How do I set a target CPA in Google Ads?

• Conversion tracking, counting what you’d pay for. Smart Bidding bids for every action in the Conversions column, so an action there that isn’t a sale or a lead is one it pays for too. Target ROAS reads what each conversion is worth as well, which the value-based bidding guide covers.
• Enough conversions to judge it by. Google recommends judging a strategy over a period with at least 30 conversions, such as a month or longer, and 50 for Target ROAS. For Target ROAS on a Search or Shopping campaign, Google asks for at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days.
• A price you know. A target says what a conversion is worth to you. Until you know, bidding without one shows you what conversions cost at the budget you set.

Smart Bidding sets its own bids by device, location and time of day, so the bid adjustments you set for manual bidding aren’t used, except a device at −100%. Under Target CPA a device adjustment moves the target instead: Google’s example is a $10 target with +40% on mobile, which bids to $14 a conversion on phones.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
2. 02Next to the campaign, select the settings icon, then Bidding.
3. 03Choose Target CPA or Target ROAS and enter the target. Google suggests one from the campaign’s own results: for a CPA, its average over the last 30 days allowing for conversions still to come; for a ROAS, its return over the last few weeks, leaving out the last few days. The optimization score guide covers how to judge a target that comes as one of Google’s recommendations.
4. 04Select Save, or Save as experiment to run the new target beside the campaign as it is before you commit to it. The experiments guide covers setting one up and reading its result.

To put several campaigns on one target, tick them in the Campaigns table, select Edit on the bar above it, then Change bid strategy, and create a portfolio strategy or pick an existing one. After a new strategy the status reads Learning for a while, typically one or two conversion cycles, the time from a click to its conversion. Google says changing a target alone won’t trigger it; the learning period guide says what does.

1. 01In Campaigns › Campaigns, add Avg. target CPA or Avg. Target ROAS from the Performance columns, beside Cost / conv. or Conv. value / cost.
2. 02Set a date range with at least 30 conversions in it: the last 30 days, or longer for a smaller campaign.
3. 03Hover over the Status of any campaign whose bid strategy reads Limited to see why: its bid limits, its budget, too few searches to bid on, or its strategy.

Compare what the campaign achieved with the average target, not the target you typed: Google’s average target weighs each target by the traffic it bid on, so it takes in device adjustments and any change to the target during the period.

Segment the table by Time, then Week, to see it week by week. A target no week reached is one the campaign can’t meet as it stands.

• Too tight. Google says a target CPA set too low may forgo clicks that would have converted, and a target ROAS set too high may limit the traffic your ads get. The campaign bids low: it leaves budget unspent and loses searches on ad rank, and still doesn’t reach the target. Set it to what the campaign achieves, then tighten it a step at a time if you want a better price.
• Too few conversions. On a handful of conversions a month, a target moves with every one of them. Bidding without a target until the campaign converts more often, or joining it to a portfolio with campaigns that share its goal, gives the bidding more to learn from. The Smart Bidding guide covers both, and a campaign whose clicks bring no conversions at all is the not-converting guide’s.
• No target on a campaign with plenty of conversions. The budget is deciding what each conversion costs. A target at what it paid over the last 30 days keeps that price, and stops it buying dearer conversions just to spend the budget.
• A bid limit in the way. A portfolio strategy can carry a maximum and minimum bid, used in Search auctions only. Google doesn’t recommend them, since they stop it bidding what meets the target, and a strategy whose status reads Limited by its bid limits is one to raise the maximum on.
• Ad groups that return very differently. A campaign meets its target on average, so an ad group returning far less keeps buying while the others carry it, and one returning more can lose searches it would win. Google advises against a target of its own on every ad group, since it can restrict Smart Bidding, so keep them to the ad groups the campaign’s average hides.

A target it beats has changed meaning too. Since 17 August 2026 a campaign limited by budget on Target CPA or Target ROAS delivers toward its target, where it often beat it before: a $10 target that was getting conversions at $5 drifts toward $10. To keep what it achieves, set the target there. Google’s Target ROAS page names a Bid Target Adjustment Tool for this, available since July 6, 2026. The limited by budget guide says when a raise pays.

Every day Goldbeater reads each enabled campaign’s bid strategy and target, its 30 days, and its last 13 whole weeks, and raises:

• A target the campaign hasn’t reached in 13 weeks: no week with at least 5 conversions reached it, and the campaign is held back, spending under 80% of its budget or losing a fifth of its searches to rank. It drafts the target at what the campaign achieved, which you can move to just short of today’s, with Google’s own simulator estimate where there is one.
• A target set on too few conversions: a campaign that spent $20 or more in 30 days bidding to a target CPA or ROAS, where Google reports it limited by data, or where it converted under 15 times in those 30 days and under 30 times over the last 13 weeks (50 for a ROAS target). The Smart Bidding guide shows that finding.
• No target on a campaign with the conversions for one: Maximize conversions with 30 conversions in 30 days, or Maximize conversion value with 50. It offers a target at what the campaign paid, from half to double it, without recommending it, since whether the dearer conversions are worth having is yours to decide.
• A bid limit holding the bidding back: where Google reports the strategy limited by its bid limit.
• Ad groups returning very differently under one target: week by week over 13 weeks, one converting at a rate unlike the other ad groups’, too far apart to be chance. It drafts a target for each ad group worth moving, from its own return weighed toward the campaign’s by its conversions, at most 30% a step: higher where it returns less, lower where it returns more and still loses searches to ad rank on a campaign its target holds back, with the campaign’s ad groups as a table and a chart.
• A target the campaign beats every week: a campaign with a target of its own, unchanged in 4 weeks and not learning, that beat it in every one of the last 13 weeks with at least 5 conversions, 4 such weeks or more, each by more than chance explains, while losing under a fifth of its searches to its budget and under a fifth to ad rank. It reads low, and its advice names a target nearer what the campaign achieved. Whether to trade the margin for more sales is yours to decide, so Goldbeater drafts no change.

The finding is the table’s first row, read week by week. The audit checklist has every bidding line with where to find it in Google Ads.

Maximize conversions vs Target CPA: what’s the difference?

Maximize conversions aims to spend the whole budget on as many conversions as it will buy, so the budget decides what each costs. Target CPA aims for the average cost per conversion you set, and may leave budget unspent to hold it.

How do I choose a target CPA?

Start from what the campaign pays now: Google suggests its average over the last 30 days, allowing for conversions still to come. Then move it toward what a conversion is worth to you, a step at a time.

How is a target ROAS written in Google Ads?

As a percentage: conversion value divided by cost, times 100%. $5 of sales for each $1 of ads is a target ROAS of 500%. The Conv. value / cost column writes the same return as 5.00.

How many conversions does Target ROAS need?

Google asks for at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days for Target ROAS on a Search or Shopping campaign, and recommends judging it over a period with at least 50.

How long does a new target take to settle?

Google says the bids change quickly and that changing a target won’t trigger a Learning status. Judging it takes longer: Google recommends waiting one or two full conversion cycles, the time it takes a click to become a conversion, before you compare the result with the target.

Should I set bid limits on Target CPA or Target ROAS?

Google doesn’t recommend it, since a limit stops the bidding from setting the bid that meets the target. Bid limits are only on portfolio strategies, and only used in Search auctions.