What is Smart Bidding in Google Ads, and what does it need to work?

Automated bidding is the wider family: every strategy where Google Ads sets your bids for you. Google’s About Smart Bidding page names four of them as Smart Bidding strategies, the ones that bid for conversions or for conversion value. Two more are automated only, and Manual CPC is neither.

The four are two strategies, each with or without a target. A target CPA is an optional setting on Maximize conversions, and a target ROAS on Maximize conversion value. Since June 2026 Google Ads labels the ones with a target plain Target CPA and Target ROAS, and says the bidding is exactly the same. The Target CPA guide and the Target ROAS guide cover setting each target, and the value-based bidding guide covers the two that bid for value.

Two automated strategies aren’t Smart Bidding. Google’s guide to Smart Bidding says Target impression share and Maximize clicks “are also automated bid strategies but don’t include auction time bidding.” Neither bids for conversions: one bids for a place on the page, which the branded keywords guide covers, and the other for clicks.

Google’s pages aren’t consistent at the edges. Its page on choosing a bid strategy lists five Smart Bidding strategies, counting Enhanced CPC, and calls Maximize clicks “an automated smart bidding strategy.” The table on its automated bidding page labels Target CPC, a Demand Gen strategy that bids for clicks, Smart Bidding. Both pages define Smart Bidding as bidding for conversions or conversion value, and only the four above do that.

Maximize conversions is the Smart Bidding strategy with the least to set: a budget, and nothing else. Google says it will try to fully spend your average daily budget, so a campaign that has been spending much less than its budget “could increase spend significantly” when you switch.

With no target, nothing you set decides what a conversion costs. The budget does, and a bigger one buys dearer conversions to spend it. Set a target CPA and the goal becomes the average cost you set, “rather than spending your full budget to maximize conversions.” Maximize conversion value works the same way with a target ROAS: Google says that with one set it behaves like a Target ROAS strategy.

• It reads as limited by budget, by design. Google says the two Maximize strategies are designed to spend the full daily budget, and recommends against reading the Lost IS (budget) impression share column on them: the column doesn’t account for a strategy built to spend its budget. It points to the budget simulator instead.
• Your bid adjustments aren’t used. The strategy sets its own bids from the signals at each auction, so the adjustments you set for manual bidding are passed over. The one exception is a device adjustment of −100%, which still keeps your ads off that device.
• A day can run to twice the daily budget. Google’s Target CPA and Target ROAS pages recommend reviewing your budget until you’re comfortable spending up to 2 times the average daily budget on a day. The budget pacing guide covers the daily and monthly limits.

With Manual CPC you set a maximum cost-per-click bid, the most you’ll pay for a click, as one default for an ad group or on each keyword. Bid adjustments raise or lower it for a device or a location. The keyword guide covers setting a keyword’s bid.

Google argues for automation: its machine learning, it says, factors in a wider range of parameters than a single person or team could compute. But its own page on measuring Smart Bidding also says that if you’re using a strategy like Maximize conversions “without enough historical data,” you should switch to Maximize clicks or Manual CPC “to build conversion data first.”

So the choice turns on what the account has to learn from. A manual bid is one price for every search a keyword matches, set from what you know. Smart Bidding is a price for each search, set from what your conversions say. Where a campaign has conversions, the bidding has more to go on than a single bid can hold. Where it has none, the bidding has nothing of the campaign’s own to learn from, which is when Google’s page says to build conversions first.

Maximize clicks is automated, and it isn’t Smart Bidding. It sets your bids to get as many clicks as it can within your budget, with no regard to which of them convert. You can give it a maximum CPC bid limit, the most it may bid for a click; without one, Google adjusts your bids to get as many clicks as possible while spending your budget. Google notes that it doesn’t allow for the difference between a click on a phone and a click on a computer, and that it applies a mobile bid adjustment if you set one.

Google suggests it where the goal is website traffic, and for a new campaign that lacks the conversion data for Target CPA or Target ROAS. It says Maximize clicks isn’t a good choice if your goal is a cost per conversion.

Enhanced CPC (ECPC) was the strategy in between: your manual bids, raised or lowered by Google in each auction by how likely the click was to convert. Google’s page on it now opens with a notice. Effective the week of March 31, 2025, Enhanced CPC is no longer available for Search and Display campaigns, and a campaign that wasn’t moved to another strategy is “now effectively using Manual CPC.” For Shopping campaigns, Google’s developer blog announced the same from early October 2023. The help page still describes Enhanced CPC for Hotel campaigns.

So a Search campaign that was left on Enhanced CPC bids your manual bids as they stand, with nothing adjusting them. Google’s notice lists what to move it to: Maximize conversions or Target CPA for conversions, Maximize conversion value or Target ROAS for value, and Maximize clicks for visits. To change a campaign’s strategy, open the campaign, select Settings, open Bidding, and select Change bid strategy.

