaign served cost exceeded your billed cost, follow these steps: In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Insights and reports drop down in the section menu. Click Report editor . Under the "Predefined reports (Dimensions)" drop down menu, select Other , then select Billed cost . You’ll find a report that lists served and billed costs for each campaign. To calculate the difference, subtract “Billed cost” from “Served cost”. To perform these calculations in bulk, select the download icon in the top right corner of the report and save as a CSV file. By default, the data is displayed daily and sorted by served cost. If you wish to assess a certain date range, remove the “Day” filter and set a date range in the upper right section above the table. Related links Budgets overview About average daily budget About your budget report Why daily costs might exceed your average daily budget

How budget changes take effect

When you change your average daily budget, you'll view these adjustments immediately in your account. Changing your average daily budget or campaign total budget can impact how frequently your ads are shown, as well as how much you can be charged. On this page Average daily budgets Campaign total budgets 1. Average daily budgets Budget changes can impact how frequently your ads are shown Google optimizes your campaign spend for days of the month when you’re more likely to get clicks and conversions. When you change your average daily budget, Google will start serving your ads taking into account your recently changed budget. An increase in budget may be followed by an increase in spend, while a decrease may have the opposite effect. Budget changes can impact how much you can be charged Changing your average daily budget impacts both your daily spending limit and your monthly spending limit. Learn more About spending limits . Impact on daily spending limit On the day you make a change (or more than one change) to your average daily budget, your daily spending limit will be based on the highest average daily budget that you chose for that day. This means that for most campaigns you will never be charged more than 2 times your highest average daily budget on that day. Example : Let’s say you have a campaign with an average daily budget of $10 USD. On the same day, you first increase your budget to $50 USD, and then lower it to $5 USD. The daily spending limit for the day is going to be the highest of your average daily budgets multiplied by 2, therefore $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD. Impact on monthly spending limit When you change your budget, your spend for the rest of the month won’t exceed your new average daily budget multiplied by the remaining days in the month. Example : Let’s look at a monthly spending limit for November, which spans from November 1 to November 30. On November 1, you set an average daily budget of $5 USD, for a monthly spending limit of $152 USD ($5 USD * 30.4). Then assume that, on November 24, you’ve only spent $103 USD and you decide to increase your average daily budget for the remaining days of the month. You then change your average daily budget to $10 USD. The maximum you’ll be charged for the month of November will be: $103 USD spent so far + ($10 USD/day * 7 days remaining in November) = $173 USD monthly spending limit Putting everything together When you change an average daily budget, 2 things are going to happen: Google will start serving your ads taking into account the newly changed budget. Your daily spending limit and your monthly spending limit are going to be updated accordingly. Some additional examples below: Single budget increase Assume you have a campaign that has been running since the beginning of September. At the beginning of September: Average daily budget: $10 USD Daily spending limit = $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD Monthly spending limit = $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD With 5 days left in the month (including the day the budget is edited) and $270 USD total spent, the average daily budget is increased to $50 USD. This will result in: Average daily budget: $50 USD Daily spending limit: $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD Monthly spending limit = $270 USD + ($50 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $520 USD Single budget decrease Assume you have a campaign that has been running since the beginning of September. At the beginning of September: Average daily budget: $10 USD Daily spending limit = $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD Monthly spending limit = $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD With 5 days left in the month (including the day the budget is edited) and $270 USD total spent, the average daily budget is decreased to $5 USD. This will result in: Average daily budget: $5 USD Daily spending limit for the day with the edit: $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD This is because we pick the highest daily budget for the day. Daily spending limit for remaining days of the month: $5 USD * 2 = $10 USD Monthly spending limit = $270 USD + ($5 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $295 USD Note: The daily spending limit is updated keeping the highest average daily budget for the day, whereas the monthly spending limit only considers the latest average daily budget. Multiple edits on the same day Assume you have a campaign that has been running since the beginning of September. At the beginning of September: Average daily budget: $10 USD Daily spending limit = $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD Monthly spending limit = $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD With 5 days left in the month (including the day the budget is edited) and $270 USD total spent, the average daily budget is increased to $50 USD. This will result in: Average daily budget: $50 USD Daily spending limit: $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD Monthly spending limit = $270 USD + ($50 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $520 USD On the same day, a few hours after the first edit and now $280 USD total spent, the average daily budget is decreased to $30 USD. This will result in: Average daily budget: $30 USD Daily spending limit for the day with the edit: $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD This is because we pick the highest daily budget for the day. Daily spending limit for remaining days of the month: $30 USD * 2 = $60 USD Monthly spending limit = $280 USD + ($30 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $420 USD Note : Even if you don't deliberately change the average daily budget in your campaign, changing your campaign end date is considered a budget change (for computing the maximum amount you'll pay within a calendar month). Learn more About your language, number format, time zone, and currency settings . 2. Campaign total budgets Campaign total budgets (flighted budgets) allow you to set a fixed budget for a specific duration, ranging from 3 to 90 days. This feature is designed for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns during specific events like flash sales or seasonal promotions. Unlike average daily budgets, a campaign total budget acts as a hard cap for the total duration of the campaign. How do budget changes impact serving Campaign total budgets aim to maximize budget utilization by the end date, changing the budget amount affects how the system paces your spend: Re-distribution of spend : If you increase or decrease the total budget (or change the end date) while the campaign is live, the system recalculates the daily spend required to exhaust the remaining budget over the remaining days. No daily spending limit : Unlike average daily budgets, campaign total budgets don’t have a daily cap (such as the 2x daily limit). The system may spend more or less on specific days based on traffic opportunities to attempt to spend the total budget by the end date. Impact of frequent changes : It is recommended to minimize budget or duration changes once a flighted campaign has started. Sudden changes may lead to uneven spend or performance shifts as the system attempts to re-optimize towards the new total goal. Example : Let's say you are running a 10-day "Flash Sale" from December 1 to December 10 with a Campaign total budget of $1,000 USD. Initial pacing : Google aims to spend roughly $100 USD per day ($1,000 USD / 10 days). Day 3 adjustment : By the end of Day 3, you have only spent $200 USD (perhaps due to low search volume). You have $800 USD remaining and 7 days left. System re-calculation : Google will automatically re-pace your campaign to spend roughly $114 USD per day ($800 USD / 7 days) for the remainder of the flight. Budget increase : On Day 5, you decide to increase the total budget to $1,500 USD. New math : Total budget ($1,500 USD) - spent so far (~$430) = $1,070 remaining. New pacing : The system will now aim to spend $178 USD per day over the last 6 days to spend the full $1,500 by December 10. Key differences from daily budgets Hard cap : The total budget set will not be exceeded. Switching : You can’t switch an existing campaign from an average daily budget to a campaign total budget. You must create a new campaign to use this feature. Learn more About campaign total budgets . Related links Budget overview About average daily budget About spending limits About campaign total budgets

In Google Ads, a shared budget is a single average daily budget that’s shared by multiple campaigns in an account. Learn how to Manage a shared budget across campaigns . Note : Campaigns using a total budget aren’t compatible with shared budgets. Total budget is spent evenly over the duration of one campaign while optimizing that campaign's performance. Learn more About campaign total budgets . Shared budgets streamline your budget across campaigns by allowing underutilized budgets to automatically reallocate to budget-capped campaigns. This will allow you to decrease campaigns limited by budgets and improve campaign performance. It’s best practice to implement shared budgets with portfolio bidding. Portfolio bidding allows you to be as efficient as possible with your total budget and with bid strategies on campaigns that share the same goals. Learn how to Create a portfolio bid strategy and how to Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies . Note : Shared budgets aren't compatible with campaigns that are part of an experiment such as App campaigns, Hotel campaigns with a Commission bid strategy, Performance Max campaigns, and Smart Shopping campaigns. Benefits of shared budgets Increased operational efficiency : Instead of spending time managing and reallocating budgets between multiple campaigns, budgets can be shared and automatically allocated across a group of campaigns. Improved budget utilization : Instead of setting individual budgets, allow your overall marketing budget to freely distribute between campaigns. Maximize performance and ROI : When used with Portfolio Bid Strategies, shared budgets can be utilized in the most efficient way across campaigns that have similar goals. This allows you to maximize performance and ROI towards your goals. Note : We found on average, customers that adopt Shared Budgets and Portfolio Bid Strategies on Search campaigns typically experience +13% more conversions. 1 Example Say you've set aside $100 USD per day, split evenly between two campaigns. On a given day, one campaign could get fewer impressions and clicks than usual, resulting in only $40 spent. With a shared budget, if your second campaign can reach enough traffic, Google Ads could take that leftover $10 and reallocate it to the second campaign automatically to maximize your campaign results overall. 1 Source : Google Internal Data, Global, 1/2024 - 3/2025 Related links Manage a shared budget across campaigns Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies

Manage a shared budget across campaigns

In Google Ads, you can assign an average daily budget to each individual campaign, or use shared budgets to allocate budget across multiple campaigns. Learn more about shared budgets Note: Some Google Ads accounts can now link portfolio bid strategies and shared budgets together. Learn more about how to Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies . Instructions Set up a shared budget In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon . Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu. Click Shared budgets . Click the plus button . Name your new shared budget and set a budget amount. Add some campaigns to your shared budget (optional). Click Save . Add campaigns to a shared budget Apply the budget to any number of campaigns in the account: From the shared budget menu, select a shared budget you want to apply to campaign(s) in your account. Click the plus button to add relevant campaigns Check the box next to desired campaigns Click Save . You can always edit your shared budget by coming back to the Shared library. Note: When you add a campaign to a shared budget, the campaign’s budget is also added to the shared budget’s amount. Remove a shared budget from a campaign Because every Google Ads campaign has to have a budget, you can only remove a shared budget if it's not currently being used by any campaigns. Follow these steps to remove a shared budget from your campaigns and remove it: Go to the Settings page for each campaign that uses the shared budget you’d like to remove. Click Budget . Under “Set your average daily budget for this campaign’s shared budget” you should notice the shared budget applied to this campaign. Select Individual campaign budget to remove the campaign from the shared budget. Click Save . Repeat the steps above for each campaign that uses the same shared budget. Remove a budget from the Shared budgets In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon . Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu. Click Shared budgets . Check the box next to the shared budget you'd like to remove. Click Edit in the blue bar that appears, and select Remove from the dropdown. Switching budgets midday If you switch from an individual campaign to a shared budget or vice versa in the middle of the day, we will start serving from the time you switch, as though the campaigns have spent $0 up until that point. Example Let's say you have 4 campaigns, each with an individual budget of $6. By 3:00pm, each of these campaigns has spent their full $6. At 4:00pm, you decide to create a new shared budget of $24 for those four campaigns. We will start your $24 shared budget from $0, as if the $6 campaigns had not already served. Related links Budget overview About shared budgets About average daily budget Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies Tips for optimizing your average daily budget Determine a bid strategy based on your goals

Why daily costs might exceed your average daily budget

Your average daily budget is the average amount that you set for each ad campaign on a per-day basis. It specifies how much you are roughly comfortable spending each day over the course of the month. Learn more about average daily budgets Google will optimize your campaign spend for days of the month when you’re more likely to get clicks and conversions, like when search traffic is higher or when we predict higher ROI for your ads. This means that on some days you might not reach your average daily budget, and on others you might exceed it. Even though your campaign spend might vary, you will never pay more than: Your daily spending limit (two times your average daily budget for most campaigns) on any particular day. This limit may not apply to certain campaign types. Your monthly spending limit (30.4 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) in any particular month. Your campaigns will stop running as soon as the total spend reaches the limit, and the amount of the monthly spend limit will then reset automatically on the first day of the next month. Learn more about spending limits Related links Budget overview About average daily budget About spending limits How budget changes take effect Set an average daily budget

Smart Bidding is a subset of automated bid strategies that use Google AI to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction—a feature known as “auction-time bidding”. Target CPA , Target ROAS , Maximize conversions , and Maximize conversion value are all Smart Bidding strategies. You can create a standard bid strategy that is applied to a single campaign, or create a portfolio bid strategy that can apply to multiple campaigns (recommended). This article tells you how to opt a single campaign into Smart Bidding and create a new portfolio bid strategy when you’re setting up a new campaign, changing existing campaigns, or using the Shared library “Bid strategies” page to manage your portfolio bid strategies. Note : You may see "Bidding and budgets" recommendations in the Recommendations page . Recommendations can help you find the right bid strategy to meet your business goals and help ensure your campaigns aren’t limited by budget. Before you begin If you’re new to Smart Bidding in Google Ads, read About Smart Bidding first. To use Smart Bidding, you need to have conversion tracking enabled. Learn more about different ways to track conversions Instructions Opt a single campaign into Smart Bidding You'll begin by creating a new campaign in your account and selecting a goal for your campaign. Once you’ve created your new Search campaign, you’ll now choose who to target with your ads, how you’d like to spend your budget, and how to enhance your campaign with assets. While targeting determines who can view your ads, your budget determines how many people see your ad and bidding determines what you want those people to do. Enter your daily budget. This amount is the average you want to spend each day. In the “Bidding” section, select Conversions or Conversion value from the dropdown menu. If you’re more experienced with bidding you can select a bid strategy directly. Read how to Determine a bid strategy based on your goals . Click Show more settings to select additional options: Conversions : Select the type of conversion you want to bid for. Ad schedule : Set a specific time and day you want your ads to run. Ad rotation : Choose whether to show ads that perform better more often, or to show all ads evenly. Click Save and continue . Note : When you add a campaign to a shared budget, the campaign’s budget is also added to the shared budget’s amount. Create a portfolio bid strategy in the Shared library “Bid strategies” page In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon . Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu. Click Bid strategies . Click the plus button , and choose the type of bid strategy you’d like to create. Enter the name of your new portfolio bid strategy. Select the campaigns you want to include (you can also add more campaigns after your portfolio bid strategy is created). Enter the bid strategy settings. Click Save . Create or change a portfolio bid strategy with existing campaigns In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu. Click Campaigns . Click the checkbox next to the campaigns you’d like to include. Click Edit on the blue bar at the top. Click Change bid strategy from the dropdown menu. You can choose to Create new portfolio strategy , or Use existing portfolio strategy . If you choose “Use existing portfolio bid strategy”, select a strategy from the list provided. If you choose “Create new portfolio bid strategy”, enter the settings for your new strategy, and give it a name. Click Apply . Related links About automated bid strategies Your guide to Smart Bidding Your guide to AI-powered Search ads How to steer AI-powered Search ads Smart Bidding technical guide

Google Ads offers an automated bid strategy that uses AI to set bids to help you get as many conversions as possible within your budget: Target CPA bidding. To use Target CPA, you set a target cost-per-action (CPA) that is then used to set bids for all campaigns and ad groups using your bid strategy. After you set up your Target CPA bid strategy, you can change the amount of your target CPA at any time. This article shows you how. Before you begin If you haven’t set up a Target CPA bid strategy, read about Target CPA bidding first. Instructions In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu, then click Campaigns . Click the link for the campaign you would like to edit. Click Settings. Enter the new amount you’d like to use for your target CPA. If the campaign you’re editing is using a portfolio bid strategy, then the new target CPA you set will apply to all campaigns and ad groups using that bid strategy. Click Save . Tip: Choose which conversions to bid for The Include in "Conversions" setting lets you decide whether or not to include individual conversion actions in your "Conversions" and "Conversion value" reporting columns. The data in these columns are used by bid strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, and ECPC, so your bid strategy will only optimize based on the conversions that you've chosen to include. Learn more About account-default conversion goals . Smart Bidding will learn across all conversion actions reported in the “Conversions” column, even if they are configured for different goals and/or use different bidding strategy types. Cross-device conversions from Display Network, Video, Search, and Shopping campaigns are included by default. This isn't applicable for Hotel campaigns. Related links Set target CPAs for ad groups About Target CPA bidding About automated bidding

Set target CPAs for ad groups

Google Ads offers an automated bid strategy that uses AI to set bids to help you get as many conversions as possible within your budget: Target CPA bidding. To use Target CPA, you set a target cost-per-action (CPA) that is then used to optimize bids for all campaigns and ad groups using your bid strategy. Note: You can set individual Target CPA or Target ROAS bids at the ad group level, but the strategy used to place bids will now be controlled at the portfolio level. Before you begin If you haven’t set up a Target CPA bid strategy, read about Target CPA bidding first. Instructions In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu. Click Ad groups . Find an ad group that uses a Target CPA bid strategy. Click the number in the “Target CPA” column. In the dialog that appears, enter your desired ad group target CPA. Click Save . Related links Edit your bids About Target CPA bidding

You can edit your bid for an entire ad group or for individual keywords. Editing your bids based on how your campaigns perform may influence the amount of traffic your ads receive, and the return-on-investment ( ROI ) you generate. This article explains how to edit your cost-per-click (CPC) bids and your cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (viewable CPM) bids. On this page Edit the ad group default bid for a single ad group Edit your bid for multiple ad groups How to edit your bid for individual keywords or other targeting methods Edit individual keyword bids Edit bids for targeting methods Instructions Edit the ad group default bid for a single ad group In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down menu, then click Ad groups . Select the appropriate ad group from the list. Click the pencil button in the “Default max. CPC” bid column. Enter a new amount. Click Save . Edit your bid for multiple ad groups In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down menu, then click Ad groups . Select the ad groups you wish to edit by marking the checkbox on the left. Click Edit drop down. You can choose to change your bid strategy, tracking templates, or custom parameters. How to edit your bid for individual keywords or other targeting methods If your campaigns are using manual bidding, you can set your own maximum CPC bid amount. This will be used instead of the ad group default bid whenever a certain keyword, placement, or other targeting method triggers your ad. Keep in mind that to set a max. CPC for a specific targeting method, you must have set your custom bid on that same targeting method. For example, if you want to set a specific bid for the website example.com, you need to set your custom bids on placements . Learn How to enable ad group bids, custom bids, and bid adjustments for your ad groups . Tip: If you're using an automated bidding strategy other than Enhanced CPC you won't be able to edit your ad group default bid. Edit individual keyword bids In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click Audiences, keywords, and content , then click Search keywords . Select the keyword type, such as search or negative keywords. Now select one or more keywords whose bid you want to change. Click Edit drop down, and select Change max. CPC bids . In the page that opens, you may set a new bid, increase or decrease your bid, raise bids to the first page or top of page CPC. If you would like to use the default ad group bid, leave the amount blank. Click Apply . Tip: To change the bid for an individual keyword, placement, or other targeting method back to the ad group default bid, click the individual targeting method bid and delete the text, leaving the field blank. Edit bids for targeting methods In your Google Ads account, from the Views bar at the top, select Search or Display campaigns . Note: If you prefer to use the navigation panel on the left, click Change view in the top left of your Google Ads account. Click the Campaigns icon , then click the Campaigns drop down menu . Click Settings , then click the Additional settings drop down. Select Custom bid & URL method . Selecting a targeting method in the dropdown. Click Save. Select Bidding . Enter your new bid and click Save . Tip: Here are some other bidding options you might not know about: You can set bid adjustments for better control over when and where your ad appears. They can be used to bid more competitively for mobile devices, locations, days, and times. Learn more About bid adjustments . Google Ads also offers automated bid strategies that can set CPC bids on your behalf. Learn more About automated bidding . Related links Determine a bid strategy based on your goals Choose a bid amount that works for you

Set and change an average daily budget for your campaign

With Google Ads, you choose a daily budget for each campaign based on your advertising goals and the average amount you're comfortable spending each day. You can change your budget at any time. This article explains how to set and change your daily budget. If your account is in Smart Mode , learn how to edit your budget for Smart campaigns .

Create a portfolio bid strategy

Portfolio bid strategies are AI-powered, goal-driven bid strategies that help you optimize bids across multiple campaigns. They help you reach your performance goals and provide a single place for you to quickly change bidding settings for all campaigns that use a single portfolio bid strategy. This article shows you how to create a new portfolio bid strategy when you’re setting up a new campaign, in campaign settings, or in the Shared library. It’s best practice to implement shared budgets with portfolio bidding. Learn more about how to Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies . Note : Cross-account bid strategies allow you to create, monitor, and manage Smart Bidding portfolio strategies at the Google Ads manager account (MCC) level Before you begin If you don’t yet know what type of portfolio bid strategy is right for you, read about our whole suite of automated bid strategies first. You’ll also find definitions for each bid strategy during campaign setup. Keep in mind that portfolio bid strategies are not available for Performance Max campaigns. Instructions Create a portfolio bid strategy in the Shared library “Bid strategies” page In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon . Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu. Click Bid strategies . Click the plus button , and choose the type of bid strategy you’d like to create. Enter the name of your new portfolio bid strategy. Select the campaigns you want to include (you can also add more campaigns after your portfolio bid strategy is created). Enter the bid strategy settings. Click Save . Create or change a portfolio bid strategy with existing campaigns In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu, then click Campaigns . Select the campaigns you’d like to include. Click Edit from the navigation menu (top). Click Change bid strategy from the dropdown menu. You can choose to Create new portfolio strategy , or Use existing portfolio strategy . If you choose “Use existing portfolio bid strategy”, select a strategy from the list provided. If you choose “Create new portfolio bid strategy”, enter the settings for your new strategy, and give it a name. Click Apply . Related links About automated bid strategies Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies

About primary and secondary conversion actions

In Google Ads, actions that you want your customers to take, or conversion actions , are grouped together into conversion goals. For example, the “Purchase” conversion goal contains all your conversion actions in which customers make a purchase. For your goal, you want to select which conversion actions should be used for bidding optimization and included in your reporting. Those key actions are called “primary conversion actions”. Possible conversion actions that are not directly used for campaign optimization are called “secondary”. Most conversion actions can be set to either primary or secondary, but some conversion actions aren't able to be set as primary or secondary. When you set up conversion tracking, you will be selecting primary and secondary conversion actions that support a defined goal: Primary actions : These are conversion actions that are reported in the “Conversions” column in your reports and used for bidding as long as the standard goal they are part of is used for bidding. Secondary actions : These conversion actions are for observation only. They are used for reporting in the “All conversions” column in your reports, but not for bidding, even if the goal they are included in is used for bidding. The one exception is if the secondary action is part of a custom goal, in which case it’s used for bidding. This article defines primary and secondary conversion actions and how to use them. Example You may have a standard goal called “purchases” that's applied by default to campaigns in your account. Within your “purchases” goal you may have two conversion actions: a “subscription” conversion action that you’ve marked as primary and a “one-time purchase” conversion action that you’ve marked as secondary. The primary action will be reported in the “Conversions” column and used for bidding in all campaigns that use your “purchases” goal whereas the secondary action will be used for observation only. If you decide to create a custom goal and add your “one-time purchase” conversion action to it, then the “one-time purchase” action will automatically be used for reporting and bidding in any campaign that uses your custom goal, even though it's marked as secondary. Note : Conversion actions included in a custom goal are used for reporting and bidding regardless of whether they’re set as “primary” or “secondary” actions. This feature may not be available to your Google Analytics property. The Google Analytics team is actively working to expand this feature to more properties. Please reach out to your support team if you have questions about the eligibility of your property. You can create conversions based on Google Analytics events and seamlessly share them with Google Ads. This allows you to manage conversion settings for both Google Analytics and Google Ads from a centralized interface. These conversions are secondary by default when created from Google Analytics and can only be updated to primary in Google Ads. How to update the primary and secondary setting for a conversion action In your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon . Click the Conversions drop down in the section menu. Click Summary . Find the goal that includes the conversion action you’d like to edit. Click Edit settings . In the "Conversion goal and action optimization" section, select either Primary or Secondary . Click Save . Note : You can't edit the goal category and action optimization of Google Analytics conversions through the Google Analytics interface. These settings can only be updated in Google Ads. Conversion-related updates made through the Google Analytics interface will only appear in the "Change history" page of Google Ads. How to set up app conversion tracking Set up app conversion tracking using Web to App Connect . Once you've used the Web to App Connect interface in Google Ads to set up conversion tracking and deep linking, you can provide a seamless web-to-app experience for your customers and drive on average 2 times higher conversion rates for ad clicks landing in your app compared to your mobile website. This improved experience allows your customers to more easily complete their intended action, whether purchasing, signing up, or adding items to their cart. Plus, from within the Web to App Connect interface, you can track these in-app conversion actions and get recommendations on how to improve your campaign. To get started with Web to App Connect, follow the 3 steps below: In your Google Ads account , click the Tools icon . Click the Planning drop down in the section menu. Click App advertising hub . This will take you to the Web to App Connect interface. Learn more about converting better with the Web to App Connect interface .

About conversion adjustments

A customer's typical conversion path ends after they convert, but this isn't always the case. Customers return retail purchases, cancel reservations, or perform actions that increase their value to your business. To account for these changes in conversion value, you can adjust the value of a conversion after it's reported in Google Ads. This article explains how conversion adjustment works and when to use it. When to use conversion adjustments Conversion adjustments can be useful if you need to: Retract conversions that should no longer be counted in your conversion columns, such as canceled reservations or returned purchases. Reduce (restate) the value of conversions when you receive partial returns for an order. For example, if a customer is shopping for shoes, he might order shoes in different sizes and return the ones that don't fit, which brings down the total value of the purchase. Change the value of conversions based on customer lifetime value , that is, when customers (and, consequently, their conversions) become more valuable or less valuable to your business based on their purchase history. How conversion adjustment works You can adjust conversions in two ways. Restate: Allows you to change the conversion value, but not the count of conversions. Only the Conv. value and All Conv. value columns and ROAS bid strategies will be affected. Retract: Allows you to permanently remove a conversion and change the conversion value to 0.00 and remove it from the conversion count. Conv. , Conv. value and All Conv. value columns will be updated and CPA and ROAS bid strategies will be affected. Important : Once a conversion is retracted (or restated with a value to 0), it cannot be adjusted further . Any subsequent attempts to adjust the conversion will be ignored (without an error message). If you would like to “undo” conversion retractions, you can reupload the conversion data with slightly different conversion timestamps (for example, add a few seconds to each one) so that these will be treated like new conversions. You can read more about how to adjust your conversions . Note the following for Hotel Ads : When adjusting conversions, you have up to 7 days after the conversion is first recorded to make any adjustments for autobidding readability. If conversions are adjusted after the 7 day time frame, the adjustment will be ignored by autobidding. Outside of the autobidding readability, overall, conversion adjustments for Hotel Ads can be made within 55 days. Keep in mind: You can only adjust online conversions if you've used a transaction ID with your transactions . Google Ads uses the combination of transaction ID and conversion action name in your spreadsheet to identify the conversion that you'd like to adjust. Since you also provide an adjustment time for each conversion, you'll be able to segment your conversion data to see how much time elapses between conversion and adjustment. To restate or retract a conversion, you'll need to place your transaction data in a spreadsheet and specify which conversions you'd like to adjust in your Google Ads reports. Learn more about how to adjust your conversions . For conversions you'd like to retract , you'll need to provide the order ID and the name of the conversion action associated with the conversion. Then, you'll upload the spreadsheet in the same way you import offline conversions into Google Ads. For conversions you'd like to restate , you'll need to provide a new value for these conversions. You'll also have to provide the order ID and the name of the conversion action associated with the conversion. Then, you'll upload the spreadsheet in the same way that you import offline conversions into Google Ads. Note: If the offline conversion was created without an order ID, you can use the GCLID and conversion time for your adjustment. If the parameter provided with the conversions was GBRAID, you can use only the order ID. You'll start seeing your changes in your Conversions , All conversions , Conversion value and All Conv. value columns in about the same amount of time that you see regular conversion data surface in your reports. Tip Since there's no way for you to tell in Google Ads if an order was attributed to a Google Ads click, we recommend that you upload all orders that you'd like to adjust. If the order was not attributed to a Google Ads click and therefore not in your Google Ads reports, you'll see an error message letting you know the conversion couldn't be found. Related links How to adjust your conversions Understand the impact of conversion adjustments Different ways to track conversions

About offline conversion imports

If you have not already adopted offline conversion import, we recommend starting with enhanced conversions for leads instead. Enhanced conversions for leads is an upgraded offline conversion import that is easier to set up and offers benefits like durable, more accurate reporting, engaged-view conversions, cross-device conversions. If you currently use Offline Conversion Import, we recommend upgrading it to get the benefits of enhanced conversions for leads. Learn more About enhanced conversions for leads . Sometimes, an ad doesn't lead directly to an online sale, but instead starts a customer down a path that ultimately leads to a sale in the offline world, such as at your office or over the phone. By importing offline conversions , you can measure what happens in the offline world after your ad results in a click or call to your business. Benefits of enhanced conversions for leads Enhanced conversions for leads is an upgraded version of offline conversion import that uses user-provided data, such as email addresses, to supplement imported offline conversion data to improve accuracy and bidding performance. When you import your offline conversions, the provided hashed customer data is used to attribute back to the Google Ads campaign by matching to the same data collected on your website (for example, lead form) and to signed-in customers who engaged with your ad. If you already use offline conversions, you can upgrade to enhanced conversions for leads to import user-provided data in addition to the identifiers you already import (GCLID). Learn more about how Google used enhanced conversions for leads data . Enhanced conversions for leads can improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement. It supplements the existing conversion tags by allowing advertisers to send hashed first-party customer data from your website in a privacy-safe way. The hashed customer data is compared to hashed customer data of signed-in Google Accounts and attributed to ad events to help measure conversions driven by your campaign. After you’ve set up enhanced conversions for leads with Google Tag Manager or set up enhanced conversions for leads with the Google tag , you can confirm that your enhanced conversions are effectively working in the enhanced conversions diagnostics report . The diagnostics report will help you identify and self-diagnose issues implementing enhanced conversions. Common issues include missing or incorrectly formatted user-provided data, or incorrect in-page code implementation. To ensure that you successfully measure enhanced conversions for leads, refer to the Enhanced conversions for leads implementation checklist . You can also set up enhanced conversions in the Google Ads API that can improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement. Benefits: Durable : Get more reliable results. Enhanced conversions for leads adheres to stricter privacy regulations. Easy to set up : Configure measurement entirely from your Google Ads account. Enhanced performance : See more accurate conversion reporting compared to standard offline conversion import. This upgrade also enables engaged-view conversions and cross-device conversions. Simplified Setup : Streamlined tagging and data sharing, utilizing the Data manager . Flexible : Implement using the Google tag or with Google Tag Manager. Advertisers who utilized first-party data (such as email addresses and phone numbers) alongside GCLIDs imported using offline import for offline measurement saw a median 10% increase in conversions compared to those using standard offline conversion imports. The fastest and easiest way to set up or upgrade to enhanced conversions for leads is by using Data Manager , where GCLID and user-provided data can both be used as match keys for data imports. Learn how to Set up enhanced conversions for leads with Google Tag Manager or Set up enhanced conversions for leads with the Google tag . Note: If you have existing offline conversion imports, you can Upgrade offline conversion import to enhanced conversion for leads . How it works Offline conversion imports works a little differently depending on whether you’re tracking conversions that start with an ad click or call from your ad. [Recommended] Conversions from clicks using enhanced conversions for leads Enhanced conversions for leads relies on a tag to capture first party data to enable durable, more accurate, and higher quality measurement. With enhanced conversions for leads, you can upload deeper lead data back into Google in a durable way, to further drive reporting and optimization insights. Once you’re ready, you can set up enhanced conversions for leads . Conversions from clicks using GCLID Google Ads provides you with unique IDs, called Google Click ID (GCLID), for every click that comes to your website from an ad. To track offline conversions from clicks, you'll save these IDs along with whatever lead information you collect from the person who clicked your ad. Later, when that person "converts" in the offline world, by signing a contract, for example, you give that GCLID back to Google Ads along with a few details about the type of conversion it was and when it happened. Then Google Ads records this conversion along with your other conversion tracking data. Conversions from calls By importing call conversion information into Google Ads, you can track which of your ads and keywords result in the most sales calls for your business. For more information about how this option works, read about importing phone call conversions . Security and privacy for conversion and event tracking Google has strict security standards. Google Ads only collects data on sites and apps where you have configured tracking. Ensure that you provide users with clear and comprehensive information about the data you collect on your sites, apps, and other properties. Make sure that you also get consent where required by law or any applicable Google policies governing user consent, including Google’s EU user consent policy. Related links Upgrade offline conversion import to enhanced conversion for leads Set up enhanced conversions for leads with the Google tag Set up enhanced conversions for leads with Google Tag Manager Your guide to conversion modeling About importing call conversions

About mobile app conversion tracking

If you use Google Ads to promote Android or iOS mobile apps, you can use conversion tracking to help you learn how effectively your ads lead to app installs and in-app activity. This article explains the different types of mobile conversions and how to track them. Learn how to Set up App campaigns for pre-registration , installs , or engagement . On this page Benefits of mobile app conversion tracking When to use mobile app conversion tracking Considerations around mobile app conversion tracking Benefits of mobile app conversion tracking Mobile app conversion tracking helps you understand the effectiveness of your app campaigns for your Android and iOS apps. Track app installs and first open : Conversion tracking can measure how effectively your ads are leading people to install your mobile apps. Apart from learning how many people are viewing your ads and taking action by installing your app, you can also track the number of people who open your app after installing in response to your ads. This is captured by default using Firebase or most third-party app analytics providers. Track In-app actions : Use conversion tracking to measure your campaigns' effectiveness. You can track custom in-app actions using Firebase or any third-party app analytics provider by adding the relevant code to your app. Seamless web-to-app integration : After you set up app conversion tracking, you can use Web to App Connect to provide a seamless web-to-app experience for your customers. This helps you drive on an average 2 times higher conversion rates for ad clicks landing in your app compared to your mobile website. Learn more about Web to App Connect . When to use mobile app conversion tracking You can use this feature to track different conversions. For Android apps, there are several conversions you can track automatically from Google Play without adding tracking code to your app, such as: Downloads : Automatically track when someone who clicked your ad downloads your app from the Google Play store. In-app purchases : Automatically track when someone who clicked your ad performs an in-app purchase for apps that use Google Play’s in-app billing. Pre-registrations : Automatically track when someone who clicked your ad pre-registers for your app or game from the Google Play store. Considerations around mobile app conversion tracking Security and privacy for conversion and event tracking Google has strict security standards. Google Ads only collects data on sites and apps where you have configured tracking. Ensure that you provide users with clear and comprehensive information about the data you collect on your sites, apps, and other properties. Make sure that you also get consent where required by law or any applicable Google policies governing user consent, including Google’s EU user consent policy. Note : New privacy measures are in place for iOS 14 users. These may affect your conversion tracking in Google Ads. Use Google Analytics for Firebase SDK. Firebase SDK automatically integrates with SKAdnetwork (SKAN), which is Apple's framework for iOS campaign measurement that adheres to these new privacy measures. Stay informed about iOS updates to learn more and about any steps you can take. Target CPA bidding for apps Since these campaigns are optimized to count app downloads, there isn’t a waiting period for Target CPA. As soon as you've set up conversion tracking, you can use Target CPA bidding to help get more installs at your cost-per-install goal. Video ad conversion tracking for apps Conversion tracking is unique for video ads, and billing varies depending on where it’s shown. Engaged-view conversion : Counted when someone watches at least 10 seconds of a video ad on YouTube or the Display Network. App download conversions are counted only if the install happens within 2 days of the engagement. Click-through conversions : Counted if people who click on the ad install the app within 30 days. Billing : YouTube: Billed for each impression Display Network: Billed for each engagement Reporting for App campaigns on iOS and Android To offer a more complete report of iOS and Android app campaign conversions, we may use privacy-safe data from models based on users who have previously signed into Google services. These models predict iOS and Android app conversions that we're unable to observe directly. This allows us to provide complete reporting on iOS and Android app campaign behavior that combines observed and modeled conversions. Note : Complete reporting for app ads served to iOS and Android users will only be available within Google Ads. Related links App campaigns Track app conversions with Google Play Link a third-party app analytics provider and Google Ads Track app conversions with third-party app analytics

