If you run ecommerce campaigns on target CPA or target ROAS and any of them sit at “Limited by budget,” Google’s August 17 bidding change is going to move your numbers, and we’re likely not talking about the direction you want. Starting August 17, campaigns that are limited by budget and use a target-based bid strategy will deliver more consistently toward the target you set instead of overshooting it. For the many accounts that have quietly been beating their targets, that means a higher cost per conversion or a lower ROAS unless you act first.
This one is not opt-in; Google is applying it automatically to eligible campaigns, and it has said it will not adjust your targets or budgets for you. The runway is getting shorter by the day. The Bid Target Adjustment Tool went live on July 6, and account notifications are landing now, with the change itself starting to roll out on August 17. That leaves a few weeks to decide, campaign by campaign, whether your over-delivery was a deliberate strategy or just a target you never updated.
What The Target-Based Bidding Update Changes
Today, a campaign that is limited by budget and running target CPA or target ROAS often beats its target, and it can swing around when you change the budget. After August 17, Google optimizes so that actual performance tracks closer to the target you set, including when you adjust budgets, which it frames as more predictable performance as you scale. Take a campaign with a $100 target CPA that has been delivering conversions at $50. After the change, it will move toward $100. The update applies to target-based campaigns across Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Travel, and Display, while App, Video reach, and Video view campaigns are excluded. For multi-channel campaigns like Performance Max and Demand Gen, Google has also said you may see traffic shift between channels as the system rebalances toward the target.
Why Budget-Limited Campaigns Overdeliver
A campaign that is limited by budget beating its target was usually not a bidding miracle. The budget cap was the real constraint, so the algorithm never spent all the way up to the target. It bought the cheapest conversions it could inside the cap and left the rest of the target headroom untouched. That gap between your $50 actual and your $100 ceiling was efficiency you were getting for free, because budget, not the target, was doing the limiting.
After August 17, the system treats that headroom as room to work with. It will pursue additional conversions that cost more, which pulls your average up toward the target you set. In plain terms, your target stops being a ceiling you rarely touched and becomes a destination the algorithm actively aims for. This doesn’t mean that Google will actively raise your budget; it means the system pulls your actual performance up toward the stated target you already entered.
Google’s Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin has been clarifying the framing publicly, and two points…
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