Smart bidding: which strategy to use based on your conversion volume

Choosing a Smart Bidding strategy starts with your conversion volume and data quality, then layers in your efficiency target. This checklist walks through which strategies are Smart Bidding, how conversion volume and learning work, and how to move toward ROAS targets once you have enough signal, assuming you already have reliable tracking in place from your conversion measurement setup.

Current Google Ads bid strategies and which are Smart Bidding

Per Google Ads help, Smart Bidding is the subset of automated strategies that use auction-time bidding for conversions or conversion value: Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value. Target impression share and Maximize clicks are automated strategies but are not Smart Bidding because they do not use auction-time conversion modeling. Manual CPC remains available as a fully manual strategy.

Google documents that portfolio bid strategies exist for the four Smart Bidding strategies plus Maximize clicks and Target impression share. Portfolio strategies optimize across multiple campaigns but do not change whether a strategy is Smart Bidding. Performance Max campaigns have their own bidding options, which are covered separately in the Performance Max bidding reference.

In June 2026, Google renamed two Smart Bidding options without changing their behavior. "Maximize conversions with a Target CPA" became "Target CPA" and "Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS" became "Target ROAS". Google states that only the names changed and the underlying bidding logic stayed the same.

A common misconception is that Target impression share and Maximize clicks are Smart Bidding strategies. Google’s documentation defines Smart Bidding as only the four conversion-based strategies listed above, so impression share and clicks strategies are automated but not Smart Bidding.

What happened to Enhanced CPC and what to do now

Google’s help pages state that Enhanced CPC is no longer available for Search and Display starting the week of March 31, 2025. Campaigns that were not migrated off Enhanced CPC now effectively use Manual CPC. Manual CPC itself is still an available bidding option.

If you had campaigns on Enhanced CPC, treat them as Manual CPC and decide whether to move them to a Smart Bidding strategy. For campaigns with conversion tracking and a clear CPA or ROAS goal, the decision is between Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, or Maximize conversion value. For campaigns without conversion tracking, you remain on Manual CPC or another non-conversion strategy until tracking is fixed.

There is a misconception that Enhanced CPC is still a current option for Search and Display. Google’s documentation is explicit that it was removed for those networks in 2025, so any plan that assumes Enhanced CPC exists for new Search or Display work is outdated.

Conversion volume requirements and recommendations by strategy

Google’s current documentation does not give a single universal "you must have 30 conversions" rule for all Smart Bidding. Instead, it provides per-strategy and per-campaign-type guidance, and separates eligibility from measurement recommendations. The old wording that Target CPA required 30 conversions in 30 days is no longer present in the Target CPA help article.

For Target CPA, Google’s help page states that advertisers can start using Target CPA with no conversion history and that Target CPA is effective for campaigns of all sizes. This removes the previous 30-conversion eligibility language. The practical implication is that you can enable Target CPA on a new or low-volume campaign, but you still need enough conversions over time to evaluate performance.

For Target ROAS, Google documents minimum conversion volumes that depend on campaign type. For Search and Shopping, the guidance is at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days. For Display, the guidance is at least 15 conversions with valid conversion values. For App campaigns, the guidance is 10 conversions per day or 300 in 30 days. For Demand Gen, the guidance is 50 conversions in the past 35 days with 10 in the past 7 days, or 100 conversions across all Demand Gen campaigns. For Video Action, the guidance is 30 conversions in 30 days. For Hotel campaigns, the guidance is 50 conversions per week, and for Travel campaigns, the guidance is 50 conversions in the past 7 days.

Google’s Smart Bidding measurement guidance recommends evaluating performance over periods with at least 30 conversions, or 50 conversions for Target ROAS, such as a month or longer. That is a measurement recommendation, not a hard eligibility gate, and it is separate from the Target ROAS per-type minimums above. This is where the old "30 conversions" advice partially survives, but as an evaluation window rather than a start requirement.

For Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value, Google’s documentation in the provided research focuses on budget behavior rather than explicit conversion minimums. These strategies are designed to spend the full daily budget and are recommended when your primary goal is volume, not a strict ROI target. When you care about CPA or ROAS efficiency, Google directs you to Target CPA or Target ROAS instead.

This corrects a common misconception that you still "need 30 conversions in 30 days before Target CPA is allowed." Google’s Target CPA help page now states that you can start with no conversion history. The remaining 15, 30, and 50 conversion figures are per-strategy recommendations and Target ROAS minimums, not a universal Smart Bidding gate.

How Smart Bidding learning status behaves

Google’s Smart Bidding learning status indicates that the system is adapting to recent changes. Per Google’s help pages, Learning lasts up to 7 days and never more. Ads continue to serve normally during Learning, so it is a status flag, not a pause or a throttling mode.

