Google Ads Bidding Strategies: Which One to Pick

Google Ads has about a dozen bidding strategies. A store selling products uses five or six of them. If your tracking sends real order values, start on Maximize conversion value, then add a target ROAS once the campaign sells steadily. Manual CPC and Maximize clicks are for tight control and cheap tests, not for scaling.

Every Google Ads Bidding Strategy in One Table

Google sorts its PPC bidding strategies by what you want more of.

The four in the first row are Smart Bidding. Google sets a fresh bid in each auction to hit your goal. If you want the definition and how auction-time bidding works, read what Smart Bidding is. This guide is about picking one.

Which Bidding Strategy Should a Store Use?

Find the row that sounds like your store.

The third column is our read for a store, built on Google's rules. Your numbers decide. If you aren't sure which wins, test it with a Google Ads experiment instead of switching the whole campaign.

One thing comes before any of this. Every Smart Bidding strategy bids on what your tracking reports. A purchase counted twice makes it bid hard on the wrong clicks. Check your setup with our conversion tracking guide first.

Manual CPC and Maximize Clicks

Manual CPC means you set the highest price you will pay for a click, per ad group or keyword. Nothing moves unless you move it. It suits a small account where you know your money keywords. It is slow work on a big one.

Enhanced CPC used to sit on top of it. Google ended Enhanced CPC for Search and Display the week of March 31, 2025. Campaigns that were not moved now run on plain Manual CPC.

Maximize clicks gets as many clicks as it can within your budget. Google calls it "the simplest way to bid for clicks." On Shopping it is the one automated choice that needs no conversions. That makes it handy for a first week on a new feed. It is a bad long-term pick for a store. Clicks are not sales, and it will buy cheap clicks from people who never buy.

Maximize Conversions and Target CPA

Maximize conversions tries to get the most sales for your budget and spend all of it. Target CPA tries to get as many sales as it can at the average cost per sale you set. Some sales will cost more, some less.

These count orders, not money. That fits a store where every order is worth about the same. Google says Target CPA can start with no conversion history. If the campaign has history, Google suggests a target for you. To judge it, Google says look at the last 30 days with at least 30 conversions.

Maximize Conversion Value and Target ROAS

Maximize conversion value tries to get the most sales value for your budget, and it tries to spend the whole daily budget. It needs conversion tracking that sends the value of each order.

Target ROAS gets as much sales value as it can at the return you set. Google's example: $5 in sales for $1 of ad spend is a 500% target ROAS. Search and Shopping need at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days.

Your goal ROAS is the ROAS you want, as Google Ads shows it: conversion value divided by cost. Work it out from your own numbers with the ROAS calculator. It has to leave profit after ads. Then set it with Google's rules for Shopping and Performance Max:

1. Start close to the ROAS the campaign gets today.
2. Move the target in steps of about 30%.
3. Wait 1 to 2 conversion cycles between changes.

Google also warns that a target set too high "may limit the amount of traffic your ads may get." And if your budget is fixed, Google says use Maximize conversion value instead of Target ROAS, to get the most sales inside that budget.

What Changed in Google Ads Bidding in 2026

New labels, June 2026. "Maximize conversions with a Target CPA" now shows as Target CPA. "Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS" now shows as Target ROAS. Google's developer blog says "the underlying bidding behavior remains exactly the same." Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value stay as their own options.

Budget-limited campaigns, August 2026. If a Target CPA or Target ROAS campaign is limited by budget, Google now bids closer to the target. It started August 17, 2026, and Google finished the rollout on August 27, 2026. It covers Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen and Travel.

What to do: look at your budget-limited campaigns on a target. If one used to beat its target, that gap may close. Google won't change your targets or budgets for you. You can set the target to what the campaign does now, pick a new target, or switch to Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value. Then wait 1 to 2 conversion cycles before you judge it in the bid strategy report.

What Is a Portfolio Bid Strategy?

A portfolio bid strategy is one strategy shared by many campaigns, ad groups or keywords. They all chase one target together. Google used to call them flexible bid strategies.

It works with Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Maximize clicks and Target impression share. Performance Max cannot use one. Portfolio Target ROAS is also out for Hotel and Travel campaigns.

When a store should use one: you run several small Search or Shopping campaigns with the same goal ROAS. One portfolio lets them chase that target together, and you change it in one place. That is our read. Google only says it groups campaigns toward one goal.

How to build one:

1. Open the Tools menu and go to Budgets and bidding, then Bid strategies.
2. Click the plus button and pick the strategy type.
3. Name it, pick the campaigns, enter the settings and save.

It is stored in your Shared library. Google calls shared budgets best practice with portfolio bidding. A portfolio also lets you set a maximum CPC bid limit, which Google says stops sudden CPC spikes. Our read: use that cap on Maximize conversions or clicks. Google's value-based bidding advice says to avoid extra limits like CPC caps on a value strategy.

Do Bid Adjustments Still Work with Smart Bidding?

A bid adjustment raises or lowers your bids by a percent. You can set it by device, location, ad schedule, audience, demographics and calls. Device runs from -100% to +900%. Most others run from -90% to +900%.

Adjustments multiply. Google's example: a $1 bid with +20% for California and -50% for Saturday becomes $0.60 on a Saturday in California. When several stack, the lowest you can go is -90%.

On Smart Bidding, most of this does nothing. Google says a manual bid adjustment on a Smart Bidding strategy "won't be supported." Google sets each bid itself. What still works:

• A -100% device adjustment stops ads on that device.
• On Target CPA, a device adjustment moves the CPA target for that device, not the bid.
• Your ad schedule still counts. Smart Bidding skips the schedule's bid adjustment but only shows ads in the hours you allow.