Find out how long it takes for your customers to convert

Once you've set up conversion tracking, it's important to understand how long it takes customers who see and click your ad to complete the conversion, and how that impacts the data you see in your account. Sometimes the conversion happens rapidly, within a day of the click, but conversions can be reported up to 90 days after the click, depending on the conversion window you’ve chosen. The time between impression and conversion affects which values you see in your account. Here are some examples where this conversion delay might affect what you see: Comparing performance: If you compare recent performance with past performance, your recent performance might not look as strong, because some of the people who clicked your ad haven’t converted yet. Since you're missing these conversions that will come later on but your spend is fully reported, it may appear that you have fewer conversions, a higher cost per conversion, and so on. Missing bid simulator estimates: If your customers take a long time to convert, conversion estimates in the bid simulator may not appear. Learn more about the bid simulator Conversion and Conversion Value estimates: What they are and where to view them Conversion estimates help you understand the number of conversions your ads are estimated to receive based on historical data and performance for the time period selected. If you've assigned values to your conversions, conversion value estimates give an idea of the conversion value you might receive on that bid strategy. These values, conversion estimates and conversion value estimates, are calculated and displayed on the “Bid Strategy” report and the campaign tables. Below are some scenarios to keep in mind: Conversion Delay : If the time period selected includes a conversion delay where not all conversions have actually been reported, the estimate will reflect how many more conversions or conversion value you might get. Conversion adjustment : Sometimes you may use conversion adjustments . For example, you may want to account for returns and adjust conversions accordingly. If the selected period is impacted by the conversion delay, and you have historically used conversion adjustments, there may be a lower number of conversions or conversion value estimate. Combination of delays and adjustments : Conversion estimate and conversion value estimate may not always be aligned as described in the scenario above. For example, if you have a number of small value returns, we may estimate that you will receive fewer conversions, but you may still receive a higher conversion value estimate if there were high value conversions that were delayed in the same time period. To view a report that shows the conversion delay history for your account, follow the instructions below. Instructions In your Google Ads account. click Campaigns , Ad groups , or Search Keywords from the left section menu. Check that the date range for your report ends at least 30 days ago (or longer if you have a longer conversion window ) to make sure the report has complete conversion data. To change the date range, use the date range selector in the upper right corner of the page. Click the segment icon , then select Conversions > Days to conversion . This segments the conversion columns in your report into up to 19 rows. Tip If you use Smart Bidding , you can also view the conversion delay in your bid strategy reports if more conversions are likely to arrive in your selected date range. When viewing these reports, hover over your conversion and conversion value metrics (“Conversions,” “Cost/conv.,” and “Conv. rate”) to see the average duration of the delay. You’ll also view how many conversions we predict haven’t been reported yet based on the delay. In the performance chart, the date range during which more conversions may still be reported will be marked. Related links About conversion tracking About attribution reports Estimate your results with bid simulators

About data exclusions

Data exclusions are a tool in Google Ads that help you reduce the impact of conversion tracking issues in Smart Bidding. Since Smart Bidding uses conversions and conversion value data to help meet your goals, reducing the impact of the issues may maximize your Smart Bidding Performance. This article explains data exclusions, how it works, as well as the steps to add data exclusions. Note : Data exclusions aren't supported in Hotel and Travel campaigns. On this page How data exclusions works Add data exclusions Best practices Data exclusions: do’s and don’ts How data exclusions works Data exclusions is an advanced tool that helps you inform your Smart Bidding strategy of an issue with conversion data, to help reduce the impact to performance. Conversion issues that may affect Smart Bidding include anything that causes reported conversions or conversion value in Google Ads to be incorrect. Some common issues include: Tagging issues Website outages Data import issues Example : If a tag was accidentally removed from your site, Google Ads may not have tracked your conversions. You can exclude the data affected by the missing tag to help minimize the performance impact that this sudden drop in conversion reporting may have on Smart Bidding. Note that applying a data exclusion doesn’t guarantee that your campaigns won't experience performance fluctuations. Data exclusions for Smart Bidding are available for Search, Display, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns. About data exclusions Data exclusions can only be used with conversions and conversion value based Smart Bidding strategies. Below are the key points to know when using data exclusions: Data exclusions apply to clicks : Your data exclusions must exclude clicks that could have had the affected conversions attributed to them. When these clicks are excluded, the associated conversions are also excluded. Data exclusions apply to most campaign types : If you applied an exclusion for the entire account, conversions for Search, Display, Shopping Network, and Performance Max campaigns will be excluded. Data exclusions aren't supported in Hotel campaigns. Data exclusions don’t affect conversion reporting : Data exclusions only affect the data that Smart Bidding uses. You can still find these excluded conversions in your reporting. Data exclusions applied for past dates should see performance fluctuations begin to stabilize after a few days. In the event that a week or more of clicks are impacted, performance fluctuations may persist for 1-2 conversion cycles. In the meantime, it’s recommended that you adjust CPA or ROAS targets to achieve desired performance, while ensuring budgets are set to acceptable levels. Note : It’s generally not recommended to backfill data, including in the case where there was a data outage, as this can have a direct impact on your Search and Shopping bidding performance. In cases where data exclusion was set during the period, backfilling is possible for reporting purposes but only after waiting for a minimum of 5 days after the data exclusion was applied. In this case, removing the data exclusion is not advised. Add data exclusions Go to Adjustments within the Tools menu. Select the Exclusions tab at the top. Select the plus button to add a new data exclusion. Next to “Settings”, enter a name and description. Enter the start date and time and end date and time for the data you’d like to exclude. Since conversions can be attributed to clicks in the past, select a date range that accounts for the typical conversion delay. Next to "Scope", select campaigns and devices for this adjustment. You can select individual campaigns to exclude or the entire account. Select devices to exclude. For example, the conversion issue may only have affected mobile tracking. Select Save . Select Create data exclusion . Note : Data exclusions may change how your bid strategies perform. Before you create an exclusion, confirm that the information is correct. Data exclusions can be applied at the Manager account (MCC) or sub-account level. The start and end times are based on the account's time zone. Tip : When you apply data exclusions, you can set your campaign budget closer to its historical spend for a few conversion cycles to avoid spending more than what you're comfortable with. Best practices For best results, review the guidance below when applying data exclusions. While data exclusions can help reduce performance fluctuations associated with a bad conversion data, performance fluctuations should still be expected. Apply exclusions quickly : Whenever you identify a conversion data issue, apply data exclusions as soon as possible. Allow for stabilization : For past date exclusions, performance should begin to stabilize after a few days. Plan ahead : If you know there will be a problem (like outages or scheduled site maintenance), set a data exclusions ahead of time. These usually take effect within a day. Avoid frequent or extended use : You shouldn't use data exclusions frequently or for prolonged periods, as this can negatively impact Smart Bidding performance. Expect persistent fluctuations : If a week or more of clicks are impacted, performance fluctuations may continue for 1-2 conversion cycles. Adjust targets and budgets : After applying a data exclusion, adjust your CPA or ROAS targets to achieve desired performance and ensure budgets are set appropriately. Consider conversion delay : Exclusions work on clicks. Think about how long it takes for a click to become a conversion and exclude all days with clicks that might have issues. Try to exclude at least 90% of the clicks with issues. Account-level application : Data exclusions can be applied at the manager or sub-manager account level. Start and end times are based on the account's time zone. Example If uploads had issues from October 15- October 18, and conversion delay is 5 days, apply the exclusion as soon as possible for October 10- October 18 to cover all the clicks that might have issues. Don't undo exclusions : Even if you want to go back and fix the inaccurate conversion data, don't remove data exclusions you’ve already applied, as this can cause more issues. Recommended for outages : We recommend data exclusions for conversion data outages, including conversion tracking issues or conversion upload issues. Example Broken tracking, tags in the wrong place, or when you can't upload offline conversions. Backfills : It’s generally not recommended to backfill data , including in the case where there was a data outage, as this can have a direct impact on your Search and Shopping bidding performance. In cases where data exclusion was set during the period, backfilling is possible for reporting purposes. Apply a backfill 5 days after the data exclusion was applied. In this case, removing the data exclusion is not advised. Temporary bid or spend drops : If you have a conversion problem and use data exclusions, bids and spending might temporarily drop. To fix this, you can lower your ROAS. Once the exclusion takes effect, bids will quickly adjust to optimal levels. Remember to readjust your Target ROAS to prevent overspend. Data exclusions: do's and don'ts Do's Apply data exclusions as soon as a conversion data issue is identified . Proactively set exclusions for known future outages. Adjust CPA or ROAS targets and budgets after applying exclusions. Exclude at least 90% of clicks associated with impacted conversion data, considering conversion delay. Don'ts Don't use data exclusions frequently or for extended periods. Don't remove a data exclusion after it’s been applied. Don't backfill data as it can negatively impact bidding performance. If you need to apply a backfill for reporting purposes, wait at least 5 days after the data exclusion was applied. Related links Use data exclusions About Smart Bidding About conversion values

Use data exclusions for conversion data outages

Smart Bidding uses conversions and conversion value data in Google Ads to help meet your goals. If you have any issues with conversion tracking, you can use data exclusions to help reduce the impact that these issues may have on Smart Bidding Performance. Note : Data exclusions aren't supported in Hotel and Travel campaigns. Learn more About data exclusions . Best practices for using data exclusions For best results, review the guidance below when applying data exclusions. While data exclusions can help reduce performance fluctuations associated with a bad conversion data, performance fluctuations should still be expected. Apply data exclusions as quickly as possible at the time you’ve identified a conversion data issue. Data exclusions created for past dates should see performance fluctuations begin to stabilize after a few days. Whenever possible, if you know about a future outage such as a scheduled site maintenance, apply data exclusions proactively. When the data exclusion is set for dates in the future, this data exclusion will typically take effect within a day. Data exclusions aren’t intended to be used frequently or for extended periods of time. Doing so could negatively impact Smart Bidding performance. In the event that a week or more of clicks are impacted, performance fluctuations may persist for 1-2 conversion cycles. After applying a Data exclusion, it’s recommended that you adjust CPA/ROAS targets to achieve desired performance, while ensuring budgets are set to acceptable levels. Exclusion dates selected will apply to clicks, so make sure to consider your conversion delay and exclude any days of clicks that may have been impacted. It’s a best practice to exclude at least 90% of clicks associated with impacted conversion data. Data exclusions can be applied at the manager account or sub-manager account level. The start and end times are based on the account's time zone. Example : If there was a data upload issue from October 15 to October 18, and the conversion delay is 5 days, apply the exclusion as quickly as possible, including any days with impacted clicks. In this case you would exclude October 10 to October 18. Don't remove a data exclusion after it has been applied. Advertisers may wish to backfill the accurate conversion data for their reporting purposes, but you should avoid removing data exclusions as it may cause undesired performance fluctuations. Advertisers should wait a minimum of 5 days before backfilling. Data exclusions are recommended for a conversion data outage, which includes conversion tracking issues or conversion uploads. Examples of when data exclusions are applicable include: Broken conversion tracking for a certain period Incorrectly placed conversion tag on a website resulting in inaccurate conversion counts Temporarily unable to upload offline conversion data It’s generally not recommended to backfill data, including in the case where there was a data outage, as this can have a direct impact on your Search and Shopping bidding performance. In cases where data exclusion was set during the period, backfilling is possible for reporting purposes but only after waiting 5 days after the data exclusion was applied. In this case, removing the data exclusion is not advised. Note : If you have a conversion outage and have applied data exclusions, bids and spend could still drop for a brief period of time. To help increase bids and spend, you can lower your ROAS. However, when the data exclusion takes full effect , bids will quickly adjust to optimal levels, at which time the ROAS targets should be adjusted to desired levels to prevent overspending. Related links About data exclusions About Smart Bidding About conversion values

Create a seasonality adjustment

Seasonality adjustments are an advanced tool that can be used to inform Smart Bidding of expected changes in conversion rates for future events like promotions or sales. Seasonality adjustments are currently available for Search, Standard Shopping, and Display campaigns using Target ROAS and Target CPA bid strategies, as well as Performance Max and App (beta) campaigns using all bid strategies. Note : Because Smart Bidding already manages seasonal events, only use seasonality adjustments if you expect major changes to conversion rates. Seasonal adjustments are ideal for short events of 1–7 days. They may not work as well if you use them for extended periods (more than 14 days at a time). Seasonality adjustments aren't supported in Travel campaigns. Instructions Seasonality adjustment to a single client account In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon . Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu. Click Adjustments . Select the Seasonal option at the top. To create a new seasonality adjustment, click the blue plus button . Under “Adjustment type,” select Conversion rate . Give your adjustment a name and an optional description. Fill in the event's start and end dates. Under “Scope,” you will select either: Campaign type Select either "All campaign types" or select specific campaign types. Specific campaigns or, Specific ad groups (App campaigns only) : here you can select specific ad groups in the account Note : Device selection isn’t applicable for App campaigns. Under “Conversion rate adjustment,” adjust your conversion rate to reflect your estimated conversion rate change. For example, if you expect conversion rates to increase by 50% during a 3-day sale, add up to a +50% conversion rate adjustment. This adjustment will help you optimize your bids. Click Save . Click Create seasonality adjustment . Note that seasonality adjustments may change how your bid strategies perform. Before you create an adjustment, make sure the information is correct. If you choose specific campaigns to include in a seasonality event, a maximum of 2,000 campaigns can be saved with the event. To include more campaigns, you can create another event or use the campaign type selection, like Search campaigns. Seasonality adjustment to multiple client accounts from a manager account In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon . Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu. Click Adjustments . Select the Seasonal option at the top. To create a new seasonality adjustment, click the blue plus button . Under “Adjustment type,” select Conversion rate . Give your adjustment a name and an optional description. Fill in the event's start and end dates. Under "Scope," choose one of the following: All accounts currently linked to this manager: Select either “All campaign types” or select specific campaign types. Specific accounts Edit “Select accounts” Choose the campaign type or select “All campaign types” Specific campaigns In the reporting table, the “Scope” column will show the number of campaigns affected and will link to those campaigns. Note : Device selection isn't applicable for App campaigns. Adjust your conversion rate to reflect your estimated conversion rate change. For example, if you expect conversion rates to increase by 50% during a 3-day sale, add up to a +50% conversion rate adjustment. This adjustment will help you optimize your bids. Click Save . Click Create seasonality adjustment . Note : For “All accounts currently linked to this manager," seasonality adjustments apply to the currently linked client accounts. New client accounts added after the seasonality adjustment is applied won’t automatically inherit the adjustment. Existing client accounts that leave the manager account will continue to show the event. Related links About seasonality adjustments About Smart Bidding About Target CPA bidding About Target ROAS bidding About Performance Max campaigns Create a Performance Max campaign using a Merchant Center feed

About cross-account bid strategies

Cross-account bid strategies allow you to create, monitor, and manage Smart Bidding portfolio strategies at the Google Ads manager account (MCC) level. Cross-account bid strategies may be helpful to you if you have multiple serving customer IDs under an MCC. Similar to portfolio bid strategies in a single child account, cross-account bid strategies are automated, goal-driven bid strategies that help you optimize bids across multiple customer IDs or campaigns while using Smart Bidding . You can use cross account bid strategies for Target CPA , Target ROAS , Maximize conversions , Maximize conversion value , Maximize Clicks and Target impression share bid strategies on Search campaigns, and Target ROAS bid strategies on Shopping campaigns. Benefits Using cross-account bid strategies can give your portfolio bid strategies better performance at a more aggregated level by: Automatically setting bids for every auction to help you reach your performance goals. Providing a single place for you to quickly change bidding settings for all campaigns that use a single portfolio bid strategy. For Smart Bidding strategies, providing more conversion volume/value at the same overall target across campaigns in multiple Customer Ids by merging them together into a single portfolio. How it works Cross-account bid strategies offer a central place for performance to be analyzed and evaluated at the bid strategy level. Once you create a cross-account bid strategy, it will be stored in your MCC’s Shared library. This is the central location for managing your portfolio bid strategies and tracking their performance. If you’re adding a cross-account bid strategy to a Shopping campaign, that campaign will continue to focus on campaign-level targets even if it’s part of a portfolio bid strategy. How to access and unlink your cross-account bid strategy To view the performance of cross-account bid strategies and to add new campaigns, you should be logged in through the manager account where the portfolio is saved. If you have additional manager accounts higher in the hierarchy, you can log in through those as well. Campaigns can be removed from the cross-account bid strategy from any Google Ads account that has access to the campaign. If you unlink a Google Ads account from a manager account that has the cross-account portfolio bid strategy saved, any campaigns in the Google Ads account will be marked as having an invalid bid strategy type and stop showing ads until you choose a new bidding strategy for those campaigns. Each cross-account bid strategy portfolio can only contain campaigns of the same currency. You can choose any currency used across your accounts, but you won’t be able to change your portfolio strategy currency after you create it. Set up a cross-account bid strategy In your Google Ads manager account, click the Tools icon and then click Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu. Click Bid strategies . Click the plus button , and choose the type of bid strategy you’d like to create. Enter the settings for your new cross-campaign bid strategy, and select your campaigns. Click Save . Note : You’ll only be able to attach a campaign or view the bid strategy report if the cross-account bid strategy is owned by the MCC. Bid strategies owned by a single serving customer ID cannot be used outside of that customer ID. Related links About Google Ads Manager Accounts Create a portfolio bid strategy Find your bid strategy report

Bid on viewable impressions using viewable CPM

Max. CPM is no longer available as a bid strategy. If you'd like to pay only for ad impressions measured as viewable, you can with viewable CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions). An ad is counted as "viewable" when 50 percent of your ad shows on screen for 1 second or longer for Display ads, or plays continuously for 2 seconds or longer for video ads. You can select viewable CPM as a bid strategy when you choose CPM bidding for your "Display Network only" campaign. How it works With viewable CPM, you bid on 1,000 viewable impressions and you pay for impressions that are measured as viewable. Viewable CPM lets you bid on the actual value of your ad appearing in a viewable position on a given placement. Keep in mind that using a higher vCPM bid than your CPM bid is usually more effective for winning these more valuable types of impressions. This can help keep your bids competitive and continue to meet your average daily budget. Learn more about viewable CPM Benefits Pay only for impressions measured as viewable. Your bids are optimized to favor ad slots that are more likely to become viewable. If you're interested in manually setting bids for viewable impressions, rather than clicks, this bidding strategy can help you achieve this goal better than other kinds of bid strategies. Note : With viewable CPM, you bid on 1,000 viewable impressions and you pay for impressions that are measured as viewable. Generally, to keep your costs and traffic at the same level as a CPM campaign, your bid for your viewable CPM might need to be higher than your bid for a standard CPM campaign; however, you should experiment with a bid that works for your campaign goals. The viewable CPM bid strategy isn’t available for Search Network only campaigns. If you create your campaign using the viewable CPM bid strategy, and then create ads that aren’t compatible, your ads won’t run. A small portion of served impressions might be charged. How to monitor your viewable impressions The number of viewable impressions is shown in your campaign reporting. To see impressions and viewable impressions for your viewable CPM campaign, follow the steps below. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon . Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu. Click Campaigns or click Ads . From the Views bar at the top, select Display campaigns or Video campaigns , depending on what you want to view. Click the Columns drop-down menu above the statistics table, and then select Modify columns. Click the Viewability drop-down menu. To add specific columns, check the box to the left of each column you wish to see in your report. Understand what each “Viewability” column option means: Viewable impr. : The number of viewable impressions Avg. viewable CPM : The average cost for 1,000 viewable impressions Measurable rate : Shows the percentage of your total impressions that were able to be measured. Viewable rate : Shows the percentage of your measurable impressions that were viewable, which estimates how many impressions were actually seen by customers. Non-measurable impr. distrib. : Shows the percentage of your total impressions that appeared in locations that aren’t able to measure viewability. Non-viewable impr. distrib. : Shows the percentage of all of your ad impressions that were considered to be non-viewable. Viewable impr. distrib. : Shows the percentage of all of your ad impressions that were considered viewable. Measurable cost : Shows the total cost of impressions that were able to be measured. Measurable impr. : Shows the number of impressions that were able to be measured; not all impressions that are served are able to be measured. Non-measurable impr. : Shows the number of times your ad appeared in locations that can't measure viewability. Non-viewable impr. : Shows the number of times your ad was considered non-viewable. Tip Your ad group default bid is shown in the statistics table next to a "(viewable)" label. This can help you identify your viewable CPM bids more quickly in your statistics table. Related links About targeting for Display Network campaigns Choose an ad format

Bidding - Google Ads Help

Bidding Basics

About automated bidding
Your guide to Smart Bidding
About Smart Bidding
Understanding bidding basics
Determine a bid strategy based on your goals
About bid adjustments

Bid Strategies

About Target ROAS bidding
About Maximize conversion value bidding
About Target CPA bidding
About Maximize conversions bidding
About Manual CPC bidding
About Enhanced CPC (ECPC)
About Maximize Clicks bidding
About Target impression share bidding
About YouTube's cost-per-view (CPV) bidding
About bidding on impressions

About Budgets

Budgets overview
About spending limits
How budget changes take effect
About shared budgets
About campaign total budgets
About average daily budgets
Manage a shared budget across campaigns
Why daily costs might exceed your average daily budget

Setup

Set up Smart Bidding
Edit your target CPA
Set target CPAs for ad groups
Edit your bids
Add or remove a bid adjustment
Set and change an average daily budget for your campaign
Create a portfolio bid strategy
Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies

Conversions for bidding optimization

About conversion goals
About cross-account conversion tracking
About primary and secondary conversion actions
About conversion value rules
About conversion adjustments
About offline conversion imports
Upgrade offline conversion import to enhanced conversion for leads
About mobile app conversion tracking
About attribution models
Find out how long it takes for your customers to convert

Key Bidding Features

About data exclusions
Use data exclusions for conversion data outages
Create a seasonality adjustment
About Smart Bidding Exploration
About cross-account bid strategies
About Smart Bidding for store visits
About Smart Bidding for store sales
About Smart Bidding and Smart Creative solutions with Google Ads
Bid on viewable impressions using viewable CPM
About bidding features in Display campaigns

Performance Management & Reporting

Tips on measuring Smart Bidding performance
Estimate your results with bid, budget, and target simulators
How to find your bid strategy reports
Bid strategy report for automated bidding strategies
About conversion delay estimates
Changing conversion goals and actions used for Smart Bidding
Duration of the learning period for campaigns and what affects it
How to make target adjustments with Search Smart Bidding
Evaluate and optimize your bids
Get your ads to show on the first page
Fix low traffic or conversion rate for Target CPA bidding
About your budget report
Fix “Limited by budget” status

Explore more

About the Display Network ad auction
Choose a bid amount that works for you
Choose a bid for your Display Network campaign
Change how you bid
About adjusting your keyword bids
About Performance Planner
Create and edit a plan with Performance Planner
Review and implement your plan
Viewing your Performance Planner forecasts
About attribution reports
About auto-tagging
About data-driven attribution
About bid strategy statuses
Invalid bid strategy type
About conversions with cart data
Understand your conversion tracking data
Updating your conversion goals

Bidding Basics

About automated bidding

Effective the week of March 31, 2025 Enhanced CPC (ECPC) is no longer available for Search and Display campaigns. Campaigns that were not proactively migrated to another bid strategy prior to deprecation are now effectively using Manual CPC. Note that ECPC will reflect in the user interface until May while we complete the update.

Keep the following in mind:

While transitioning to a new bid strategy, it’s important to closely monitor performance and minimize fluctuations as bidding gradually adjusts to your new strategy.
Manage spend and performance by adjusting budgets and targets as needed.

Consider the following bidding strategies and goals:

Maximize conversions or Target CPA: If your goal is to get as many conversions as possible within your budget and target CPA constraints (if applicable) . More details here
Maximize conversions value or Target ROAS: If your goal is to maximize the return on the ad spend you set within your budget and target ROAS constraints (if applicable). Before switching goals, ensure you have sufficient conversions with value enabled (two or more differentiated values). More details here and on the value based bidding hub
Maximize clicks or target Impressions/Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM): if your primary goal is to increase site visits or impressions.
Pay per conversion (Display only): If eligible, you can use Pay for Conversions to increase conversion volume while only paying for those conversions. Find more details on eligibility here.

For more information on different bid strategies refer to About automated bidding and Your Guide to Smart Bidding

Automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals. Unlike Manual CPC bidding, there’s no need to manually update bids for specific ad groups or keywords. Google Ads sets bids for your ads based on that ad’s likelihood to result in a click or conversion that helps you achieve a specific goal for your business.

Different types of automated bidding strategies can help you increase clicks, visibility and conversions. Automated bid strategies learn as they go, using information about a bid’s performance to inform future bids. Learn how to determine a bid strategy based on your goals

This article describes different business goals and the automated bid strategy that best achieves each goal.

Note: If you’d like to automate your bidding specifically for a Shopping campaign, refer to About automated bidding for Shopping campaigns.

How Smart Bidding enhances automated bidding for Search campaigns

Smart Bidding leverages the benefits of goal oriented automated bidding and applies them to conversions (clicks converted to purchases or services) and conversion values. It factors in a wide range of auction-time signals that include device, location, time of day, remarketing list, language, and operating system to capture the unique context of every search. Smart Bidding uses a feature called “auction-time bidding”, that sets a bid for every query. Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value are all Smart Bidding strategies. Learn more about smart bidding

Example

Perhaps you want to increase conversions across your campaigns at a CPA goal, but don’t have the time to set an individual max. CPC for each individual keyword. By adding those campaigns to a Target CPA portfolio bid strategy and setting a CPA goal you want to hit, you allow Google Ads to optimize bids using advanced AI to get you better performance for your goals.

For more information on how Smart Bidding works, refer to Your guide to Smart Bidding, About Smart Bidding, and Setting Smarter Search Bids.

Types of automated bid strategies

Goal	Bid strategy
Increase site visits.	Maximize clicks sets your bids to help get as many clicks as possible within your budget. Maximize clicks is available as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns. Learn more about Maximize clicks Learn more about Maximize clicks for Shopping campaigns
Increase visibility.	Target impression share sets bids with the goal of showing your ad on the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page, or anywhere on the page of Google search results. Target impression share is available on the Search Network only, as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns. Learn more about Target impression share
Get as many clicks as possible with your target CPC. Smart Bidding	Target CPC sets bids to help you get as many valuable clicks as possible at the target cost-per-click (CPC) you set. Some clicks may cost more or less. Target CPC can be set both at the campaign level and ad group level and is only available on Demand Gen campaigns. Learn more About Target CPC bidding for Demand Gen.
Get more conversions with your target CPA. Smart Bidding	Target CPA sets bids to help get as many conversions as possible at the target cost-per-action (CPA) you set. Some conversions may cost more or less than your target. Target CPA is available as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns. If Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value is available for your campaign type, we recommend you use that instead of Target CPA. When you are using Maximize conversion value without a Target CPA set, we will aim to spend your budget to maximize conversion value for your campaigns. When you are using Maximize conversion value with a Target CPA set, we will help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS). Learn more about Target CPA
Meet a target return on ad spend (ROAS) when you value each conversion differently. Smart Bidding	Target ROAS sets bids to help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) you set. Some conversions may have a higher or lower return than your target. Target ROAS is available as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns. Learn more about Target ROAS Learn more About Target ROAS for Shopping campaigns Learn more about how to set up Target ROAS for Hotel Ads
Get more conversions while spending your budget. Smart Bidding	Maximize conversions bidding will help you optimize towards conversions. You have the option to set a Target CPA on your Maximize conversions bidding strategy, which means Smart Bidding will try to get as many conversions as possible at the target cost-per-action (CPA) that you set. If the Target CPA option is not set, then Maximize conversions will aim to spend your budget to get as many conversions as possible. Maximize conversion value bidding will help you optimize towards conversion values. You have the option to set a Target ROAS on your Maximize conversion value bidding strategy, which means Smart Bidding will try to get the highest conversion value possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) that you set. If the Target ROAS option is not set, then Maximize conversion value will aim to spend your budget to drive as much conversion value as possible. Maximize conversion values emphasizes the area you want to maximize, but limits spending to your specified budget. Refer to Maximize conversions vs Maximize conversion value Learn more About Maximize conversions
Get more conversion value while spending your budget. Smart Bidding	Maximize conversion value sets bids to help you get the most conversion value for your campaign while spending your budget. Maximize conversion values emphasizes the area you want to maximize, but limits spending to your specified budget. When you are using Maximize conversion value without a Target ROAS set, we will aim to spend your budget to maximize conversion value for your campaigns. When you are using Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS set, we will help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS). When you create a Maximize conversion value bid strategy, you can set a Target ROAS (return on ad spending). Refer to Maximize conversions vs Maximize conversion value Learn more About Maximize conversion value

Goal

Bid strategy

Increase site visits.

Maximize clicks sets your bids to help get as many clicks as possible within your budget.

Maximize clicks is available as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns.

Learn more about Maximize clicks

Learn more about Maximize clicks for Shopping campaigns

Increase visibility.

Target impression share sets bids with the goal of showing your ad on the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page, or anywhere on the page of Google search results.

Target impression share is available on the Search Network only, as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns.

Learn more about Target impression share

Get as many clicks as possible with your target CPC.

Smart Bidding

Target CPC sets bids to help you get as many valuable clicks as possible at the target cost-per-click (CPC) you set. Some clicks may cost more or less.

Target CPC can be set both at the campaign level and ad group level and is only available on Demand Gen campaigns.

Learn more About Target CPC bidding for Demand Gen.

Get more conversions with your target CPA.

Smart Bidding

Target CPA sets bids to help get as many conversions as possible at the target cost-per-action (CPA) you set. Some conversions may cost more or less than your target.

Target CPA is available as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns.

If Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value is available for your campaign type, we recommend you use that instead of Target CPA.

When you are using Maximize conversion value without a Target CPA set, we will aim to spend your budget to maximize conversion value for your campaigns.

When you are using Maximize conversion value with a Target CPA set, we will help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS).

Learn more about Target CPA

Meet a target return on ad spend (ROAS) when you value each conversion differently.

Smart Bidding

Target ROAS sets bids to help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) you set. Some conversions may have a higher or lower return than your target.

Target ROAS is available as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns.

Learn more about Target ROAS

Learn more About Target ROAS for Shopping campaigns

Learn more about how to set up Target ROAS for Hotel Ads

Get more conversions while spending your budget.

Smart Bidding

Maximize conversions bidding will help you optimize towards conversions.

You have the option to set a Target CPA on your Maximize conversions bidding strategy, which means Smart Bidding will try to get as many conversions as possible at the target cost-per-action (CPA) that you set. If the Target CPA option is not set, then Maximize conversions will aim to spend your budget to get as many conversions as possible.

Maximize conversion value bidding will help you optimize towards conversion values. You have the option to set a Target ROAS on your Maximize conversion value bidding strategy, which means Smart Bidding will try to get the highest conversion value possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) that you set. If the Target ROAS option is not set, then Maximize conversion value will aim to spend your budget to drive as much conversion value as possible.

Maximize conversion values emphasizes the area you want to maximize, but limits spending to your specified budget.

Refer to Maximize conversions vs Maximize conversion value

Learn more About Maximize conversions

Get more conversion value while spending your budget.

Smart Bidding

Maximize conversion value sets bids to help you get the most conversion value for your campaign while spending your budget.

Maximize conversion values emphasizes the area you want to maximize, but limits spending to your specified budget.

When you are using Maximize conversion value without a Target ROAS set, we will aim to spend your budget to maximize conversion value for your campaigns.

When you are using Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS set, we will help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS).

When you create a Maximize conversion value bid strategy, you can set a Target ROAS (return on ad spending).

Refer to Maximize conversions vs Maximize conversion value

Learn more About Maximize conversion value

Create an automated bid strategy

You can create an automated bid strategy for a single campaign (standard strategy) or multiple campaigns (portfolio bid strategy) in the following ways:

Create with a new campaign.
Create or change from campaign settings.
Create from “Bid strategies”

To create, review, or manage your bid strategies, take the following steps:

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
Click Bid strategies.

To create a bid strategy, refer to Set up Smart Bidding.

Tip: If you still aren't sure how each bidding strategy works, refer to Finding success with Smart Bidding.

The power of Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is a set of conversion-based bid strategies that use advanced AI to help you tailor the right bid to each and every auction. It factors in a wide range of auction-time signals including device, location, time of day, remarketing list, language, and operating system to capture the unique context of every search.

For more information on how Smart Bidding works, refer to About Smart Bidding or download our Display Smart Bidding Guide.

Your guide to Smart Bidding

Keep the following in mind:

While transitioning to a new bid strategy, it’s important to closely monitor performance and minimize fluctuations as bidding gradually adjusts to your new strategy.
Manage spend and performance by adjusting budgets and targets as needed.

Consider the following bidding strategies and goals:

Maximize conversions or Target CPA: If your goal is to get as many conversions as possible within your budget and target CPA constraints (if applicable) . More details here
Maximize conversions value or Target ROAS: If your goal is to maximize the return on the ad spend you set within your budget and target ROAS constraints (if applicable). Before switching goals, ensure you have sufficient conversions with value enabled (two or more differentiated values). More details here and on the value based bidding hub
Maximize clicks or target Impressions/Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM): if your primary goal is to increase site visits or impressions.
Pay per conversion (Display only): If eligible, you can use Pay for Conversions to increase conversion volume while only paying for those conversions. Find more details on eligibility here.

For more information on different bid strategies refer to About automated bidding and Your Guide to Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is a set of automated bidding strategies that use Google AI to optimize for conversions or conversion value. Smart Bidding sets precise bids for each and every auction to help drive higher conversion volume or conversion value at a cost efficiency that is comparable to or better than existing performance goals.

Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value are all Smart Bidding strategies.

Target Impression share and Max clicks are also automated bid strategies but don’t include auction time bidding.

Benefits of Smart Bidding

Google Ads automated bidding helps you optimize bids at scale across your business goals. Smart Bidding uses Google AI technology. Automated bidding gives you:

Bid strategies that align to your goals: Choose from a variety of bid strategies to meet your business objectives, conversion goals, and conversion value goals.
True auction-time bid optimization: Smart Bidding optimizes bids for every auction, helping you set more precise bids tailored to each user’s search context and meet your performance goals more effectively.
Query-level performance modeling: Smart Bidding uses search query-level conversion data across your account to help solve data scarcity that individual keywords may face. This allows the algorithms to bid more accurately on low-volume keywords or keywords that are still building performance history.
A richer set of contextual signals: In addition to evaluating key signals like device, location, and time of day, Smart Bidding accounts for other signals like browser, operating system, language, and many more. This helps incorporate the search context and conversion likelihood of each auction into every bid. It also considers signal combinations that have a statistically significant impact on conversion rate, which individual bid adjustments may not capture. Learn more about automated bidding signals
Algorithms that keep learning: Smart Bidding continuously updates your bidding algorithms to align with changes in performance and adapts to your business’ specific conversion cycle to know how to heavily weigh recent versus historical data.

Tip:

Check out the Search Automation technical guide to learn more about the signals Google uses, how queries match to keywords, how using AI makes keyword matching more effective, and what you can do to improve performance.