• Conversion tracking, counting what you’d pay for. Google says you need conversion tracking enabled to use Smart Bidding at all. It bids for the conversion actions in your Conversions column, the ones set as Primary, so an action there that isn’t a sale or a lead is one it pays for too. The conversion tracking guide covers checking them.
• Conversions to learn from. Google says you can turn Smart Bidding on without prior data, and that it recommends meeting certain conversion baselines all the same. The table below has them.
• A value on each conversion, for the two strategies that bid on value. The value-based bidding guide covers where a value is set.
• Time. After a new strategy or a changed setting, the status reads Learning while the bidding calibrates. Google says that typically takes 1 to 2 conversion cycles, a cycle being the time it takes a click to become a conversion, and that key metrics may vary meanwhile. Manual CPC has no learning period.

The 15 conversions for Target ROAS are for Search and Shopping campaigns, and Google’s pages count them in different places. Its Target ROAS page and its value-based bidding page say “at the conversion tracking level.” Its Shopping page says per Merchant Center ID, and its value-based bidding practices say to aim for 15 a month “at the account level.” Other campaign types have their own lines, which the Target ROAS guide lists.

Google’s pages also disagree on what restarts learning. Its learning period page lists a changed setting among the reasons for a Learning status, and its page on how its bidding learns says changing a target won’t trigger one. Its value-based bidding page says a change inside a conversion cycle makes the bidding harder to assess. Whichever the status shows, judge a change after a cycle or two. The learning period guide covers what resets it and how to find what did.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
2. 02Add the Bid strategy type column if it isn’t there: select the columns icon above the table, then Modify columns, and tick it under Attributes. For campaigns with a target, add Avg. target CPA or Avg. Target ROAS from Performance.
3. 03Set the date range to the last 30 days, and read each campaign’s Conversions beside its bid strategy.
4. 04Hold each count to Google’s lines for its strategy: 15 in 30 days before Target ROAS, and 30 to judge any strategy by, or 50 for Target ROAS.
5. 05For a campaign under them, set a longer date range and read Conversions again. Google’s words are “a month or longer”; the table below reads the last 13 weeks.

The two ranges say different things. Thirty days is what the bidding has had lately, and the quarter is whether a slow month is the campaign’s usual pace. Rugs — Broad has 3.8 conversions in 30 days and 57.7 in 13 weeks, so most of its quarter came before the last month: its conversions fell away, which the not-converting guide reads week by week.

• Pool it. A portfolio bid strategy puts several campaigns under one strategy and one target, so the bidding works from their conversions together. Google says performance generally improves with fewer, larger campaigns that get more conversions. The Target ROAS guide covers setting one up.
• Drop the target for now. Without one, Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value spends the budget on what it can find, and the weeks show you what a conversion costs. Set the budget to what you’d spend, since it will be spent.
• Build conversions first. Where there’s too little history for any of it, Google’s page on measuring Smart Bidding says to switch to Maximize clicks or Manual CPC to build conversion data first.
• Give it more searches. Google says relevant keywords can be added to low-volume campaigns to increase conversions, and that broad match pairs well with Smart Bidding, which bids each search on its own merits. The broad match guide covers what that lets in.
• For leads, bid on a stage that happens often enough. Google’s value-based bidding practices say to pick one stage of the path from lead to sale, with a short delay and at least 15 conversions a month.

1. 01Go to Tools › Budgets and bidding › Bid strategies. The Status column shows each portfolio strategy’s status, and hovering over it says more.
2. 02Select the link in the Bid strategy type column to open the bid strategy report. A campaign on its own strategy opens a report for that campaign, and one in a portfolio opens the whole portfolio’s.
3. 03Read the status, then the scorecard: for Target CPA, the average target CPA beside the actual CPA and the conversions.
4. 04Check the report’s conversion delay, how long most of your conversions take to arrive, and wait until the conversions of the days you’re reading have been reported.
5. 05Set a time frame of at least 2 full conversion cycles. Google says a longer one, a month or at least 50 conversions, gives a clearer view.

The status is one of five, and Google’s help page says what each means:

• Active: the strategy is setting bids, and nothing needs changing.
• Learning: the strategy was created or reactivated, a setting changed, or campaigns, ad groups or keywords were added or removed. Google says you may not want to measure performance until it’s over.
• Limited: by inventory (your ads are eligible for too few searches), by bid limits, by budget (many of its keywords are limited by budget), or by the bidding strategy itself, where Google suggests a fully automated one.
• Misconfigured: a Maximize strategy shares a budget with campaigns on another strategy, or the strategy has no conversion action it can use.
• Inactive: its campaigns, keywords or ads are paused, or a prepaid budget has been spent.

Google’s help page lists no status for too few conversions. The Google Ads API, which reports a strategy’s status to the tools that read your account, has one: the strategy is limited “because there was not enough conversion traffic over the past weeks.” An Active status in Google Ads says the bidding is running, and nothing about how much it has to go on.

Judge a strategy on what it bids for. Google’s advice is to compare the actual CPA or ROAS with the average target, and to leave trailing figures like cost per click and impressions out of it: Smart Bidding pays more for the clicks it expects to convert, so a rising cost per click isn’t a fault on its own.

