What is Target ROAS in Google Ads, and what is a good target?

Both bid to an average you set, with a bid of Google’s in every auction. Target CPA asks for a cost per conversion and counts every conversion the same. Target ROAS asks for a return, so it has to know what each conversion is worth, and it bids more for the search likely to bring a bigger one.

• What each needs. Google says Target CPA can start with no conversion history. Target ROAS needs conversion values, and on most campaign types a count of conversions first.
• How long to judge. Google recommends judging a strategy over a period with at least 30 conversions, such as a month or longer, and 50 for Target ROAS.
• Device bid adjustments. Under Target CPA a device adjustment moves the target: Google’s example is $10 with +40% on mobile, which becomes $14 on phones. Under Target ROAS your bid adjustments aren’t used at all, with one exception, a device set to −100%.

Google’s advice is to bid on value where conversions are worth different amounts to you, or where you have a return to hit, and on conversions where you care most about their number. Its own figure, from internal data of March and April 2021, is that advertisers who switch from Target CPA to Target ROAS can see 14% more conversion value at a similar return, on average. The Target CPA guide covers that strategy and its target.

First, values. Google says you need to set values for the conversions you track before you can apply Target ROAS. The value-based bidding guide covers where each value is set and how to check yours. Then conversions, by campaign type:

Google’s Target ROAS page gives no number for Performance Max, and its Performance Max page says only that a ROAS target is optional. Its pages count the 15 differently too: at the conversion tracking level on the Target ROAS page, per Merchant Center ID on the page for Shopping campaigns, and at the account level in its value-based bidding best practices.

• Enough to judge it by. The 15 is what Google asks before you start. To judge the strategy afterward it recommends a period with at least 50 conversions. A campaign that makes 20 a month takes two and a half months to make them.
• A budget with room. Google asks you to be comfortable with a day that spends up to twice your average daily budget, and its best practices say the budget under a ROAS target should be unconstrained, so the bidding isn’t limited by it.
• Fewer, larger campaigns. Google says performance generally improves with fewer, larger campaigns that get more conversions.

Google’s help pages give no figure for a good ROAS. They say to set the target from your business goals, with the campaign’s past return as a reference, and for Performance Max with a product feed, to set the target that brings you the most profit, thinking about what your products cost and a customer’s lifetime value. So there are two numbers to find: the return you need, and the return the campaign makes.

The return the campaign makes is its Conv. value / cost, times 100. Google’s pages name the period to read differently: the last 4 weeks for a Shopping campaign, the last 30 days on its value-based bidding page. Its Target ROAS page adds what to leave out: the most recent days, whose conversions are still arriving.

The target Google Ads suggests comes from that same history. Google says it is calculated from your actual ROAS over the last few weeks, leaving out the last few days for conversions that take more than a day to follow a click. It appears when you create the strategy, on the Recommendations page and in the bid simulator, and you can take it or type your own.

• Start at or below what the campaign returns. Google says a ROAS target should be at or below your historical ROAS, and for Demand Gen suggests starting 20% under the last 30 days’.
• Then move toward the return you need. A target above what the campaign has ever returned asks it to give up the sales that fall short. The section on a target set too high says what that costs.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns and select the campaign.
2. 02Select Settings, open Bidding, then select Change bid strategy.
3. 03Choose Target ROAS and enter the target as a percentage. Google Ads recommends one as you set the strategy up, and you can take it or type your own.
4. 04Select Save, or Save as experiment to run the new target beside the campaign as it is before you commit to it.

An ad group can carry a target of its own, under a campaign’s strategy or a portfolio’s. Google doesn’t recommend it, since it can restrict Smart Bidding, so keep it for the ad group whose return is far from the rest of its campaign’s.

To see what the campaign bid to, add Avg. target ROAS from the Performance columns. It is the target weighed by the traffic it bid on, so it takes in every change you made in the date range and can differ from the figure in the settings. Google offers the column for Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.

A standard strategy belongs to one campaign. A portfolio bid strategy groups several campaigns, ad groups and keywords, and Google optimizes them together toward a single target. It keeps portfolios in the Shared library.

1. 01Go to Tools › Budgets and bidding › Bid strategies and select the plus button.
2. 02Choose Target ROAS, name the strategy, select its campaigns and enter the target.
3. 03Or start from Campaigns › Campaigns: tick the campaigns, select Edit, then Change bid strategy, and create a portfolio or pick an existing one.