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About Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding: Basics and best practices | Google Ads

For subtitles in your language, turn on YouTube captions. Select the settings icon at the bottom of the video player, then select "Subtitles/CC" and choose your language.

Smart Bidding refers to bid strategies that use Google AI to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction—a feature known as “auction-time bidding". Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value are all Smart Bidding strategies.

Smart Bidding strategies

Business goal	Campaign goal	Smart Bidding strategy
Increase sales or leads	Get as many conversions as possible at a fixed budget or fixed ROI	Maximize conversions, Target CPA
Increase profit	Get as many conversions as possible at a fixed budget or fixed return on ad spend (ROAS)	Target ROAS, Maximize conversion value

Why use Smart Bidding

With Smart Bidding, you get 4 key benefits that can help you save time and improve performance.

Advanced machine learning

In bidding, machine learning algorithms train on data at a vast scale to help you make more accurate predictions across your account about how different bid amounts might impact conversions or conversion value. These algorithms factor in a wider range of parameters that impact performance than a single person or team could compute.

Wide range of contextual signals

With auction-time bidding, you can factor in a wide range of signals into your bid optimizations. Signals are identifiable attributes about a person or their context at the time of a particular auction. This includes attributes like device and location, which are available as manual bid adjustments, plus additional signals and signal combinations exclusive to Smart Bidding. Review a list of several of these important signals below.

Automated bidding signals

Device

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids for Target CPA or Target ROAS strategies based on whether someone is on a mobile, desktop, or tablet device.

Example: For a car dealership, bids may be adjusted if a person is searching on a mobile device and therefore more likely to book an appointment at a nearby location.

Physical location

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on the specific location (down to the city) someone is located in, even if the advertiser’s implemented location targeting isn’t as specific.

Example: For a bank, even if the advertiser’s location targeting is set to New York state, bids may be adjusted if a person searches for “new checking account” from a city with higher branch penetration where they’re more likely to apply for an account.

Location intent

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on someone’s location intent in addition to their physical location.

Example: For a travel provider, bids may be adjusted if someone is actively researching a vacation destination you offer (e.g. “paris vacations august”), even if they’re not physically located near there.

Weekday & time of day

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on someone’s local time of day and day of week in their time zone.

Example: For a restaurant, bids may be adjusted if someone searches at 8 PM on a Thursday when people are more likely to make a reservation for the weekend, compared to 8 AM on a Monday.

Remarketing list

Description: Google Ads can optimize Search, Display, and Hotel bids based on which remarketing list someone belongs to. Search and Display can also account for how recently a user was added to that list. Search also takes into account each list a user is on for a given campaign or ad group.

Example: For an online clothing retailer, bids may be adjusted if a person has already browsed a product during a previous site visit, and whether they added it to a shopping cart last week, when they’re more likely to want to buy it soon, versus last month.

Ad characteristics

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on which version of an ad will be shown, including whether it’s for a mobile app.

Example: For a telecom company, bids may be adjusted if the ad shown is the “Latest Deals” creative or the “Flexible Plans” creative, or if it points to the mobile site or app, based on which variation has a higher likelihood of converting. For Display campaigns, bids take into account which ad sizes and formats are more likely to convert.

Interface language

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on someone’s language preferences.

Example: For a Spanish language learning site, bids may be adjusted for the query, “learn a new language” if a person’s language preference is set to English instead of Spanish, where they’re less likely to purchase a new tutorial.

Browser

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on the browser someone is using.

Example: For a health foods company, bids may be adjusted if a person searches from Chrome, which has resulted in a higher conversion likelihood for that business in the past, compared to other browsers.

Operating system

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on the operating system someone is using.

Example: For a gaming app developer, bids may be adjusted if a person searches for “puzzle game” on Google Play from an Android device that has been upgraded to the latest OS version, which is more likely to result in an app install, compared to an older OS version.

Actual search query (Search and Shopping)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on the text of the query that triggered the ad, not just the matching keyword.

Example: For a shoe retailer, bids may be adjusted if a person’s search query is “leather boots” because they’re more likely to buy a new pair compared to a search for “boot repairs,” even though both queries broad match to the keyword “boots”.

Search Network partner (Search only)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on which search partner site the ad appears on.

Example: For a consumer packaged goods brand, bids may be adjusted if a query is coming from a more relevant search on an e-commerce site, which has a higher conversion likelihood, compared to a news site.

Web placement (Display only)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on which site placement the ad appears on.

Example: For a consumer packaged goods brand, bids may be adjusted if the ad appears on a popular, high-traffic site, which has a higher conversion likelihood.

Site behavior (Display only)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on someone’s activity on your site, including number of pages viewed, value of products browsed, how far through the conversion process they progressed, and other sites previously visited.

Example: For a furniture brand, bids may be adjusted if a person has browsed several couches priced at a higher value compared to lamps that have a lower price point.

Product attributes (Shopping only)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on similar attributes across products such as price, condition, brand, and product category.

Example: For a retailer selling outdoor gear, bids may be adjusted if you add a new tent to your product data that is similar to other tents that have a high conversion likelihood.

Hotel and itinerary attributes (Hotels only)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on hotel attributes and user-selected itineraries.

Example: For a given hotel, bids may be adjusted if positive user ratings and the presence of user-selected check-in and check-out dates (rather than the default) are more likely to result in a hotel booking.

Mobile app ratings (coming soon)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on the strength and quantity of an app’s reviews.

Example: For a fitness brand, bids may be adjusted if an app has many excellent reviews and is more likely to result in an install.

Price competitiveness (Shopping and Hotels only)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on how your product price compares to other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions that you are.

Example: For a cookware retailer, bids may be adjusted if you’re offering a stronger deal on a knife set compared to other advertisers.

Seasonality (Shopping only)

Description: Google Ads can optimize bids based on seasonal performance trends during different times of year.

Example: For an electronics retailer, bids may be adjusted if a person is searching for a new television during the holiday season, which typically has a higher conversion likelihood.

Flexible performance controls

Smart Bidding allows you to set performance targets and customize settings to your unique business goals:

Optimize Search bids to your selected attribution model, including data-driven attribution.
Set device-specific performance targets for mobile, desktop, and tablet with Target CPA bidding.
Use built-in steering features to keep specific bidding strategies in place. Check out How to steer AI-powered Search ads for details.

Transparent performance reporting

Smart Bidding offers reporting tools that give you deeper insight into your bidding performance and help you quickly troubleshoot any issues. These include:

Bid strategy reports that help you understand how your Smart Bidding strategies are performing. To locate your bid strategy report, go to find your bid strategy reports.
Detailed bid strategy statuses that show you what’s going on under the hood of your bidding.
Campaign drafts and experiments for Search and Display campaigns that make it easy to test how well Smart Bidding performs against your current bidding method.
Simulators that forecast how your ads might have performed in terms of key metrics like cost, conversions, conversion value, impressions, and clicks if you had set different CPA, ROAS targets, or budgets.
Alerts and notifications that flag issues with conversion tracking and provide clear steps for fixing them.

Who it’s for

Smart Bidding works successfully for businesses large and small. Smart bidding can optimize based on data from all of your campaigns, so even new campaigns without data of their own may notice increased performance. To evaluate results accurately, we recommend measuring performance over longer time periods that have at least 30 conversions, such as a month or longer (50 conversions for Target ROAS). Relevant keywords can be added to low volume campaigns to expand targeting and increase conversions.

Advertisers that are using Smart Bidding must comply with applicable legal requirements and Google ads policies. For example, you are responsible for ensuring that your use of Smart Bidding complies with Google's personalized advertising policies. It's important that you familiarize yourself with the contextual signals that are used in Smart Bidding so that you can determine whether Smart Bidding is appropriate for your business.

Create a Smart Bidding strategy

Before you begin

To use Smart Bidding, you need to have conversion tracking enabled. Learn more about Different ways to track conversions.

Set up app conversion tracking using Web to App Connect. Once you’ve used the Web to App Connect interface in Google Ads to set up conversion tracking and deep linking, you can provide a seamless web-to-app experience for your customers and drive on average 2 times higher conversion rates for ad clicks landing in your app compared to your mobile website.

This improved experience allows your customers to more easily complete their intended action, whether purchasing, signing up, or adding items to their cart. Plus, from within the Web to App Connect interface, you can track these in-app conversion actions and get recommendations on how to improve your campaign.

To get started with Web to App Connect, follow the 3 steps below:

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Planning drop down in the section menu.
Click App advertising hub. This will take you to the Web to App Connect interface.

Learn more about converting better with the Web to App Connect interface.

You can create a Smart Bid strategy for a single campaign (standard strategy) or multiple campaigns (portfolio bid strategy):

Create with a new campaign
Create or change from campaign settings
Create from “Bid strategies”

To create, review, or manage your bid strategies, take the following steps:

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
Click Bid strategies.

Video ad conversion attribution for Smart Bidding

For video ads using Smart Bidding, Google Ads uses conversion data from your campaigns to predict how likely it is an engagement with your video ad will lead to a conversion.

Engagements for campaign types (for example, Video action campaign, Demand Gen, and Performance Max) that contain video ads optimized for conversions are defined as clicks on the ad or at least 10 seconds of viewing time. If both occur, only the click is counted. Viewing at least 10 seconds of a video ad counts as leading to a website conversion if the conversion happens within 3 days of the engagement. For users who click on your ad, conversions will still be attributed over your current conversion window.

Grow your Smart Bidding campaigns with broad match keywords

Broad match keywords pair particularly well with Smart Bidding strategies, including Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA, and Target ROAS.

There's no need to segment by match type to boost optimization. The bidding system sets a bid for each individual auction of each query and bids up or down depending on how well the query is likely to perform. Applying broad match keywords will allow the algorithms to learn faster and find additional auctions that can help you reach your growth objectives. Learn more about broad match keywords

About bid adjustments

A bid adjustment is a percentage increase or decrease in your bids. Bid adjustments allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search.

In this article, you’ll learn about the different types of bid adjustments and their requirements, how multiple adjustments interact, and what options are available for different types of campaigns.

Note: All bidding strategies are compatible with all campaign types. Learn more about Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize clicks bidding strategies, and how to add or remove a bid adjustment.

On this page

How bid adjustments work
View your bid adjustments
Types of bid adjustments
Bid adjustment eligibility (manual bid strategies)
Considerations around bid adjustments

How bid adjustments work

Say you've got a campaign that performs well on mobile devices with a max CPC bid of $1 USD. To show your ad to more customers on mobile devices, you increase your bid by 20% for searches on mobile devices, resulting in a final bid amount of $1.20 USD. Here's how it would work:

Starting bid: $1 USD

Mobile adjustment: $1 USD + ($1 USD x 20%) = $1.20 USD

Resulting bid for searches on mobile devices: $1.20 USD

In another example, let’s say you have a $1 USD bid and would like to decrease it. To adjust it to $0.80 USD, select Decrease by 20%.

View your bid adjustments

In your Google Ads account, you can view bid adjustments from the page menu on the left:

For bid adjustments on the Search network:
1. Select the ad type you want to view:
  - Locations
  - Ad schedule
  - Devices
  - Audiences
  - Placements
  - Advanced bid adjustments.
2. In the table, look for the column titled “Bid adjustments”.
For bid adjustments on the Display network:
1. Select the ad type you want to view from the page menu:
  - Audiences
  - Topics
  - Placements
2. In the table, look for the column titled “Bid adjustments”.

Note: If you don’t notice bid adjustments, review Bid adjustment eligibility.

Types of bid adjustments

Device

Use device bid adjustments to show your ad more or less frequently for searches that occur on specific devices: computers, tablets, or mobile devices.

Where you can use them

Campaigns
Ad groups
If you’ve set a device bid adjustment for a campaign and an ad group within that campaign, the ad group bid adjustment will be used to determine your bid.

Range

-100% to +900%
To opt out of showing ads on a certain device, decrease your bid by 100% for that device. If you’ve decreased a campaign’s bid by 100% for a particular device, then the ad group-level adjustment for the same device won’t be used.

Location

Use location bid adjustments to show your ad more or less frequently to customers in certain countries, cities, or other geographic areas. You can also use location asset targeting to set different bids for customers who are located around your business.

Where you can use them

Campaigns

Range

-90% to +900%

Ad scheduling

Use ad scheduling bid adjustments to increase or decrease your bids for campaigns that show only on certain days or during certain hours. To do this, you’ll first need to set up a custom ad schedule.

Where you can use them

Campaigns

Range

-90% to +900%

Targeting methods (advanced)

Set bid adjustments for topics, placements, and other targeting methods in campaign types that show ads on the Display Network and the Search Network. Learn how to add audiences (interests and remarketing lists) to an ad group.

Where you can use them

Campaigns
Ad groups

Range

-90% to +900%

Your data segments for Search ads (advanced)

You can set bid adjustments for remarketing lists in your ad groups if you’d like to show ads to people on these lists. For example, you could increase your bid by 25% for those who previously viewed your website in the last 30 days. If you don’t yet have a remarketing list set up, review About Google Ads remarketing lists for search ads.

Where you can use them

Campaigns
Ad groups

Range

-90% to +900%

Interactions (call adjustments)

You can increase your bid for mobile devices to show call interaction ads more frequently for mobile phone users. Interaction bid adjustments influence how often you show call assets and call-only ads to users. The flexibility of adjusting your bids for certain interactions gives you more control over how often they appear with your ad and how potential customers connect with your business.

Where you can use them

Campaigns in the new Google Ads experience

Range

-90% to +900%

Demographics (age, gender, and household income)

You can adjust your bid to target potential customers of either gender and/or in certain age ranges and incomes. Demographic bid adjustments determine how often your ads show to the preferred audience to make the most of each impression. Learn more About demographic targeting

Where you can use them

Campaigns and ad groups in the new Google Ads experience

Range

-90% to +900%

Bid adjustment eligibility (manual bid strategies)

Scroll to the right to view the entire table.

Campaign type	Device	Location	Ad scheduling	Targeting method	Remarketing lists for search ads (Search Network)	Interactions (call adjustments)	Demographics
Search Network Campaign
Display Network Campaign						-
Shopping Campaign						-
Display Video Campaign						-
YouTube Campaign						-
App Campaign	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Smart Campaign	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Performance Max campaign	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Demand Gen campaign
Hotel campaign			-	-	-	-	-
Travel campaign		-	-	-	-	-	-

With Smart campaigns and App campaigns, Google AI adjusts bids seamlessly to maximize performance based on your advertising goals.

Considerations around bid adjustments

Automated bidding

If you are using Smart Bidding strategies, powered by Google AI, including Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value, you don’t need to make manual bid adjustments since those strategies automatically set bids to optimize for the conversion goal specified by the customer. If you make a manual bid adjustment to your automated Smart Bidding strategy, it won’t be supported.
Device bid adjustments for Target CPA allows you to modify the value of your CPA target, rather than the bids themselves.

This chart outlines the bid adjustment types that are supported by each automated bid strategy (scroll to the right to view the entire table).

Bid adjustment type	-100% possible?	Target Impression Share	Target CPA	Target ROAS	Maximize Conversions	Maximize Conversion Value
Device		-100% only	*	-100% only	-100% only	-100% only
Location	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ad scheduling	-	-	-	-	-	-
Audiences (incl. RLSA)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Calls	-	-	-	-	-	-
Demographics	-	-	-	-	-	-

* = Treated as a target adjustment

Note: In cases where -100% adjustments aren't possible, Smart Bidding strategies will still consider targeting and exclusions for each bid adjustment type.

Ad Schedules and Smart Bidding

While Smart Bidding strategies don't use your manual bid adjustments (for example, +20% on Saturdays), they do respect your Ad Schedule settings. Additionally, note the following:

Your ads will strictly follow the days and times you have set in your Ad Schedule.
You don't need to manually increase or decrease bids for specific times. Smart Bidding automatically optimizes bids based on performance data depending on the time of day, so manual bid adjustments won’t be used.

Multiple bid adjustments

When you set more than one bid adjustment in your campaign, those adjustments are typically multiplied together to determine how much your bid will increase or decrease. However, multiple device and location bid adjustments behave differently.

Keep in mind that combined bid adjustments can't exceed a 900% bid increase. For example, a $1 USD bid with a device increase of 900% combined with a location increase of 900% will result in a bid of only $10 USD. The lowest possible bid adjustment when combining multiple bid adjustments is -90%.

Multiple device bid adjustments: If you set a device bid adjustment at the campaign level and an adjustment for the same device at the ad group level, the ad group device bid adjustment will be used to determine the resulting bid adjustment. However, if the campaign-level device bid adjustment is a 100% decrease, then the ad group level device bid adjustment won't be used.
Multiple location bid adjustments: Multiple adjustments that apply to the same location won't be combined. If you set an adjustment of +50% for France, and +100% for Paris, only the adjustment for Paris, the most specific location, will be used for traffic from users in Paris.
Multiple bid adjustments for dissimilar ad types: For dissimilar ad types, multiple bid adjustments are still multiplied together, but will adjust for changing conditions. Check out the example below.

Example

Say you're running a campaign that targets the U.S. and is scheduled to run all days of the week. And, you've set an ad group max CPC bid of $1 USD. You decide to increase your bid by 20% for California, and decrease your bid by 50% for Saturday. Your resulting bid for a search that occurs in California on a Saturday will be $0.60 USD. Here's the math:

Starting bid: $1 USD

California adjustment: $1 USD + ($1 USD x 20%) = $1.20 USD

Saturday adjustment: $1 USD x $1.20 USD x 0.50 = $0.60 USD

Resulting bid for searches in California on Saturday: $0.60 USD

Resulting bid for searches in California on Sunday through Friday: $1.20 USD

Resulting bid for searches in other states on Saturday: $0.50 USD

Resulting bid for searches in other states on Sunday through Friday: $1 USD

Bid Strategies

About Target ROAS bidding

Our guided troubleshooter can help you identify, explain, and address potential causes of unexpected fluctuations in your Performance Max campaign spending.

Troubleshoot spending

Note: Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value bid strategies have optional target fields in Search campaigns. With an optional target, Smart Bidding optimizes to these goals the same way it would for Target CPA (cost per action) and Target ROAS (return on ad spend). Maximize conversions with a set target CPA behaves like a Target CPA strategy does, and similarly, Maximize conversion value with a set target ROAS will behave like a Target ROAS strategy.

Learn more about Changes to how Smart Bidding strategies are organized.

What is Target ROAS bidding

Using Google Ads Smart Bidding, this bid strategy analyzes and uses Google's AI to predict the value of a potential conversion every time a user searches for products or services you’re advertising. Then, Google's AI adjusts your bids for these searches to maximize your return on them.

In practice, this means if the bid strategy determines that a user search is likely to generate a conversion with high value, Target ROAS will bid high on that search. If this bid strategy determines that the search isn’t likely to generate a high-value conversion, it’ll bid low. Google's AI optimizes your bids at auction-time, allowing you to tailor bids for each auction. Review Your Guide to Smart Bidding.

Target ROAS is available as either a standard strategy for a single campaign or a portfolio strategy across multiple campaigns. If you don’t yet know what type of portfolio bid strategy is right for you, review About automated bidding first. If you have Shopping campaigns, review automated bidding for Shopping campaigns.

Note: If you've a Performance Max campaign, a Hotel campaign or a Travel campaign, portfolio strategy is not available.

This article explains how Target ROAS bidding works and what its settings are.

Before you begin

Before you can apply a Target ROAS bid strategy to your campaigns, you’ll need to set values for the conversions you're tracking.
You can apply conversion value rules to better express the value of conversions as they relate to your business, and optimize towards conversions from the types of users who are more valuable to you. Use conversion value rules to apply a multiplication factor to conversion values for higher value types of customers, devices, or locations.
To use Target ROAS bidding, most campaign types need at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days.
- Display campaigns: At least 15 conversions (with valid conversion values) in the past 30 days across all of your campaigns combined. New Display campaigns no longer require you to have a history of conversions to use Target ROAS bidding.
- App campaigns: At least 10 conversions every day (or 300 conversions in 30 days).
- Demand Gen campaigns: At least 50 conversions in the past 35 days (10 of these conversions must have occurred in the past 7 days) in the campaign, or 100 conversions in the past 35 days (across all Demand Gen campaigns in the customer account).
  - Note: Conversions must have a value greater than 0 to be counted as eligible. Campaigns that are eligible for Target ROAS will be automatically allowlisted.
- Video Action Campaigns: At least 30 conversions in the past 30 days.
- Hotel campaigns: At least 50 conversions per week at a campaign level.
- Travel campaigns: At least 50 conversions in the past 7 days at a campaign level.
For Search campaigns, if you recently started reporting conversion value or changed the way conversion value is reported, we recommend you include the new values in the "Conversions" column and wait for 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles for your campaign to receive conversion values at a similar rate before adopting.
We also recommend reviewing your budget settings to make sure you feel comfortable spending up to 2 times your average daily budget. Over a month-long billing cycle, you won't be charged more than your average daily budget would've allowed for over 30.4 days. For App campaigns, it's also recommended to run a Target Cost Per Action campaign type before running a Target ROAS campaign type to understand a baseline ROAS as you set your initial ROAS target. Failure to set a proper initial target ROAS can cause poor performance or low scale.

Note:

For App campaigns, you'll also have to install the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK in your app. The conversion events that you're bidding on (and sending values with) should come from the Firebase SDK.
Performance will generally improve if you run fewer, larger campaigns that get more conversions.

How it works

Google Ads predicts future conversions and associated values using your reported conversion values, which you report through conversion tracking. Then, Google Ads will set maximum cost-per-interaction (max. CPC) bids to maximize your conversion value, while trying to achieve an average return on ad spend (ROAS) equal to your target.

Note: Hotel campaigns are only compatible with Manual CPC, CPC%, and Maximize Conversion Value with tROAS bidding. Conversion tracking and conversion value setup are required for hotel campaigns using Maximize Conversion Value with tROAS bidding. Both purchase and non-purchase conversions are supported for hotel campaigns with Maximize Conversion Value and tROAS bidding.

Some conversions may return a higher ROAS and some may return a lower ROAS, but altogether Google Ads will try to keep your conversion value per cost equal to the target ROAS you set. For example, if you set a target ROAS of 500%, Google Ads will adjust your bids to try to maximize your conversion value, while reaching this target ROAS (find details of the example below). To help improve your performance in the ad auction, this strategy adjusts bids using real-time signals such as device, browser, location, and time of day. It also uses AI to adjust bids based on whether or not someone is on one of your remarketing lists.

Google Ads will recommend a target ROAS value after you’ve created a new bid strategy or selected an optimization score recommendation, and selected which campaigns to apply it to. This recommendation is calculated based on your actual ROAS over the last few weeks. We’ll exclude performance from the last few days to account for conversions that may take more than a day to complete following an ad click or interaction (such as an engaged view). You can choose whether to use this recommended target ROAS value or to set your own.

Example

Let's say you're measuring sales for your online women's shoe store and you want to optimize your bids based on the value of a shopping cart total. Your goal is $5 USD worth of sales (this is your conversion value) for each $1 USD you spend on ads. You'd set a target ROAS of 500% - for every $1 USD you spend on ads, you'd like to get 5 times that in revenue.

Here's the math:

$5 USD in sales ÷ $1 USD in ad spend x 100% = 500% target ROAS

Then, Google Ads will set your max. CPC bids to maximize your conversion value, while trying to reach your target ROAS of 500%.

When to use value bidding

Value based bidding is most helpful if various conversions have different value for your business or if you have a specific Return On Ads Spend (ROAS) target that you're trying to achieve.

The table below can help you find out which bidding strategy is best for your campaign.

	Max conversions	Target CPA	Max conversion value	Target ROAS
Goal	Maximize conversions for budget	Maximize conversions within tCPA	Maximize conversion values for budget	Maximize conversion values for Target ROAS
When	Priority is to spend the budget No specific ROI target. Conversions optimized to have similar values for your business.	Specific ROI target. Conversions optimized for similar values for your business.	Priority is to spend the budget. Conversions have different value for your business. No specific ROI target.	Specific ROI target. Conversions optimized for different values for your business.

Bid adjustments and Target ROAS

Bid adjustments allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search. Because Target ROAS helps optimize your bids based on real-time data, your existing bid adjustments aren't used. There is one exception: You can still set device bid adjustments of -100%.

Note: You don’t need to remove bid adjustments. They just won’t be used.

Implementation

Create a new bid strategy

You can create a Target ROAS bid strategy for a single campaign (standard strategy) or multiple campaigns (portfolio bid strategy) in the following ways:

Create in a new campaign.
Create or change from campaign settings.
Create from the Shared library “Bid strategies” page.

To create a bid strategy, review Set up Smart Bidding.

Settings

Target ROAS

Your target ROAS is the average conversion value (for example, revenue) you'd like to get for each dollar you spend on ads. Keep in mind that the target ROAS you set may influence the conversion volume you get. For example, setting a target that's too high may limit the amount of traffic your ads may get.

Here are a few tips to help you set a target ROAS that’s right for you:

Before transitioning to value-based bidding, ideally you will already be bidding to the desired conversion goal using a tCPA bid strategy. Be sure you report values across all relevant campaigns for 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles (whichever is longer) before determining their ROAS target and activating value-based bidding. Learn more about changing biddable conversion goals.
ROAS target should be at or below the ROAS compared to your historical performance.
- To find this, select Modify Columns from the “Columns” drop-down and add the Conv. value/cost column from the list of "Conversions" columns. Then, multiply conversion value per cost metric by 100 to get your target ROAS percent.
Ensure the time frame of ROAS evaluation excludes the most recent conversion delay period to get an accurate view of campaign performance.
Target recommendations can also be found in the Recommendations tab, during campaign construction, within the bid simulator or while creating a strategy at the campaign or portfolio levels.

Bid limits

Setting bid limits for Target ROAS isn't recommended because it restricts Google Ads from optimizing your bid using AI. It can also prevent Google Ads from adjusting your bids to the amount that best meets your target ROAS. Bid limits are available for Search and Shopping portfolio bid strategies. If you do set bid limits, they’ll be used in Search Network auctions only, and are only available for portfolio bid strategies.

Max. bid limit: The highest CPC bid you want Google Ads to set when using Target ROAS.
Min. bid limit: The minimum max. CPC bid you want Google Ads to set when using Target ROAS. Note that Google Ads might set a max. CPC bid that's below your minimum bid limit, generally due to smart pricing. This means that the bid limit you set here isn't the absolute lowest bid that could be set.

Tip: Choose which conversions to bid for

The Include in "Conversions" setting lets you decide whether or not to include individual conversion actions in your "Conversions" and "Conversion value" reporting columns. The data in these columns are used by bid strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, and ECPC, so your bid strategy will only optimize based on the conversions that you've chosen to include. Learn more About account-default conversion goals.

Smart Bidding will learn across all conversion actions reported in the “Conversions” column, even if they are configured for different goals and/or use different bidding strategy types. Cross-device conversions from Display Network, Video, Search, and Shopping campaigns are included by default. This isn't applicable for Hotel campaigns.

Ad group targets

You can apply Ad Group Targets for both Standard and Portfolio bidding strategies. With a portfolio strategy, your campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are optimized collectively for a single target. Alternatively, you can set individual targets for each ad group but this isn't recommended because it can restrict Smart Bidding.

Keep in mind, if you don’t need to set targets for individual ad groups, a portfolio strategy may be able to offer better performance.

Note: Portfolio bid strategy isn't applicable with Target ROAS for App campaigns for installs, Shopping, Demand Gen, Hotel, or Travel campaigns.

Average target ROAS

Note: Average target ROAS is only supported for Performance Max, Search, and Shopping campaigns. It doesn't support Hotel campaigns.

Your average target ROAS is the traffic-weighted average ROAS that your bid strategy optimized for. It averages the changes you’ve made to your target ROAS for any given time period. For this reason, your average target ROAS may be different from the target ROAS that you set.

This metric lets you measure the ROAS that your bid strategy targeted for specific time periods. By changing the date range, you can learn what your strategy actually optimized for over that period. Keep in mind, you won’t have an average target ROAS for time periods without traffic.

You’ll find the average target ROAS metric in the performance table at the top of your “Campaigns” page, so that you can evaluate actual performance against target performance. Select “Avg. Target ROAS” from the “Performance” category when adding a new column, or by adding it to the performance chart.

It's recommended to monitor your campaign performance and average target over time.

Where you’ll find these metrics

The average target ROAS metric lets you measure the ROAS that your bid strategy targeted for specific time periods. By changing the date range, you can learn what your strategy is actually optimized for over that period. Keep in mind, you won’t have an average target ROAS for time periods without traffic.

You can add a column to view your average Target ROAS metric in the performance table so that you can evaluate actual performance against target performance. At the top of your “Campaigns” table, select the column icon A picture of the Google Ads columns icon under the “Performance” category, or by adding it to the performance chart. Select “Avg. target ROAS”, “Avg. target cost per install”, or “Avg. target cost per in-app action” from the “Performance” category when adding a new column.

You can also find this metric in your bid strategy report beside your “Actual ROAS”, which represents the actual ROAS that this strategy was able to achieve. Learn how to Find your bid strategy reports.

Average target ROAS is available for both standard and portfolio bid strategies.

Troubleshooting

Adjusting bids and budgets is the best way to control performance.

When using value-based bidding with a target ROAS, if you want to increase conversion volume, consider gradually reducing the target ROAS. This allows the bid strategy to enter more auctions and generate more volume. Alternatively, if you want to increase conversion value, you may raise the target ROAS. When you change targets, the bidder will react immediately but will need some time to hit the new target (give it 1-2 conversion cycles). Account for bid changes when assessing performance by assessing ROAS performance over time versus average target within the bid simulator. Learn How to make target adjustments with Search Smart Bidding.

Follow these troubleshooting tips to set a target ROAS that’s right for you:

Before transitioning to value-based bidding, ideally you will be already bidding to the desired conversion goal using a tCPA bid strategy. Be sure to report values across all relevant campaigns for 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles (whichever is longer) before determining your ROAS target and activating value-based bidding.
Your ROAS target should be at or below the ROAS compared to your historical performance.
To find this, select Modify columns from the “Columns” drop-down and add the Conv. value/cost column from the list of "Conversions" columns. Then, multiply your conversion value per cost metric by 100 to get your target ROAS percent.
Ensure the time frame of your ROAS evaluation excludes the most recent conversion delay period to get an accurate view of campaign performance.
Target recommendations can also be found in the Recommendations tab, during campaign construction, within the bid simulator or while creating a strategy at the campaign or portfolio levels.

About bidding on impressions

Many advertisers hope viewers will click their ad -- but that's not always the main goal. Maybe you just want a lot of people to see your ad. In that case, bidding by cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (vCPM) is a good way to go. With vCPM bidding, you bid for your ad based on how often it appears in a viewable position on the Google Display Network. You set the max amount you want to pay for viewable ads, whether they're clicked or not.

Why use vCPM bidding

Some people prefer vCPM bidding because they want to be able to set a maximum amount they'll pay for each time their ad can be seen, or each viewable impression, instead of for each click.

vCPM bidding is unavailable for Search Network campaigns.

Tip

If your main goal is online sales or visits to your website, then Maximize clicks or Maximize conversions bidding may be a better option for you.

A quick comparison of vCPM and CPC bidding

We'll get into a few more details below, but here are some of the basics:

	Viewable CPM bidding	CPC bidding
Consider using this if:	You care more about your ads being viewed than about clicks generated	You care more about clicks
Bid:	Maximum amount you're willing to spend for 1000 viewable impressions	Maximum amount you're willing to spend for 1 click
Actual amount charged:	You don’t pay for any impressions that were not viewable. Learn how to bid on viewable impressions using viewable CPM.	You pay for clicks you receive

How vCPM and CPC bids compete

Ads with different bid types can compete for the same Display Network placements.

To keep things fair, when CPC and vCPM ads compete for the same Display Network placement, the two types of ads are compared apples-to-apples on how much they're effectively willing to pay for the impression. With a vCPM ad, the max viewable CPM bid represents how much the advertiser is willing to pay for each 1,000 viewable impressions; with a CPC ad, Google estimates how many clicks the ad might receive in 1,000 impressions to get the comparison.

How to use vCPM bidding

With vCPM bidding, you set the highest amount you want to pay for each 1,000 viewable ad impressions. We call this the maximum vCPM bid, or just "max viewable CPM." The higher your max viewable CPM, the greater the chance that your ad will appear. Learn more about Active View.

Tip

Text ads using vCPM bids can have a special edge: when they win a placement, they're always given the entire ad space, rather than sharing the space with other text ads. That makes them more likely to be noticed.

Your max viewable CPM bid may win different levels of impressions at different prices than previous max CPM bids. Because you don’t pay for impressions that were not viewable, you may want to increase your max viewable CPM bid to achieve the same level of spend and traffic volume. Learn more about the differences between CPM and vCPM bids

You can set your max viewable CPM bid in a couple of ways. Let's say you sell flowers, and you've set up an ad group with keywords like roses, daisies, and tulips.

Ad group bids: Set your max viewable CPM at the ad group level, and you'll have the same viewable CPM bid for all keywords and placements in that ad group. Let's say you choose an ad group viewable CPM of US$1.20. If your ad shows on a site that's associated with roses or tulips, or appears on a blog about flowers, the max viewable CPM is always US$1.20. This is the easiest way to manage your viewable CPM bids.
Placement-level bids: You can set a viewable CPM bid for each placement if you like. If you know a site gets great results for you, you can bid more for placements on that site.

Try it now

About Budgets

Budgets overview

Managing your budget will help you control your advertising costs and get the most out of your Google Ads investment. To understand budgets, you’ll need to know these key budget concepts and how they work together.

This article primarily focuses on average daily budgets.

For more on campaign total budgets, learn more About campaign total budgets.

On this page

Average daily budgets and spending limits
Daily costs

Average daily budgets and spending limits

Concept	Definition	How it is determined	Example
Average daily budget	The average amount that you set for each ad campaign on a per-day basis. It specifies how much you're roughly comfortable spending each day over the course of the month. Learn more About average daily budgets.	This is the amount you input as Average daily budget in the UI.	You set an average daily budget of $10 USD.
Daily spending limit	The maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign on a given day. Learn more About spending limits.	Average daily budget multiplied by 2 (for most campaigns)	For an average daily budget of $10 USD, your daily spending limit is $20 USD.
Monthly spending limit	The maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign over a month. This spans: First month: The start date of your campaign to the last day of the month. Subsequent months: The first day of the month to the last day of the month Learn more About spending limits.	Average daily budget multiplied by 30.4 (for most campaigns) 30.4 is the average number of days in a month.	For an average daily budget of $10 USD, your monthly spending limit is $304 USD.

Google will optimize your campaign spend for days of the month when you’re more likely to get clicks and conversions. This means that on some days we might not meet your average daily budget, and on others we might exceed it. But you’ll never pay more than your daily spending limit in a given day, or more than your monthly spending limit in a given month.

Diagram legend:= $

Example

On March 1st, you start a new campaign and set an average daily budget of $10 USD. On March 11, due to a spike in clicks, you might spend $15 USD. On March 17, when consumer demand is lower, you might spend $8 USD.

Although your spend fluctuates day to day depending on consumer demand, competition from other advertisers, and other factors, you’ll never pay more than $20 USD on a given day or more than $304 USD for all of March.

Other types of budgets

In addition to an average daily budget, you might also set:

A shared budget, if you want to specify an amount to allocate across multiple ad campaigns. Learn more About shared budgets.
A campaign total budget, if you know how much you’d like to spend on your entire campaign with a set start and end date. You’ll never pay more than the amount you specified. Learn more About campaign total budgets.

