06/08/2026
Google is changing how target based bidding works on August 17 and a lot of ecommerce accounts are going to quietly get more expensive.
Here's the short version. Right now if you set a $10 target CPA and the campaign delivers at $5, Google lets it beat the target. After August 17 it will drift up toward the $10 you typed in. Same thing in reverse for ecommerce. Target ROAS of 500% while you're actually hitting 1000%, and it starts steering back to 500%.
What I think happens in Performance Max if you leave it alone: it has to spend the budget somehow, so it either reaches for weaker inventory or pushes your CPCs up to buy better position and impression share. More spend, not more sales.
The fix is unglamorous. Go and set your targets to what you're actually achieving, not what you typed in eighteen months ago. Google's Bid Target Adjustment Tool is already live in your account. Changing the target on its own does not increase spend, only a budget increase does that. And if you run portfolio strategies, adjust at the portfolio level, not the campaign.
One caution. Don't get greedy. Set the target too aggressively and the algorithm just stops showing your ads where it doesn't believe it can hit the number.
Test, assess, optimise, then scale.
Full breakdown in the video, link in the description 👇
