Google is ending target over performance - what does this mean for your business?
- Aug 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 20
Google is always making updates and changes to how Google advertising works. As a Google Partner agency, keeping up with their updates is a big part of what we do (and they do really keep us on our toes)!
On 17 August 2026, Google introduced big changes to target-based bidding strategies that could affect campaign performance. If you don’t take action where needed, your PPC campaign performance could be at risk, particularly if your campaigns have been consistently outperforming their targets, and limited by budget.
But what does this mean for your business? Let’s get into it. In this guide we’ll cover:
This advice and guidance comes from our Google Partner PPC specialists who have decades of experience in adapting to the latest changes in Google. While no one can be certain about outcomes of this update for businesses yet - the best approach to protect your account is to be guided by experts who have weathered their fair share of Google updates over the years.
What’s Google changing now?
Hear from our Digital Director and Google Ads expert on the latest update:
“Your Google Ads performance may be at risk if you do nothing. This is a significant bidding strategy update that is being rolled out. This will affect accounts with both lead gen volume and ecommerce sales objectives. Google is trying to make results more predictable for advertisers, but you could end up spending more and seeing less results, with a danger of campaigns suddenly not being as efficient. It’s really important to use the data and set realistic tCPA or tROAS targets. Setting targets based on what the business genuinely needs to deliver to be profitable. There is opportunity here, if your competitors are not reacting in time there is market share up for grabs!” - Tom Murrell, Digital Director at ADA Digital Marketing
So why the change?
Google's reasoning for the change comes down to untangling two things that had gotten bundled together over the years:
How much you spend
How efficient that spend is
It wants a budget and target (CPA/ROAS) to each do one job. The budget decides how much gets spent, the target decides how efficient it is, rather than letting the two bleed into each other, which is what made adjusting budgets so unpredictable before.
There's also a matter of the target actually meaning what it says: if a campaign was set to a £50 cost-per-acquisition but kept landing at £38, that's not really "hitting" the target, it's the algorithm quietly doing its own thing underneath it, and Google seems keen to close that gap.
Smart Bidding takes the number at face value instead of treating it as negotiable. This isn't a new invention either - Display and Hotel campaigns have already been working this stricter, so the update is really just rolling this out to Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Travel so the whole platform behaves consistently (and likely delivered results after testing in D&H campaigns).This generally fits a wider pattern - this is one of several bidding and budget changes Google's rolled out through 2026 following its AI push at Marketing Live, part of a clear overall shift toward tighter, more automated, more literal campaign management.
What can I expect?
Google gave this example in their ‘Changes to target based bid strategies’ document:
If your campaign's Target CPA is $10, but your recent actual CPA performance is $5, your campaign will deliver more closely to a $10 actual CPA starting August 17, 2026. Update your target to $5 to maintain your recent performance or to a target CPA of your choosing based on your business goals.
Ultimately, your campaigns could become less efficient, and you could end up spending more with less returns. “For our clients, we expect minimal instability. At ADA Digital we got busy ahead of the update. We were looking at historical and fresh data to get each campaign, in all of our many accounts, aligned with the most effective CPA moving forward. As these changes take effect we’ll be closely monitoring accounts and campaigns. It’s important to remember that the auctions themselves aren't changing - this is purely about how the bid strategy chases the number we’re telling Google Ads to chase.” - Chis Gedge, PPC Specialist at ADA Digital Marketing
What should I do?
Immediate actions are to review the suggested bidding updates in the notification centre in your Google Ads account, then verify these suggestions against your previous 30/90/180 days performance. Should there be a great disparity between the actual CPA and target here, we would recommend raising or lowering it to be more in line with actual performance.
For example; Your Target CPA is set at £35 but has actually been converting at £22 for months. After 17th August, if left alone, that campaign will drift back up toward the £35 target and conversions will likely fall by around a third. In the Bid Target Adjustment Tool you'd see this campaign flagged as "Limited by budget" with the £35 vs £22 gap shown — the fix is simply to lower the target to around £22–£25 to lock in the efficiency already being achieved, or raise the budget instead if you'd rather scale up.
Worried about your Google Ads account falling behind?
Google’s latest target based bidding update means budget limited campaigns that have been outperforming their Target CPA or Target ROAS could now see performance move closer to the target you’ve set. This means you could end up spending more with less returns.
If you haven’t reviewed your bidding targets, your Google ads performance could be at risk! Our Google Ads experts can assess your campaigns and make sure your targets still align with your business goals.
