Google’s Smart Bidding will soon include ability to set Target CPA by device in AdWords

On Monday, Google introduced Smart Bidding, a new umbrella name for automated bidding strategies including Target CPA, Target ROAS and Enhanced CPC in AdWords and DoubleClick Search. Coming soon is the ability to set different Target CPA goals by device in search and display campaigns. This will roll out to all advertisers in the next few weeks.

Powered by machine learning, Smart Bidding “can factor in millions of signals to determine the optimal bid, and it continually refines models of your conversion performance at different bid levels,” said Anthony Chavez, product management director of search ads at Google, in the announcement.

Smart Bidding can be set to optimize for conversions or conversion value programmatically in real time. It takes into account signals in AdWords such as browser and language, in addition to manual bid adjustments for location and device. Other signals include location intent and similar product attributes. Google will be adding more signals, such as seasonality and price competitiveness over time.

Alerts around bidding are now available in AdWords, and more reporting for campaign-level bid strategies is rolling out. Bidding status will soon display in campaign and ad group status columns as well.

Smart Bidding is available to all advertisers, but the modeling works best for advertisers that have at least 30 conversions in the past 30 days for Enhanced CPC and Target CPA and 50 conversions in the past 30 days for Target ROAS.