Google’s Summer Bidding Overhaul: What’s Mandatory and What to Decide Before 17th August

Google Is Rewriting How Your Budget-Limited Campaigns Perform

Google announced three changes to Google Ads bidding and budgeting in a single post. Most of the coverage that followed reduced them into one story: a deadline on 17th August. That’s true, but it’s only a part of what actually happened.

The other two changes are levers – and treating all three as one event would be the fastest way to miss what’s actually useful here: take it as one stabilisation change and two growth opportunities. 

What actually changed

Bidding Target Optimization is the deadline item. From 17th August, campaigns with a “Limited by budget” status that use Target CPA or Target ROAS will be steered more consistently toward the target an advertiser actually typed in, by far Smart Bidding has often been quietly delivering the better number. Google’s own example: a $10 Target CPA campaign currently converting at $5 will drift toward $10 unless the target is updated first. A Bid Target Adjustment Tool went live in accounts on 6th July to help identify which campaigns are affected, based on a 12-month lookback.

Smart Bidding Exploration, previously limited to Search campaigns, is now globally available for all Performance Max campaigns without a product feed, with a beta opening for Shopping and for Performance Max campaigns that do have a feed. It works by letting an advertiser set a ROAS tolerance, which allows the algorithm to bid on queries without a proven conversion history. Google has cited internal test figures of an 18% increase in unique converting query categories and a 19% increase in conversions, though these are vendor-reported and not independently verified.

Promotion Mode is a new beta for Search and Performance Max that schedules a temporary, self-reversing change to ROAS tolerance and daily budget across a defined window of three to fourteen days, for planned demand spikes such as a flash sale or product launch. Promotion Mode acts directly on the budget and tolerance levers, then reverts automatically when the window closes.

Why this belongs on your agenda

The deadline change has a real cost for accounts that don’t act. Any budget-limited Target CPA or Target ROAS campaign that has been outperforming its stated target is currently getting a better deal than the number in the settings field. From 17th August, that gap closes. For a brand campaign converting at $20 against a $35 target, doing nothing means accepting a worse cost per conversion for the same spend.

This is a multi-market problem. For brands running Target CPA or Target ROAS across several countries and languages, the exposure isn’t uniform. A campaign that’s been budget-limited in one market for two months out of the last twelve still falls inside Google’s lookback window. Conducting a market-by-market review exposes the risks masked by a broader global-account perspective.

The two growth levers are opt-in. Smart Bidding Exploration and Promotion Mode both require deliberate action to use: neither is retrofitted onto existing campaigns automatically. Accounts that only respond to the August deadline will have addressed the stabilisation problem and left two genuine opportunities for incremental volume unused going into Q4.

What to do about it

1. Audit every budget-limited Target CPA and Target ROAS campaign before 17th August. Use the Bid Target Adjustment Tool to see actual performance against stated targets, market by market, not just at account level.
2. Decide deliberately, don’t accept by default. For each flagged campaign, either update the target to reflect real performance, set a new target from current unit economics or switch to Maximize Conversions if an unconstrained approach suits the campaign better.
3. Check eligibility for Smart Bidding Exploration on Performance Max campaigns without a product feed. This is generally available now, not in beta, and Google’s own figures suggest it’s worth testing with a conservative ROAS tolerance before committing more broadly.
4. Flag any Q3 or Q4 demand spikes now. Promotion Mode is beta-gated through the account team, so campaigns with a known flash sale, launch or seasonal peak should request access ahead of the event.

Google has spent 2026 converting settings that used to be soft guidance into behaviour the system actively enforces. The accounts that come out ahead will be the ones that used the same six-week window to pick up the two levers sitting next to it.

If you’d like a market-by-market read on how this affects your budget-limited campaigns, that’s the conversation to have with us.

Sources

• Google Ads Help: Changes to target-based bid strategies
• Google Ads Help: Frequently asked questions about changes to Target-based bid strategies
• Search Engine Journal: Google Clarifies Smart Bidding Update After Advertiser Concerns
• PPC Land: Promotion mode is here — Google’s Ginny Marvin explains what actually changed
• Search Engine Land: Google expands Smart Bidding Exploration, adds Promotion Mode
• MediaPost: Google Ads, Platforms See Major Bidding Changes

Article author

GA Team