Smart Bidding Exploration now in Google Ads

The beginning of the rollout of Smart Bidding Exploration was announced at Google Marketing Live 2025.

This new feature uses AI-powered tools and flexible ROAS bidding to help capture converting queries from new categories.

In the Google Ads interface, it looks like this:

That enables you to let Google's AI reduce your target ROAS by the percentage you set, between 10% and 30%, in order to have your ads displayed to a wider range of queries, without expanding your audience targeting.

Google claims tests run in March-April produced 19% more total conversions.

It seemed to work particularly well with Broad Match and Dynamic Search Campaigns.

Using the Bid Strategy report, you'll be able to track impressions and conversions by search category, the associated traffic volumes, and numbers of incremental conversions.