Daily costs

In rare circumstances, your “served costs” may exceed your spending limits. But don’t worry, you’ll never actually pay more than your spending limits. To understand how this works, you’ll need to understand the difference between served costs and billed costs.

Concept

Definition

Example

Served cost

The cost of all the clicks or impressions that the campaign received.

Say your average daily budget is $10 USD, which means your daily spending limit is $20 USD.

And say that consumer demand was so high on a particular day that you received an unusually high number of clicks on your ads.

Your served costs could be $23 USD, which is the value of all of the clicks your campaign received that day.

Billed cost

The actual amount you’re responsible for paying, after adjustments have been made to your account for items like invalid activity.

Your billed cost will never exceed your spending limits.

Even if your served costs were $23 USD, your billed cost will be capped at $20 (your daily spending limit).

You pay $20 USD and Google covers the remaining $3 USD.

View daily costs

You can view daily costs for one or more of your campaigns - or even your entire account - by viewing your Billed cost report. Learn more about How to view daily costs at the campaign and account level.

Your budget report can help you understand how much you're projected to pay at the end of the month, as well as how past changes to your average daily budget impacted your performance and spend limit. Learn more About your budget report.

About spending limits
For most campaigns, given your average daily budget, you'll never pay more than:
- Your daily spending limit (2 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) on any particular day.
- Your monthly spending limit (30.4 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) in any particular month.
Visit the budget report to learn more about your served cost and spending limits.

Daily spending limit

The daily spending limit is the maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign on a given day.

Diagram legend:= $

For most campaigns, including Hotel Commission Campaigns, the daily spending limit is your average daily budget multiplied by 2. On a given day, your campaign might spend up to twice your average daily budget to take advantage of fluctuations of traffic. At the end of month, the amount you will have spent on average every day will match your average daily budget.

For instance, if your average daily budget is set to $10 USD, your daily spending limit is going to be $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD. If you've set up a "Pay for Conversions" campaign type, there is no daily spending limit but the campaign will always stay within the monthly spending limits (your average daily budget multiplied by 30.4). Review the section below to learn more about monthly spending limits.

Note: Making changes to your average daily budget will impact your daily spending limit. Learn more about how budget changes take effect

Monthly spending limit

The monthly spending limit is the maximum amount you can pay for a campaign over a month.

You can calculate it by multiplying the average daily budget you set by the average number of days in a month, which is 30.4 (365 days in a year divided by 12 months). If your campaign starts during a calendar month, we'll only take into account the days the campaign was running.

For instance, if your average daily budget is set to $10 USD, your monthly spending limit is going to be $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD.

Note: Making changes to your average daily budget will impact your monthly spending limit. Learn more about how budget changes take effect

What happens when served costs exceed daily or monthly spending limits

In rare circumstances, your “served costs” may exceed your spending limits, but you’ll never actually pay more than your spending limits. To understand how this works, you’ll need to understand the difference between served costs and billed costs.
- Served cost is the cost of all the clicks or impressions that the campaign received.
- Billed cost is the actual amount you're responsible for paying after adjustments have been made to your account for items like invalid activity.
While served costs might exceed daily or monthly spending limits, you'll never pay more than these two limits. When such a situation occurs, Google will cover the difference. Learn more about how to view daily costs at the campaign and account level
Example: Exceeding daily spending limit

Let's say a campaign has the following settings:
- Average daily budget: $10 USD
- Daily spending limit: $20 USD ($10 USD x 2)
Now assume that, on a particular day when consumer demand is very high, the campaign receives total clicks that cost $23 USD, which is more than the $20 USD daily spending limit for this campaign. Even though our systems are designed to stop showing ads when the $20 USD daily spending limit hits, it's possible in rare circumstances that our systems won’t detect discrepancies right away.

This isn't how much you pay. Your billed cost, or the amount you’re responsible for paying, will never exceed your spending limits. Therefore, in this case your billed cost is going to be the daily spending limit, $20 USD, and Google will cover the remaining $3 USD.
Example: Exceeding monthly spending limit

Let’s say a campaign has the following settings:
- Average daily budget: $10 USD
- Monthly Spending Limit: $304 USD ($10 USD x 30.4)
Now assume that, on a particular month when consumer demand is very high, the campaign receives total clicks that cost $310 USD, which is more than the $304 monthly spending limit for this campaign. Even though our systems are designed to stop showing ads when the $304 monthly spending limit hits, it's possible in rare circumstances that our systems won’t detect discrepancies right away.

$310 USD is the served cost for the campaign, or the cost of all the clicks or impressions that the campaign received.

This isn't how much you pay. Your billed cost, or the amount you’re responsible for paying, will never exceed your spending limits. Therefore, in this case, your billed cost is going to be the monthly spending limit, $304 USD, and Google will cover the remaining $6 USD.
Check your billed cost and served cost

In rare cases, campaigns may deliver more clicks and impressions than expected. However, it’s important to note that you'll never pay more than your spending limits.

If you'd like to determine whether your campaign served cost exceeded your billed cost, follow these steps:
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Insights and reports drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Report editor.
4. Under the "Predefined reports (Dimensions)" drop down menu, select Other, then select Billed cost.
5. You’ll find a report that lists served and billed costs for each campaign.
  - To calculate the difference, subtract “Billed cost” from “Served cost”.
  - To perform these calculations in bulk, select the download icon in the top right corner of the report and save as a CSV file.
By default, the data is displayed daily and sorted by served cost. If you wish to assess a certain date range, remove the “Day” filter and set a date range in the upper right section above the table.

Related links
How budget changes take effect
When you change your average daily budget, you'll view these adjustments immediately in your account. Changing your average daily budget or campaign total budget can impact how frequently your ads are shown, as well as how much you can be charged.

On this page
- Average daily budgets
- Campaign total budgets
1. Average daily budgets

Budget changes can impact how frequently your ads are shown

Google optimizes your campaign spend for days of the month when you’re more likely to get clicks and conversions. When you change your average daily budget, Google will start serving your ads taking into account your recently changed budget. An increase in budget may be followed by an increase in spend, while a decrease may have the opposite effect.

Budget changes can impact how much you can be charged

Changing your average daily budget impacts both your daily spending limit and your monthly spending limit. Learn more About spending limits.

Impact on daily spending limit

On the day you make a change (or more than one change) to your average daily budget, your daily spending limit will be based on the highest average daily budget that you chose for that day. This means that for most campaigns you will never be charged more than 2 times your highest average daily budget on that day.

Example:

Let’s say you have a campaign with an average daily budget of $10 USD. On the same day, you first increase your budget to $50 USD, and then lower it to $5 USD. The daily spending limit for the day is going to be the highest of your average daily budgets multiplied by 2, therefore $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD.

Impact on monthly spending limit

When you change your budget, your spend for the rest of the month won’t exceed your new average daily budget multiplied by the remaining days in the month.

Example:

Let’s look at a monthly spending limit for November, which spans from November 1 to November 30. On November 1, you set an average daily budget of $5 USD, for a monthly spending limit of $152 USD ($5 USD * 30.4). Then assume that, on November 24, you’ve only spent $103 USD and you decide to increase your average daily budget for the remaining days of the month. You then change your average daily budget to $10 USD. The maximum you’ll be charged for the month of November will be:

$103 USD spent so far + ($10 USD/day * 7 days remaining in November) = $173 USD monthly spending limit

Putting everything together

When you change an average daily budget, 2 things are going to happen:
1. Google will start serving your ads taking into account the newly changed budget.
2. Your daily spending limit and your monthly spending limit are going to be updated accordingly.
Some additional examples below:

Single budget increase

Assume you have a campaign that has been running since the beginning of September. At the beginning of September:
- Average daily budget: $10 USD
- Daily spending limit = $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD
- Monthly spending limit = $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD
With 5 days left in the month (including the day the budget is edited) and $270 USD total spent, the average daily budget is increased to $50 USD. This will result in:
- Average daily budget: $50 USD
- Daily spending limit: $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD
- Monthly spending limit = $270 USD + ($50 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $520 USD
Single budget decrease

Assume you have a campaign that has been running since the beginning of September. At the beginning of September:
- Average daily budget: $10 USD
- Daily spending limit = $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD
- Monthly spending limit = $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD
With 5 days left in the month (including the day the budget is edited) and $270 USD total spent, the average daily budget is decreased to $5 USD. This will result in:
- Average daily budget: $5 USD
- Daily spending limit for the day with the edit: $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD
This is because we pick the highest daily budget for the day.
- Daily spending limit for remaining days of the month: $5 USD * 2 = $10 USD
- Monthly spending limit = $270 USD + ($5 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $295 USD
Note: The daily spending limit is updated keeping the highest average daily budget for the day, whereas the monthly spending limit only considers the latest average daily budget.

Multiple edits on the same day

Assume you have a campaign that has been running since the beginning of September. At the beginning of September:
- Average daily budget: $10 USD
- Daily spending limit = $10 USD * 2 = $20 USD
- Monthly spending limit = $10 USD * 30.4 = $304 USD
With 5 days left in the month (including the day the budget is edited) and $270 USD total spent, the average daily budget is increased to $50 USD. This will result in:
- Average daily budget: $50 USD
- Daily spending limit: $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD
- Monthly spending limit = $270 USD + ($50 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $520 USD
On the same day, a few hours after the first edit and now $280 USD total spent, the average daily budget is decreased to $30 USD. This will result in:
- Average daily budget: $30 USD
- Daily spending limit for the day with the edit: $50 USD * 2 = $100 USD
This is because we pick the highest daily budget for the day.
- Daily spending limit for remaining days of the month: $30 USD * 2 = $60 USD
- Monthly spending limit = $280 USD + ($30 USD/day * 5 remaining days in September) = $420 USD
Note: Even if you don't deliberately change the average daily budget in your campaign, changing your campaign end date is considered a budget change (for computing the maximum amount you'll pay within a calendar month).

Learn more About your language, number format, time zone, and currency settings.

2. Campaign total budgets

Campaign total budgets (flighted budgets) allow you to set a fixed budget for a specific duration, ranging from 3 to 90 days. This feature is designed for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns during specific events like flash sales or seasonal promotions.

Unlike average daily budgets, a campaign total budget acts as a hard cap for the total duration of the campaign.

How do budget changes impact serving

Campaign total budgets aim to maximize budget utilization by the end date, changing the budget amount affects how the system paces your spend:
- Re-distribution of spend: If you increase or decrease the total budget (or change the end date) while the campaign is live, the system recalculates the daily spend required to exhaust the remaining budget over the remaining days.
- No daily spending limit: Unlike average daily budgets, campaign total budgets don’t have a daily cap (such as the 2x daily limit). The system may spend more or less on specific days based on traffic opportunities to attempt to spend the total budget by the end date.
- Impact of frequent changes: It is recommended to minimize budget or duration changes once a flighted campaign has started. Sudden changes may lead to uneven spend or performance shifts as the system attempts to re-optimize towards the new total goal.
Example:

Let's say you are running a 10-day "Flash Sale" from December 1 to December 10 with a Campaign total budget of $1,000 USD.
- Initial pacing: Google aims to spend roughly $100 USD per day ($1,000 USD / 10 days).
- Day 3 adjustment: By the end of Day 3, you have only spent $200 USD (perhaps due to low search volume). You have $800 USD remaining and 7 days left.
- System re-calculation: Google will automatically re-pace your campaign to spend roughly $114 USD per day ($800 USD / 7 days) for the remainder of the flight.
- Budget increase: On Day 5, you decide to increase the total budget to $1,500 USD.
- New math: Total budget ($1,500 USD) - spent so far (~$430) = $1,070 remaining.
- New pacing: The system will now aim to spend $178 USD per day over the last 6 days to spend the full $1,500 by December 10.
Key differences from daily budgets
- Hard cap: The total budget set will not be exceeded.
- Switching: You can’t switch an existing campaign from an average daily budget to a campaign total budget. You must create a new campaign to use this feature.
Learn more About campaign total budgets.

Related links
About shared budgets
In Google Ads, a shared budget is a single average daily budget that’s shared by multiple campaigns in an account. Learn how to Manage a shared budget across campaigns.

Note: Campaigns using a total budget aren’t compatible with shared budgets. Total budget is spent evenly over the duration of one campaign while optimizing that campaign's performance. Learn more About campaign total budgets.

Shared budgets streamline your budget across campaigns by allowing underutilized budgets to automatically reallocate to budget-capped campaigns. This will allow you to decrease campaigns limited by budgets and improve campaign performance.

It’s best practice to implement shared budgets with portfolio bidding. Portfolio bidding allows you to be as efficient as possible with your total budget and with bid strategies on campaigns that share the same goals. Learn how to Create a portfolio bid strategy and how to Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies.

Note: Shared budgets aren't compatible with campaigns that are part of an experiment such as App campaigns, Hotel campaigns with a Commission bid strategy, Performance Max campaigns, and Smart Shopping campaigns.

Benefits of shared budgets
- Increased operational efficiency: Instead of spending time managing and reallocating budgets between multiple campaigns, budgets can be shared and automatically allocated across a group of campaigns.
- Improved budget utilization: Instead of setting individual budgets, allow your overall marketing budget to freely distribute between campaigns.
- Maximize performance and ROI: When used with Portfolio Bid Strategies, shared budgets can be utilized in the most efficient way across campaigns that have similar goals. This allows you to maximize performance and ROI towards your goals.
Note: We found on average, customers that adopt Shared Budgets and Portfolio Bid Strategies on Search campaigns typically experience +13% more conversions.¹

Example

Say you've set aside $100 USD per day, split evenly between two campaigns. On a given day, one campaign could get fewer impressions and clicks than usual, resulting in only $40 spent. With a shared budget, if your second campaign can reach enough traffic, Google Ads could take that leftover $10 and reallocate it to the second campaign automatically to maximize your campaign results overall.

¹Source: Google Internal Data, Global, 1/2024 - 3/2025

Related links
- Manage a shared budget across campaigns
- Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies
About campaign total budgets
When you already know how much you’d like to spend on your entire campaign, you can set a campaign total budget. You’ll have the option to select “Campaign total budget” while creating your new campaign.

Keep in mind that you can’t change the budget type after a campaign is created.

How do campaign total budgets and average daily budgets differ?
- Campaign total budgets: This option is ideal when you have a set amount you want to spend over a specific period. It takes into account how much has been spent so far and adjusts spending daily to attempt to spend the total budget in the remaining days. There are no daily spending limits, and you will never be charged more than your total budget.
- Average daily budgets: Choose this if your budget is more flexible. You will never be charged more than your daily spending limit (2 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) on any particular day or your monthly spending limit (30.4 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) in any particular month. Learn more about average daily budgets.
How to use campaign total budgets

Follow the steps below to set up campaign total budget:
1. Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu .
2. Click on the plus button to create a new campaign.
3. Follow the steps to set up bidding, campaign settings, and assets.
4. Under “Budget”, select “Campaign total budget”.
5. Enter your campaign’s total budget, then determine your campaign’s “Start date” and “End date”.
  - Your campaign’s “End date” can be adjusted to extend your campaign dates if needed.
Keep the following in mind when using campaign total budgets
- Campaign total budgets are only available for new campaigns. Existing campaigns currently can’t switch from average daily budgets to total budgets.
- Campaign total budget campaigns won’t require a new learning period if you’re using account goal settings. Keep in mind that Smart Bidding will learn across all conversion actions reported in the “Conversions” column, even if they’re targeting different goals or use different bidding strategy types.
- The campaign total budget minimum time period is set for 3 days.
- Campaign total budgets is available for all bid strategies available to the campaign type:
  - For Performance Max: Target ROAS, Max. Conv. Value, Target CPA, Max. Conversions
  - For Search campaigns: Target ROAS, Max. Conv. Value, Target CPA, Max. Conversions, Max. Clicks, Target impression share, and Manual CPC
  - For Shopping campaigns: Target ROAS, Max Clicks, Manual CPC
  - For Demand Gen campaigns: Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Max Conversion Value Bidding, Target ROAS, Maximize Clicks Bidding, Manual CPC Bidding
  - For YouTube: tCPM, tCPV (Auction), Fixed CPM (Reserve)
- Set a start or end date to align with your time-bound event between 3 and 90 days. For Demand Gen and YouTube, you can align with your time-bound event up to 1 year.
Best practices while setting up a campaign total budget
- Minimize frequently making edits as it can disrupt the system’s optimization efforts. For a new campaign, sudden changes like changing the end date, increasing budget could lead to uneven spend and shifts in performance as the system optimizes to the new goals.
- This feature will try to hit your spend goal within the set end date. If the campaign is limited by target, the spend will still be limited so we recommend relaxing the target. Consider using Max. clicks, conv. or conversion value bid strategies or lowering target ROAS to maximize performance and utilization if campaigns are constrained by targets. Learn more about how to pick the right bid strategy.
- Try to reduce campaign overlap and product feed overlap between campaigns where possible. Learn more about how Targeting overlaps with other accounts, campaigns, or ad groups, and how Performance Max interacts with other campaigns in your account.
- Add promotions to all product feed targeted by your promotional campaigns to maximize performance and user value. Choose the promotion types that best align with your objectives.
Related links
About average daily budgets
Google Ads Tutorials: How Google Ads Budget Pacing Works

For subtitles in your language, turn on YouTube captions. Select the settings icon at the bottom of the video player, then select "Subtitles/CC" and choose your language.

Your average daily budget is the average amount that you set for each ad campaign on a per-day basis. It specifies how much you are roughly comfortable spending each day over the course of the month.

You can set and edit your average daily budget at any time. Learn more about how to set up an average daily budget for your campaign

Google will optimize your campaign spend for days of the month when you’re more likely to get clicks and conversions, like when search traffic is higher or when we predict higher ROI for your ads. This means that on some days you might not reach your average daily budget, and on others you might exceed it.

Diagram legend:= $

Even though your campaign spend might vary, you will never pay more than:
- Your daily spending limit (two times your average daily budget for most campaigns) on any particular day.
- Your monthly spending limit (30.4 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) in any particular month.
Learn more about spending limits

Note: Your budget report can help you understand how much you are projected to pay at the end of the month, as well as how past changes to your average daily budget impacted your performance and spend limit. Learn more About your budget report.

How to decide on an average daily budget

With Google Ads, you choose an average daily budget for each campaign based on your advertising goals and the average amount you're comfortable spending each day.

Google Ads has some tools to help you with this:
- Performance Planner can help you optimize budgets across existing campaigns.
- Cost-per-click (CPC) can help you set the highest amount that you're willing to pay for a click on your ad (max. CPC).
How to calculate average daily budget from a monthly amount

Let's say you want to spend $304 per month on advertising. To figure out your average daily budget, you'd divide $ 304 USD by 30.4 (the average number of days in a month - 365/12) to get an average daily budget of $ 10 USD.

Using this example, here's how you'd figure out your average daily budget:

304/30.4 = $ 10 USD per day (Monthly budget / Average number of days per month = average daily budget)

You can also create shared budgets, which let you set a budget across multiple campaigns.

Related links
Manage a shared budget across campaigns
In Google Ads, you can assign an average daily budget to each individual campaign, or use shared budgets to allocate budget across multiple campaigns. Learn more about shared budgets

Note: Some Google Ads accounts can now link portfolio bid strategies and shared budgets together. Learn more about how to Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies.

Instructions
Set up a shared budget
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Shared budgets.
4. Click the plus button .
5. Name your new shared budget and set a budget amount.
6. Add some campaigns to your shared budget (optional).
7. Click Save.
Add campaigns to a shared budget

Apply the budget to any number of campaigns in the account:
1. From the shared budget menu, select a shared budget you want to apply to campaign(s) in your account.
2. Click the plus button to add relevant campaigns
3. Check the box next to desired campaigns
4. Click Save.
You can always edit your shared budget by coming back to the Shared library.

Note: When you add a campaign to a shared budget, the campaign’s budget is also added to the shared budget’s amount.

Remove a shared budget from a campaign

Because every Google Ads campaign has to have a budget, you can only remove a shared budget if it's not currently being used by any campaigns.

Follow these steps to remove a shared budget from your campaigns and remove it:
1. Go to the Settings page for each campaign that uses the shared budget you’d like to remove.
2. Click Budget.
3. Under “Set your average daily budget for this campaign’s shared budget” you should notice the shared budget applied to this campaign.
4. Select Individual campaign budget to remove the campaign from the shared budget.
5. Click Save.
Repeat the steps above for each campaign that uses the same shared budget.

Remove a budget from the Shared budgets
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Shared budgets.
4. Check the box next to the shared budget you'd like to remove.
5. Click Edit in the blue bar that appears, and select Remove from the dropdown.
Switching budgets midday

If you switch from an individual campaign to a shared budget or vice versa in the middle of the day, we will start serving from the time you switch, as though the campaigns have spent $0 up until that point.

Example

Let's say you have 4 campaigns, each with an individual budget of $6. By 3:00pm, each of these campaigns has spent their full $6. At 4:00pm, you decide to create a new shared budget of $24 for those four campaigns. We will start your $24 shared budget from $0, as if the $6 campaigns had not already served.
Related links
Why daily costs might exceed your average daily budget
Your average daily budget is the average amount that you set for each ad campaign on a per-day basis. It specifies how much you are roughly comfortable spending each day over the course of the month. Learn more about average daily budgets

Google will optimize your campaign spend for days of the month when you’re more likely to get clicks and conversions, like when search traffic is higher or when we predict higher ROI for your ads. This means that on some days you might not reach your average daily budget, and on others you might exceed it.

Even though your campaign spend might vary, you will never pay more than:
- Your daily spending limit (two times your average daily budget for most campaigns) on any particular day. This limit may not apply to certain campaign types.
- Your monthly spending limit (30.4 times your average daily budget for most campaigns) in any particular month. Your campaigns will stop running as soon as the total spend reaches the limit, and the amount of the monthly spend limit will then reset automatically on the first day of the next month.
Learn more about spending limits
Related links

Setup

Set up Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding is a subset of automated bid strategies that use Google AI to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction—a feature known as “auction-time bidding”.

Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value are all Smart Bidding strategies.

You can create a standard bid strategy that is applied to a single campaign, or create a portfolio bid strategy that can apply to multiple campaigns (recommended).

This article tells you how to opt a single campaign into Smart Bidding and create a new portfolio bid strategy when you’re setting up a new campaign, changing existing campaigns, or using the Shared library “Bid strategies” page to manage your portfolio bid strategies.

Note: You may see "Bidding and budgets" recommendations in the Recommendations page. Recommendations can help you find the right bid strategy to meet your business goals and help ensure your campaigns aren’t limited by budget.

Before you begin
- If you’re new to Smart Bidding in Google Ads, read About Smart Bidding first.
- To use Smart Bidding, you need to have conversion tracking enabled. Learn more about different ways to track conversions
Instructions

Opt a single campaign into Smart Bidding

You'll begin by creating a new campaign in your account and selecting a goal for your campaign.

Once you’ve created your new Search campaign, you’ll now choose who to target with your ads, how you’d like to spend your budget, and how to enhance your campaign with assets.

While targeting determines who can view your ads, your budget determines how many people see your ad and bidding determines what you want those people to do.
1. Enter your daily budget. This amount is the average you want to spend each day.
2. In the “Bidding” section, select Conversions or Conversion value from the dropdown menu.
3. If you’re more experienced with bidding you can select a bid strategy directly. Read how to Determine a bid strategy based on your goals.
4. Click Show more settings to select additional options:
  - Conversions: Select the type of conversion you want to bid for.
  - Ad schedule: Set a specific time and day you want your ads to run.
  - Ad rotation: Choose whether to show ads that perform better more often, or to show all ads evenly.
5. Click Save and continue.
Note: When you add a campaign to a shared budget, the campaign’s budget is also added to the shared budget’s amount.

Create a portfolio bid strategy in the Shared library “Bid strategies” page
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Bid strategies.
4. Click the plus button, and choose the type of bid strategy you’d like to create.
5. Enter the name of your new portfolio bid strategy.
6. Select the campaigns you want to include (you can also add more campaigns after your portfolio bid strategy is created).
7. Enter the bid strategy settings.
8. Click Save.
Create or change a portfolio bid strategy with existing campaigns
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Click the checkbox next to the campaigns you’d like to include.
5. Click Edit on the blue bar at the top.
6. Click Change bid strategy from the dropdown menu.
7. You can choose to Create new portfolio strategy, or Use existing portfolio strategy.
  - If you choose “Use existing portfolio bid strategy”, select a strategy from the list provided.
  - If you choose “Create new portfolio bid strategy”, enter the settings for your new strategy, and give it a name.
8. Click Apply.
Related links
Edit your target CPA
Google Ads offers an automated bid strategy that uses AI to set bids to help you get as many conversions as possible within your budget: Target CPA bidding. To use Target CPA, you set a target cost-per-action (CPA) that is then used to set bids for all campaigns and ad groups using your bid strategy.

After you set up your Target CPA bid strategy, you can change the amount of your target CPA at any time. This article shows you how.

Before you begin

If you haven’t set up a Target CPA bid strategy, read about Target CPA bidding first.

Instructions
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu, then click Campaigns.
3. Click the link for the campaign you would like to edit.
4. Click Settings.
5. Enter the new amount you’d like to use for your target CPA. If the campaign you’re editing is using a portfolio bid strategy, then the new target CPA you set will apply to all campaigns and ad groups using that bid strategy.
6. Click Save.
Tip: Choose which conversions to bid for

The Include in "Conversions" setting lets you decide whether or not to include individual conversion actions in your "Conversions" and "Conversion value" reporting columns. The data in these columns are used by bid strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, and ECPC, so your bid strategy will only optimize based on the conversions that you've chosen to include. Learn more About account-default conversion goals.

Smart Bidding will learn across all conversion actions reported in the “Conversions” column, even if they are configured for different goals and/or use different bidding strategy types. Cross-device conversions from Display Network, Video, Search, and Shopping campaigns are included by default. This isn't applicable for Hotel campaigns.

Related links
Set target CPAs for ad groups
Google Ads offers an automated bid strategy that uses AI to set bids to help you get as many conversions as possible within your budget: Target CPA bidding. To use Target CPA, you set a target cost-per-action (CPA) that is then used to optimize bids for all campaigns and ad groups using your bid strategy.

Note: You can set individual Target CPA or Target ROAS bids at the ad group level, but the strategy used to place bids will now be controlled at the portfolio level.

Before you begin

If you haven’t set up a Target CPA bid strategy, read about Target CPA bidding first.

Instructions
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Ad groups.
4. Find an ad group that uses a Target CPA bid strategy.
5. Click the number in the “Target CPA” column.
6. In the dialog that appears, enter your desired ad group target CPA.
7. Click Save.
Related links
- Edit your bids
- About Target CPA bidding
Edit your bids
You can edit your bid for an entire ad group or for individual keywords. Editing your bids based on how your campaigns perform may influence the amount of traffic your ads receive, and the return-on-investment (ROI) you generate.

This article explains how to edit your cost-per-click (CPC) bids and your cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (viewable CPM) bids.

On this page
Instructions
Edit the ad group default bid for a single ad group
In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .

Click the Campaigns drop down menu, then click Ad groups.

Select the appropriate ad group from the list.

Click the pencil button in the “Default max. CPC” bid column.

Enter a new amount.

Click Save.
Edit your bid for multiple ad groups
In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .

Click the Campaigns drop down menu, then click Ad groups.

Select the ad groups you wish to edit by marking the checkbox on the left.

Click Edit drop down. You can choose to change your bid strategy, tracking templates, or custom parameters.
How to edit your bid for individual keywords or other targeting methods

If your campaigns are using manual bidding, you can set your own maximum CPC bid amount. This will be used instead of the ad group default bid whenever a certain keyword, placement, or other targeting method triggers your ad.

Keep in mind that to set a max. CPC for a specific targeting method, you must have set your custom bid on that same targeting method. For example, if you want to set a specific bid for the website example.com, you need to set your custom bids on placements. Learn How to enable ad group bids, custom bids, and bid adjustments for your ad groups.

Tip: If you're using an automated bidding strategy other than Enhanced CPC you won't be able to edit your ad group default bid.
Edit individual keyword bids
In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .

Click Audiences, keywords, and content, then click Search keywords.

Select the keyword type, such as search or negative keywords.

Now select one or more keywords whose bid you want to change.

Click Edit drop down, and select Change max. CPC bids.

In the page that opens, you may set a new bid, increase or decrease your bid, raise bids to the first page or top of page CPC. If you would like to use the default ad group bid, leave the amount blank.

Click Apply.

Tip: To change the bid for an individual keyword, placement, or other targeting method back to the ad group default bid, click the individual targeting method bid and delete the text, leaving the field blank.
Edit bids for targeting methods
In your Google Ads account, from the Views bar at the top, select Search or Display campaigns.

Note: If you prefer to use the navigation panel on the left, click Change view in the top left of your Google Ads account.

Click the Campaigns icon , then click the Campaigns drop down menu.

Click Settings, then click the Additional settings drop down.

Select Custom bid & URL method.

Selecting a targeting method in the dropdown.

Click Save.

Select Bidding.

Enter your new bid and click Save.

Tip: Here are some other bidding options you might not know about:

You can set bid adjustments for better control over when and where your ad appears. They can be used to bid more competitively for mobile devices, locations, days, and times. Learn more About bid adjustments.

Google Ads also offers automated bid strategies that can set CPC bids on your behalf. Learn more About automated bidding.
Related links
- Determine a bid strategy based on your goals
- Choose a bid amount that works for you
Add or remove a bid adjustment
Bid adjustments allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search. If you are using the newer Google Ads experience, you can also adjust bids for certain ad interactions, such as calls to your business. This article shows you how to add or remove bid adjustments on both the Search Network and the Display Network.

Before you begin

Note that not all bid adjustments are compatible with all campaign types. If you’re not familiar with bid adjustments, read about bid adjustments first.

Instructions
Add or remove a bid adjustment on the Search network
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
  - Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu to select Locations, Ad schedule, Audiences, Content, Demographics, or Advanced bid adjustments.
  - To reach Devices, click the Insights and reports drop down in the section menu and click When and where ads showed.
2. Clicking Advanced bid adjustments opens the Interactions page, where you can set your bid adjustments for calls, audiences, or demographics.
3. Select the row you’d like to adjust, and click the pencil icon under the “Bid adj.” column. If you want to set bid adjustments for Devices, you also have the option to choose an ad group.
4. Choose “Increase” or “Decrease” from the drop-down, and enter a percentage. To remove a bid adjustment, delete the value in the field.
5. Click Save.
Add or remove a bid adjustment on the Display network
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click Audiences, keywords, and content.
  - To adjust your bids for specific demographic groups, click on the desired group after clicking Demographics and continue from step 3.
  - To adjust your bids for Placements, click on "Manual" and continue from step 3.
3. Click the campaign or ad group you’d like to change.
4. Select the row you’d like to adjust and click the pencil icon under the “Bid adj.” column. If you’d like to change multiple rows, click the boxes before clicking the pencil icon.
5. Choose “Increase” or “Decrease” from the drop-down, and enter a percentage. To remove a bid adjustment, delete the value in the field.
6. Click Save.
Tip: Exclude your ad from a certain device

You can decrease your bid by 100% (not 0%) to completely exclude your ad from a certain device. For device bid adjustments, note that the ad group bid adjustment won’t be used if the campaign bid for the same device is decreased by 100%. Only Device bid adjustments support a -100% adjustment.
Related links
Set and change an average daily budget for your campaign

With Google Ads, you choose a daily budget for each campaign based on your advertising goals and the average amount you're comfortable spending each day. You can change your budget at any time.

This article explains how to set and change your daily budget.

If your account is in Smart Mode, learn how to edit your budget for Smart campaigns.
Create a portfolio bid strategy
Portfolio bid strategies are AI-powered, goal-driven bid strategies that help you optimize bids across multiple campaigns. They help you reach your performance goals and provide a single place for you to quickly change bidding settings for all campaigns that use a single portfolio bid strategy.

This article shows you how to create a new portfolio bid strategy when you’re setting up a new campaign, in campaign settings, or in the Shared library.

It’s best practice to implement shared budgets with portfolio bidding. Learn more about how to Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies.

Note: Cross-account bid strategies allow you to create, monitor, and manage Smart Bidding portfolio strategies at the Google Ads manager account (MCC) level

Before you begin

If you don’t yet know what type of portfolio bid strategy is right for you, read about our whole suite of automated bid strategies first. You’ll also find definitions for each bid strategy during campaign setup. Keep in mind that portfolio bid strategies are not available for Performance Max campaigns.

Instructions
Create a portfolio bid strategy in the Shared library “Bid strategies” page
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Bid strategies.
4. Click the plus button , and choose the type of bid strategy you’d like to create.
5. Enter the name of your new portfolio bid strategy.
6. Select the campaigns you want to include (you can also add more campaigns after your portfolio bid strategy is created).
7. Enter the bid strategy settings.
8. Click Save.
Create or change a portfolio bid strategy with existing campaigns
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu, then click Campaigns.
3. Select the campaigns you’d like to include.
4. Click Edit from the navigation menu (top).
5. Click Change bid strategy from the dropdown menu.
6. You can choose to Create new portfolio strategy, or Use existing portfolio strategy.
  - If you choose “Use existing portfolio bid strategy”, select a strategy from the list provided.
  - If you choose “Create new portfolio bid strategy”, enter the settings for your new strategy, and give it a name.
7. Click Apply.
Related links
- About automated bid strategies
- Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies

Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies

In Google Ads, a shared budget is a single average daily budget for multiple campaigns in a portfolio bid strategy. You can now link portfolio bid strategies and shared budgets together. It’s best practice to implement shared budgets with portfolio bidding. Portfolio bidding allows you to be as efficient as possible with your total budget and with bid strategies on campaigns that share the same goals. Learn more About shared budgets.

On this page

How it works
Create a shared budget during portfolio bid strategy creation
Create or edit a portfolio shared budget through portfolio strategy settings
Create or edit a portfolio shared budget from the daily budget column
Budget status

How it works

After a portfolio bid strategy is associated with a shared budget, the shared budget will always be associated with the campaigns that are part of your portfolio bid strategy. When a campaign is added or removed from the portfolio bid strategy, the shared budget will be automatically updated to reflect the change. When appropriate, you will be asked whether you want to update the current budget.

Note: We found on average, customers that adopt Shared Budgets and Portfolio Bid Strategies on Search campaigns typically experience +13% more conversions.¹

Create a shared budget during portfolio bid strategy creation

Go to Bidding strategies within the Tools menu .
When the “Portfolio bid strategies” table opens, select the plus button, and choose the type of bid strategy you’d like to create.
Enter the name of your new portfolio bid strategy.
Select the campaigns you want to include.
- You can add more campaigns after your portfolio bid strategy is created.
Enter the bid strategy settings:
1. Ensure that “Create a shared budget to use with this portfolio bid strategy” is checkmarked (this is the default setting).
2. Enter the average daily budget amount (the average you want to spend each day across all of the campaigns in the portfolio bid strategy).
  
  Note: This budget amount must be filled in, even if you have not yet selected the campaigns.
  - If campaigns were selected earlier, the shared budget amount will pre-populate with the calculated sum of the individual campaign budgets.
    
    For example, if the budget for each campaign is $50, and you selected 5
    campaigns, the pre-populated budget amount would be $250
  - If you want to edit the shared budget amount, delete the pre-populated amount and enter a new amount. The pre-populated amount will not return after you’ve edited it, even if you delete the amount.
Select Save.