• Where it isn’t offered. Google says a portfolio isn’t available for Performance Max, Hotel or Travel campaigns. A second note on its Target ROAS page rules a Target ROAS portfolio out for Shopping, Demand Gen and App install campaigns too, though the same page offers bid limits on Shopping portfolios. On Search it is offered.
• Its type is fixed. A Target CPA portfolio can’t be changed into a Target ROAS one. Create a new portfolio of the type you want.
• Bid limits. Only a portfolio can carry a maximum and a minimum bid, and they apply in Search Network auctions alone. Google’s Target ROAS page doesn’t recommend them, since a limit stops it bidding what meets your target. Its page on creating a portfolio calls a maximum CPC limit a safety net for a campaign newly moved to automated bidding.

• Too high. Google says a target that’s too high may limit the traffic your ads get. The campaign bids low wherever it doesn’t expect the return, enters fewer auctions, and can leave budget unspent. Raising a target from 200% to 300%, in Google’s example, could restrict the auctions you enter and may bring less total conversion value.
• Lower. Google says reducing the target lets the strategy be more competitive in auctions and likely brings more conversions and more total value, if your budget allows. It likens a lower target ROAS to a higher bid: you’re willing to spend more for each sale.
• Too low. A target far under what the campaign returns tells Google that return would do. Google tries to keep the campaign’s return equal to the target, so where there is more to buy, it can buy it at a lower return than you get now. Where there isn’t, the target isn’t what sets the bids.
• None. Without a target, Maximize conversion value tries to spend the whole daily budget, so the budget decides the return.

One thing changed in 2026. Until August 17, a campaign on Target ROAS that was limited by its budget could do better than its target. Since then Google delivers such a campaign toward the target you typed. It finished the change on August 27, and says campaigns that aren’t limited by budget behave as before. If a limited campaign’s return has fallen toward its target since, Google’s advice is to set the target at the return you want to keep. The Limited by budget guide covers the budget.

Google says the bidding reacts to a new target immediately and needs 1 to 2 conversion cycles to reach it. A conversion cycle is the time a click takes to become a conversion: if most of yours convert within 7 days, that is 7 to 14 days.

• Read a long enough period. Google suggests a time frame of at least 2 full conversion cycles, and a month or at least 50 conversions for a clearer view. For a Shopping campaign it says to consider giving the strategy 15 days before you evaluate it.
• Leave out the days still converting. Recent days look worse than they are, because their cost is in and some of their sales aren’t. To see how long yours take, select the segment icon on the Campaigns table, then Conversions, then Days to conversion.
• Use the bid strategy report. It opens from Tools › Budgets and bidding › Bid strategies, or from the campaign’s Bid strategy type column, and sets Actual ROAS beside the average target with the conversion delay marked. Google’s note on the report, written of a target CPA, is that a difference that isn’t statistically significant wants a longer date range.
• Try a target before you set it. The simulator icon in the campaign’s Budget column estimates what other targets would have brought over the last 7 days.

Google’s pages pull two ways on how often to change a target. One says changing a target won’t trigger a Learning status, and that you should feel comfortable changing it as often and by as much as you like. Two others say to avoid more than one change inside a conversion cycle, because the result of each can’t be read and the bidding is handed several goals at once. And its page on the learning period lists a changed setting among the reasons a strategy shows Learning. Whatever the status reads, a target changed twice in a cycle is one you can’t judge. The learning period guide covers the status and how long it lasts.

A month’s return against the target is one comparison, and one good or bad fortnight decides it. Set the weeks side by side instead: a target that is wrong is wrong in every one of them.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns and set a date range of the last 13 whole weeks, ending with the last full week whose conversions are in.
2. 02Select the columns icon above the table, then Modify columns. Add Cost, Conversions, Conv. value and Conv. value / cost, and Avg. target ROAS from Performance. Select Apply.
3. 03Select the segment icon, then Time, then Week.
4. 04Set aside any week with fewer than 5 conversions. One sale either way decides its return. You want at least 4 weeks left.
5. 05Read down Conv. value / cost against the target. Under it in every week, the target is above anything the campaign reaches. Over it in every week, the target isn’t what sets the bids.
6. 06Check that luck doesn’t explain it, with the sum worked below. Few conversions make a wide margin: a week of 5 has to return about 2.5 times its target before chance is ruled out, and a week of 50 about 1.3 times.
7. 07Add Search lost IS (budget) and Search lost IS (rank) for the campaign. A campaign that beats its target while losing searches to its budget needs budget, not a new target.

The chance is one spreadsheet cell. Google Sheets’ POISSON.DIST, with its last argument TRUE, returns the probability of a count or fewer. So one minus the probability of one fewer than the week made is the chance of that many or more. Under 5%, call the week beyond luck.

