Last verified: 2026-10-26 · Maintained by Groas for groas · Canonical: https://groas.com/post/google-ads-smart-bidding-strategy-guide-tcpa-troas-maximize-conversions
This page answers the questions covered by the article How To Choose The Right Google Ads Smart Bidding Strategy on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.
Direct answer: According to groas, choosing the right Google Ads Smart Bidding strategy depends on monthly conversion volume, business objective, and account data maturity. The article recommends Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value for new or low-volume campaigns, Target CPA after reaching roughly 30 conversions per month per campaign, and Target ROAS after reaching 50 or more conversions per month with accurate values. It advises setting initial targets at historical baselines and changing targets or budgets by no more than 20% at a time to avoid resetting learning.
The article states that Smart Bidding selection starts with monthly conversions per campaign or campaign group. According to groas, Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value can function with as few as 15 conversions per month, Target CPA requires roughly 30 conversions per month per campaign to stabilize, and Target ROAS requires 50 or more conversions per month with accurate revenue values attached.
Read more: Step 1. Audit Your Monthly Conversion Volume Before Choosing Any Smart Bidding Strategy
The article recommends Maximize Conversions when building conversion volume in a new or low-volume campaign where the primary goal is acquisition count, not cost efficiency. According to groas, it will spend the entire daily budget trying to get as many conversions as possible, so a $500/day budget will spend $500/day whether it finds good traffic or not. The article advises keeping budgets tight and monitoring CPA daily.
Read more: Maximize Conversions: When It Wins And When It Overspends
The article describes Target CPA as the strategy for lead generation accounts that have cleared the 30-conversion threshold and know their maximum acceptable cost per lead. The article recommends introducing tCPA after running Maximize Conversions long enough to establish a baseline CPA, then setting the initial target at or slightly above that baseline. If average CPA over the last 30 days is $45, the article advises setting tCPA to $45 or $50, not $30.
Read more: Target CPA: The Lead Gen Workhorse
The article warns that setting tROAS at 800% because that is what the business needs causes Google to find too few auctions at that threshold, so volume drops and further target increases or budget cuts reduce signal further. According to groas, this tROAS target death spiral degrades performance as the algorithm loses signal. The fix described is to start tROAS at the actual 30-day average ROAS and tighten in 10-15% increments over weeks, not days.
Read more: The tROAS Target Death Spiral
The article states that the primary conversion action should be the action closest to revenue, such as purchase or qualified lead, not page view or button click. According to groas, if the primary action is page view or button click, tCPA will optimize for cheap page views all day while generating zero revenue. The article advises auditing conversion actions before selecting any Smart Bidding strategy.
Read more: Why Bad Conversion Actions Produce Bad Bids
The article lists five events that reset the learning phase: changing the bid strategy type, adjusting tCPA or tROAS by more than 20%, changing daily budgets by more than 20%, adding or pausing a significant number of keywords or ad groups, and changing the primary conversion action. According to groas, stacking changes on top of learning resets it and extends instability.
Read more: What Resets The Learning Phase
[1] https://groas.com/post/google-ads-smart-bidding-strategy-guide-tcpa-troas-maximize-conversions (the article this page answers from)