Google announced three changes to Google Ads bidding and budgeting on June 15, 2026. Smart Bidding Exploration is expanding to Performance Max and Shopping campaigns, a new promotion mode beta lets advertisers schedule extra budget and looser return targets for busy periods, and a backend change on August 17 will make budget-limited Target CPA and Target ROAS campaigns deliver more consistently to the target you set. A new Bid Target Adjustment Tool arrives July 6 to help advertisers get ready.
What Google changed in Smart Bidding and promotion mode
Smart Bidding Exploration lets the system bid on searches that fall outside a campaign’s usual winning patterns, by giving the bidding algorithm room to test queries with thinner conversion history. It has been available for Search since 2024. It is now live globally, in all languages, for every Performance Max campaign without a product feed, and it is opening in beta for Shopping campaigns and for Performance Max campaigns that use a product feed.
Google says campaigns using the feature see, on average, 18% more unique search query categories that convert and 19% more conversions overall, based on Google internal data from March 11 to April 11, 2025, with results that vary by advertiser. The second change, promotion mode, is a beta for Search and Performance Max. It lets advertisers schedule a temporary change to their return target and add extra daily budget for a set date range, which is aimed at flash sales, product launches, and seasonal peaks. Google says it works with daily budgets and can be combined with campaign total budgets.
What the August 17 Google Ads target change does
The third change is the one every advertiser should read closely. Today, a campaign that is limited by budget and uses a Target CPA (a cost-per-action goal) or Target ROAS (a return-on-ad-spend goal) is sometimes allowed to beat its target. A campaign with a $10 cost-per-lead goal might bring leads in at $5. After August 17, Google will steer those campaigns to perform more consistently to the stated target, including when budgets change. The change covers Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, and Travel campaigns. App and Video campaigns are not affected.
To help, Google is adding a Bid Target Adjustment Tool on July 6, triggered by notifications to advertisers whose campaigns were limited by budget in the last 12 months. Inside the tool, advertisers can keep the current target, lower the target to match recent results, or set a custom target. They can also switch to Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value to drop the target entirely. Google will not change any targets or budgets automatically.
Who reported the Google Ads bidding update
The changes were announced by Ginny Marvin, Google Ads Product Liaison, through LinkedIn and the Accelerate with Google blog, and reported by PPC Land‘s Luis Rijo on June 15, 2026. They follow Google Marketing Live on May 20, which had flagged several of these bidding updates as coming soon.
How the Google Ads changes fit B2B paid search in 2026
The update lands as paid surfaces keep shifting under B2B advertisers, from OpenAI testing multi-advertiser ads inside ChatGPT to AI engines becoming a top route for B2B discovery. Against that backdrop, Google is tightening how its core auction handles cost goals. For B2B teams, the timing matters because a long sales cycle makes target-based bidding behave differently than it does for retail. A lead today may not close for months, so the conversion data the system optimizes against often lags real revenue, and teams that tie spend to pipeline (the focus of the recent ABM benchmark) need to know their true cost per deal before the system enforces a stricter target.
Talking Shift: your “good” results may be about to get more expensive
Many campaigns have quietly been beating their own targets. You set a cost-per-lead goal of $10, and Google has been delivering at $5. After August 17, Google will pull those campaigns back toward the goal you set, so that $5 lead could drift up toward $10 on the same budget. Start Some Shift’s take: the July 6 notice is really a deadline to check every target you stopped looking at. If a campaign has been doing better than its goal, that extra performance was a gift, and the gift is ending. B2B teams are the most exposed, because long sales cycles make your real cost per deal hard to see week to week. Reset your targets on purpose now, before the system resets them for you.
What B2B marketers should do about the Google Ads changes
This update gives B2B teams a clear near-term to-do list:
- List every campaign marked “limited by budget” that uses a Target CPA or Target ROAS goal, since those are the ones the August 17 change touches.
- Compare each campaign’s stated target to what it has actually been delivering, and decide on purpose whether to keep, lower, or reset the target before the deadline.
- Watch for the July 6 notifications and use the Bid Target Adjustment Tool rather than waiting for performance to shift on its own.
- Test promotion mode for a real event, like a webinar push or a quarter-end campaign, instead of editing budgets by hand.
- Try Smart Bidding Exploration on a Performance Max campaign to find new converting searches, and review the new query categories it brings in.
- Remember your search ad sits next to direct competitors bidding on the same terms, so keep the offer and proof in your ad sharp enough to win the click even if your cost per lead rises.
- Hold extra budget back for a short re-learning period after any target change, since performance takes a conversion cycle or two to settle.
What to watch next for Google Ads bidding
Watch how the August 17 change affects advertisers who have been over-delivering, and whether costs rise where targets are left untouched. Watch whether the Shopping and Performance Max betas for Smart Bidding Exploration produce useful new traffic or just extra impressions. And watch how promotion mode performs in its first real peak season.
