Review your campaign targets
Starting August 17, 2026, campaigns with bid targets are providing more consistent performance when limited by budget, even after budget adjustments. Review these campaigns to ensure these targets align with your objectives. Targets will not be updated automatically.
Sounds complicated.
It isn't.
But it does make one thing much more important:
The Target ROAS you're giving Google needs to be the right one.
Not sure what ROAS or Target ROAS means? Read our guide: What Is ROAS and How Do You Calculate the Right Target ROAS?
Let's make Google's update ridiculously simple
Imagine you have a Google Shopping campaign.
Your settings are:
Target ROAS: 4.6
Daily budget: CHF 200
But Google is actually achieving:
Actual ROAS: 6.0
And Google tells you:
Limited by budget
That's a nice problem to have.
You told Google you need a ROAS of 4.6.
Google is giving you 6.0.
So naturally you might think:
Fantastic. Let's give Google more money.
You increase your budget:
CHF 200 to CHF 300 per day
And this is where the problem used to start.
What happened before?
Your campaign was performing at a ROAS of 6.0.
But after increasing the budget, you didn't really know what would happen.
Maybe your ROAS stayed at 6.0.
Maybe it dropped to 5.5.
Maybe 4.9.
Maybe even below your 4.6 target.
The extra budget could produce more sales.
But the effect on efficiency could be unpredictable.
What changed on August 17, 2026?
Google changed how target-based bidding behaves when campaigns are Limited by budget.
Google now says these campaigns should perform more consistently toward the Target ROAS you've actually set, including after budget changes.
So let's go back to our campaign:
Target ROAS: 4.6
Actual ROAS: 6.0
Budget: CHF 200
Status: Limited by budget
Under the new behaviour, you may increasingly see your actual ROAS move closer to:
4.6
That doesn't necessarily mean your campaign is performing worse.
It means Google is taking the target you gave it more seriously.
But my ROAS is 6.0. Why would I want 4.6?
Because hopefully you've calculated that 4.6 is profitable for your business.
If that's true, you don't necessarily need Google to achieve 6.0.
Of course, 6.0 is lovely.
But if Google can generate significantly more sales at 4.6, that may be better for your business than generating fewer sales at 6.0.
The goal isn't the highest possible ROAS.
The goal is profitable growth.
So should I increase my budget?
Maybe.
Let's say your campaign now looks like this:
Target ROAS: 4.6
Actual ROAS: around 4.6
Status: Limited by budget
You've told Google:
"A ROAS of 4.6 works for my business."
Google is achieving approximately that.
And Google is telling you that your budget is limiting the campaign.
If you want more sales, increasing your budget may allow Google to generate more conversion value while staying more consistently around your 4.6 target.
That's the important part of this update.
Scaling a budget-constrained Target ROAS campaign should become more predictable.
But don't automatically increase your budget
Limited by budget doesn't mean:
Spend more money immediately.
Seasonality matters.
Stock matters.
Cash flow matters.
Your business objectives matter.
Maybe your season ends next week.
Maybe you're running out of stock.
Maybe you simply don't want to spend more.
That's fine.
The update doesn't mean every Limited by budget campaign needs more budget.
It means that if you want to scale, Google says it should now be able to do that more consistently around the Target ROAS you've set.
What if my actual ROAS is higher than my Target ROAS?
You don't necessarily need to do anything.
For example:
Target ROAS: 4.6
Actual ROAS: 6.0
If you've done your homework and 4.6 is genuinely profitable for your business, you can leave the target at 4.6.
Just don't assume the 6.0 will continue.
Under Google's new behaviour, performance may move closer to the 4.6 you've actually requested.
That isn't necessarily bad performance.
It's Google doing what you asked it to do.
What if my actual ROAS is below my Target ROAS?
That's different.
For example:
Target ROAS: 4.6
Actual ROAS: 3.8
Google's update doesn't magically turn 3.8 into 4.6.
And simply changing your budget isn't necessarily going to solve it.
You need to find out why the campaign is underperforming.
It could be your campaign structure, product selection, product feed, bidding, pricing, conversion tracking or competition.
Or you may simply not have enough data yet.
That's a Google Ads problem you need to investigate.
The most important number is still your Target ROAS
This whole Google update ultimately comes back to one question:
Is the Target ROAS you've given Google actually the right number for your business?
Because Google is now going to take that number more seriously.
If you tell Google:
"4.6 is good enough for my business."
You'd better know that 4.6 really is good enough.
If you don't know, start here:
What Is ROAS and How Do You Calculate the Right Target ROAS?
Need help?
At Wolf & Bär, we help ecommerce businesses make Google Ads profitable.
If you're unsure whether your Target ROAS is actually right for your business:
If you know your Target ROAS is right, but your campaigns consistently fail to achieve it:
Book your free Google Ads Audit
Want to go deeper?
If you want to go deeper on this yourself, here is Google's article, which also includes YouTube videos explaining the update.
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/17061251
The update itself isn't complicated.
Google is essentially saying:
"You told us 4.6. We're going to take you more seriously."