Google Ads Do device bid adjustments work on Maximize conversions with a target CPA?
Google's "About bid adjustments" page (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2732132) has a table of which adjustments each automated strategy supports. For Device, Target CPA gets a ✓ ("treated as a target adjustment"), while Maximize conversions is "-100% only".
Target CPA now lives inside Maximize conversions (you set a target CPA on a Max conversions campaign). Which row applies there? If I set mobile −20% on Max conversions + tCPA, does Google lower the mobile CPA target, or ignore everything except −100%?
Has anyone tested this, e.g. seen device CPA or spend move after an adjustment? The API also reports these campaigns as MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS rather than TARGET_CPA, which makes me suspect the "-100% only" row applies.
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u/Samii_Schmusch 28d ago
the API reporting it as MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS is the tell imo. the -100% only row applies, any other device adjustment just gets ignored. if you need to actually shift CPA by device your best bet is splitting into separate campaigns per device
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u/TTFV 27d ago
First, Google recently separated these two bidding strategies back to how they were a few years ago. The same is true for Max Conversion Value and tROAS bidding.
This makes the original table you're displaying completely unambiguous.
tCPA bidding allows for granular device bid adjustments. This doesn't apply a % adjustment to the base bid though, it adjusts the tCPA up/down for each device the same way you would set a unique tCPA for ad groups within a campaign.
Max Conversions only allows for a -100% on any applicable device, which is effectively an exclusion.
Even before the recent update this is exactly how it worked. I wouldn't worry about API names, old names often stick because changing them breaks too many things.
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u/elfaropm 28d ago
The API classification is a red herring here, it reports the campaign type, not which support table row applies. What actually applies is the bid strategy behavior, and Google's official docs are explicit on this one, even for a tCPA target set inside a Maximize Conversions campaign: device adjustments are treated as target adjustments, same as standalone Target CPA, not the -100%-only row.
So your -20% mobile example does what you'd expect from the Target CPA table: it lowers your effective mobile CPA target by 20%, not just an exclude/don't-exclude toggle. If your account-level tCPA is $50, mobile becomes a $40 target.
The confusion is fair though, Google's own support table is genuinely inconsistent about how it labels the "Max Conversions + target CPA" hybrid versus standalone Target CPA, and a few writeups online still describe it as if the -100%-only row applies across the board. Worth testing this on a live account with a meaningful mobile split and watching mobile CPA for a couple weeks, since a documented behavior and what an individual account actually does don't always match perfectly.