Create or edit a portfolio shared budget through portfolio strategy settings

Go to Bidding strategies within the Tools menu .
When the “Portfolio bid strategies” table opens, select the name of the bid strategy that you want to edit in the first column. The “Portfolio strategy report” opens for the selected name.
Scroll to the bottom of the report and select Settings.
Select the checkmark box to open the option “Use a shared budget with this portfolio bid strategy”.
- If you want to unlink your shared budget from your portfolio bid strategy, uncheck the checkmark box. You will now be able to add or remove campaigns directly from the shared budget.
(Optional) Edit a new shared budget amount.
Select Save.

Create or edit a portfolio shared budget from the daily budget column

Go to Bidding strategies within the Tools menu .
When the “Portfolio bid strategies” table opens, hover over the “Budget” column for the portfolio bid strategy that you want to change. Depending on the budget status, you can create a new shared budget or edit an existing budget. Refer to Budget status at the end of this article.
Select the pencil icon to create a new or edit an existing portfolio shared budget.
Select Save.

Budget status

Budget status	Action
- -	Select the edit icon to create a new shared budget and add campaigns.
Value (e.g., $1000)	Shared budget has been created. Select the edit icon to edit an existing shared budget.
Varied	Select the edit icon to create a new shared budget to align individual budgets.
Varied	If the edit icon is not active, the number of campaigns might be greater than 500. Reduce the number of campaigns in the portfolio bid strategy.

¹Source: Google Internal Data, Global, 1/2024 - 3/2025

Conversions for bidding optimization

About conversion goals

Conversion goals help you organize your conversion actions so that you can more easily optimize toward your advertising objectives.

Conversion actions are actions that you want your customers to take. They are grouped together based on related categories to form these conversion goals. For example, the “Purchase” conversion goal automatically includes all conversion actions, such as purchasing online on select websites or purchasing through select apps, that fall under the “Purchase” category type.

On this page

Benefits
Conversion goals overview
- Conversion goal types
- How conversion goals are used in bidding
Conversion actions
- How conversion actions are used in bidding
How conversion actions and conversion goals work together to influence bidding
How conversion goals and conversion actions impact campaign reporting

Benefits

Semantically meaningful grouping that helps advance optimization: The conversion actions in your account are automatically grouped into relevant conversion goals to describe the actions that are the most meaningful for your business. This also helps unlock bidding improvements and optimization opportunities.
Simplify conversion management: Select and edit conversion goals when you create new campaigns to make sure you’re fully optimizing for conversions that matter and getting the most from your campaigns. Capturing all relevant conversion actions is critical to helping you achieve your advertising objective. You can also set up account-default conversion goals that you can apply to various campaigns to save time on managing conversion goals for each campaign.
Improve campaign performance: Using account-default goals makes sure that all your valuable conversions are considered across all your campaigns for your smart bidding strategies. This gives Google AI more data to learn from to power your bid strategies and deliver better performance. Learn how Smart Bidding uses advanced machine learning to save time and boost performance.

Conversion goals overview

Conversion goals are used to group conversion actions into semantically meaningful categories that represent the type of transaction, for example, “Purchases”, “Contacts”, or “Submit lead forms”. These goals are used to drive bidding optimization for your campaigns.

Conversion goal types

Standard goals

Conversion actions that you add are automatically grouped into conversion goals based on their conversion category type, for example, “Purchases”, “Contacts”, or “Submit lead forms”. These goals are called standard conversion goals.

You can select standard goals as goals for default bidding optimization across all campaigns in your account by making them “account-default conversion goals”. Those you haven’t chosen as account-default goals can still be used for bidding optimization in specific campaigns.

Account-default goals

The standard conversion goals you set up as account-default goals should be the conversion goals you’d like all campaigns in your account to bid and optimize toward automatically. These are typically the most meaningful goals for your business. When you create a new campaign, all account-default goals in your account are selected for optimization by default.

To get the most out of Google AI and cross-campaign learning within the account, it's recommended that you optimize all your campaigns to meet the same set of goals. You can do this by aligning all your campaigns to the same account-default goals. When you create a new campaign, you’ll be shown your existing account-default goals to add to your campaign.

Note: When creating a new campaign, if a specific web conversion goal (for example, “Purchase” or “Add to cart”) is associated with the new or existing campaigns, you’ll receive a notification to add the equivalent app conversion goal to the new or existing campaign(s).

If the web goal is associated with an existing campaign, from within the notification, you can also make the new app conversion goals your account-default goals. Making the app conversion goals account-default goals will add those goals to both your existing and new campaigns. These changes can help you boost conversions and campaign performance. Learn more About Web to App Connect.

Example

If you have an existing account-default goal of “Purchases” that includes a variety of purchase-related conversion actions, that account-default goal is suggested as a conversion goal for the campaign you’re creating.

Note: If you have multiple standard conversion goals tracking different stages of the same conversion funnel, we recommend that you set only one of them as the account-default goal. For instance, if you’re an e-commerce shoe retailer that wants to drive more online shoe sales, it's recommended that you set "Purchase” as the account-default goal.

Custom goals (for advanced users)

Custom goals are goals that you can create and add any combination of primary and secondary conversion actions. For example, you can create a custom goal with a primary conversion action from the “Purchase” conversion goal and a secondary conversion action from the “Submit Lead Form” conversion goal. You can create custom goals in your “Conversions Summary” (to view the summary in Google Ads, click "Tools" and then under “Measurement”, click "Conversions").

Note that generally, these goals are for advanced use and aren't recommended in most cases.

Tip

You’re only able to bid toward one custom goal per campaign, so if you do choose to use a custom goal for a new campaign, make sure that your custom goal includes all conversion actions that you want your bidding to focus on. You can’t combine multiple custom goals for a single campaign.

View your conversion goals

Go to Summary in Conversions drop-down within the Goals menu.

In addition to the predefined goal categories Google Ads provides, you can define your own custom goals. Custom goals are goals you create when you add any combination of conversion actions. If you create a custom goal, you’ll find it at the bottom of your goals page.

How conversion goals are used in bidding

When you set up a campaign, you select which goals it bids toward. Your campaign’s conversion report, specifically the “Conversions” and “Conversion value” columns will reflect these goals.

View and edit your campaign’s conversion goal settings

Go to Campaigns within the “Campaigns” menu.
Select the Settings tab, then select the campaign you want to edit the settings.
Expand Conversion goals to show the goals your campaign is optimizing toward.
You have the option to optimize toward account-default conversion goals or campaign-specific goals.
1. Account-default: The campaign uses all conversion goals marked as “account-default” on the conversions summary page.
2. Campaign-specific: The campaign uses conversion goals you explicitly select, which can include any custom goals.
Hover over each goal to view which conversion actions you set as Primary (eligible for bidding) within that goal.

Tip: You can easily find which conversion goals and actions your campaign uses directly in your campaign reports:

Go to Campaigns within the “Campaigns” menu.
Select Segment from the bar above the campaigns table.
Under “Conversions”, select either of the following:
1. Conversion category to view reporting by conversion goal
2. Conversion action to view reporting by conversion action

Conversion actions

Conversion actions are meaningful and concrete steps your customer and potential customers take, such as an online purchase or a phone call. Measured with conversion tracking, these actions represent valuable milestones for your business.

Conversion goals help group these related conversion actions and are categorized based on the category type you select.

Learn how to set up a conversion action.

How conversion actions are used in bidding

You can set conversion actions within each of your goals as either primary and secondary settings.

Primary action: The action can be used for bidding and reporting, provided the campaign optimizes toward the associated conversion goal.
Secondary action: The action isn’t used for bidding or reporting, even if the goal it’s a part of is used in a campaign. Report data for these actions are found in the “All conv.” column.

Important: If you include a secondary conversion action in a custom goal, it will be used for bidding when you set the custom goal in campaign settings.

How conversion actions and conversion goals work together to influence bidding

For a campaign to use a conversion action for bidding, you must meet 2 conditions:

The conversion action must be set as Primary.
The campaign must use the goal that contains the conversion action for bidding.

Important: If you include a secondary conversion action in a custom goal, it will still be used for bidding when you assign the custom goal to a campaign in campaign settings.

Example 1

The goal, “Purchase” is selected by 10 campaigns
Conversion action A is set to “Primary”

Result: The Purchase goal and its associated “Conversion Action A” are driving bid optimization for those 10 campaigns.

Example 2

The goal, “Submit lead form” isn’t selected by any campaign.
Conversion action B is set to “Primary”

Result: The “Submit lead form” conversion action isn’t selected for bid optimization. Therefore, Conversion Action B, despite being set as “Primary”, doesn’t influence bid optimization for any campaigns.

How conversion goals and conversion actions impact campaign reporting

Only the primary conversion actions your campaign optimizes toward will appear in the “Conversions” and “Conversion value” columns in your campaign report. You can still view reports for secondary conversion actions in the “All conv.” and “All conv. Value” columns. Sample below:

Conversion goal setting	Conversion action setting	Bidding is optimizing towards Conversion action	Conversion columns
Goal is used for optimization by the campaign	Primary	Yes	“Conversions”, “Conversion value” , “All Conv”, “All Conv value”
Goal is used for optimization by the campaign	Secondary	No	“All conv.”, “All conv. value”
Goal is not used for optimization by the campaign	Primary	No*	“All conv.”, “All conv. value”
Goal is not used for optimization by the campaign	Secondary	No	“All conv.”, “All conv. value”

Note: Primary conversion actions not used for optimization may be used to enhance predictions

Benefits

Cross-account conversion tracking is useful for people and businesses who manage multiple Google Ads accounts. Here are some of the benefits:

Fewer code snippets and reports. Create one conversion tracking tag and use it across multiple accounts.
Simpler, more powerful reports. Cross-account Attribution reports consolidate your data across all accounts that use this feature. You can also see how people interact with your keywords across all of your accounts before they convert. If you are using cross-account conversion tracking, use the Attribution reports in the manager account (MCC).
Minimize miscounts. Placing fewer tags on your site makes it less likely to accidentally count the same conversion more than once.
Speed up your site. Fewer tags means less HTML on your website. And that’ll speed up load times for your customers.

Example

Let’s say you own a hotel company. You use multiple Google Ads accounts to send traffic to a reservation page on your site, and each Google Ads account has its own conversion tracking tag.

So, you sign into your manager account, create a cross-account conversion action to track your hotel reservations, and add the tag to your reservation page. The same tag will then track conversions for all Google Ads accounts that are in your manager account and use this cross-account conversion.

How it works

There are four parts to setting up cross-account conversion tracking.

	Create a cross-account conversion action in your manager account just as you would any other kind of conversion action.
	Add your new conversion tracking tag to your websites' conversion pages if necessary. (You’ll want to leave the old tag on your sites for now to avoid losing conversions.)
	Choose the accounts for which you’d like to use cross-account conversion tracking.
	After your chosen conversion window, remove your old conversion tracking tag from your site.

Learn how to Set up cross-account conversion tracking with a Manager account (MCC).

If your client accounts already have conversions, you can stop using those account-specific conversion actions and instead use cross-account conversion actions. Here's how the two are different:

Cross-account conversion actions	Account-specific conversion actions
Client in a manager account (MCC)	Created and managed in an individual account (non-manager)
Tracked across multiple accounts	Tracked only in one account
Can apply to existing accounts within a manager account, and new accounts as they’re created	Applies only to the account in which it’s created

Impact on your accounts

A Google Ads account can use account-specific conversions or cross-account conversions. It can’t use both.

So if you manage a client account’s conversion actions in your manager account, the client account can’t use its own conversion actions anymore (existing conversion statistics won’t be lost, though, and account-specific conversion actions can be used again if cross-account conversion actions are later disabled).

Structuring your accounts

If you use more than one manager account, you’ll also want to be extra thoughtful about which one you use to manage conversions for your business. Here’s are some possible structures you might want to consider:

If you use separate agencies for your search and display advertising: You’d probably want to set up cross-account conversion tracking in a manager account that contains all your accounts, which each agency can use.
If you have multiple product lines leading to the same conversion: You might want to set up conversion tracking in a manager account that manages the accounts for all the product lines.
If you have multiple product lines leading to different conversions: You’d want to decide whether to set up conversion tracking separately for each product line, or set up one main manager account for all of the product lines.

Keep in mind

Client accounts will be able to see, but not make changes to, cross-account conversion actions. Only manager accounts can make changes to these types of conversion actions.
Smart Bidding will learn across all conversion actions reported in the “Conversions” column, even if they are configured for different goals and/or use different bidding strategy types.
If you're using cross-account conversion tracking, you'll need to import any Google Analytics goals and transactions into the manager account that created those cross-account conversion actions. For now, any goals or transactions you already imported will continue counting conversions, but in the future, goals and transactions in the client account will no longer be supported.
Existing data for any account-specific conversions will always be available in Google Ads after cross-account conversions are enabled.
To share conversion actions across your client accounts, set up sharing from within your manager account. Conversion actions cannot be shared between client accounts.
Google Ads tags used for MCC accounts will take priority over account-level tags. This doesn't apply to Google Analytics.
If you experience issues like inactive tags or no recent conversions, troubleshoot problems with your conversion tracking tag.

About conversion value rules

Note: This feature isn't compatible with Travel campaigns.

Conversion value rules let you adjust your conversion value reporting and Smart Bidding optimization. Conversion value rules let you better express the value of conversions as they relate to your business, and easily adjust values for conversions based on geographic location, device and audiences at auction time bidding in real time.

This article explains how conversion value rules work. When you’re ready, learn how to Set up conversion value rules.

How it works

Conversion value rules allow you to provide additional value information that isn’t already reflected in your account (for example, different margins for different types of users, or lifetime value considerations) and optimize in real time to those values. Conversion values are adjusted by the specific rules (for example, increase value for users in New York by 20%) and reported in the conversion value column of your account.

You can review your conversion value rules in the conversion value column across your account reporting. Conversion value rules will also be used in real time by Smart Bidding to optimize Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value. Conversion value rules only apply to Search, Shopping, Display, Travel, and Performance Max campaigns. Each rule can have a primary and secondary condition.

For example: You're an online leads business that currently values all leads at $5 USD through Google Ads. However, you know that Californian leads are typically worth $10 USD. With conversion value rules, you could specify this by multiplying all conversions from California by 2, and Google Ads would report $10 USD values for users from California.

On the other hand, you could be a retailer with brick-and-mortar stores who sells products across a wide range of price points. With conversion value rules, you can set different store visit value by campaign to reflect different average in-store order values.

If you’re using a value-based Smart Bidding strategy, like Target ROAS or Max Conversion Value, then your bidding will automatically optimize for these values as well. Thus, the rule you specify will ultimately better reflect what you know about your business in Google Ads.

Benefits

Optimize your true business goals: Better reflect your business’ observable data and optimize to what matters, like revenue, profit, offline conversion value, or lifetime value.
Simplified management: Improve reporting and optimization directly from your Google Ads account, without having to change tagging code.
Real-Time Optimization: Optimize for nuanced values in real-time with Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value.

Conditions you can set with conversion value rules
Audiences	Geographic locations	Device	No condition (for select conversion goals)
Indicate the type of users that you know are higher value to your business through conversion value rules on first-party and Google audience lists.	Adjust values for conversions from users in different locations with conversion value rules on geographical location.	Adjust values for users converting on different types of devices with conversion value rules for devices.	Create unique value rules that only apply to store visit or store sales conversion actions.

Note: Some value rules conditions may not be available for advertisers with ads related to housing, employment, or credit due to Google Ads policies.

Keep in mind: Smart Bidding already uses signals like geography, device, and first-party audience lists (when applied). If a user in one of those segments converts better, and this is reflected in your reporting, Smart Bidding already accounts for that. Learn more by reading about the impact of conversion values rules on Smart Bidding and performance.

Upgrade offline conversion import to enhanced conversion for leads

Enhanced conversions for leads is an upgraded version of offline conversion import that uses user-provided data, such as email addresses, to supplement imported offline conversion data to improve accuracy and bidding performance. When you import your offline conversions, the provided hashed customer data is used to attribute back to the Google Ads campaign by matching to the same data collected on your website (for example, lead form) and to signed-in customers who engaged with your ad.

If you already use offline conversions, you can upgrade to enhanced conversions for leads to import user-provided data in addition to the identifiers you already import (GCLID). Learn more about how Google used enhanced conversions for leads data.

If you're currently using offline conversion imports, we highly recommend upgrading to enhanced conversions for leads using the Google Ads Data Manager. Learn more about Using Google Ads Data Manager with enhanced conversions for leads.

Enhanced conversions for leads is an upgraded offline conversion import that offers benefits like:

Greater durability
More accurate reporting and engaged-view conversions
Cross-device conversions
Support in Data Manager, Google Ads API, and third-party import methods like Zapier and Hubspot.

Enhanced conversions for leads is not a separate feature that you need to to migrate to, but makes use of additional first-party user-provided data and data sources (like your website tag) to improve your existing offline measurement, along a spectrum, based on your business needs:

Before you begin

If you have not already adopted offline conversion import, we recommend starting with enhanced conversions for leads instead. Enhanced conversions for leads is an upgraded offline conversion import that is easier to set up and offers benefits like durable, more accurate reporting, engaged-view conversions, cross-device conversions.

If you currently use Offline Conversion Import, we recommend upgrading it to get the benefits of enhanced conversions for leads. Learn more About enhanced conversions for leads.

Enhanced conversions for leads can improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement. It supplements the existing conversion tags by allowing advertisers to send hashed first-party customer data from your website in a privacy-safe way. The hashed customer data is compared to hashed customer data of signed-in Google Accounts and attributed to ad events to help measure conversions driven by your campaign.

After you’ve set up enhanced conversions for leads with Google Tag Manager or set up enhanced conversions for leads with the Google tag, you can confirm that your enhanced conversions are effectively working in the enhanced conversions diagnostics report. The diagnostics report will help you identify and self-diagnose issues implementing enhanced conversions. Common issues include missing or incorrectly formatted user-provided data, or incorrect in-page code implementation. To ensure that you successfully measure enhanced conversions for leads, refer to the Enhanced conversions for leads implementation checklist. You can also set up enhanced conversions in the Google Ads API that can improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement.

If you’re using offline conversion imports, we highly recommend upgrading to enhanced conversions for leads using the Google Ads Data Manager. Offline conversion import is a legacy feature, and it doesn’t have the durability features that enhanced conversions for leads offers. Google Ads Data Manager simplifies connecting and activating your first party data through a new interface available within Google Ads. It enables you to import and activate your first party data across supported connectors.

Note: To maximize accuracy, include GCLIDs with your uploaded events whenever possible. This is required if you are not using a tag to collect user-provided data. If you are using a tag with enhanced conversions for leads, the tag collects GCLIDs automatically, but you should continue importing existing GCLIDs to ensure offline conversions are properly attributed to specific ad clicks.

Information you need to include in offline uploads for enhanced conversions for leads:

Required:

Recommended:

Google Click ID (GCLID): Required if you are not implementing a tag to collect user-provided data.
User-provided data (at least one of the following):
- Email
- Phone Number
- Address

If you’re using API and Manual File, refer to
hashing requirements

Conversion Name: The name of the conversion action that you’d like to import offline data for. For example, “lead qualified” or “contract signed”
Conversion Time: Choose one of the accepted time formats and time zones.
Conversion Goal: For lead gen advertisers measuring offline goals, use qualified or converted lead goals.

Google Click ID (GCLID): Regardless of your implementation method, It’s recommended you continue to send the GCLID to maximize measurement and performance benefits.
Order ID: Helps control duplicate leads
Conversion Value: The value of the conversion.
Conversion Currency: The currency code of the conversion value.
Consent: It’s highly recommended that you populate the consent field, as failing to do so may result in conversions that are not attributable.
Order ID: Also known as the transaction ID for the conversion. This field is optional, but strongly recommended, because it makes it simpler to reference imported conversions when making adjustments. If you set it during the import, you must use it for any adjustments. Learn more about how to use a transaction ID to minimize duplicate conversions.
Session Attributes: To maximize campaign performance, it is recommended to import session attributes alongside click identifiers and user-provided data whenever possible.
All available user identifiers: You should send all relevant data for a given conversion (such as multiple email addresses or phone numbers), as this increases the likelihood of a match and contributes to campaign optimization.
BRAID (GBRAID and WBRAID): These URL parameters should be added whenever available to maintain conversion reporting in a privacy-safe way.
Cart Data: Contains item-level details about a conversion. Populating the cart data field is required to report on basket data, such as items purchased, price, and quantity. Learn more About conversions with cart data.

Implementation varies depending on what you're measuring and your capabilities. Follow our guide to upgrading offline conversion imports to determine the method that best fits your needs.

Before you upgrade

If you are already using offline conversion imports, when you upgrade to enhanced conversions for leads, the steps are different than if you were setting it up for the first time.

You’ll need to:

Opt-in to enhanced conversions for leads: You'll need to opt-in to enhanced conversions for leads and accept the terms of service (confirm that you'll comply with our policies and that the Google Ads Data Processing Terms apply to your use of enhanced conversions) in your conversion settings. You’ll check the toggle to turn on enhanced conversions for leads, and then select “Google tag” or “Google Tag Manager” based on how you instrument your Tag on your website.
Tag your website: You should add a Google tag to your website (or use Google Tag manager), if you haven’t tagged already. If you use a website builder or content management system (CMS), you may be able to set up your tag without making changes to your code. Learn how to Install your Google tag with a website builder or CMS. Ensure the tag is installed on every page of your site.

Turn on enhanced conversions for leads

You'll need to opt-in to enhanced conversions for leads and accept the terms of service.

In your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon .
Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu.
Click Settings.
Expand the Enhanced conversions for leads drop-down and check the box to turn on enhanced conversions for leads.
Select either Google tag or Google Tag Manager based on what you use on your website.
- Note: Adding the Google tag lets you fully utilize online and offline data sources, providing a complete picture of your first-party data. No further action is required if you've already configured the tag or cannot implement the tag.
You will be prompted to agree to Customer Data terms if you haven't already.

Note: If you’re using Google Tag Manager, you can create a conversion linker tag and a user-provided data event tag to configure enhanced conversions for leads in your Google Tag Manager account. Learn how to Configure enhanced conversions for leads in Google Tag Manager.

Use the following guides depending on if you are currently importing offline data using offline conversions imports or if you are setting up a new conversion action.

Upgrade your existing offline conversion import actions

If you already use offline conversion import, you can add enhanced conversion for leads to your existing offline conversion actions by configuring your imports to also include user-provided data. This upgrade option is available for Data Manager data sources, Ads API, and third-party integrations (Hubspot, Zapier).

The specifics will differ based on the import method you use.

If you use Data Manager, after you opt-in to enhanced conversions for leads, you can edit your Connection to map user-provided data fields in your import.
If you use Google API, follow this Developer Center article on how to include user-provided data as part of your imports.
If you use third-party import methods (e.g., Zapier, Hubspot), follow their specific instructions on how to include user-provided data in the import.

For all of these, be sure to:

Continue to import GCLID: To maximize accuracy, include GCLIDs with your uploaded events whenever possible. This is required if you are not using a tag to collect user-provided data. If you are using a tag with enhanced conversions for leads, the tag collects GCLIDs automatically, but you should continue importing existing GCLIDs to ensure offline conversions are properly attributed to specific ad clicks.
Import all events: Import all events whether they contain a GCLID, user-provided data field, or both to maximize your performance:
- Import events with just GCLID
- Import events with both GCLID and user-provided data
- Import events with just user-provided data

After upgrading your existing offline conversion import to enhanced conversions for leads and importing your data, you should monitor conversion volume and campaign performance. If you've observed an increase in conversions, you may consider a target change to your CPA or ROAS. Learn more about bidding’s Best practices.

1. Create a new conversion action

If you’re creating new conversion actions to set up enhanced conversions for leads, follow these steps. This set up option is currently available for all data import methods.

Set up offline import with enhanced conversions for leads with Data Manager
Set up offline import with enhanced conversions for leads with the Google Ads API
Set up offline import with enhanced conversions for leads with a third-party integration like:
- Hubspot
- Zapier

Note: It’s a best practice to choose either "Qualified lead” or “Converted lead" as your conversion goal when you create a conversion action to set up enhanced conversion for leads.

2. Confirm you’re sending the data properly

Validate that the conversions are coming through your new enhanced conversions for leads conversion action. Wait for 3 conversion cycles or 4 weeks to allow data to accumulate before turning off the offline conversion import.

Review your setup by viewing your offline data diagnostics. Learn more About offline data diagnostics.

3. Swap offline conversion import actions for bidding

After the longer of 3 conversion cycles or 4 weeks, swap your new enhanced conversions for leads conversion action to primary and your offline conversion import conversion action to secondary.

In your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon .
Click the Conversions drop down in the section menu.
Click the name of the conversion action you want to disable offline conversion imports for.
Click Settings.
Under “Offline Conversion Tracking”, click Upload Conversions.
Unselect the “Import from external data sources (e.g. CRM)” checkbox.
Click Save.
Next, click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu.
Click Summary.
Find the goal that includes the conversion action you’d like to edit.
Click Edit settings.
In the 'Conversion goal and action optimisation section, select either Primary or Secondary.
Click Save.

Add optional step to migrate data fields if you don’t want to swap actions.

Key Bidding Features

About data exclusions
Data exclusions are a tool in Google Ads that help you reduce the impact of conversion tracking issues in Smart Bidding. Since Smart Bidding uses conversions and conversion value data to help meet your goals, reducing the impact of the issues may maximize your Smart Bidding Performance. This article explains data exclusions, how it works, as well as the steps to add data exclusions.

Note: Data exclusions aren't supported in Hotel and Travel campaigns.

On this page
How data exclusions works

Data exclusions is an advanced tool that helps you inform your Smart Bidding strategy of an issue with conversion data, to help reduce the impact to performance.

Conversion issues that may affect Smart Bidding include anything that causes reported conversions or conversion value in Google Ads to be incorrect. Some common issues include:
- Tagging issues
- Website outages
- Data import issues
Example: If a tag was accidentally removed from your site, Google Ads may not have tracked your conversions. You can exclude the data affected by the missing tag to help minimize the performance impact that this sudden drop in conversion reporting may have on Smart Bidding. Note that applying a data exclusion doesn’t guarantee that your campaigns won't experience performance fluctuations.

Data exclusions for Smart Bidding are available for Search, Display, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns.

About data exclusions

Data exclusions can only be used with conversions and conversion value based Smart Bidding strategies. Below are the key points to know when using data exclusions:
- Data exclusions apply to clicks: Your data exclusions must exclude clicks that could have had the affected conversions attributed to them. When these clicks are excluded, the associated conversions are also excluded.
- Data exclusions apply to most campaign types: If you applied an exclusion for the entire account, conversions for Search, Display, Shopping Network, and Performance Max campaigns will be excluded.
- Data exclusions aren't supported in Hotel campaigns.
- Data exclusions don’t affect conversion reporting: Data exclusions only affect the data that Smart Bidding uses. You can still find these excluded conversions in your reporting.
- Data exclusions applied for past dates should see performance fluctuations begin to stabilize after a few days. In the event that a week or more of clicks are impacted, performance fluctuations may persist for 1-2 conversion cycles. In the meantime, it’s recommended that you adjust CPA or ROAS targets to achieve desired performance, while ensuring budgets are set to acceptable levels.
Note: It’s generally not recommended to backfill data, including in the case where there was a data outage, as this can have a direct impact on your Search and Shopping bidding performance. In cases where data exclusion was set during the period, backfilling is possible for reporting purposes but only after waiting for a minimum of 5 days after the data exclusion was applied. In this case, removing the data exclusion is not advised.

Add data exclusions
1. Go to Adjustments within the Tools menu.
2. Select the Exclusions tab at the top.
3. Select the plus button to add a new data exclusion.
4. Next to “Settings”, enter a name and description.
5. Enter the start date and time and end date and time for the data you’d like to exclude. Since conversions can be attributed to clicks in the past, select a date range that accounts for the typical conversion delay.
6. Next to "Scope", select campaigns and devices for this adjustment. You can select individual campaigns to exclude or the entire account.
7. Select devices to exclude. For example, the conversion issue may only have affected mobile tracking.
8. Select Save.
9. Select Create data exclusion.
  1. Note: Data exclusions may change how your bid strategies perform. Before you create an exclusion, confirm that the information is correct.
10. Data exclusions can be applied at the Manager account (MCC) or sub-account level. The start and end times are based on the account's time zone.
Tip: When you apply data exclusions, you can set your campaign budget closer to its historical spend for a few conversion cycles to avoid spending more than what you're comfortable with.

Best practices

For best results, review the guidance below when applying data exclusions. While data exclusions can help reduce performance fluctuations associated with a bad conversion data, performance fluctuations should still be expected.
- Apply exclusions quickly: Whenever you identify a conversion data issue, apply data exclusions as soon as possible.
- Allow for stabilization: For past date exclusions, performance should begin to stabilize after a few days.
- Plan ahead: If you know there will be a problem (like outages or scheduled site maintenance), set a data exclusions ahead of time. These usually take effect within a day.
- Avoid frequent or extended use: You shouldn't use data exclusions frequently or for prolonged periods, as this can negatively impact Smart Bidding performance.
- Expect persistent fluctuations: If a week or more of clicks are impacted, performance fluctuations may continue for 1-2 conversion cycles.
- Adjust targets and budgets: After applying a data exclusion, adjust your CPA or ROAS targets to achieve desired performance and ensure budgets are set appropriately.
- Consider conversion delay: Exclusions work on clicks. Think about how long it takes for a click to become a conversion and exclude all days with clicks that might have issues. Try to exclude at least 90% of the clicks with issues.
- Account-level application: Data exclusions can be applied at the manager or sub-manager account level. Start and end times are based on the account's time zone.
  
  Example
  
  If uploads had issues from October 15- October 18, and conversion delay is 5 days, apply the exclusion as soon as possible for October 10- October 18 to cover all the clicks that might have issues.
- Don't undo exclusions: Even if you want to go back and fix the inaccurate conversion data, don't remove data exclusions you’ve already applied, as this can cause more issues.
- Recommended for outages: We recommend data exclusions for conversion data outages, including conversion tracking issues or conversion upload issues.
  
  Example
  
  Broken tracking, tags in the wrong place, or when you can't upload offline conversions.
- Backfills: It’s generally not recommended to backfill data, including in the case where there was a data outage, as this can have a direct impact on your Search and Shopping bidding performance.
  - In cases where data exclusion was set during the period, backfilling is possible for reporting purposes. Apply a backfill 5 days after the data exclusion was applied.
  - In this case, removing the data exclusion is not advised.
- Temporary bid or spend drops: If you have a conversion problem and use data exclusions, bids and spending might temporarily drop. To fix this, you can lower your ROAS. Once the exclusion takes effect, bids will quickly adjust to optimal levels. Remember to readjust your Target ROAS to prevent overspend.
Data exclusions: do's and don'ts

Do's
- Apply data exclusions as soon as a conversion data issue is identified.
- Proactively set exclusions for known future outages.
- Adjust CPA or ROAS targets and budgets after applying exclusions.
- Exclude at least 90% of clicks associated with impacted conversion data, considering conversion delay.
Don'ts
- Don't use data exclusions frequently or for extended periods.
- Don't remove a data exclusion after it’s been applied.
- Don't backfill data as it can negatively impact bidding performance. If you need to apply a backfill for reporting purposes, wait at least 5 days after the data exclusion was applied.
Related links
Use data exclusions for conversion data outages
Smart Bidding uses conversions and conversion value data in Google Ads to help meet your goals. If you have any issues with conversion tracking, you can use data exclusions to help reduce the impact that these issues may have on Smart Bidding Performance.

Note: Data exclusions aren't supported in Hotel and Travel campaigns.

Learn more About data exclusions.

Best practices for using data exclusions

For best results, review the guidance below when applying data exclusions. While data exclusions can help reduce performance fluctuations associated with a bad conversion data, performance fluctuations should still be expected.
- Apply data exclusions as quickly as possible at the time you’ve identified a conversion data issue.
- Data exclusions created for past dates should see performance fluctuations begin to stabilize after a few days.
- Whenever possible, if you know about a future outage such as a scheduled site maintenance, apply data exclusions proactively. When the data exclusion is set for dates in the future, this data exclusion will typically take effect within a day.
- Data exclusions aren’t intended to be used frequently or for extended periods of time. Doing so could negatively impact Smart Bidding performance.
- In the event that a week or more of clicks are impacted, performance fluctuations may persist for 1-2 conversion cycles.
- After applying a Data exclusion, it’s recommended that you adjust CPA/ROAS targets to achieve desired performance, while ensuring budgets are set to acceptable levels.
- Exclusion dates selected will apply to clicks, so make sure to consider your conversion delay and exclude any days of clicks that may have been impacted. It’s a best practice to exclude at least 90% of clicks associated with impacted conversion data.
- Data exclusions can be applied at the manager account or sub-manager account level. The start and end times are based on the account's time zone.
Example: If there was a data upload issue from October 15 to October 18, and the conversion delay is 5 days, apply the exclusion as quickly as possible, including any days with impacted clicks. In this case you would exclude October 10 to October 18.
- Don't remove a data exclusion after it has been applied.
- Advertisers may wish to backfill the accurate conversion data for their reporting purposes, but you should avoid removing data exclusions as it may cause undesired performance fluctuations. Advertisers should wait a minimum of 5 days before backfilling.
Data exclusions are recommended for a conversion data outage, which includes conversion tracking issues or conversion uploads. Examples of when data exclusions are applicable include:
- Broken conversion tracking for a certain period
- Incorrectly placed conversion tag on a website resulting in inaccurate conversion counts
- Temporarily unable to upload offline conversion data
It’s generally not recommended to backfill data, including in the case where there was a data outage, as this can have a direct impact on your Search and Shopping bidding performance. In cases where data exclusion was set during the period, backfilling is possible for reporting purposes but only after waiting 5 days after the data exclusion was applied. In this case, removing the data exclusion is not advised.

Note: If you have a conversion outage and have applied data exclusions, bids and spend could still drop for a brief period of time. To help increase bids and spend, you can lower your ROAS. However, when the data exclusion takes full effect, bids will quickly adjust to optimal levels, at which time the ROAS targets should be adjusted to desired levels to prevent overspending.

Related links
Create a seasonality adjustment
Seasonality adjustments are an advanced tool that can be used to inform Smart Bidding of expected changes in conversion rates for future events like promotions or sales.

Seasonality adjustments are currently available for Search, Standard Shopping, and Display campaigns using Target ROAS and Target CPA bid strategies, as well as Performance Max and App (beta) campaigns using all bid strategies.

Note: Because Smart Bidding already manages seasonal events, only use seasonality adjustments if you expect major changes to conversion rates. Seasonal adjustments are ideal for short events of 1–7 days. They may not work as well if you use them for extended periods (more than 14 days at a time).

Seasonality adjustments aren't supported in Travel campaigns.

Instructions

Seasonality adjustment to a single client account
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Adjustments.
4. Select the Seasonal option at the top.
5. To create a new seasonality adjustment, click the blue plus button .
6. Under “Adjustment type,” select Conversion rate.
7. Give your adjustment a name and an optional description. Fill in the event's start and end dates.
8. Under “Scope,” you will select either:
  1. Campaign type
    - Select either "All campaign types" or select specific campaign types.
  2. Specific campaigns or,
  3. Specific ad groups (App campaigns only): here you can select specific ad groups in the account
    - Note: Device selection isn’t applicable for App campaigns.
9. Under “Conversion rate adjustment,” adjust your conversion rate to reflect your estimated conversion rate change.
  - For example, if you expect conversion rates to increase by 50% during a 3-day sale, add up to a +50% conversion rate adjustment. This adjustment will help you optimize your bids.
10. Click Save.
11. Click Create seasonality adjustment.
Note that seasonality adjustments may change how your bid strategies perform. Before you create an adjustment, make sure the information is correct.

