Google Ads bid strategies staying but changing

Google has now clarified the announcement made last week in a Developers Blog post that suggested Target CPA and Target ROAS automated bidding strategies were being retired.

Not retired, we're told now - the same AI will be used to do the bidding, just the setup for advertisers will be different, with Target CPA an option under Maximize Conversions, and Target ROAS an option under Maximize Conversion Value, thus:

If you opt for Maximize Conversions and don't select the Target CPA option, you will have Maximize Conversions as it existed before this change.

If you opt for Maximize Conversion Value and don't select the Target ROAS option, you will have the pre-existing Maximize Conversion Value strategy.

But if you set a hard target under either of these options which Google AI finds to be unattainable, you may not see ever-decreasing spend (as you likely would have under the old setup) but rather stable spend - some of it wasted - and fewer conversions.

Watch your spend and conversions!

(For more on this subject, see my earlier article.)