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Smart Bidding Exploration adds Shopping campaigns

Google's help pages now list Shopping campaigns as eligible for Smart Bidding Exploration, the Target ROAS option that lowers your target by up to a tolerance you pick. They disagree on Performance Max with a feed.

Jerry Quin2 min read4 sources

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The short answer

What changed

Smart Bidding Exploration is an opt-in Google Ads feature for Target ROAS campaigns. It "lowers your target ROAS by up to the tolerance you select," and you turn it on in campaign Settings. Google's help page now says eligible campaigns "include Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns, with or without a Merchant Center feed."

Who has it

Standard Shopping campaigns are now on the list. For Performance Max, Google's pages disagree: one says feed-based campaigns are eligible, another says they "are currently not eligible." The pages don't say when Shopping was added or whether every account has it.

What I'd do this week

Advice, not from Google: try it on one Shopping campaign that isn't limited by budget, start with a small tolerance, and judge it over 1 to 2 conversion cycles. Details below.

How the tolerance works

Google's example: with a 200% target and a 10% tolerance, "your effective target changes to 180%." The page says to expect results "within approximately 15% of that 180% effective target when assessing performance over 1 to 2 conversion cycles."

It doesn't widen your reach. Exploration "doesn't expand your broad match keywords or target outer limits." It goes after "long-tail queries you already qualify for but missed due to tight Target ROAS constraints." The main page calls it a "beta feature."

To turn it on, the setup page says to open Smart Bidding exploration in the campaign's settings and select Allow Smart Bidding to explore new traffic.

The help pages don't agree yet

  • Feed-based Performance Max. The new guide says a feed is fine, and that in Performance Max campaigns with a Merchant Center feed, "a single toggle turns on exploration on both Search and Shopping traffic." The Performance Max page says campaigns "that have a Google Merchant Center feed attached or use store goals are currently not eligible to use this feature."
  • Tolerance range. The new guide says you "can choose a Target ROAS tolerance between 5% and 30%." The Performance Max page says exploration "uses the 10%-30% lower ROAS tolerance that you set."

Both pages agree on Performance Max without a feed: exploration applies to its Search traffic.

The fine print

  • Budget. Campaigns "shouldn't be limited by budget." If one hits its limit, "the system may temporarily pause exploration."
  • No portfolios for retail. The setup page says "Portfolio bidding is currently not supported for standard Shopping and Performance Max campaigns running Smart Bidding Exploration." The guide adds that moving them to a portfolio "will automatically deactivate Smart Bidding Exploration."
  • AI Max. It's "fully compatible with Search and Shopping campaigns running AI Max."

What I'd do this week

This is my advice, not Google's.

Check the bid strategy first. If your Shopping campaigns sit in a portfolio, exploration won't stay on there. Decide whether the portfolio is worth more to you than the test.

Start with one campaign that isn't capped by budget and has room on its target. A capped campaign can have exploration paused, which muddies the read.

Go small on the tolerance. You're agreeing to a lower return on ad spend, so start low and see whether the extra volume is worth it before you open it up.

If you run Performance Max with a feed, look in the campaign settings before planning around it. The help pages give two answers.

Mind the calendar. The main page recommends turning it on "at least 6 weeks before major holiday sales." If your peak is closer than that, weigh whether a test now is worth the noise.

Jerry Quin

Jerry Quin is the pen name of a paid media practitioner who has managed Google Ads accounts at an agency for 10 years. He writes about Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, ChatGPT Ads, and the rest of paid media and digital marketing, from what's rolling out to what he'd actually do about it.

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