Learning is triggered by three kinds of changes. First, a new strategy, such as switching a campaign from Manual CPC to Target CPA or Target ROAS. Second, a composition change, such as changing the set of campaigns, ad groups, or keywords that a bid strategy covers, including adding or removing campaigns from a portfolio strategy. Third, a goal change, such as changing which conversion goal the strategy optimizes toward.

Google’s documentation is explicit that some edits do not trigger Learning and do not remove historical data. Changes to budgets, target values (for example, changing a Target CPA or Target ROAS number), creatives, or targeting settings do not trigger Learning. This corrects the misconception that the learning period means degraded performance for weeks or that every budget or target tweak restarts learning. Learning is capped at 7 days and is only triggered by strategy, structure, or optimization-goal changes.

Google also states that performance typically converges within 1 to 2 conversion cycles, and that you should evaluate Smart Bidding over 2 conversion cycles or a 2-week window, whichever is longer. Switching strategies does not start from scratch if past conversion data exists, because Smart Bidding can still use that historical conversion data.

How targets and budgets constrain spend

Google’s documentation describes different interactions between targets and budgets depending on the strategy. For Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value, the system is designed to spend the full daily budget. Google’s help page for Maximize conversions notes that these strategies are "limited by budget" by design, and directs advertisers with ROI goals to Target CPA or Target ROAS instead.

Under Target ROAS, Google states that setting a target too high limits traffic. The documented lever for increasing volume is to gradually reduce the Target ROAS number. The Target ROAS formula is conversion value divided by ad spend, multiplied by 100%. When the target is aggressive relative to historical performance, the strategy will bid less often or at lower bids, which constrains spend even if the budget is higher.

Google’s bid strategy status "Limited" shows the constraining reason when you hover over it, such as bid limits, budget, or targets. This is the primary diagnostic for whether the budget or the target is holding back volume. For broader delivery diagnostics, impression share analysis belongs in a separate reference on search impression share and delivery limits.

For Target CPA, Google’s research notes an August 17, 2026 change to bidding behavior for campaigns that are limited by budget, along with a Bid Target Adjustment Tool available from July 6, 2026. Google also recommends starting Target CPA equal to the actual average CPA of the last 30 days, adjusted for conversion delays, and advises against using bid limits on portfolio Target CPA or Target ROAS because that restricts the AI’s ability to optimize bids.

Temper And Forge’s default bidding path and why ROAS targets dominate

Temper And Forge’s default bidding path is to accelerate the learning phase through minimum interactions, then move to bidding based on ROAS almost always. Maintaining a really strong return on ad spend is the operating goal, and Target ROAS is how that goal gets enforced at the bid level. The ROAS target itself is calculated per client, tied to the same inputs as the budget such as margin, target CPA for the industry, and total budget, rather than using a standard number.

ROAS is the keep-or-kill metric across Temper And Forge’s Google work, and bidding strategy is in service of it. The firm generally runs conservative with SMB clients, which means proving conversion volume before leaning on value-based targets, and reading results in weekly units rather than reacting to daily noise. This aligns with Google’s guidance to evaluate Smart Bidding over windows with at least 30 conversions, or 50 for Target ROAS, and over 2 conversion cycles or at least 2 weeks.

When to use portfolio strategies, seasonality adjustments, and data exclusions

Google defines portfolio bid strategies as strategies that optimize across multiple campaigns. Portfolio strategies are supported for Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Maximize clicks, and Target impression share. Applying a portfolio strategy is a structural change, so it can trigger Smart Bidding Learning status for the affected campaigns.

Seasonality adjustments are a Smart Bidding feature for short events where you expect conversion rates to change temporarily. Google’s help pages state that seasonality adjustments are designed for short events of roughly 1 to 7 days and may not work well beyond about 14 days. Smart Bidding already handles routine seasonality, so these adjustments are reserved for unusual, short spikes or dips.

Data exclusions tell Smart Bidding to ignore conversion data from specific date ranges when the data is broken, such as tracking outages or site issues. Google advises against frequent or prolonged use of data exclusions. They are meant for clearly bad data, not for normal performance fluctuations.

Portfolio strategies are worth using when you want a single Smart Bidding strategy to optimize across multiple campaigns that share a goal, such as a shared Target ROAS across several Search and Shopping campaigns. Seasonality adjustments are worth using for planned, short events that will temporarily change conversion rates beyond what Smart Bidding can infer. Data exclusions are worth using when conversion tracking or site behavior was clearly wrong for a defined period and you do not want that period to influence future bids.

Temper And Forge’s practice is to accelerate the learning phase through minimum interactions, then move to bidding based on ROAS almost always, using ROAS as the keep-or-kill metric and setting Target ROAS per client economics while reading results in weekly units and proving volume before leaning on value-based targets.