So on Manual CPC, adjustments are your main lever. On Smart Bidding, change the target or the value you send instead.

Value-Based Bidding: Bid for Money, Not Orders

Value-based bidding means Google bids for the value a sale brings, not the count. In Google Ads that is Maximize conversion value, with or without a target ROAS.

Google's rules for it:

• Send at least two different conversion values. If every order reports $50, there is nothing to tell big orders from small ones.
• Send values before you switch. Google's value-based bidding page says 3 weeks or 1 to 2 conversion cycles, whichever is longer. Its best-practices page asks for 4 weeks or 3 cycles. Go with the longer one.
• Drop conversions with a value of 0. Google says they are generally not recommended here.

The value can be revenue. Google's best-practices page also names profit and customer lifetime value. Google only bids on the value you send. So a $100 order that leaves you $8 and a $100 order that leaves you $45 look the same to it, unless you tell it otherwise. Why that gap matters most in bidding is on our Smart Bidding page. How to group products by margin so each group gets its own target is in the Labelizer playbook.

How to Read the Bid Strategy Report

Find it here: Tools icon > Budgets and bidding > Bid strategies, then click the link in the Bid strategy type column. A campaign inside a portfolio opens the portfolio's report.

What you see:

• Status. Whether the strategy runs fine or needs you.
• Top signals. For Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value. Things like device, location and time. They don't always show.
• Scorecard. The numbers that matter for that strategy type.
• Conversion delay. How long buyers take to convert. Don't judge yesterday before late sales come in.
• Performance chart. Up to 2 metrics over time.
• Simulators. An estimate of what a new target or budget would do. Our budget calculator does the rough maths before you open it.

Google's new account-wide report does not support portfolio strategies yet. Open the portfolio's own report.

Seasonality Adjustments and Data Exclusions

Seasonality adjustments tell Smart Bidding a short sale is coming, like a 3-day Black Friday push. Google says they work best for events of 1 to 7 days, and may not work well past 14. On Search, Shopping, Demand Gen and Display they work with Target ROAS and Target CPA. On Performance Max they work with every strategy.

Data exclusions are for broken tracking. If your purchase tag was down for two days, exclude those days so the strategy doesn't learn from fake zero-sale days. They work on Search, Display, Shopping and Performance Max.

How Long to Wait After a Change

Google says the Learning label never lasts more than 7 days. Results usually settle within 1 to 2 conversion cycles. A new strategy, campaigns added to or removed from it, or a big change in what you count as a conversion all start learning. A new target or budget does not.

Make one change. Wait. Then judge. For rules that run next to Smart Bidding, see scaling rules that work. For how Shopping and Performance Max bid differently, see Performance Max vs Standard Shopping.

Ask Your Own Account Which Strategy Fits

Scaley Media Buyer connects to your Google Ads read-only. Ask it "is my target ROAS starving this campaign?" or "which campaigns are limited by budget on a target?" and it answers from your live numbers. It cannot change a setting.

Scaley Suite sorts every product into Hero, Workhorse or Bleed and queues each new product label for your yes. Then you can give each group its own target ROAS. Nothing changes until you approve that line.

Start the free trial. A card is required for the trial. Prices are on the pricing page. We build Scaley, so weigh that. Christopher Krassnig also runs ZenoX Media, a Google Ads agency.

Where These Facts Come From

Checked on 2026-11-12:

• Determine a bid strategy based on your goals, Google Ads Help - the four goal groups and every strategy in them.
• About automated bidding, Google Ads Help - Maximize clicks and the Smart Bidding one-liners, standard vs portfolio, and Enhanced CPC ending the week of March 31, 2025.
• About Smart Bidding, Google Ads Help - the four Smart Bidding strategies and the June 2026 label change.
• Updates to Smart Bidding strategy, Google Ads API blog, June 16, 2026 - the new Target CPA and Target ROAS labels, behavior unchanged.
• Changes to target-based bid strategies FAQ, Google Ads Help - budget-limited campaigns, August 17 to 27, 2026, campaign types and what to do.
• About Target ROAS bidding, Google Ads Help - the 500% example, 15 conversions in 30 days, the too-high warning and how to set it.
• About Target CPA bidding, Google Ads Help - no history needed, 30 days and 30 conversions to judge.
• About Maximize conversion value, Google Ads Help - spends the full budget, needs order values, acts like Target ROAS with a target.
• Smart Bidding with Shopping and Performance Max, Google Ads Help - start near current ROAS, 30% steps, 1 to 2 cycles, fixed budget advice.
• Automated bidding for Shopping campaigns, Google Ads Help - the three Shopping strategies and which need conversions.
• Performance Max bidding, Google Ads Help - Maximize conversion value or Maximize conversions, with an optional target.
• Portfolio bid strategy: Definition, Google Ads Help - what it groups, which strategies, no Performance Max, Shared library.
• Create a portfolio bid strategy, Google Ads Help - the steps, the max CPC limit and shared budgets.
• About bid adjustments, Google Ads Help - ranges, the $0.60 example, the -90% floor and Smart Bidding rules.
• Value-based bidding for Search and Shopping, Google Ads Help - two or more values, 3 weeks or 1 to 2 cycles.
• Value-based bidding best practices, Google Ads Help - revenue, profit or lifetime value, zero values, 4 weeks or 3 cycles, no CPC limits.
• About the bid strategy report, Google Ads Help and How to find it - the path and the six sections.
• About seasonality adjustments, Google Ads Help - 1 to 7 days, not past 14, campaign types.
• About data exclusions, Google Ads Help - tracking outages, campaign types.
• Learning period, Google Ads Help - 7-day label, 1 to 2 cycles, what starts learning.