Smart Bidding
Google's automated, auction-time bidding that optimizes toward a conversion or value goal.
Smart Bidding is Google Ads' family of automated bid strategies that set each bid at auction time using machine learning, aimed at a goal you choose: Target ROAS, Target CPA, Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value.
Its strength and its risk are the same thing: it optimizes hard toward whatever you tell it to value. Point it at conversion count and it buys the cheapest actions; point it at conversion value with clean data and it chases revenue. That is why we treat the signals and the tracking as the real work, and why Target ROAS only pays off once values are trustworthy. See the shift in our value-based bidding playbook.
The foundation under any Smart Bidding strategy is accurate conversion tracking: garbage in, expensive out.
Put the number to work: the break-even ROAS calculator turns your margins into the ROAS you need, and a free Due Diligence Audit checks whether the figures you see are the ones you are getting. Back to the glossary.