Here the campaign shows on 94% of its searches and loses 2% to budget and 4% to rank. There is little more for it to buy, so the target of 250% never binds. Whether to raise it is a judgment. A target near what the campaign returns holds Google to that return, and may cost some of the sales it buys now.

Every day Goldbeater reads each enabled campaign that bids to a target ROAS or target CPA of its own, its last 30 days and its last 13 whole weeks. It sets aside the weeks with fewer than 5 conversions, asks for at least 4 that remain, and tests each the way the sum above does: the conversions the week’s cost would have bought at the target against the ones it made, at a 5% chance.

It raises the campaign when every one of those weeks beat the target beyond chance and nothing else explains it: the campaign spent on at least 14 of the last 30 days, it loses under 20% of its searches to budget and under 20% to ad rank, its target and strategy haven’t changed in four weeks, and Google doesn’t report its strategy as learning. A campaign in a portfolio is left alone, since the target is the portfolio’s.

That is the campaign worked above: the finding’s nearest week is the table’s marked one, and its return over 13 weeks is the table’s. Goldbeater drafts no change for it. A target nearer what the campaign returns trades some of its sales for a firmer return, which is yours to weigh, so the finding gives the range and leaves the figure to you.

The steps before that one have findings of their own:

• Values. Goldbeater raises a sale or lead worth 1 or less each on a campaign that bids on value, and a step before the sale valued at or above its share of one. The value-based bidding guide shows both.
• A target no week reached. Where the target ROAS is above the return of every week with 5 or more conversions, and the campaign spends under 80% of its budget or loses a fifth of its searches to rank, Goldbeater drafts the target at what the campaign returned over the 13 weeks, unless that is under a third of what your typical campaign returns. The Target CPA guide shows that finding, and covers the next four.
• Too few conversions. It raises a campaign bidding to a target ROAS on under 15 conversions in 30 days and under 50 in 13 weeks, a portfolio’s campaigns counted together, or one Google reports limited by data.
• No target. It raises a Maximize conversion value campaign with 50 conversions in 30 days and no target, and offers one at what the campaign returned, from half to double it, without recommending it.
• A bid limit. It raises a strategy Google reports limited by its bid limit.
• Ad group targets. It raises an ad group that converts unlike the rest of its campaign week by week, beyond chance, and drafts a target of its own for it, moved 10% to 30% from the campaign’s.
• A target changed too often. It raises a campaign whose target or strategy changed on two or more days in the last 14. The learning period guide shows it.

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

What is Target ROAS in Google Ads?

A bid strategy that sets a bid in every auction to bring the most conversion value it can at the average return you set. ROAS is conversion value divided by cost, written as a percentage: $5 of sales for each $1 of ads is 500%. From June 2026 it is the label Google Ads gives Maximize conversion value with a target.

How do I calculate a target ROAS?

Divide the conversion value you want by the cost and multiply by 100. To start from what a campaign returns now, take its Conv. value / cost column and multiply by 100. To find the least you can accept, divide 1 by your margin: at a 40% margin, ads break even at a ROAS of 250%.

What is a good ROAS for Google Ads?

Google’s help pages give no figure. A good one is above your break-even, which is 1 divided by your margin, and near what the campaign has shown it can return. Google says to set the target from your business goals with your historical ROAS as a reference, at or below what the campaign has returned.

Target CPA vs Target ROAS: which should I use?

Target ROAS where your conversions are worth different amounts and you report those values, since it bids more for the more valuable one. Target CPA where every conversion is worth about the same to you, or you care most about how many you get. Google says Target CPA can start with no conversion history, and asks for 15 conversions in 30 days before Target ROAS on Search and Shopping.

How many conversions does Target ROAS need?

On Search and Shopping, Google asks for at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days. Display needs 15 across all your campaigns, Demand Gen 50 in 35 days with 10 of them in the last 7, and App campaigns 10 a day. To judge the strategy afterward, Google recommends a period with at least 50 conversions.

What happens if my target ROAS is too high?

Google says a target that’s too high may limit the traffic your ads get. The campaign bids low wherever it doesn’t expect that return, so it enters fewer auctions, can leave budget unspent, and may bring less total conversion value. If no week reached the target, set it nearer what the campaign returns, then raise it a step at a time.

How long does a target ROAS change take to work?

Google says the bidding reacts immediately and needs 1 to 2 conversion cycles to reach the new target, a conversion cycle being the time a click takes to convert. Judge it over at least two full cycles, leaving out the most recent days, whose conversions are still arriving.