If you choose specific campaigns to include in a seasonality event, a maximum of 2,000 campaigns can be saved with the event. To include more campaigns, you can create another event or use the campaign type selection, like Search campaigns.

Seasonality adjustment to multiple client accounts from a manager account
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Adjustments.
4. Select the Seasonal option at the top.
5. To create a new seasonality adjustment, click the blue plus button .
6. Under “Adjustment type,” select Conversion rate.
7. Give your adjustment a name and an optional description. Fill in the event's start and end dates.
8. Under "Scope," choose one of the following:
  1. All accounts currently linked to this manager:
    - Select either “All campaign types” or select specific campaign types.
  2. Specific accounts
    - Edit “Select accounts”
    - Choose the campaign type or select “All campaign types”
  3. Specific campaigns
In the reporting table, the “Scope” column will show the number of campaigns affected and will link to those campaigns.
- Note: Device selection isn't applicable for App campaigns.
1. Adjust your conversion rate to reflect your estimated conversion rate change.
  - For example, if you expect conversion rates to increase by 50% during a 3-day sale, add up to a +50% conversion rate adjustment. This adjustment will help you optimize your bids.
2. Click Save.
3. Click Create seasonality adjustment.
Note: For “All accounts currently linked to this manager," seasonality adjustments apply to the currently linked client accounts. New client accounts added after the seasonality adjustment is applied won’t automatically inherit the adjustment. Existing client accounts that leave the manager account will continue to show the event.

Related links

About Smart Bidding Exploration

Google Ads Help: How Smart Bidding Exploration works

For subtitles in your language, turn on YouTube captions. Select the settings icon at the bottom of the video player, then select "Subtitles/CC" and choose your language.

Note: Smart Bidding Exploration is available only for Search campaigns that use Target ROAS bid strategy.

Smart Bidding Exploration is a new opt-in feature that uses Google’s AI to bid on potentially high-performing search queries. Google AI and flexible ROAS targets work hand-in-hand to fuel an advanced algorithm that captures new searches and secures additional conversions from the traffic you’re already eligible for. The result is scaled performance and traffic diversity, meaning your impressions, clicks and conversions will be driven by more unique search term categories.

Note: Smart Bidding Exploration doesn’t expand the reach of your broad match keywords, but rather helps you capitalize on more search terms you are already eligible for.

Benefits

Capture traffic from more diverse sources: Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered bidding broadens performance by engaging a wider spectrum of distinct search categories. Smart Bidding Exploration makes the most of your existing targeting methods including broad match, Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), and AI Max.

A Search category refers to a unique subset of queries grouped together based on user intent, with meaningful differentiation, compared to raw queries which would include incorrect spellings, plurals, and other variations.
Traffic diversity should be the key metric to evaluate success for this beta feature.
You might already know about Search categories from the "Insights" page in Google Ads. Learn more About search terms insights.

Scale conversion volume with your existing targeting: Smart Bidding Exploration bids on a large scale against your current eligible targeting (broad match, DSA, or AI Max) to capture total conversions than you would have in the past.

When to use Smart Bidding Exploration

Example:

A mortgage lender already bids successfully on high-performing, reliable queries like "mortgage" or "home loan” when advertising on Search. Google's systems know these queries will generally help them achieve their ROAS targets. It’s possible that the lender may be missing out on other leads.

About cross-account bid strategies
Cross-account bid strategies allow you to create, monitor, and manage Smart Bidding portfolio strategies at the Google Ads manager account (MCC) level.

Cross-account bid strategies may be helpful to you if you have multiple serving customer IDs under an MCC. Similar to portfolio bid strategies in a single child account, cross-account bid strategies are automated, goal-driven bid strategies that help you optimize bids across multiple customer IDs or campaigns while using Smart Bidding.

You can use cross account bid strategies for Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Maximize Clicks and Target impression share bid strategies on Search campaigns, and Target ROAS bid strategies on Shopping campaigns.

Benefits

Using cross-account bid strategies can give your portfolio bid strategies better performance at a more aggregated level by:
- Automatically setting bids for every auction to help you reach your performance goals.
- Providing a single place for you to quickly change bidding settings for all campaigns that use a single portfolio bid strategy.
- For Smart Bidding strategies, providing more conversion volume/value at the same overall target across campaigns in multiple Customer Ids by merging them together into a single portfolio.
How it works

Cross-account bid strategies offer a central place for performance to be analyzed and evaluated at the bid strategy level.

Once you create a cross-account bid strategy, it will be stored in your MCC’s Shared library. This is the central location for managing your portfolio bid strategies and tracking their performance.

If you’re adding a cross-account bid strategy to a Shopping campaign, that campaign will continue to focus on campaign-level targets even if it’s part of a portfolio bid strategy.

How to access and unlink your cross-account bid strategy

To view the performance of cross-account bid strategies and to add new campaigns, you should be logged in through the manager account where the portfolio is saved. If you have additional manager accounts higher in the hierarchy, you can log in through those as well.

Campaigns can be removed from the cross-account bid strategy from any Google Ads account that has access to the campaign. If you unlink a Google Ads account from a manager account that has the cross-account portfolio bid strategy saved, any campaigns in the Google Ads account will be marked as having an invalid bid strategy type and stop showing ads until you choose a new bidding strategy for those campaigns.

Each cross-account bid strategy portfolio can only contain campaigns of the same currency. You can choose any currency used across your accounts, but you won’t be able to change your portfolio strategy currency after you create it.

Set up a cross-account bid strategy
1. In your Google Ads manager account, click the Tools icon and then click Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
2. Click Bid strategies.
3. Click the plus button , and choose the type of bid strategy you’d like to create.
4. Enter the settings for your new cross-campaign bid strategy, and select your campaigns.
5. Click Save.
Note: You’ll only be able to attach a campaign or view the bid strategy report if the cross-account bid strategy is owned by the MCC. Bid strategies owned by a single serving customer ID cannot be used outside of that customer ID.

Related links

About Smart Bidding for store visits

Available for Search, Shopping, and Video campaigns, Smart Bidding for store visits allows you to optimize for store visits, using the same bid strategies used for online conversions. Learn more About Smart Bidding.

Store visits are currently supported in Smart Bidding for Display campaigns for select advertisers only. If you are running Display campaigns in the same account as Search (or Shopping) campaigns and also report store visits for Display campaigns, you can include store visits in Display Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value bid strategies.

About store visit conversions

If visits to your physical locations are important to your business, you can use conversion tracking to help you understand how your ad clicks and viewable impressions influence store visits. Learn more About store visit conversions.

Why is it important to use omnichannel Smart Bidding with store conversions?

On average, advertisers who use omnichannel Smart Bidding with store conversions see a 15% increase in omni ROAS at a similar cost.

Google Data, Global, Mar 1, 2024 to Sep 30, 2024

This claim was developed using Google recommended Store Visit Value.

How to value a store visit

If you are tracking online sales as conversions and value them as the “Revenue” generated, you can also value store visits to estimate in-store revenue. This way you can measure total revenue and return on ad spend. For more information about how to value a store visit, review About store visit conversion value or our video on How to value your store visits.

Note: You can use value rules for additional flexibility and control with store visit conversions. For example, set a higher visit value for specific campaigns promoting high priced items that sell better in store. Learn more About conversion value rules.

Best practices for store visit conversion window

We recommend using a 7-day store visit conversion window for best performance and evaluation with Smart Bidding. However, for specific business models that require a longer conversion window due to longer purchase cycles (for example, auto dealerships), it's possible to keep the 30-day conversion window. Keep in mind, when using a 30-day window, it will take longer after implementation to correctly evaluate the performance of Smart Bidding with store visits. Learn more About store visit conversion window.

Set up Smart Bidding for store visits in your campaigns

Follow the steps below to determine when you can use Smart Bidding for store visits and how to set up your Smart Bidding strategy.

Bid strategies supported

Smart Bidding for store visits is supported in the following campaign types and bid strategies:

Campaign type	Bid strategies
Demand Gen	Maximize conversions Target CPA
Performance Max campaigns	Maximize conversion value (with optional Target ROAS)* Maximize conversions (with optional Target CPA)
Search campaigns	Maximize conversions Maximize conversion value Target CPA Target ROAS ECPC
Shopping campaigns	Target ROAS

*Maximize conversion value (with optional Target ROAS) is recommended in Performance Max campaigns for advertisers with store visits.

Learn how to Determine a bid strategy based on your goals.

1. Set your store visits conversion goal as an account-default goal (recommended)

By setting your store visits conversion goal as an account-default goal, Smart Bidding strategies that optimize for conversions in that account will start optimizing towards it. If the conversion is owned by a manager account level, that setting will apply to all campaigns using Smart Bidding in client accounts which are opted into tracking conversions under that manager account. It is recommended to set your store visits conversion goal as account-default whenever possible, since the best overall performance is achieved by optimizing for the same set of conversions across all campaigns.

Set store visits conversion goal as account-default:

Go to Summary within the Goals menu .
Identify the Store visits conversion goal.
Select Edit goal.
Select Use as an account goal.
Select Save changes.

Keep in mind, when setting your store visits conversion goal:

Make sure to update ROAS or CPA targets of all existing Search and Shopping conversion-based Smart Bidding campaigns when you set your store visits conversion goal at the client or manager account level, to take into account the additional conversions or conversion value from store visits.
Smart Bidding strategies consider all conversion actions that are marked as ”Primary”. Ensure that the conversion actions you’d like to optimize toward within your Store Visits goal are marked as “Primary”.

2. Set your store visits conversion goal at the campaign level

This setting allows you to choose the conversion actions that will be reported in “Conversions” and used for bid optimization at the campaign-level. The campaign conversion setting allows you to override your account-default goals and specify which goals you’d like to track in your conversion reporting and use for bidding in a particular campaign. Using the campaign level conversion setting is recommended as an interim solution if you have existing bid strategies that optimize for conversions and would prefer to test and scale adoption of bidding to store visits throughout the account over time.

Set up campaign-level conversion setting for Search campaigns:

Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu .
At the top bar, select Settings.
Select the campaign you want to opt into store visits bidding.
Select the Goals drop-down menu.
Select Use Campaign-specific goal settings.
Select the Store visits conversion goal in addition to other conversion goals you'd like to optimize for and select Save.

Tip: We recommend switching to the account level setting once you’re ready to set your store visits conversion goal, since optimizing for the same goals across all campaigns leads to best overall performance. If you have other biddable conversion actions (such as website purchases, calls, sign-ups), we recommend selecting these in addition to store visits conversion action to optimize for the full value driven by the campaign. Learn more About campaign-specific conversion goals.

Optimize for store visit conversions

If you want to optimize more for store visit conversions in your Search campaigns, use a value-based bid strategy and make sure store visit conversions have a higher relative value to other conversion actions. Bid strategies that optimize for conversion volume (like Target CPA or Maximize conversions) treat each conversion action with equal importance. Learn more About conversion values.

Note: For Shopping ads, only value-based bidding (like Target ROAS) will take into account store visits.

Best practices for identifying and updating targets

Keep in mind that changes to conversion settings apply going forward only. When you first include store visits in "Conversions", historical values in conversion columns won't reflect the current setting. The best practice is to calculate CPA and ROAS targets manually by incorporating historical data from at least a 30-day period before the conversion delay into the following formulas:

CPA target = cost / (all biddable conversions + store visits)
ROAS target = (conversion value of all biddable conversions + store visits * current conversion value per store visit) * 100 / cost

For ROAS targets in Performance Max campaigns, follow the advice above for ROAS targets unless:

You aren't using the optional ROAS target: No action is required.
You are using the ROAS target only as a safety mechanism (your ROAS target is set higher than your achieved ROAS): Consider setting the new ROAS target also higher than the number recommended above.

Make sure to use data from at least a 30-day period before the conversion delay. For example, if your store visit conversion window and maximum online conversion delay is 30 days, set the historical period to be from 60 to 30 days ago.

Cost impact for adding conversions or conversion value to target-based Smart Bidding strategies

Adding store visits to the conversions used for bidding may cause your Target CPA and Target ROAS strategies to spend more to continue achieving your targets. To maintain stable spend, follow the above suggestions to identify and update targets. If you want to further ensure that spend is stable, you can decrease your CPA target or increase your ROAS target once you include store visits in “Conversions”.

About Smart Bidding for store sales

Smart Bidding for store sales allows you to maximize ROI across all touchpoints of the online to offline journey and use Google’s AI to factor in key signals such as device, location, time of day, and other data points to optimize every single auction, saving you time while driving better results for your business. Value store sales conversions alongside online conversions and include them in Smart Bidding strategies to optimize towards omnichannel sales objectives or optimize directly to store sales conversions and offline sales objectives.

Smart Bidding for store sales is currently available for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns with omnichannel and offline marketing objectives, and is compatible with both value-based bid strategies like Target ROAS and Maximize conversion, and conversion-based bid strategies like Maximize conversions or Target CPA.

This article explains how Smart Bidding works for store sales (for Search and Shopping campaigns). If you’re interested in Smart Bidding for store sales for Performance Max Campaigns, refer to Create a Performance Max campaign.

Keep in mind

Store sales bidding is currently unavailable for Video and Display campaigns. While store sales may appear in account-level conversion reports, they won't influence bids for these campaigns.

For consistent reporting and bid optimization alignment, track store sales at the campaign level or utilize predefined columns.

Why is it important to use omnichannel Smart Bidding with store conversions?

On average, advertisers who use omnichannel Smart Bidding with store conversions see a 15% increase in omni ROAS at a similar cost.

Google Data, Global, Mar 1, 2024 to Sep 30, 2024

This claim was developed using Google recommended Store Visit Value.

How to value a store sale

Conversion values reflect how much a store visit or store sale is worth to your business. Values are the lever in value-based bidding to influence relative importance of conversion types. If you are receiving dynamic store sales values through in-store transaction uploads or from automated dynamic values reporting, Google Ads will provide you with a modeled and dynamic store sales conversion value, which you can leverage in Smart Bidding strategies.

However, if you are not eligible for dynamic values reporting, you need to specify an average conversion value for your store sales conversion counts, which you can leverage in Smart Bidding strategies. Learn more on how to assign a default value here.

Learn how to get started with store sales measurement.

Value balancing

Adjust store sales values with conversion value rules

Use conversion value rules to customize store sales values. Set static values per campaign or use the MULTIPLY rule to adjust dynamic or static values by percentage (0.5-10x) to balance online/offline conversions. You can also use the SET rule to override a dynamic value with a static value. For instance, reduce dynamic store sales value by 20% by multiplying by 0.8. Learn how to Set up conversion value rules.

Adjust store sales value through conversion settings

You can also opt to reduce the conversion window (and thereby conversions) as a lever for value balancing. This is especially useful if reported conversions seem high or incrementality is a concern. It can be combined with the MULTIPLY conversion value rule. Keep in mind that store visit and store sales share the same conversion settings, so adjusting the conversion window for store sales will also adjust it for store visits.

Before you get started with Smart Bidding for store sales

1. Review all biddable conversions

Navigate to “Conversion settings” at the account level to identify conversion actions that are included in “Conversions”. You can include store sales conversions at either account or campaign level. Learn more about account-level conversion goals and campaign-level conversion goals.

Setting your store sales conversion goal as the account default allows Smart Bidding to optimize all eligible campaigns towards it. This applies to manager accounts and their linked child accounts. Using a consistent conversion goal across campaigns typically yields the best performance. It's recommended to set your store sales conversion goal as the account-default whenever possible and include store sales in all conversion and value based bid strategies.

Note: You can select to use store visits or store sales as your account or campaign goals, but you can’t select both at the same time. If store visits or store sales is your only goal and you’d like to switch between them, make sure to first add a non-store conversion goal, then remove the existing store visits or store sales goal before adding the desired store visits or store sales goal. You can remove the non-store goal afterwards.

2. Set a store sales conversion value

If you’re receiving store sales counts reporting, you’ll need to specify a static store sales conversion value directly in Google Ads. In your Google Ads account, select the “Goals” icon Goals Icon . Select “Conversions” and click the store sales conversion action to edit the value settings.

The Google-provided default value is set to 1. Value the store sales conversion at its actual in-store conversion value. You can use conversion value rules to adjust values at campaign level if needed. Learn how to Set up conversion value rules.

If you’re receiving dynamic values reporting, set a static value as a backup in case of data inconsistency.

3. Review conversion window for store visits and store sales

In your Google Ads account, select the “Goals” icon Goals Icon . Select “Conversions” and click the store sales conversion action to view the conversion window settings.

The default conversion window for store sales and store visits is 30 days.

A 1-week conversion window is the best practice for omnichannel Smart Bidding. While the default window setting is 30 days, shorter windows allow bidding systems to be more reactive to changes in recent behavior and evaluate results more quickly. Keep in mind, lowering the conversion window is expected to reduce the store sales and value reported.
If you have a longer purchase cycle (for example, for auto dealerships), you may keep a longer conversion window. In such a case, make sure you account for longer conversion delays when evaluating results.

Learn more About conversion windows.

Tip: To understand how long it takes for users to visit your store and after clicking on your ad, segment reports by “Days to conversion” looking for the data range of a full window.

4. Add predefined columns to monitor performance

Predefined store sales columns are automatically available when your account is allowlisted for store sales. The columns are available at campaign or ad group level, but cannot be added at the account level. View the selection of predefined columns below:

Column name	Description
Store sales conv. count	Store sales conversion count is the number of sales in your physical stores that occur after ad interactions. Ad interactions include clicks for text ads and views for video ads.
Store sales conv. value	Store sales conversion value is the total value of sales in your physical stores that occur after ad interactions.
Store sales visit-to-purchase rate	Store sales visit-to-purchase rate is the percentage of store visits that lead to a purchase.
Store sales interaction-to-purchase rate	Store sales interaction-to-purchase rate is the percentage of ad interactions that lead to a store sale.
Store sales avg. conv. value	Store sales average conversion value is the average conversion value of a store sale.
Store sales CPA	Store sales cost per action (CPA) is the average amount you paid for a store sale.
Store sales ROAS	Store sales return on ad spend (ROAS) is the average conversion value of an ad interaction.

Get started with Smart Bidding for store sales

1. Pick your bid strategy

If you want to maximize in-store sales value, leverage value-based bid strategies and if you want to optimize in-store conversions, leverage a conversion-based bid strategy.

View different strategies below and learn how to Determine a bid strategy based on your goals.

Campaign goal
Maximize total sales value within a given target	Maximize total sales value within a given budget
Target ROAS	Target CPA
Maximize Conversion Value	Maximize conversion

2. Plan campaigns and targets

Account level activation (Recommended):

If all campaigns have objectives to maximize performance across online and in-store, update store sales to primary conversion actions in conversion settings. Learn how to Manage conversion goals from the conversions summary.

When adding store sales to conversions at the account level, update ROAS or CPA targets in existing Search, Shopping, and Performance Max Smart Bidding campaigns to account for the additional conversions or value from store sales. Smart Bidding strategies consider all conversion actions that are marked as "Primary". Ensure that the conversion actions you'd like to optimize toward alongside your store sales goal are marked as "Primary".

Campaign level activation:

If certain campaigns promote products or services unavailable in stores, or if you want to test omnichannel or offline bidding before expanding, check About campaign-specific conversion goals.

Campaign-level activation allows you to choose the conversion actions that will be reported in “Conversions” and used for bid optimization at the campaign level. The campaign conversion setting allows you to override your account-default goals and specify which goals you’d like to track in your conversion reporting and use for bidding in a particular campaign.

Use the campaign-level conversion setting in the following scenarios:

As an interim solution if you have existing bid strategies that optimize for conversions and would prefer to test and scale adoption of bidding to store sales throughout the account over time.
If you have campaigns that are only focused on either online or offline conversions.

Best practices on campaign selection if you opt for a campaign-level conversion setting + optimization tips:

Add a predefined column to understand which campaigns are having higher visit to purchase rates and thereby more offline focused.
Consider which campaigns perform especially well in-store compared to online. You can compare campaigns by online ROAS or conversion rate compared to offline ROAS or in-store purchase rate.
We recommend ideal test campaigns or portfolios that:
- Are not constrained by budget. Ideally >=30% budget headroom (average daily spend over past 7 days / current budget <70%)
- Have room to grow your impression share. Impression share is <75% in the last 28 days to provide headroom for offline demand
- Report meaningful volume of store visits or store sales over the past 30 days. When optimizing toward a target ROAS, >100 and without a target ROAS, >30

Plan updated ROAS targets

Value-based Smart Bidding allows you to either maximize conversion value within your given budget or optimize toward a target return on ad spend goal. If you’re using ROAS targets, you may want to update targets when you add store goals into your conversion mix. Counting additional conversion value will allow the bid strategy to meet your existing ROAS goals more efficiently, and therefore may spend more within the campaign budget. As a lever to control campaign spend, you can increase ROAS targets in line with historical omnichannel performance you’re already achieving.

3. Smart bidding for store sales activation

Set up campaign-level conversion setting:

Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu .
Select the Settings tab.
Select the campaign that you want to opt into shop visits bidding.
Select the Conversion goals drop-down menu.
From the “Conversion goals are used for reporting” drop-down select Campaign-specific goal settings.
Select Choose campaign goals, and select the Store Sales conversion goal in addition to other conversion goals you'd like to optimize for.
Select Save.

Set store sales conversion goal as account-default:

Go to Summary within the Goals icon .
Navigate to the store sales conversion goal you want to update and select Edit goal.
Select the Use conversion action as an account-default goal radio button.
Select Save changes.

4. Evaluating performance

Keep in mind that changes to conversion settings only apply going forward. When you first start optimizing towards store sales, historical values in conversion columns won't change to reflect the current setting.
Allow time for the bid strategy to ramp up before measuring success. The bid strategy needs time to ramp up, and the full cycle of store conversions coming in after an ad engagement also need to be considered. Make sure that you use data from at least 30 days before the date of this change to help account for the offline conversion delay.
Optimize store values in line with your goals. Value settings influence the balance of store conversions relative to other conversions and can be used as a lever to balance between your online and offline conversion types. You should set a value that will maximize Omnichannel ROAS, however, value rules allow additional flexibility based on your preferences
- If you’re using default value, use the campaign-level value rules “Set” or update the default value in conversion settings.
- If you’re using dynamic values, use the campaign or account level value rules “Multiply” setting to increase or decrease by a percentage.

About Smart Bidding and Smart Creative solutions with Google Ads

Get more value with less effort

The customer journey is more complex than ever, spanning multiple sites and devices. For marketers, it’s important to understand how to engage with users in all of these moments, but doing that manually is a challenge. That’s where AI-powered solutions come in.

How it works

Google Ads Smart Bidding and Smart Creative solutions use AI that analyzes millions of signals in real time to show the right message to the right customer in the moments that matter.

So instead of having to spend time manually optimizing your ads or bidding, you can get better results faster with the help of solutions from Google AI.

Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is able to optimize bids in real time for each and every auction. This dramatically reduces the time spent on bid maintenance while also helping you achieve better results within your budget.

Learn more

Smart Creatives

The impact of advertising is strongly influenced by creative quality. With Smart Creatives, Google AI selects and builds the best combination of creative assets for each customer. This frees up your time so you can focus on the more strategic efforts of your marketing campaigns.

Types of Smart Creative features:

Responsive display ads

Upload your assets—images, headlines, logos, and descriptions—and Google Ads will generate ads to show on the Google Display Network.

Learn more

Dynamic Search Ads

This format uses your website to target your ads. It can also help fill in the gaps of your keyword-based campaigns.

Learn more

Responsive search ads

Create ads that adapt to show more text—and more relevant messages—to your customers.

Learn more

Digital marketing agency HawkSEM used Smart Bidding and Smart Creatives to improve their clients' return on investment:

in conversion volume*

“We were pleasantly surprised to make such quick
gains in such a short period of time. Responsive
search ads and Smart Bidding worked tremendously
well in harmony to help boost ROI.”

– Sam Yadegar
Marketing Director of HawkSEM

_{* Google External Data, Global, 2018}

Check how your campaigns are performing by evaluating your bid strategy performance, and make adjustments whenever you need.

Bid on viewable impressions using viewable CPM
Max. CPM is no longer available as a bid strategy.

If you'd like to pay only for ad impressions measured as viewable, you can with viewable CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions). An ad is counted as "viewable" when 50 percent of your ad shows on screen for 1 second or longer for Display ads, or plays continuously for 2 seconds or longer for video ads. You can select viewable CPM as a bid strategy when you choose CPM bidding for your "Display Network only" campaign.

How it works

With viewable CPM, you bid on 1,000 viewable impressions and you pay for impressions that are measured as viewable. Viewable CPM lets you bid on the actual value of your ad appearing in a viewable position on a given placement. Keep in mind that using a higher vCPM bid than your CPM bid is usually more effective for winning these more valuable types of impressions. This can help keep your bids competitive and continue to meet your average daily budget. Learn more about viewable CPM

Benefits
- Pay only for impressions measured as viewable.
- Your bids are optimized to favor ad slots that are more likely to become viewable.
If you're interested in manually setting bids for viewable impressions, rather than clicks, this bidding strategy can help you achieve this goal better than other kinds of bid strategies.
Note:
- With viewable CPM, you bid on 1,000 viewable impressions and you pay for impressions that are measured as viewable.
- Generally, to keep your costs and traffic at the same level as a CPM campaign, your bid for your viewable CPM might need to be higher than your bid for a standard CPM campaign; however, you should experiment with a bid that works for your campaign goals.
- The viewable CPM bid strategy isn’t available for Search Network only campaigns.
- If you create your campaign using the viewable CPM bid strategy, and then create ads that aren’t compatible, your ads won’t run.
- A small portion of served impressions might be charged.
How to monitor your viewable impressions
The number of viewable impressions is shown in your campaign reporting. To see impressions and viewable impressions for your viewable CPM campaign, follow the steps below.
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns or click Ads.
4. From the Views bar at the top, select Display campaigns or Video campaigns, depending on what you want to view.
5. Click the Columns drop-down menu above the statistics table, and then select Modify columns.
6. Click the Viewability drop-down menu.
7. To add specific columns, check the box to the left of each column you wish to see in your report.
8. Understand what each “Viewability” column option means:
  - Viewable impr.: The number of viewable impressions
  - Avg. viewable CPM: The average cost for 1,000 viewable impressions
  - Measurable rate: Shows the percentage of your total impressions that were able to be measured.
  - Viewable rate: Shows the percentage of your measurable impressions that were viewable, which estimates how many impressions were actually seen by customers.
  - Non-measurable impr. distrib.: Shows the percentage of your total impressions that appeared in locations that aren’t able to measure viewability.
  - Non-viewable impr. distrib.: Shows the percentage of all of your ad impressions that were considered to be non-viewable.
  - Viewable impr. distrib.: Shows the percentage of all of your ad impressions that were considered viewable.
  - Measurable cost: Shows the total cost of impressions that were able to be measured.
  - Measurable impr.: Shows the number of impressions that were able to be measured; not all impressions that are served are able to be measured.
  - Non-measurable impr.: Shows the number of times your ad appeared in locations that can't measure viewability.
  - Non-viewable impr.: Shows the number of times your ad was considered non-viewable.
Tip

Your ad group default bid is shown in the statistics table next to a "(viewable)" label. This can help you identify your viewable CPM bids more quickly in your statistics table.
Related links
- About targeting for Display Network campaigns
- Choose an ad format
About bidding features in Display campaigns
When you advertise with Display Campaigns, you can set your bids in different ways in your campaign. Google Ads uses your bids in the ad auction to help you get the most value from your ads.

When your ad is eligible to show, Google Ads checks to see if you'd like to use custom bids or the default bid, and if you have any bid adjustments.
- Default bids: If you don’t have a custom bid for when your ad appears in a placement that matches your targeting, Google Ads will use your ad group default bid.
- Custom bids: If you've enabled custom bids for a single targeting method, for example, topics, Google Ads will use that bid when your ads show on websites related to that topic.
- Bid adjustments: To gain more control over when and where your ad is shown, you can set bid adjustments at the campaign and ad group level.
This article explains the differences between the bidding features available on the Display campaigns and how Google Ads chooses which bidding option to use with your ads.

How bidding features work

Default bids

If you’re using manual bidding, you have already set a bid at the ad group level. If you’re using portfolio strategies, then you’ve set a bid at the portfolio level. When you don't have custom bids enabled (or your custom bids don’t apply to where your ad is shown), Google Ads uses your default bid. Your default bid can be inherited from your ad group bid or portfolio bid.

For example, if you've set an ad group bid of $1 USD, and you haven't enabled custom bids, your ”Default Max. CPC” column will show your ad group bid amount, and you won't be able to edit this bid from the statistics table.

Custom bids

If you want to set bids for an individual targeting method in your ad group, you can use custom bids. These are max. CPC (or max. vCPM) bids that you set.

If you enable custom bids for placements, for example, you can set max. CPC bids on individual placements that you add. When you enable custom bids for a targeting method, we'll use these bids on the Display Network.

Important: You can set custom bids on only one targeting method within each ad group.

Bid adjustments

Bid adjustments allow you to increase or decrease the bid amount we use to gain more control over when and where your ad appears.

Bid adjustments represent a percentage change in your bids. They're applied on top of the bids that Google Ads uses to show your ad: your custom bids or the ad group bid, if no custom bids are set. Bid adjustments for any ad group-level targeting methods can be set from -90% to +900%.

You can set bid adjustments at the campaign level (for times, days, and locations), and at the ad group level for individual targeting methods. However, you can’t have bid adjustments and custom bids for the same targeting method. Device bid adjustments are available both at the campaign and ad group levels.

If you make multiple adjustments in the same campaign, all of the bid adjustments will be multiplied together to determine how much your bid will increase or decrease. Learn more About bid adjustments

You can't set bid adjustments on keywords, regardless of your campaign type. You can set custom bids on keywords, or the keywords can use your default bids.

Smart pricing

If you’re using Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) with manual bidding, smart pricing may adjust your cost-per-click (CPC) bids for Display campaigns or Search campaigns with Display Expansion. This saves you time and work by estimating the value of clicks and adjusting bids automatically, improving performance towards your goals.

With smart pricing, if Google Ads data shows that a click from a web page is less likely to turn into an actionable business result (such as an online sale, registration, phone call, or newsletter sign-up), Google Ads may reduce the bid for that web page. Many factors are taken into account, such as which keyword lists or concepts triggered the ad, and the type of web page or app on which the ad was served.

How Google Ads determines bidding options for your ad

When your ad is eligible to show on the Display Network, Google Ads will first check for a custom bid. If you have a relevant custom bid set for a targeting method, this bid will be used in the ad auction. If you don’t have a relevant custom bid set, Google Ads looks for the default bid. The ad group bid is used as the default bid.

Bid adjustments are applied after you set the initial bid. If one of your bid adjustments is relevant. For example, someone is viewing content on a mobile device and you set up a mobile device bid adjustment, then this adjustment will be applied on top of the bid selected in the first step (custom or default).

In addition to setting bid adjustments across your campaign, you can also set them for mobile devices and targeting methods like topics or placements in an ad group. These adjustments will be multiplied by your default or custom bid and by any bid adjustments you've set for your entire campaign.

Example

Say that for your Display campaign, you set a custom bid of $1 USD for the "Soccer fans" affinity audience, a bid adjustment of +20% for the "Male" demographic, and a campaign-level location bid adjustment of +10% for people in Argentina. Google Ads will use your custom bid of $1 USD any time your ad shows to people associated with the selected interest. If the ad also shows to someone in the "Male" demographic, we’ll add +20% of your custom bid to your max. CPC bid, to make it $1.20 USD when your ad shows to these people. And if those people are in Argentina, we’ll add +10% of your custom bid times your demographic bid adjustment, to make a max. CPC bid of $1.32 USD.

Here's the math: Custom bid: $1 USD Demographic bid adjustment: $1 USD x (+20%) = $1.20 USD Location bid adjustment: $1.20 USD x (+10%) = $1.32 USD Resulting bid for male soccer fan audience in Argentina: $1.32 USD

How to enable ad group bids, custom bids, and bid adjustments for your ad groups
- To edit the bids for your ad groups or keywords, review Edit your bids.
- To enable bid adjustment on the Display campaigns, review Add or remove bid adjustment.
Related links
- About bid adjustments
- About targeting for Display campaigns

Performance Management & Reporting

Tips on measuring Smart Bidding performance
Our guided troubleshooter can help you identify, explain, and address potential causes of unexpected fluctuations in your Performance Max campaign spending.

Troubleshoot spending

In this article we evaluate the performance of Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value.

Smart Bidding Performance Fluctuations | Google Ads

For subtitles in your language, turn on YouTube captions. Select the settings icon at the bottom of the video player, then select "Subtitles/CC" and choose your language.

Assess bid strategy performance

After you’ve activated Smart Bidding, you can assess and manage bid strategy performance with the following tools. When managing your bid strategy, adjusting bid targets and budgets are the best levers to pull to control performance.

Bid strategy report: You can use the bid strategy report to gain deeper insight about bidding performance and troubleshoot issues. It can show you how your bid strategy is performing on average against the set target (if applicable), and when your strategy might need attention. A good first step is to set a time frame that includes at least 2 full conversion cycles. It can be helpful to assess over longer periods of time, like a month, or at least 50 conversions, for a clearer perspective. Learn more about bid strategy reports and how to find your bid strategy reports.
- Some campaign performance variance is normal due to auction dynamics and no action is required in these cases. Sustained spikes or drops may be a sign that other elements are impacting the performance.
  - The bottom of the bid strategy report performance graph will highlight considerations like conversion delay or conversion reporting outages.
  - You can also consult Explanations within campaign reporting for more information.
Note: The bid strategy report is not available for Hotel ROAS campaigns. To review the performance of these campaigns, you can visit the overview page in Google Ads.

Bid Simulator: To understand how the auctions works and to see how your Target ROAS target will affect the performance, use Bid Simulator. For example, if you’re using Target ROAS bidding and want more conversion volume, use Bid Simulator to see how you can lower your ROAS target to get the desired results. Learn to use bid simulators.
- Only evaluate relevant metrics.
  
  For example, if your campaign is using Maximize Conversion Value with a Target ROAS, look at your average actual ROAS performance compared to the average target ROAS within the bid strategy report.
  
  Don’t look at trailing, dependent metrics like cost-per-click and impressions.
- While evaluating performance, wait for changes.
  