Under Target CPA and Target ROAS, a maximum and a minimum bid limit can be set on a portfolio strategy only, and they’re used in Search Network auctions only. Google says setting them isn’t recommended, because a limit can stop it adjusting your bids to the amount that best meets your target. Its page on creating a portfolio offers the other view: a maximum CPC bid limit as a “Safety Net” against sudden jumps in cost per click when you move to automated bidding.

On the two strategies that aren’t Smart Bidding, the limit is an ordinary setting. Maximize clicks bids up to its maximum CPC bid limit and no further, and Target impression share does the same; Google warns that a limit set too low keeps either from its goal.

You can see when a limit is in the way. The status reads Limited, by bid limits, and Google’s own example says how much: for 95% of spend, the strategy would have set a higher bid but for the maximum bid limit. Its next step is to raise the maximum, or lower the minimum. A portfolio’s limit applies to every campaign in it.

Every day Goldbeater reads each enabled campaign’s bid strategy and target, its conversions over the last 30 days and the last 13 whole weeks, and the status Google reports for the strategy. It raises a campaign bidding to a target CPA or a target ROAS, its own or its portfolio’s, that spent $20 or more in the 30 days and converted under 15 times, unless its 13 weeks hold the 30 conversions Google recommends judging a strategy over, or 50 for a target ROAS. A portfolio’s campaigns are counted together, as the portfolio bids. Where Google reports the strategy limited by data, Goldbeater marks it medium whatever the count.

That is Beds — Phrase, the table’s fourth row: its 450% target is the finding’s 4.50, as the Conv. value / cost column writes a return. Google reports no issue with the strategy, and the finding says so: the status says the bidding is running, and the count says how little its target rests on. The finding is advice. Which campaigns sell the same thing is yours to say, so Goldbeater names the two ways out and drafts no change.

Three more checks read the same settings:

• A campaign with the conversions for a target, and none. A campaign on its own Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value with no target, its bidding unchanged in 4 weeks, that spent $20 or more on at least 14 of the last 30 days and converted 30 times in them, or 50 at a return of 0.1 or more for conversion value. Goldbeater offers a target at what the campaign paid or returned, which you can set anywhere from half to double it, and doesn’t recommend it: a target leaves out the dearer conversions the budget was buying, and whether those are worth having is your call. In the table, Brand — Exact bids with no target on 25.5 conversions, under the 50, so nothing is offered.
• A bid limit holding the bidding back. A campaign that spent $20 or more whose strategy Google reports limited by its bid limit over the last 30 days, medium from $200. On a portfolio’s Target CPA or Target ROAS the advice is Google’s, to raise or remove the limit, and it names the portfolio. On Maximize clicks and Target impression share the price is yours: keep the limit if it’s the most a click is worth to you. Where the campaign loses a fifth or more of its searches to budget, and more than to rank, it says to settle the budget first. Goldbeater drafts no change, since the limit is a price its owner set.
• A strategy changed again before it settled. An enabled campaign whose bid strategy, target CPA or target ROAS changed on two or more separate days in the last 14, and high from three such days. The learning period guide shows that finding.

The audit checklist has every bidding line with where to find it in Google Ads.

Is Target CPA a Smart Bidding strategy?

Yes. Google names four Smart Bidding strategies: Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA and Target ROAS. Target CPA is Maximize conversions with a target, and Target ROAS is Maximize conversion value with one.

Maximize clicks vs Maximize conversions: what’s the difference?

Maximize clicks bids for the most clicks your budget buys, whether or not they convert, and Google says it doesn’t include auction-time bidding. Maximize conversions is Smart Bidding: it sets a bid in every auction from how likely that search is to convert, and aims to spend the budget on the most conversions.

Manual CPC vs Maximize clicks: which should I use?

Both bid for clicks. With Manual CPC you set each maximum CPC bid yourself; Maximize clicks sets the bids to get the most clicks within the budget, under a maximum CPC bid limit if you give it one. Google suggests Maximize clicks where you want to spend a budget consistently without managing bids, and Manual CPC where you want to steer the bids of individual ad groups or keywords.

Is Enhanced CPC still available in Google Ads?

Not for Search or Display campaigns. Google’s help page says that from the week of March 31, 2025, Enhanced CPC is no longer available for them, and campaigns left on it are effectively using Manual CPC. Its developer blog announced the same for Shopping campaigns from early October 2023. The help page still describes it for Hotel campaigns.

How many conversions does Smart Bidding need?

Google says you can turn Smart Bidding on without prior data, and that Target CPA can start with no conversion history. Before Target ROAS on a Search or Shopping campaign it asks for at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days. To judge any strategy it recommends a period with at least 30 conversions, such as a month or longer, and 50 for Target ROAS.

How long does Smart Bidding take to learn?

Google says a bid strategy typically takes 1 to 2 conversion cycles to calibrate after a change, and less where there is plenty of conversion data. A conversion cycle is the time it takes a click to become a conversion. The status reads Learning meanwhile, and Google says key metrics may vary until it ends.

What is Smart Bidding Exploration?

An opt-in feature for Search campaigns that use Target ROAS, and no other strategy. Google says it bids on search queries that could perform well among the searches your targeting already makes you eligible for, and that it doesn’t widen the reach of your broad match keywords.