Google Changes Bidding on August 17, 2026: How to Check Your Impact

From August 17, 2026 Google stops letting budget-limited tCPA and tROAS campaigns beat their target. How to find out whether it hits you, plus a free script that does it for you.

Karel Huk3 min read

In the previous article on Google's bidding change on August 17 I ran dozens of accounts. So how do you keep an eye on this without much work?

I built a script that flags the affected campaigns and offers to adjust them so they deliver against their real target.

A reminder of what this is about. Google will stop letting campaigns on automated bid strategies overshoot their targets. An affected campaign has to meet three conditions at once:

  1. it has a target set (tCPA or tROAS)
  2. it is genuinely limited by budget
  3. it is beating that target

One note before you download: the script's comments and its email report are in Czech. The code, the settings and the logic are language-independent, so it runs fine anywhere — you'll just be reading Czech labels in the output. The section below tells you what each one means.

Installation:

  1. Google Ads → Tools → Bulk actions → Scripts → new script
  2. Paste the whole file, fill in the Settings section
  3. Authorise, run a preview and check the log
  4. Run it manually

What it outputs:

A) Affected (DOTČENÉ). All three conditions met. This is where something happens on August 17.

B) Ticking bombs (TIKAJÍCÍ BOMBY). The target is far from reality, but the campaign isn't hitting its budget yet. The moment it does, it drops into group A.

C) No target, throttled (BEZ CÍLE). The change doesn't touch them, because there's nothing to enforce. I'd fix the missing targets anyway.

D) Can't tell (NELZE URČIT). Data is missing for a verdict — either there's no way to measure whether the campaign is budget-limited, or it has no measurable result (target set, but not a single conversion over the whole period). This is not the same as "fine". That's why it gets its own section. A campaign with a target, meaningful spend and zero conversions is always worth a look.

Automatic target correction

The script can align the targets for you. This function is off by default, and once you turn it on, the first run still only prints what it would do.

The direction is opposite for each metric:

TargetRealityScript sets
tROAS150%200%200% (raises it)
tCPA$20$10$10 (lowers it)

FAQ

Can I calculate the gap between target and reality with a custom column?

No. Neither target ROAS nor target CPA is among the variables a custom column formula can reference. The formula gives you cost, conversions, conversion value, cost per conversion, return on ad spend and budget-lost impression share. You can display the target as a native column and compare by eye, but you cannot compute with it.

Can the monitoring be set up at manager account level?

Yes. Automated rules exist at manager account level too, one rule covers up to 1,000 accounts and a single user can have 100 active rules. Both conditions you need — budget-lost impression share and conversion value over cost — are natively available.

Why isn't it enough to watch the gap between target and reality?

Because that alert goes dark exactly when the fire starts. The change pushes real performance toward the target, so the gap shrinks to zero and the rule stays green even though conversion value has collapsed. After August 17 you watch for a drop in volume at stable spend, not for deviation from the target.

What is a ticking bomb and why shouldn't I fix it right away?

A campaign whose target is far from reality but which isn't hitting its budget yet. Today the target doesn't bind it, so it runs fine. Pull the target down to reality and it starts binding immediately — volume drops today because of a risk that may only materialise in a month. Those campaigns belong on a manual review list, not under an automation.

Karel Huk

Karel Huk

8 years in PPC. Agency, in-house, freelance. I know what keeps e-commerce store owners up at night, and I build custom strategies to solve it.

Book a Call

You might also like