  Account for conversion delays (the time from click to the time the conversion is shared back to Google Ads). Some conversions take more time than others– in some cases up to days or even weeks. If you compare recent performance with past performance, your recent performance might not look as strong because of conversion delay. Learn how to find a report on your conversion delay
  
  If you make significant changes to your campaign, give the bid strategy time to adjust. This could take a few days for smaller changes and up to 2 conversion cycles for larger changes.
Manage Performance using these features

Adjust Targets (For example, when using value-based bidding with a target ROAS):
- If you want to increase total conversion value and conversion volume, consider gradually reducing the target ROAS. This allows the bid strategy to be more competitive in auctions and likely generate more conversion volume and value. Alternatively, if you want to increase your efficiency (for example, achieve a higher ROAS), you may raise the target ROAS. The opposite would apply for Target CPA.
- The opposite would apply for Target CPA.
- When you change targets, the bidder will react immediately but may need some time to hit the new target. Learn more about how to make target adjustments with Search Smart Bidding.
Set a target ROAS that’s right for you:
- Before transitioning to value-based bidding, ideally you will be already bidding to the desired conversion goal using a tCPA bid strategy. Be sure to report values across all relevant campaigns for 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles (whichever is longer) before determining your ROAS target and activating value-based bidding. Learn more about changing biddable conversion goals.
- Your ROAS target should be at or below the ROAS compared to your historical performance.
- To find this, select Modify Columns from the “Columns” drop-down and add the Conv. value/cost column from the list of "Conversions" columns. Then, multiply your conversion value per cost metric by 100 to get your target ROAS percent.
- Target recommendations can also be found in the Recommendations tab, during campaign construction, within the bid simulator or while creating a strategy at the campaign or portfolio levels.
If you’re seeing a change in conversion rates due to seasonality or issues with conversions consider the below features:
- Seasonality Adjustments: If you’re anticipating a major temporary change in conversion rates due to a promotion, sale, or an increase in demand, you can use Seasonality Adjustments to inform Smart Bidding in advance of these expected changes. Learn more About seasonality adjustments.
- For low conversion rates please check for any conversion tracking issues.
- Data Exclusions: Data exclusions may help to mitigate some performance fluctuations that ensue due to data outages.
Additional considerations for Smart Bidding performance

For additional ideas on optimization, review these additional topics:

Conversion delay estimates

In Google Ads, a conversion delay refers to the time elapsed between a user clicking on an ad and completing a conversion, such as a purchase or newsletter signup. Learn more About conversion delay estimates.

Learning period duration for campaigns

When an automated bid strategy is updated, the campaign or portfolio may display a "Learning" status. This indicates that the system is calibrating to the new objective. Learn more about the Duration of the learning period for campaigns and what affects it.

Evaluate and optimize your bids

Once your ads have been running for a while, it’s time to see how they're doing. Learn more about how to Evaluate and optimize your bids.

Low traffic or conversion rate for Target CPA bidding

When using Target CPA bidding, you might observe a decrease in traffic or conversion rate. Learn more about how to Fix low traffic or conversion rate for Target CPA bidding.

Related links
Estimate your results with bid, budget, and target simulators
Note: Bid simulators aren't supported in Travel campaigns.

There are 2 types of Google Ads simulators that you can use:
- Manual CPC bid simulators
- Smart Bidding simulators
Google Ads bid simulators help you see how different bids might change your ads’ weekly performance.
- The regular Bid Simulators show you how changes to your max. CPC bid might change the cost or the number of clicks, impressions, conversions, and conversion value your ads would have received for your keyword or ad group. You can find them on the Ad groups and Keywords page.
- The Campaign Bid Simulator shows you how changes to your campaign’s bids might affect that campaign’s performance. Find it on the Campaigns page.
- The Shopping Campaigns Bid Simulator shows you how certain changes to your bid might have impacted your product group's performance. You can find it on the Product groups page.
- The Hotel Campaigns Bid Simulator shows how changes to your max. CPC, max. CPC%, or Commission % might have impacted your hotel group’s recent performance. You can find it on the Hotel groups page for max. CPC and max. CPC% bid strategies and on the Campaign page for Commission % bid strategies.
Suppose you have a max. CPC bid of US$1 for your keyword, but you're curious to see what results you might get with a bid of US$1.50 or US$0.75.

The Bid Simulator can show you estimates of the clicks, cost, impressions, conversions, and conversion value you would have seen with max. CPC bids of US$1.50 or US$0.75 for your keyword.

The Campaign Bid Simulator can show you the same estimates based on setting a campaign-wide bid of US$1.50, for example, or increasing or decreasing your campaign-level bid by a certain percentage.

Any active bid adjustments for your campaign or ad groups are taken into account during simulations.

If your campaign has a "Limited by budget" status, you'll get budget ideas in the pop-up window on your Campaigns page instead of the Campaign Bid Simulator. Learn more about Types of recommendations.

How bid simulators work

The bid simulators collect and analyze data from ad auctions while considering information such as Quality Score, keyword traffic, and competition in the ad auction. The tools use this information to estimate how your ads might have performed in terms of key metrics like cost, impressions, clicks, and conversion volume.

You can estimate your bid simulator results at scale by using the Google Ads API.

How to get bid simulator estimates
Use bid simulators on the Search and Display Networks

Bid simulators work on the Search and Display Networks, and on Search Network campaigns with Display Expansion.

Note: Using a bid simulator in a “Search Network campaign with Display Select” only simulates the search portion of the traffic.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .

Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu for Campaigns or Ad groups.

(Or) Click the Keywords and content drop-down in the section menu for Search keywords.

Click the simulator icon Don't see this icon? Learn why.

If you're in Campaigns, the icon is in the "Budget" column.

If you're in Ad groups the icon is in the "Default max. CPC" column.

If you're in Keywords, the icon is in the "Max. CPC" column.

You can change your bid by selecting a new bid option in the Bid Simulator.

Tip

Alternatively, you can add the bid simulator columns to the statistics table on your Keywords page to easily view estimates for multiple keywords. Learn more About columns in your statistics table.
Use the bid simulator for App campaigns

App campaign Bid Simulator can only be used for App campaigns.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .

Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.

Click App campaigns in the campaigns menu at the left.

Click Campaigns in the page menu.

Locate your campaign and click the bid simulator icon within the "Budget" column. Don't see the icon? Learn why.

The bid simulator will appear to the side.

The shaded box changes dynamically as you enter new values for target cost-per-install bids or target cost-per-in-app-action bids.

Click Save and continue to apply your new settings. Click Cancel to exit without applying any changes.
Use the bid simulator for Demand Gen campaigns

Demand Gen campaign Bid Simulator can only be used for Demand Gen campaigns.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .

Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.

Click Demand Gen campaigns in the campaigns menu at the left.

Click Campaigns in the page menu.

Locate your campaign and click the bid simulator icon within the "Budget" column. Don't see the icon? Learn why.

The bid simulator will appear to the side.

Click Save and continue to apply your new settings. Click Cancel to exit without applying any changes.
Use the bid simulator for Performance Max campaigns

Performance Max campaign Bid Simulator can only be used for Performance Max campaigns.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .

Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.

Click Performance Max campaigns in the campaigns menu at the left.

Click Campaigns in the page menu.

Locate your campaign and click the bid simulator icon within the "Budget" column. Don't see the icon? Learn why.

The bid simulator will appear to the side.

Click Save and continue to apply your new settings. Click Cancel to exit without applying any changes.
Use the bid simulator for Shopping campaigns

The bid simulator is available for Shopping campaigns to help you estimate how changes to your bid would have impacted your clicks, cost, impressions, and conversions. Learn how to Use the bid simulator with Standard Shopping campaigns.

Use the bid simulator for Hotel campaigns

The Hotel Campaigns Bid Simulator helps you estimate how changes to your bid would have impacted your recent clicks, cost, impressions, and conversions. Learn how to Use the bid simulator to analyze your hotel campaigns.
Using the bid simulators for conversion estimates

If you're using conversion tracking, the simulators offer conversion estimates to help you understand the number of conversions your ads might have received if you had set different bids. On the Search Network, if you've assigned values to your conversions — or set conversion values — you can review your conversion value estimates to get an idea of the conversion value you might have received if you had set different bids.

Here's some information to keep in mind:
- Conversion definitions: Conversions rely not only on ad interactions such as clicks, but also on the actions that customers take on your site. This can also make them more difficult to predict.
- Changes to conversion tracking: Removing or moving the conversion tracking tag could invalidate the estimates. Don't make any major changes to the conversion tracking code for at least 2 weeks before using the bid simulators for conversion and conversion value estimates.
- Conversion delay: Conversion delay occurs when people click on an ad and then take some time to complete a conversion action. Keep in mind that the conversion could still occur up to 90 days after each interaction depending on your chosen conversion window.
  - Search, Performance Max, and App campaign simulators count conversions related metrics recorded so far and also those that are expected to arrive, so that the current metrics and projected metrics are more accurate. For example, if 10 clicks took place during the simulation period but 5 conversions were recorded after the simulation period, the 5 conversions would be counted in the estimates.
  - Simulators for all other campaign types count conversions that are recorded during the simulation period. For example, if a click took place during the simulation period but the conversion wasn’t recorded until after the simulation period, the conversion wouldn’t be counted in the estimates. Learn more About conversion delay estimates.
- Sparse conversion data: There is usually less conversion data than click or impression data when calculating these estimates, so conversions can be more difficult to estimate. If your account doesn't typically get a lot of conversions, we may not have enough information to generate an estimate for conversions. The longer the history and the more conversions you have, the more accurate these estimates will be.
Learn how to Use the bid simulator with Standard Shopping campaigns.

Benefits of using the Campaign Bid Simulator
- You can view bid changes in aggregate and model changes even when keywords or ad groups might not have enough data for this on their own.
- Bid scaling is available, so you can see what might happen if you increased or decreased all your bids by a specific percentage (10%, for example).
- Because campaign-level bid changes can increase traffic significantly, we'll tell you whether you need to increase your budget and, if so, what to change it to.
- You can model what happens if you changed all your bids in the campaign to a fixed value. If you choose to apply one of these campaign-wide bid changes, your ad group default bids will be changed to this fixed value, and your keyword-level bids will be erased.
Troubleshooting
Unavailable bid simulator
A bid simulator may not always be available to help you estimate how changes to your bid, budgets or target CPA/ROAS might affect performance. If a simulator is unavailable, the simulator icon () will be grayed out. In Google Ads, the simulator icon will be grayed out with a slash through it. Here are some common reasons why:
- Not enough data
  The bid simulators use data from the last 7 days to provide estimates. They might not be able to provide estimates if a campaign, keyword, ad group, or product group was recently added, or didn't receive many clicks in the last 7 days.
  
  If you've just added a new campaign, keyword, ad group, or product group, check back after more time has passed to see if the simulators have provided estimates. If your campaign, keyword, ad group, or product group doesn't get many impressions, increasing your bids can help give your ads more exposure.
- Campaign uses shared budget
  If your campaign uses shared budgets the campaign bid simulator won’t be available.
- Campaign average daily budget
  If your campaign has reached or nearly reached its average daily budget at least once in the last 7 days, the simulators may not be able to provide estimates.
- Campaign Experiments
  The simulators don't work with campaigns that have running or recently ended (within the last 8 days) experiments. Learn more About experiment statuses.
  Product groups in Shopping campaign using the Item ID attribute
  The Bid Simulator isn't available for product groups that use the Item ID attribute.
Missing columns within the simulator
Here are some reasons why a bid simulator might be missing the following columns:
- Clicks and cost
  The clicks and cost columns will only appear if you met a minimum threshold of clicks within the last week.
- Top of page impressions
  This column only appears if you are estimated to receive at least 1 top of page impression for any of the bids simulated. This only appears for the Search Network.
- Conversions and conversion value
  The "Conversions" and "Total conv. value" columns only appear if:
  - You're using Google Ads conversion tracking.
  - You received a minimum threshold of conversions within the last week.
- Additional budget/day required
  This column may only appear in bid simulators at the campaign level.
Tip: Bid simulators vs. Keyword and Display Planners
- Bid simulators estimate your ad performance based on detailed information that's specific to your campaign, including your Quality Score and keywords.
- The Keyword Planner and Display Planner estimate ad performance based on your advertiser information, and provide information about overall traffic patterns across all Google advertisers.
Related links
How to find your bid strategy reports
Your bid strategy report gives you a snapshot of key metrics relevant to each bid strategy type. Understanding these reports is crucial for optimizing your Google Ads campaign performance, especially if you're facing issues with bid strategies, ad spend, or budget utilization.

This article shows you how to find your portfolio and standard bid strategy reports. Learn more About bid strategy reports.

Instructions

Locate your bid strategy reports (for standard and portfolio strategies)

Use this method when you want to view the bid strategy report for an individual campaign or portfolio bid strategy.
1. Select the Tools icon and select Bid strategies in the Budgets and bidding drop down menu.
2. In the “Bid strategy type” column, select the link to access your bid strategy report.
3. If the campaign is using a standard (campaign-level) bid strategy, you'll get a campaign-level report. If the campaign is part of a portfolio, you'll be directed to the bid strategy report for the entire portfolio bid strategy.
Tip: If the “Bid strategy type” column isn't visible, you can add it as a column to the campaigns, ad group, or keyword table.

If you don’t see the “Bid strategy type” column and would like to, you can enable it by following the steps below:
1. Select the Tools icon and select Bid strategies in the Budgets and bidding drop down menu.
2. Select the columns icon above the table and select Modify columns.
3. Under “Modify columns for campaigns” select the “Attributes” dropdown.
4. Select “Bid strategy type” under the “Attributes” category.
Locate your bid strategy reports (for portfolio strategies only)

It’s best to use this method when you want to view all the different portfolio bid strategies in your account.
1. Select the Tools icon and select Bid strategies in the Budgets and bidding drop down menu.
2. Select the name of the portfolio bid strategy to access the report.
Note: The account-level bid strategy report is also available for MCC accounts.

Locate your account bid strategies report

Use the account bid strategies report when you want to view the aggregate performance of all bid strategies in your Google Ads account, not included in a portfolio bid strategy. The report includes all campaign types except for App Campaigns.
1. Select the Tools icon and select Bid strategies in the Budgets and bidding drop down menu.
2. Select Account strategies tab.
Note: For the account bid strategies report, the following campaigns will be included:
- Only campaigns that are not part of a portfolio bid strategy
- The aggregate reporting for Target CPA Campaigns will include any campaigns using Maximize Conversions bid strategy with a Target CPA or any campaign using the Target CPA bid strategy.
- The aggregate reporting for Target ROAS Campaigns will include any campaigns using Maximize Conversion Value bid strategy with a Target ROAS or any campaign using the Target ROAS bid strategy.
- Average CPA and ROAS targets are currently not supported for Display and campaigns using Store Visits or Store Sales. If your account includes these campaign types, you will not see an account wide aggregated target.
- App Campaigns on tCPA are currently not supported.
Locate your campaign level bid strategy report
Note: Only applicable for campaigns with Maximize conversion value with or without target ROAS as bid strategies.
1. Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu and navigate to Campaigns table.
2. Add the “Bid strategy type” column if it doesn’t exist already.
3. Find the relevant campaign, hover over highlighted bid strategy type (for example, Maximize conversion value (tROAS) or Maximize conversion value).
4. Click to view bid strategy report for that campaign.
Related links
Bid strategy report for automated bidding strategies
The bid strategy report is an important tool to understand how your Smart Bidding strategies are performing.

It includes tailored metrics to show you what’s most relevant to each type of bid strategy, as well as other important data like your bid strategy status, average target, conversion delay, and top signals. You’re able to access these reports at the portfolio level for bid strategies used on multiple campaigns. You can also access a standard bid strategy report for individual campaigns.

This article explains key statuses in the bid strategy report. For more details, check out Evaluate your Smart Bidding performance with bid strategy reports.

Note: If you need help locating your bid strategy report, check out Find your bid strategy reports.

What’s in your report

Bid strategy status: Understand how your bid strategy is performing, and when it may need attention. Learn more about bid strategy statuses

Note: Bid strategy statuses isn't available for Hotel Campaigns.

Top signals: For select conversion-based strategies (Target CPA, Maximize conversions, Target ROAS, and Maximize conversion value) this feature highlights some of the dimensions where the bid strategy is optimizing your bids for visitors who are more or less likely to convert. Top signals may include, but are not limited to, device type, location, day of week, time of day, queries, or your remarketing and Customer Match lists.

Note: Top signals may not always show for a specific campaign or portfolio bid strategy depending on campaign channel type, conversion volume, and the relative impact of the signals considered.

Scorecard: This is a snapshot of metrics specific to the type of bid strategy you’re reviewing. For example, a report on Target CPA will show you a snapshot of your “Average Target CPA”, “Actual CPA” and “Conversions” among others. A report on Maximize clicks will show you metrics for “Clicks” and “Cost per Click.”

Conversion delay: Understand how long it takes most of your users to convert. Wait until all your conversions have been reported before evaluating the performance of your bid strategy.

Performance chart: Compare the performance of up to 2 metrics over time. Choose any 2 columns that matter to your campaign and adjust the timeframe to see data for any date range.

Note: If the difference between your average target CPA and your actual CPA isn’t statistically significant, try selecting a longer date range.

Simulators: Estimate changes to performance when you change your target or daily budget.

Note: Bid simulator is not available for Hotel Campaigns.

Types of reports

You can see bid strategy reports for your Target CPA, Target ROAS, Target impression share, Maximize clicks, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value bidding strategies at the campaign or portfolio level.

Note: The new account wide bid strategy report doesn’t yet support portfolio strategies.

To view your bid strategy report, check out Find your bid strategy reports.

Related links
About conversion delay estimates
In Google Ads, conversion delay occurs when a user clicks on an ad and then takes some time to complete a conversion action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. This can happen because conversions are reported by impression date, and you may not always get the most updated conversion numbers. Sometimes, conversion lag makes your cost per action (CPA) seem higher and your return on ad spend (ROAS) seem lower than they actually are.

Conversion delay estimates

Conversion delay estimates can be used to generate more accurate traffic and conversion estimates for impact estimates. This can help you to make informed decisions about your bidding strategies and budgets.

Benefits of conversion delay estimates

Here are some of the benefits of using conversion delay estimates in impact estimates:
- More accurate traffic and conversion estimates: Impact estimates will help you with insights on exactly how much traffic and conversions you can expect for different targets and budgets. This way, you can adjust your bidding strategies and budgets.
- Improved insights for return on ad spend: Conversion delay estimates will help you get a clearer picture of your ROAS, as they take into account conversions that occur after users click on your ads.
- More informed budget decisions: The estimates will help you to make informed decisions about your budget by showing you how much traffic and conversions you can expect to achieve with different budget levels.
If you’re using impact estimates to plan your campaigns, we also recommend you use conversion delay estimates. The estimates will help you to make more informed decisions about your bidding strategies and budgets, and improve your return on ad spend.

Related links
- About conversion tracking
- Understand your conversion tracking data
Changing conversion goals and actions used for Smart Bidding
Conversion goals provide a way to categorize your conversion actions, and control campaign optimization. To improve performance and better align Google AI to your business objectives, you may occasionally want to make changes to conversion goals used for Smart Bidding. This page provides best practices that should be followed for the type of change you intend to make.

Note: The guidance in this article applies to the following bid strategies: Maximize conversions with a Target CPA, or Maximize conversion value with an optional Target ROAS.

Some of these changes include the following:
- Changing bid strategies. For example, moving from Maximize conversions with a Target CPA to Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS.
- Change to a new conversion goal by adding or removing a conversion goal from your campaign settings. For example, a change in your conversion category from “Qualified Leads” to “Other” or switching from an upper funnel event like “Add to cart” to lower funnel events such as “Purchases.”
- Modify the composition of your goal while maintaining the existing conversion goal settings, whether account level default or campaign level. For example, adding or removing conversion actions from a conversion goal, updating the action optimization setting of a conversion action (primary, secondary, custom), changing your conversion source, changing your conversion category, or changes to your conversion volume or value scales.
Smart Bidding will take some time to learn (1-2 conversion cycles in most cases) after any changes made to conversion goals or actions including changing the conversion goal, even if the underlying conversion action remains the same. The best practices below will allow you to better understand the implications of these changes on Smart Bidding, and help you mitigate performance disruption. There are different approaches to take based on the kind of change you want to implement and where your account currently stands in the process. Before making any change to conversion tracking, ensure that budgets are set to the amount you intend to spend.

This document applies to Search campaigns and Shopping campaigns, but not to Search Ads 360. The workflows below reference conversion goals but are applicable to any combination of changes described above.

Note: Store visits and store sales are an exception. Smart Bidding always learns from store visits even if it isn't an enabled conversion goal for your campaign, and informs learning on store sales conversions.

Expand all
Change bid strategies while conversion goal remains the same
Transition to a new bid strategy and keep your campaign's conversion goal and primary conversion action.

Bidding scenario

You’re currently using Maximize conversions with an optional Target CPA, and want to do the following:
- Switch to Maximize conversion value with an optional Target ROAS bid strategy.
- Continue to target the same conversion goal for your campaign.
- Keep the same conversion actions primary within the conversion goal, but you want to start passing values for those conversion actions.
For example, you’re using Maximize conversions with a Target CPA to bid for online signups. You now want to track values with those signups, and use Maximize conversion value to optimize bids.

Learn more about how to Change your bid strategy while conversion goal remains the same.
Change bid strategies and change conversion goal (account-level optimization)
You can transition to a new bid strategy to achieve one of the following:
- Optimize your whole account to either a new conversion goal.
- Change a conversion goal by adding a new primary conversion action.
Bidding scenario

You’re currently using Maximize conversions with an optional Target CPA, and want to do the following:
- Switch to a Maximize conversion value with an optional Target ROAS bid strategy.
- Change conversion goal. For example, optimize to a new primary conversion action.
For example, you’re currently using Maximize conversions with a Target CPA to bid to your Submit lead form goal to track the online form fills. You now want to track online subscriptions using paid subscription goal on Maximize conversions with a Target ROAS to optimize bids.

Learn more about how to Change bid strategies and change conversion goal (account level optimization).
Change smart bidding strategies and change conversion goal (campaign-level optimization)
Optimize specific campaigns to a new conversion goal, or add a new primary conversion action to an existing conversion goal, when your bidding strategy is using campaign-level optimization.

We recommend an account level switch, as the workflow is simpler to execute, but if you're interested in transitioning campaigns gradually, you can follow the campaign level workflow.

Bidding scenario

You’re currently using Maximize conversions with an optional Target CPA, and want to do the following:
- Switch to a Maximize conversion value with an optional Target ROAS bid strategy.
- Change conversion goal. For example, optimize to a new primary conversion action.
For example, you’re currently using Maximize conversions with a Target CPA to bid to your "Submit lead form" goal to track online form fills. You now want to track online subscriptions with values using paid subscription goal, on Maximize conversions with a Target ROAS using a campaign level switch.

Learn more about how to Change Smart Bidding strategies and change conversion goal (campaign level optimization).
Stay on the same smart bidding strategy and change conversion goal (account-level optimization)
Optimize your campaigns to a new account level conversion goal or change an existing account level conversion goal by using a new conversion action with a similar conversation rate or value.

Bidding scenario

You’re currently using Maximize conversions with an optional Target CPA, or Maximize conversion value with an optional Target ROAS, and want to do the following:
- Keep using the same bid strategy.
- Change conversion goal. For example, optimize to a new primary conversion action.
For example, you’re currently using Maximize conversion value to bid to values from a lead form. You now want to optimize for paid subscription values, but the conversion rate and value are very similar.

Learn more about how to Stay on the same bid strategy and change conversion goal (account level optimization).

Note: If you're using Maximize conversions with a Target CPA and are changing conversion goals such that you're moving from an upper funnel to lower funnel goal, follow this instead.
Stay on the same smart bidding strategy and change conversion goal (campaign-level optimization)
Optimize specific campaigns to a new conversion goal, or modify an existing conversion goal using a new conversion action with a different conversion rate, volume, or value.

It's recommended that the account level switch detailed above as it's a simpler workflow, but if you want to transition campaigns gradually, you can follow the campaign level workflow here.

Bidding scenario

You’re currently using Maximize conversions with an optional Target CPA, or Maximize conversion value with optional Target ROAS, and want to do the following:
- Keep using the same bid strategy.
- Change conversion goal. For example, optimize to a new primary conversion action with a different conversion rate, such as volume or value, or you want to change the category of an existing action.
- Implement campaign level changes.
For example, you’re currently using Maximize conversion value to bid to values from a lead form. You now want to optimize for paid subscription values, but the conversion rate and value are very similar.

Learn more about how to Stay on the same bid strategy and change conversion goal (campaign level optimization).

Note: If you're using Maximize conversions with a Target CPA and are changing conversion goals such that you're moving from an upper funnel to lower funnel goal, follow this instead.
Stay on Maximize conversions with a Target CPA and change conversion goal from upper to lower funnel goal
You want to change your conversion goal such that you're moving from an upper to a lower funnel goal while on Maximize conversions with a Target CPA.

Bidding scenario

You’re currently using Maximize conversions with a Target CPA and want to do the following:
- Keep using the same bid strategy.
- Change conversion goal from upper funnel to lower funnel (Purchase, Qualified lead, Converted lead).
For example, you’re currently using Maximize conversion value with a Target CPA and bidding to an upper funnel conversion category such as Page views, and you want to bid lower-funnel using the conversion category Purchase, Qualified lead, or Converted lead.

Learn more about how to Stay on Maximize conversions with a Target CPA and change conversion goal from upper to lower funnel goal.
Choosing the right bid strategy
To determine the right bid strategy for you, you must understand when to use Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value with or without a target.

When to use Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value without a target
- You’re comfortable with the bid strategy having full control during the bidding transition.
- You don’t have to make large-scale budget adjustments within the next 4-6 weeks.
- You’re willing to let the bidder find the maximum level of conversions or conversion value at the set budget.
When to use Maximize conversion or Maximize conversion value with a Target CPA or Target ROAS
- You would prefer to closely monitor and adjust targets during the bidding transition.
- You’ll have to make large-scale budget adjustments within the next 4-6 weeks.
- You want to achieve a specific CPA or ROAS target.
Related links
Duration of the learning period for campaigns and what affects it
After you make a change to your automated bid strategy, the campaign or portfolio needs some time to calibrate towards the new goal. To indicate this, a "Learning" status may be shown. Learn more About bid strategy statuses.

This article will help you to understand the duration of the learning period for campaigns and the different factors that affect it.

Note: Bid strategy statuses aren't available with Hotel campaigns.

Where can I see whether my campaign is still learning?

You can see whether your campaign is still learning by consulting its bid status. If it indicates “Learning”, you can hover over to show which of the following 3 reasons explains why your bid strategy currently has a "Learning" status.
- New strategy: The bid strategy was recently created or reactivated. Google Ads is now adjusting to optimize your bids.
- Setting change: A setting for the bid strategy was changed. Google Ads is now adjusting to optimize your bids.
- Composition change: Campaigns, ad groups, or keywords have been added to or removed from the bid strategy. Google Ads is now adjusting to optimize your bids.
Our algorithms continue to learn even when the bidding status no longer shows “Learning”.

What affects the duration of the learning period?

The duration of the learning period is primarily affected by 3 factors:
- The number of conversions that your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, or products obtain.
- The duration of your conversion cycles. For example, the amount of time it takes for a click to result in a conversion.
- The bid strategy (for example, Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value). The learning period isn’t applicable to Manual CPC.
It can take up to around 50 conversion events or 3 conversion cycles for the bid strategy to calibrate to the new objective, although it can be faster depending on the amount of conversion data present. Conversion data from previous campaigns can help drive faster results by speeding up the initial learning period required for Smart Bidding to calibrate towards your business goals.

Related links
How to make target adjustments with Search Smart Bidding
Campaigns using Smart Bidding set bids based on the most accurate conversion measurements available. However, when monitoring the performance and delivery of campaigns using Smart Bidding, or as your business goals evolve, you may want to make adjustments to budgets and Smart Bidding CPA (Cost per action) or ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend) targets to help you achieve your goals.

For example: If you would like to increase spend, you can raise CPA targets or lower ROAS targets as needed. Setting a CPA target that is too low, may cause you to forgo clicks that could result in conversions, resulting in fewer total conversions. Or, if you need to focus on efficiency, you can lower CPA targets or increase ROAS targets as needed.

Using simulations to help set optimal targets

As your business goals evolve, your next step could be to adjust your targets to meet your changing marketing objectives. To do this, you can use Target CPA and Target ROAS simulators. Simulators help you understand the number of conversions your ads might have received if you had set different CPA or ROAS targets.

You can use simulators to identify incremental conversion opportunities, and adjust your targets as you scale your usage of Target CPA and Target ROAS bidding. You can also visit the Recommendations page to find opportunities to adjust your targets. Recommendations will use simulation data to identify opportunities where you may be able to get more conversions by adjusting your CPA targets, or more conversion value by adjusting your ROAS targets.

Target changes performance impact

You can make target changes as business needs dictate. When you change targets, the bidder will react immediately but may need some time to hit the new target (give it 1-2 conversion cycles) because of the delay in conversions. Assess actual ROAS performance over time (at least 1-2 conversion cycles) within the bid strategy report. Smart Bidding is always learning from new data in the auction or your account, and can perform well with rapid target changes. However, it’s important to note that a major change in targets can have a similarly sized impact on spend or volume.

Conversion delay

Smart Bidding reacts to target changes quickly, and will start optimizing to your new goal within minutes.

Keep in mind that after a target change, it can take 1-2 conversion cycles to achieve the new target because of the delay in conversions. “Conversion cycle” is defined as the typical time it takes for a click to convert. If the majority of clicks yield conversions within 7 days, it’s expected that CPA or ROAS targets will adjust to changes in conversion rate within about 7 days.

Because of this, it’s recommended to wait 1-2 cycles before assessing performance. For most advertisers, these conversion cycles are typically short.

Keep in Mind: Unless there is a true business need, avoid making multiple ROAS target changes within a single conversion cycle. Changing the target before 100% of conversions have been reported makes it impossible to follow best practices for performance assessment. Changing the target mid-conversion cycle gives multiple versions of the desired outcome to the bidder which impedes performance.

Related links
Evaluate and optimize your bids
Once your ads have been running for a while, it’s time to see how they're doing. If your goal is to drive sales and website traffic, ask yourself these questions:
- What keywords lead to the most clicks on your ads?
- What locations and devices are your customers searching from?
- What are the peak days and times for business sales?
To answer these questions, look at the reports in your account. Learn more About account, campaign, and ad group performance.

Evaluate your costs and revenue

To help gauge a campaign’s performance, you may want to see how often people who see your ad actually click it. To do this, try sorting your keywords by clickthrough rate (CTR) to see which keywords got you a lot of impressions, but few clicks. If your goal is to generate sales, you might want to Edit your bids on these keywords.
Tips
- To understand whether clicks are leading to actual sales, we recommend setting up conversion tracking for your account. This free tool shows you what happens after people click your ad, whether they purchased your product or signed up for your newsletter. With this information, you can calculate your actual return on investment (ROI).
- Don't have the time to evaluate your bids? Let Google do the work for you. With Maximize Clicks, you set an average daily budget, and we'll help adjust your cost-per-click bids to receive the most possible clicks within your budget. Or if you have specific goals in mind, try automated bid strategy to have adjust bids based on your goals.
Adjust your bids to increase your return on investment

Once you’ve identified which keywords, locations, times, and devices are getting good results, you can adjust your bids accordingly.

Here are a few situations where you might change your bids:
- Low average cost-per-click (CPC) with high conversion rate: For instance, if a keyword has a low average CPC but each click converts well, you may try increasing its max. CPC bid.
- High average CPC with low conversion rate: If a keyword has a high average CPC but clicks seldom result in conversions, you may try reducing its max. CPC bid. This strategy could improve your ROI on low-performing keywords and free up part of your budget to invest in more valuable keywords.
- Low traffic during certain hours: Consider increasing your bids in locations where your performance is stronger. Or if you tend to see less foot traffic to your store during certain hours, you could increase bids for that time period and run ads with promotional offers to drive more people to your business.
A couple things to keep in mind when thinking about bidding changes:
- Change your bids in small increments: Then look for changes to the clicks and conversions of your keywords before editing again. Internet traffic is always changing, so it's important to re-evaluate your bids regularly.
- Improve your Quality score: It's possible to improve your ad's position without increasing costs. The higher the Quality Score for your keyword, the less you pay for a given ad position.
Tools to help optimize your bids

Besides automated bidding strategies, Google offers several other tools to help guide you in choosing a bid that will work for your goals.

After your campaigns run for a few weeks, our tools will have enough information to give you more personalized recommendations:
- Bid Simulator: Get answers to "what-if" scenarios, such as "How many more impressions would I get if I raised my bid by $0.10?". This tool can help you tweak your bids to just the right level for you. Learn more about the Bid Simulator.
- First-page bid estimates: See how much you'd likely need to bid to get your ads at the top, or within the first page of Google search results.
- Recommendations page: Visit this area of your account to see recommendations to improve your CPC bids, which can help you get more traffic, improve your Ad Rank, or improve your performance.
  VISIT THE RECOMMENDATIONS PAGE NOW
Related links
- Choose a bid amount that works for you
Get your ads to show on the first page
On average, ads that appear among top ads on the first page or anywhere on the first page, get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on other search results pages. To help you get your ads to show in these valuable positions, Google Ads provides cost-per-click (CPC) bid estimates you can use when setting your bids.

This article also explains first page, top of page, and first position bid estimates and how to find them.

About bid estimates

There are 3 types of bid estimates available in the Keywords tab to help you get your ads on the first page of search results when a search query exactly matches your keyword.

First page bid estimate: the bid you likely need to set for your ad to be shown anywhere on the first page of search results.

Top of page bid estimate: the bid you likely need to set for your ad to be shown among top ads on the first page of search results.

First position bid estimate: The bid you likely need to set for your ad to be shown in the first position relative to other ads
Notes:
- Top of page bids are not available for campaigns using automatic bidding, Conversion Optimizer, or ad scheduling.
- First position bids are not available for campaigns using automated bidding or ad scheduling.
Instructions

Check the approval status of an ad or extension (English)
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Search keywords.
4. Add the following Attributes columns (learn how to add columns):
  1. Est. first page bid
  2. Est. top of page bid
  3. Est. first pos. bid
5. Click Apply. Now you'll now see these columns in the statistics table.
First page, top of page, and first position bid estimates are a guide, meant to give you greater insight with which to plan your bidding strategy—but meeting or exceeding these estimates isn’t a guarantee of ad placement. Final placement will still depend on competition from other advertisers, your Ad Rank, your budget and account settings, and user behavior.

Note: Device targeting and bid estimates

First page, top of page, and first position bid estimates show the bid you likely need for your ad to reach your preferred placement in search results for the device you’re targeting.

For example, if you’re running a campaign that only serves on mobile devices, the first page bid estimate will reflect the bid likely required to reach the first page of search results on mobile devices.

What to do if your ad still doesn’t appear

In some cases, your ad might not appear in your preferred placement in the search results, even if you meet the relevant bid estimate for that placement. Keep in mind that these estimates are guidelines based on your keyword's Quality Score and recent advertiser competition, and they apply to search queries exactly matching your keyword. For example, if your first page bid estimate is very high, it may mean that the quality of your ads and website is poor. Meeting or exceeding these bid estimates isn’t a guarantee of where your ad will appear.

Below are a few common reasons your ad might not show on the first page, even when you meet this bid estimate:
- Advertiser competition: There could be new competition on your keywords.
- Keyword match: The searches customers are performing might not match up exactly with your keywords.
- Budget changes: If a recently changed budget has been fully depleted, your ad might not run.
If you're meeting a bid estimate, and your ads still don't appear in your preferred placement in the search results, you may want to review the basics of ad position and Ad Rank.
Related links
Fix low traffic or conversion rate for Target CPA bidding
As you use Target cost-per-action (CPA) bidding, sometimes you may notice a drop in traffic or conversion rate.

This article explains what you can do to fix these scenarios.

Before you begin

If you don’t have a Target CPA bid strategy set up yet, read About Target CPA bidding first.

Note: In cases where you find that your budget is too low for your target, you may opt to either increase your budget or lower your target.

Fix low traffic

If you notice a drop in traffic (clicks and conversions) after setting up a Target CPA bid strategy, there could be a few things going on:
- Check your target CPA. Your target CPA might be too low. You may want to compare your target CPA to the historical average CPA of your campaign. If your target CPA is significantly below your historical average CPA, your target CPA may not be attainable while maintaining reasonable levels of traffic, and you should consider raising your target.
- Check for increase in conversions. Instead of conversions, you may be looking at clicks or impressions. Because Target CPA bidding aims to get you more conversions, you may notice a decrease in impressions or clicks while increasing the number of conversions.
- Ensure that your Conversion Tracking is enabled. If you remove conversions that you're tracking, then the ads in campaigns using Target CPA bidding will stop running. To start showing your ads again, you'll need to enable Conversion Tracking.
Read Test your automated bid strategies.

Re-evaluate your conversion rate

You may observe a drop in conversion rate when you start using a Target CPA bid strategy. This change may occur because you're observing an average of the conversion rate across all clicks. For example, suppose your Target CPA bid strategy causes your campaign to have an increase in very cheap clicks with slightly lower conversion rates. If there were no other changes in your campaign, this change in conversion rate would appear as a decrease. However, the change in cost could have a very positive effect on your campaign's ROI. Read the example below:

Display campaign example

Let’s say you used to get one conversion out of every 10 clicks from a specific website, and each click costs $1. This would mean you have a 10% conversion rate with a total cost of $10 per conversion. Then, let's say Target CPA bidding changed your bids so you advertised on a website where you paid $0.10 per click, but only one in 50 people converted from these. Your conversion rate would drop to just 2%, but your cost per conversion would also drop to just $5.
Related Links
- About conversion tracking
- About Target CPA bidding
About your budget report
Google Ads Tutorials: How Google Ads Budget Pacing Works

For subtitles in your language, turn on YouTube captions. Select the settings icon at the bottom of the video player, then select "Subtitles/CC" and choose your language.

Your budget report can help you to determine how much you're projected to pay at the end of the month. The report can also show the changes you’ve made to your average daily budget in the past (and how they impacted your performance and spend limits). Your budget report is available for campaigns using average daily budgets.

This article describes how to view your budget report and what you’ll find in the budget report.

Note: Performance Max campaigns are currently not compatible with the budget reports.

Before you begin

To view your budget report, you’ll need to have a campaign with a date range that includes the current month. If you want to make a change to your campaign’s average daily budget, learn how to Set an average daily budget for your campaign.

Tip: If you want to understand how changes to campaigns could affect key metrics and overall performance, you can create a plan with Performance Planner.

How to view your budget report

You can get to your budget report from various places in Google Ads. In this section, you’ll find information about how to get to your budget report from the “Campaigns” page, the “Shared library", and the “Ad groups” page.

Get to your budget report from the "Campaigns" page
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Hover the cursor over your campaign’s budget in the “Budget” column, or click the pencil icon to view a window with your average daily budget. You can make changes to your average daily budget and save them. Additionally, you can review recommendations to help your return on ad spend (ROAS).
5. Click View budget report and you’ll be taken to the “Budget report” page.
Get to your shared budget report from the "Shared library"
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Budgets and bidding drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Shared budgets.
4. In the “Daily budget” column, hover the cursor over your campaign budget in the “Budget” column, or click the pencil icon to view a window with your average daily budget. You can make changes to your average daily budget and save them. You’ll find a link to the budget report.
5. Click View budget report and you’ll be taken to the “Budget report” page.
Get to your budget report from the "Ad groups" page
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Ad groups.
4. Select an ad group.
5. In the top bar, you’ll find your budget for the campaign associated with the selected ad group. Click the pencil icon next to the budget amount and you'll find your budget and be able to edit it.
6. Click View budget report and you’ll be taken to the “Budget report” page.
What you’ll find in the budget report

The budget report provides you with the following key information:
- Cumulative monthly spend: At the top of the budget report (above the chart), you can review the monthly spending limits, monthly forecast, and cost to date.
  - Monthly spending limit: This section displays the maximum amount you can pay for a campaign over a month. For example, if your average daily budget is set to $10 USD, your monthly spending limit is going to be $10 USD*30.4 = $304 USD. Learn more about spending limits
  - Monthly forecast: This section displays projected total costs for the month based on your average daily budget. Google looks at your historical campaign performance as well as other relevant signals to understand how your campaign is likely to spend over the rest of the current month. Within the budget report, we’ll show a confidence interval (indicated in the light blue shaded area). You won’t be billed more than your spending limits.
  - Cost to date: This section displays the actual amount you’ve spent this month up to today's date.
- Visualization chart: In the middle of the budget report, you can visualize cumulative spend for the month.
  - Gray solid lines show monthly spending limit.
  - Blue solid lines show cost to date.
  - Blue dotted lines show the spend forecast for future dates.
  - Shaded blue areas show the prediction intervals that indicate the upper and lower bound that the actual aggregate spend will likely land for a given day.
- Daily spend: At the bottom of the report (below the Visualization chart), you can find information to help you understand how your daily cost has spent/not spent up to the maximum daily spending limit. The blue bar represents your daily spend.
- Budget Explorer: With Budget Explorer, you can change your target (bid) or budget and immediately notice changes in your forecasted budget consumption. This enables you to more easily view the expected cost of your campaign, and decide on the right targets for your needs. This can be helpful if your budget is constrained.
Tip: The budget report can help you understand how editing your budget can impact the campaign's spending limits. Changes to your average daily budget are indicated with arrow icons on the days the budget changed. You can hover over the arrows to showcase the changes in budget amounts.

Keep in mind: If you use ad schedules, you may notice an alert that the ad schedules will not be reflected in the forecasting on the budget report.
Related links
Fix “Limited by budget” status
There are 2 cases where Google Ads will mark your campaign status as “Limited by budget” and provide budget recommendations:
- Your campaign is underperforming due to a limited budget.
- You’re using Maximize Clicks bidding and could increase traffic by adjusting your budget.
This article explains how to fix this “Limited by budget” status by finding your campaign's recommended budget. Applying your campaign’s recommended budget will help you increase clicks and impressions.

On this page
How to know if this problem solving tip applies to you

Google Ads won't display a recommended average daily budget if you rarely meet your average daily budget, or if your campaign has limited data. If you don't find a recommended budget, and you know your ads aren't being shown as often as they could because your budget is limited, you might want to consider raising your budget to an amount that you're comfortable with.

How it works

Recommended budgets are based on the following factors:
- Recent campaign performance
- Current campaign budget
- Keyword list
- Campaign targeting settings
Resolve the “Limited by budget” status
1. Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu .
2. Select the Filter icon and select Status.
3. Check Limited by budget and select Apply.
4. Select the chart icon next to the campaign that is marked “Limited by budget”. A pop-up with daily budget options will appear.
5. Select a recommended average daily budget, or enter your own.
6. Select Apply.
Related links

Explore more

About the Display Network ad auction

Display network ads participate in a number of ad auctions. Before participating in those auctions, Google Ads uses an internal ad auction to determine which ads to submit, the order those ads will appear, and how much those ads will cost. Your ads are ranked among other advertisers’ ads based on ad rank, which is based on your campaign targets, budget, and quality score. This means that if your ad group's quality score is sufficiently higher than the score of the ad group below yours, you ads can rank higher. Your ads are ranked among other advertisers’ ads based on the value that winning the auction could create for you.

How are you charged?

You'll be charged up to the value delivered per your campaign settings. For example, if you choose to Pay for Conversions for your Display ads campaign, you'll be charged only for the conversions delivered.

Why do we use an auction

Auctions are a fair way to select the ads that will appear on the Display Network. Because an ad auction ranks ads based on bids, campaign goals, and quality score, advertisers, publishers, and users all benefit. Ad opportunities are awarded to advertisers that value that opportunity most, in ad slots most likely to drive performance. Ads are shown to users for whom the ads are most relevant.
Choose a bid amount that works for you
If you're just starting out in Google Ads, you’ll want to go with a budget and bid amount that you’re comfortable with.

This article provides tips and best practices to help you choose your first bids.

Before you begin

If you’re new to Google Ads bidding, read About ad bidding basics. It helps to know what the goals of your campaign are and which networks work best to help you reach your goals.

Choose your first bids

First things first: there's no single recommended bid amount that works perfectly for everyone. The right bid for you will depend on:
- Your campaign type
- The cost of your keywords
- The success of your keywords
Most people starting out in Google Ads use cost-per-click (CPC) bidding to pay for each click on their ads. With this option, you set a maximum cost-per-click bid (max. CPC bid) that's the highest amount that you're willing to pay for a click on your ad.

Set your bid by thinking about how much an ad click is worth to you. If you’re unsure what bid to start with, try setting a max. CPC bid of US$1.

Example

Let's say you own a skateboard shop and you make US$10 from every skateboard purchase. You've seen that on average, 1 in 10 visits to your website results in a purchase. If you set a max. CPC bid of US$1, you’ll break even (advertising costs = sales). To make a profit, you should spend less than US$1 to get a click on your ad, which means you’ll want to set your max. CPC bid below US$1.

Tip: Automate your bidding

If you’re new to Google Ads and you’d like to increase clicks to your website, you might consider using the automated Maximize Clicks bid strategy. This strategy automatically sets your bids to help get as many clicks as possible within your budget. Learn about all types of automated bid strategies.

When you set a max. CPC bid in a new campaign, it's applied to the keywords you choose for your ad group. You can change this ad group default bid at any time. If certain keywords are more relevant to your business than others, you can choose to set different bids for them in order to increase your chances of having your ad appear when people search with those keywords. These are called keyword bids.

To make changes to individual keywords, click the bid amount in the “Max. CPC” column for that keyword.

Bidding on the Display Network

Keep in mind that the clickthrough rates are often lower on the Display Network, because it can be harder to get a reader's attention. If you’re showing your ad on the Display Network, you can set a Display Network Max. CPC bid for clicks that happen just on the Display Network.
- Consider bidding on impressions: Instead of paying per click, you can pay by the number of times your ad is viewable. You’ll bid on the cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (vCPM) bidding, and pay for every 1,000 times your ad is measured as viewable. If you're mostly interested in getting your company's name or logo in front of lots of people, this is a smart option. Learn more about vCPM bidding
- Bid on placements: Similar to how you would evaluate keywords, if your ads perform well on certain placements, you can consider raising the bid for those placements.
Other ways to choose a bid

You can also set bid adjustments to increase or decrease your bids based on whether someone is searching from a mobile device, at a certain time of day, or from specific locations. Learn more About bid adjustments.

Example

You run a store in San Francisco and you’ve set a max. CPC bid of US$1. You could use bid adjustments to increase your chances of showing your ad to customers in your neighborhood. For example, you could set a +20% adjustment for nearby areas, resulting in a final bid amount of US$1.20. Here's the math:

Starting bid: $1
Location adjustment: $1 x (+20%) = $1.2
Resulting bid for nearby searches: $1.20
Related links
Choose a bid for your Display Network campaign
Bid types on the Google Display Network help you get the most value from your campaigns by setting just the right price for your ads. Here are the types of bids you can use for the Display Network:

Bid strategies:
- Target cost per action (CPA) aims to increase conversions while targeting a specific cost per action.
- Maximize conversions (CPA) automatically sets bids for each auction to help get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your daily budget.
- Target return on ad spend (ROAS) aims to increase conversion value while targeting a specific return on ad spend.
- Enhanced cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, which is an option with manual CPC, automatically adjusts your bids to maximize conversions.
- Maximize clicks sets your bids to help get as many clicks as possible within your budget.
- Manual CPC bidding allows you to set your own maximum CPC for your ads.
- Viewable cost per thousand impressions (CPM) focuses on impressions.
Note: Target CPA, Maximize Conversions, Target ROAS, and Enhanced CPC are all Smart Bidding strategies that focus on conversions.

For in-depth guidance on Smart Bidding strategies, download the Display Smart Bidding Guide.

Keep in mind
- Depending on your campaign type or ad group, not all bid strategies may be available.
- For Display Network campaigns, you can set ad group default bids, custom bids, or bid adjustments.
Tip: Tie your bid strategy to your campaign goals. For instance, if you want to focus on impressions, consider Viewable CPM bidding. If your goal is clicks, consider Manual CPC or Maximize clicks bidding. If you’re aiming for conversions, consider Target CPA, Maximize Conversions, or Target ROAS bidding.
Bidding on Display Network campaigns

Search ads and Display ads reach people at different moments. When people are actively looking for something, your Search ad may be the answer they need. However, people who see your ad on the Display Network may be browsing a favorite blog or watching videos -- not actively searching for what you offer. Bidding on the Display Network helps you show ads to potential customers in the right place and at the right time.

Clickthrough rates (CTRs) are often lower on the Display Network, because it can be harder to get a reader's attention. That's why Display Network bidding exists: to let you set bids for clicks, conversions, or impressions that happen just on the Display Network. You get more control over your costs and you can make sure your bids fit the value you get from your ads.

Choosing your first bid

To find the right bid on the Display Network, you can make a starting bid, see how your ads perform, and then edit it. If you don't set specific bids for your targeting, Google Ads will use your ad group's default bid.

After you make your first bid, wait a few days, then go to your account. To evaluate your bid:
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon , then click Overview.
2. Click on the "Views" tab and select Display campaigns.
Note: If you prefer to use the navigation panel on the left, click Change view in the top left of your Google Ads account.
1. You’ll see the number of clicks and impressions for each Display campaign.
Note: If you select Ad groups in the subpage menu, you can see the number of clicks and impressions by ad group. Clicking on the ad group will show you results by ad. Learn more about choosing your bid amount

You might start by asking yourself, "Is my ad getting clicks?" and then, "Do those clicks lead to the results I want?" We recommend you continue to monitor impressions and clicks, but it’s most helpful to wait a couple weeks before making too many changes. If you edit your bids too frequently, you might not be able to assess your performance accurately.

Keep in mind, your ad performance on the Display Network does not affect your rank for Search ads, and lower CTR on the Display Network doesn't affect the Quality Score of your ads for search.

If you’d like to see if those clicks on your ads turn into action on your website or calls to your business, you can use conversion tracking for better insight.

Bid adjustments

If you are using Enhanced CPC, Manual CPC, or Viewable CPM bidding strategies then you can also set bid adjustments for better control over when and where your ad appears. Bid adjustments can be set at the campaign level (for mobile devices, times, days, and locations) and can also be used to bid more competitively for specific targeting methods, like keywords, audiences, demographics, topics, or placements in your ad groups.

When you go to the ad groups page, you can find the bidding status. Learn more about adding or removing bid adjustments
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Ad groups.
4. If you don’t see the column, click the columns icon , select Attributes, then select Active bid adj.
Related links
Change how you bid
From Manual CPC bidding to a number of automated bid strategies, Google Ads offers many different ways for you to set your bids. Each is designed to help you achieve a specific business goal. In some cases, your goals may change, and you’ll need to update your bid strategy to match.

This article explains how to change your campaign's bid strategy. The instructions in this article apply to Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns.

Before you begin

If you’re not yet familiar with the different ways to bid, learn how to Determine a bid strategy based on your goals.
How to edit your campaign bid strategy
1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Select the campaign you want to edit.
5. Click Settings in the page menu for this campaign.
6. Open Bidding and then click Change bid strategy.
7. Select your new bid strategy from the drop-down menu.
8. Click Save.
Related links
- Determine a bid strategy based on your goals
- About automated bidding
About adjusting your keyword bids
When you select each keyword, you can choose how much you're willing to pay whenever a customer searches on that keyword and clicks your ad. This is your keyword's maximum cost-per-click, or max CPC, bid amount. Some advertisers like the control they maintain with manual bids, while others are comfortable letting the Google Ads system make bids for them.

This article explains the difference between the automated Maximize Clicks bid strategy and manual CPC bidding, how to use Google Ads tools to choose a bid, and how to use keyword bid estimates to help get your ad on the first page.

Before you begin

For instructions on how to manually change your bids, learn how to Change your keyword bids.

How Maximize Clicks works

Maximize Clicks is ideal for advertisers who don't want to spend a lot of time setting bids, but would like to get the most clicks possible for their ads within their budget. You don't need to specify individual bids for your keywords, ad groups, or placements. All you do is set an average daily budget, and the Google Ads system automatically sets your max CPC bids to bring you the most clicks possible within your budget. For more control over your bids, you can set a CPC bid limit if you don't want to exceed a particular price per click. Learn more About Maximize Clicks bidding.

How to use Google Ads tools to help choose a keyword bid

Some tools help you identify keywords that you may want to adjust manually. Other more advanced tools do the bidding for you, based on an amount you select.
- Recommendations in your account can help you identify which of your keywords seem to be good candidates for bid changes. Suggestions are for increased bids (to help capture more clicks) and decreased bids (to help lower your costs). Find out how to Optimize your account with Recommendations.
- The Bid Simulator runs "what-if" scenarios such as: "How many more impressions would I have received if I had raised my bid by US$0.10?" so you can adjust your bids to the right level for your budget. The simulator doesn't predict the future, but it does estimate the click, cost, and impression data that your ads would have received in a typical week had you set higher or lower keyword bids.
- Enhanced CPC maximizes your conversions for manual bidding while achieving the same cost-per-conversion. This bid strategy looks for ad auctions that are more likely to lead to sales for you, and then raises your max CPC bid (after applying any bid adjustments you've set) to compete harder for those clicks. ECPC will also lower your bid in auctions less likely to lead to sales. That way you get more sales and conversions out of the ad dollars you spend.
- Conversion tracking is an advanced feature that shows you which keywords most often lead customers to take the actions you want them to take (these actions, such as a purchase or newsletter signup, are called conversions). Tracking your conversions can help you decide whether to increase your max CPC for keywords that are performing well, and decrease it for those that are underperforming. Conversion tracking is a requirement for using certain automated bid strategies, including ECPC with Target CPA and Target ROAS. Learn more About automated bidding.
How manual CPC bidding works

This option lets you manage your max CPC bids yourself. You can set bids at the ad group level, or for individual keywords. Your ad group's default bid amount will be applied to all keywords in your new campaign's ad group. You may change your bid amount at any time for any or all keywords.
Tips
- New to Google Ads and not sure what keyword bid amount to set? Many advertisers start with a max CPC bid of US$1.
- When using Maximize Clicks you can easily switch to manual CPC bidding which gives you full control to set the bid amounts yourself.
How to use keyword bid estimates

If it's important for you to have your ad show on the first page of Google search results, there are 3 different types of keyword bid estimates available to help you get there.
- First page bid estimates show the bid you likely need to get your ad on the first page of search results.
- Top of page bid estimates go a step further, estimating the bid you likely need to get your ad among the top ad positions on the first page of search results.
- First position bid estimates go further still, estimating the bid you likely need to get your ad in the top spot.
These estimates are based on an exact match for your keyword. Ad position also depends on the keyword's Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that keyword, so there's no guarantee your ad will consistently be in your preferred position. Learn how to Get your ads to show on the first page.

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About Performance Planner

If you’re affected by market changes, we recommend planning weekly rather than monthly or quarterly until markets stabilize.

Performance Planner’s forecasts are refreshed daily and based on the last 7-10 days, adjusted for seasonality. Your forecasts will take into account any impact of market changes during this time frame. We’ve updated our seasonal model to account for current market conditions.

Performance Planner is a tool that lets you create plans for your advertising spend and assess how changes to campaigns might affect key metrics and overall performance.

Using Performance Planner, you can:

Access forecasts for your campaigns.
Explore outcomes by adjusting campaign settings.
Understand opportunities in seasonal periods.
Manage budgets across accounts and campaigns.

Benefits

Review your campaigns projected monthly and quarterly performance.
Get suggestions that can help your campaigns perform better for the same spend.
Find out how your spend and performance goals are affected if you change your campaign settings.
Choose the specific conversion goal that you want to create a forecast for.
- Note: Conversion actions under a goal must be set to primary, and they should be added to forecastable campaigns in order to show up in the conversion goal drop down.

How it works

To give you the most accurate forecasts possible, Performance Planner takes into account billions of search queries, usually updated every 24 hours. Performance Planner simulates relevant ad auctions over the last 7-10 days, including variables like seasonality, competitor activity, and landing page.

After running simulations and collecting data, the accuracy of Performance Planner forecasts are measured by running campaigns against their eventual performance and Google AI is used to fine-tune your forecasts.

To help optimize your budget and improve overall results, Performance Planner may propose a budget of $0 USD for some campaigns or portfolios. When this happens, it's because the planner has identified that these campaigns aren’t contributing to the most efficient spend distribution, and it may advise pausing them.

Forecast conversions are based on the conversion types in the “Conversions” column of your Google Ads performance reports or the conversion goal you choose when creating a new forecast. Learn more about account, campaign, and ad group performance.

Performance Planner includes conversion delay estimates for Search and Performance Max impact estimates. Conversion delay occurs when people click on an ad and then take some time to complete a conversion action. The estimates help you make more informed decisions about bidding strategies, budgets, and return on advertising spend (ROAS) by providing more accurate traffic and conversion projections. Conversion estimates reflect conversions expected within your conversion window.

Performance Planner can support up to 10,000 campaigns per plan and is also available for manager accounts.

Requirements

Refer to the tables below to find out if your campaigns are eligible to use Performance Planner.

Search campaigns

Eligibility factor	Eligibility requirements
Bid strategy	Uses manual cost-per-click (CPC), enhanced CPC, max clicks, max conversions, max conversion value, target return on ad spend (ROAS), target cost-per-action (CPA) bidding strategies, or target impression share bidding strategies. Have not changed bid strategies in the last 7 days
Run time	Have been running for at least 72 hours
Recent clicks	Have received at least 3 clicks in the last 7 days
Conversion minimum	Have received at least 3 conversions in the last 7 days
Budget	Have a Search lost IS (budget) of less than 5% over the last 10 days (target impression share campaigns only)

Shopping campaigns (Standard)

Eligibility factor	Eligibility Requirements
Bid strategy	Campaign isn’t part of a portfolio bid strategy
Run time	Have been active each day with a minimum spend of $10 USD or more in the last 10 days
Impression minimum	Have received at least 100 impressions in the last 7 days
Conversion minimum	Have received at least 10 conversions and/or conversion values in the last 10 days
Budget	Campaign doesn’t have a status of “Limited by Budget”. Target ROAS standard shopping campaigns (only): have a Search lost IS (budget) of less than 5% over the last 10 days0 A campaign with a shared budget is eligible only if all campaigns in the shared budget use a single Merchant Center account.

Display campaigns (Smart and standard)

Eligibility factor	Eligibility requirements
Bid strategy	Have not changed bid strategies in the last 7 days
Run time	Have been running for 7 days or more
Conversion or click minimum	Have had at least 5 conversions (or 20 clicks for Maximize clicks) and more than $10 USD in cost in the last 7 days
Budget	Campaign doesn’t have a status of “Limited by Budget”.

Demand Gen Campaigns

Eligibility factor	Eligibility requirements
Bid strategy	Have not changed bid strategy within the last 7 days Use a maximize conversions or target cost-per-action (CPA) bid strategy
Impression minimum	All ad groups have at least 1 impression in each of the last 7 days
Budget	Uses daily budgets Not using shared budgets
State	Campaigns should be active (not in a draft or experiment state) or have been paused for < 7 days
Conversions minimum	Have had at least 1 conversion in the last 7 days

App campaigns

Eligibility factor	Eligibility requirements
Bid strategy	Have not changed bid strategies in the last 10 days Use app install ads with target cost-per-install (tCPI), target cost-per-action (tCPA), or app engagement ads with target cost-per-action (tCPA) bidding strategies
Run time	Have been running for 10 days or more
Conversion minimum	Have received at least 10 conversions in the last 10 days
Budget	Campaign doesn’t have a status of “Limited by Budget”.

Local campaigns (Upgraded to Performance Max for store goals)

Eligibility factor	Eligibility requirements
Bid Strategy	Optimizing for store visits Have sufficient store visit data in the last 30 days Not optimizing for calls or directions only
Run time	Have been active for the last 30 days
Budget	Not using shared budgets Have an average daily spend of $500 USD or more in the last 30 days

Note: Upgraded Local campaigns that previously had access to Performance Planner will continue to be held to Local campaigns eligibility requirements, to ensure a seamless experience during the upgrade process.

Video campaigns

Eligibility factor	Eligibility requirements
Bid Strategy	Have not changed bid strategy within the last 3 days Use a maximize conversions or target cost-per-action (CPA) bid strategy TrueView for Action or Video Action Campaign format
Conversion minimum	Have at least 5 conversions and have spent $10 USD in the last 7 days
Budget	Using daily budgets Not using shared budgets
State	Campaigns should be active, not in a draft or experiment state

Performance Max campaigns

Eligibility factor	Eligibility requirements
Bid strategy	Have not changed the bid strategy within the last 7 days Campaigns with a shared budget are only eligible when they use bid strategies with a target.
Run time	Must be active or have been paused for fewer than 7 days Must not be in a draft or experiment state
Conversion or click minimum	Use Maximize conversions (with or without bids) or Maximize conversion value (with or without bids) Have had at least 10 impressions, 3 interactions, one conversion, and one conversion value (for conversion value-related campaigns) in the last 7 days
Budget	Using daily budgets

Ineligible campaigns

Depending on the settings or state of a campaign, it may be ineligible to use Performance Planner. If any of the following apply to your campaign, it's ineligible to use Performance planner:

Has been changed to meet the eligibility requirements, but has been running for fewer than 10 days with new settings
Is in draft or an experiment state
Has been deleted

About attribution reports

Once you've set up conversion tracking, you'll have access to attribution reports, a handy set of reports about your conversions (those important actions your customers take on your website, such as a purchase or email signup).

Benefits

Attribution reports show you the paths customers take to complete conversions and provide insights into how your different advertising efforts work together to create conversions. For example, you can see whether certain keywords assisted conversions that eventually happened through other keywords. This gives you a better sense of your potential customers' conversion paths than just looking at the last-clicked keyword.

How to find your attribution reports

Attribution reports help you understand different aspects of your conversions data.

To find attribution reports:

In your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon .
Click the Measurements drop down in the section menu.
Click Attribution.

Tip

If you manage multiple Google Ads accounts with a manager account (MCC), you can use cross-account conversion tracking. Once you've set up cross-account conversion tracking, use the attribution reports in the manager account (MCC).

How to use report controls

Attribution reports have the following report controls. Use these controls to customize your reports and review the data that matters most to your business.

Date range

The date range you select determines which conversions to include in the report. Click the date range in the upper right of the page to update the date range for the entire report. If you opt to compare date ranges, click the "< >" symbols that appear in each column to expand the column and view data for each date range.

You can select date ranges beginning as far back as 2 years ago. Path report and attribution credit data older than 2 years is deleted and can't be restored.

Note: In the "Model comparison report," you might see a message about historical data being only partially available for your selected date range. This could be because your account has only recently become eligible for cross-network attribution. To provide accurate performance metrics, the report automatically filters out any network or campaign without enough data. Select a more recent date range to see complete data.

Dimension

Click the "Dimension" drop-down menu in the upper left of the page to change what slice of data the report displays. For example, you can select Campaigns, Ad groups, Keywords, and more.

Conversion action

Select which conversion actions to include in your report by clicking the "Conversion action" drop-down menu in the upper center of the page. By default, each report includes all conversion actions that you've marked as primary conversion actions.

Lookback window

Use the "Lookback window" control to adjust an attribution report's lookback window to 30, 60, or 90 days. Most reports show a 30-day lookback window when you open them.

Note: The "Lookback window" control is different than the "Conversion window" setting.

A lookback window in the attribution reports determines how far back in time from a conversion ad interactions are eligible for attribution credit. For example, a 30-day lookback window considers ad interactions that occurred from December 31 to January 30 when allocating credit for a conversion that happens on January 30.

A conversion window is the period of time after an ad interaction during which a conversion is recorded in Google Ads. Learn more about conversion windows

The "Model comparison" report has one more lookback window option than the other reports. The "Default" option sets the report's lookback window to the same number of days you selected as the conversion window for each conversion action within Tools > Measurement > Conversions.

The "Overview" report

The "Overview" report gives you a high-level view of your conversion paths. It tells you information like how many days and ad interactions it took users to convert, how many of your conversions included ad interactions on more than one device, and which campaigns are most effective at assisting conversions. This provides valuable insight into your customers' journeys to conversion.

The "Conversion paths" report

The "Conversion paths" report shows you the most common paths your customers take to complete a conversion. It provides this information based on the ads your customers clicked before a conversion took place. Within this report, you can see more details by selecting options from the drop-down menus.

"View" menu

By default, the report shows paths, which provide a detailed look at the sequences of users' ad interactions prior to conversion. Successive ad interactions with the same dimension value are consolidated into a single touchpoint showing the number of repeat interactions.

Select Transition paths from the "View" menu at the top of the report to see a higher-level view of the sequences of users’ ad interactions prior to conversion. Transition paths treat successive ad interactions with the same dimension value as a single interaction. This is useful for seeing how customers move between different keywords, ad groups, or campaigns on their path to conversion.

"Devices" dimension

Select the Devices dimension to see paths broken down by your audience's devices, for which we show the device type (desktop, tablet, mobile). Two adjacent elements in the path are for different devices, but not necessarily a different device type. This allows you to examine the order in which people typically use different devices before they complete a conversion.

"Video impressions"

Video impressions help you understand how your upper-funnel strategy drives conversions. Data driven attribution helps you understand attribution models by using your conversion data to calculate the actual contribution of each ad interaction across the conversion path. In addition to Data driven attribution, we have now included YouTube impressions in the reports. You can also view YouTube impressions in the reports by switching the toggle button on.

Note: Reports include video impressions from YouTube and Demand Gen campaigns.

The "Path metrics" report

The "Path metrics" report shows how long--and how many interactions--it takes for users to convert. It also shows how many conversions happened after a given number of days or interactions, and how much those conversions are worth.

"Avg. days/hours to conversion"

By default, the report shows "Avg. days to conversion." This view tells you how much time it takes for a customer to complete a conversion, with a row for each day to conversion from the last ad interaction.

Use the "Measure from" drop-down menu to show the time measured from either the first or the last ad interaction. Use the "Measure in" drop-down menu to select Days or Hours.

The "Avg. days/hours to conversion" view can give you insight into the length of your online sales cycle. If your ads are an immediate call-to-action, such as a one-day sale or a sign-up for an event, you'll want to see fewer days/hours to conversion. If you're running a brand awareness campaign, longer time lags (that is, more days/hours to conversion) might be more appropriate. You can use this information to help you understand whether your campaigns are working the way you expect them to, and to determine what conversion window is best for each conversion action.

"Avg. interactions to conversion"

To see how many interactions it takes for users to convert, select the Avg. interactions to conversion tab. You can use this view to see what kind of frequency is most valuable for driving conversions. Keep in mind, this report only reflects the keywords and ads in your Google Ads account, so if these paths of interactions seem shorter than you might expect, that's why.

The "Assisted conversions" report

The "Assisted conversions" report shows how often a certain network, campaign, ad group (or other dimension value) appeared on the conversion path. If an ad interaction (i.e., a click or YouTube Engaged-view conversion) helped with a conversion, but was not the ad interaction immediately preceding that conversion, it's called a "click and view assist". If an ad interaction occurred directly before a conversion, it's called a "Last click conversion". One conversion can be preceded by multiple assisting ad interactions, so you will likely see more "Click and view assists" than total conversions.

For example, look at the following conversion path:

YouTube > Search > YouTube > YouTube

In this case, YouTube would get two "Click and view assists" (for the first and third interactions) and one "Last click conversion" (for the fourth interaction).

This report is a great resource to quickly identify which of your advertising efforts are helping to drive the most conversions. You may find that some keywords are the last click for very few conversions but actually assisted many conversions. In those instances, you may choose to test increasing investment for these keywords to see whether you can drive more conversions for your business.

The "Model comparison" report

An attribution model is the rule, or set of rules, that determines how credit for conversions is assigned to steps on conversion paths. Learn more about the "Model comparison" report and how to use attribution models in About attribution models.

Conversion data in attribution reports vs. "Campaigns" page

There may be differences in conversion data between your attribution reports and the "Campaigns" page. This is due to differences in how conversions are counted across networks, time of event, and conversion sources.

Attribution reports can help you estimate how changes to your attribution model might impact conversion reporting. Conversions in the "Campaigns" page can help you evaluate and optimize performance after you've changed your attribution model. You can also see past performance in attribution reports by using the "current model" columns.

How reporting varies

Here's how conversions are reported differently in attribution reports vs. the "Campaigns" page:

	Attribution reports	"Campaigns" page
Time of event	Time of conversion	Time of the ad query preceding the click that led to conversion. (Add "by conv. Time" columns to the "Campaigns" page to match the reporting time in attribution reports)
Network coverage	Search Network, YouTube (including Google video partners), Google Display Network, and Discover Note: Performance Max campaigns will be labeled as “Cross-Network” and Demand Gen campaigns as “Google owned channels”.	Search Network (including Search partners), YouTube (including Google video partners), Google Display Network, Gmail, Google Maps, App, and Discover
Campaign coverage	Search, Shopping, Video, Display (not including pay for conversions), and Demand Gen App campaigns aren't supported yet.	Search, Shopping, Video, Display, Demand Gen, App, Hotel
Video format coverage	Ad sequence, Bumper, Non-skippable in-stream, Skippable in-stream	Bumper, Masthead, Non-skippable in-stream, Outstream, Skippable in-stream, In-feed video
Conversion coverage	Google Ads conversion tracking, Google Analytics goal and conversion import (including Android app conversions), offline conversion import, call conversions (click to call, call import, website call conversions), and app conversions Note: Engaged view conversions (EVCs) are supported in both Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) properties, but conversions attributed to impressions (VTCs) are currently not supported in GA4.	All sources in attribution reports, plus store visits conversions
History windows	"Conversion windows" apply in the attribution reports in the same way they do for the "Campaigns" page. In addition, you can use a "lookback window" in the attribution reports to determine how far back in time from a conversion you want to include ad interactions for the data in the reports. For example, you may want to only consider ad interactions within 30 days of conversions (regardless of the conversion windows of those conversions). The "Model comparison" report also has a "Default" lookback window option. The "Default" option sets the lookback window for each conversion to its conversion window.	A "conversion window" is set for each conversion action within Tools > Measurement > Conversions. Any conversion without a preceding ad interaction within its conversion window is not counted in Google Ads. Learn more About conversion windows.

Bidding Basics

Bid Strategies

About Budgets

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Conversions for bidding optimization

Key Bidding Features

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Bidding Basics

About automated bidding

How Smart Bidding enhances automated bidding for Search campaigns

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Create an automated bid strategy

The power of Smart Bidding

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Your guide to Smart Bidding

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Basics | Get started with Smart Bidding

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About Smart Bidding

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Why use Smart Bidding

Advanced machine learning

Wide range of contextual signals

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Weekday & time of day

Remarketing list

Ad characteristics

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Browser

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Actual search query (Search and Shopping)

Search Network partner (Search only)

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Hotel and itinerary attributes (Hotels only)

Mobile app ratings (coming soon)

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Who it’s for

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Before you begin

Video ad conversion attribution for Smart Bidding

Grow your Smart Bidding campaigns with broad match keywords

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Understanding bidding basics

Focus on clicks (for Search and Display ads)

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Determine a bid strategy based on your goals

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About bid adjustments

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