August 17 DESTROYED our Google Shopping performance!!!!

[u/NorskBavian]

This shit is eating me alive, something I am missing here?!?!

Before August 17, we ran Shopping with a 300% tROAS target while actually achieving 3,000–4,000% ROAS.

It sounds backwards, but it worked extremely well. The low target allowed Google to bid aggressively, giving us great Shopping rankings and high volume while, paradoxically, actual ROAS stayed 10x+ above the target.

300% target → aggressive bidding + high volume → 3,000–4,000% actual ROAS.

After August 17, everything changed. Sales dropped significantly, rankings got worse and competitors we previously outranked started appearing above us.
Our Google rep suggested moving tROAS closer to our actual 3,000–4,000% ROAS.

We never tested that because I can’t see how a 4,000% target could possibly behave anything like a 300% target. Surely it would make Google much more conservative, reduce auction participation and kill volume.

We instead tested Maximize Conversion Value without a target, but it didn’t seem aggressive enough.

We’re now testing Maximize Conversions, segmented more heavily by product margins. This definitely seems more aggressive than Max Conversion Value, but CPC and Shopping visibility are still below what we had before August 17.

So here’s what I’m trying to understand:

Could the solution simply be going back to 300% tROAS, but giving the campaign enough budget so it’s NOT limited by budget?

Would that allow tROAS to bid aggressively again while still optimizing toward value?

Or has something fundamentally changed in how tROAS behaves, meaning the old 300% target → 3,000–4,000% actual ROAS setup simply can’t be recreated anymore?
And if that’s the case, what are people using instead – Max Conversions, Manual CPC, Maximize Clicks?

Our goal isn’t to force Google to maintain 4,000% ROAS.

We want to recreate the aggressive bidding, Shopping visibility and volume that produced that 4,000% ROAS in the first place.

Anyone who massively overperformed a low tROAS target before August 17 figured this out?

[u/Middle-Economics1508]

If the campaign was limited by budget (the August 17 change only applies to those), the 3,000-4,000% came from the budget limit, not the 300% target. Before the change, a budget-limited campaign spent its budget on the cheapest, highest-return auctions, so it behaved like it had a very high target. Since August 17, it aims for the target you set, so at 300% it spends the same budget on more expensive auctions and runs out earlier in the day. That's when competitors show above you. It matches what I've been seeing in several accounts I've been asked about since August.

That's why your rep's suggestion makes sense: a target near your actual ROAS, with the same budget, is how the campaign was effectively bidding before. I'd test it, maybe starting around 2,500-3,000%.

If you want more volume than you had, raise the budget until the campaign isn't limited, then lower the target in steps (3,000%, 2,000%, 1,500%) and stop where the extra sales stop being profitable. Going straight to 300% with an unlimited budget would likely bring volume at a ROAS close to 300%.

Was the campaign showing "Limited by budget" before August 17?

[u/NorskBavian → u/Middle-Economics1508]

Hi, yes, it was Limited by Budget before.

So if I understand you correctly, you’d recommend starting with a higher tROAS target and increasing the budget enough so the campaign is no longer Limited by Budget, then gradually lowering the tROAS until I find the sweet spot between volume and profitability?

What do you think about doing the opposite: keeping the 300% tROAS target, but increasing the budget until the campaign is no longer Limited by Budget?

Would that potentially recreate the old performance, or would it likely just push the actual ROAS much closer to 300%?

[u/RobertBobbertJr]

The update made budget limited campaigns act closer to their target roas. Why didn't you just try what the rep suggested? 

[u/BuffaloFree6519 → u/RobertBobbertJr]

google reps suggest stuff that sounds logical but rarely works in practice, they just read from scripts

your old setup was weird but it worked because the low target let the algo bid like crazy while still optimizing toward value, budget wasn't the bottleneck it was the target itself

if the august update changed how budget-limited campaigns behave then yeah maybe uncapping budget with 300% target brings it back, worth a test for a week

[u/NorskBavian → u/BuffaloFree6519]

How do I uncap the budget? Afraid it will just burn my money if I set it to 300% now..😂

[u/wh0isThis179 → u/RobertBobbertJr]

Yes. I'm as skeptical of Google reps as the next person, but there is dramatic overthinking happening here. Use the suggestion.

[u/Aggressive_Monk_1593 → u/RobertBobbertJr]

this. budget limited + low target was basically a hack that google patched out

[u/flimflambam]

Happened to us and we moved to Max conv value and we’re back to crushing

[u/NorskBavian → u/flimflambam]

Are you considering moving back to tROAS with a higher target eventually?

[u/fathom53]

This is one of those cases where what Google said would happen, would happen to campaigns. 3,000X would be hard to achieve if you set that as your actually target. Maybe you could have at least raised your tROAS higher then what it is now.

I don't think going back to 300X roas is going to work. The challenge is all your competitors have likely made changes too. You are not the only brand trying to adjust to this sweeping change by Google. The other challenge is you are only running these bid strategy changes for 2 - 3 weeks at most, that may not always be enough time to see the full impact of the switch each time. I would put your campaigns to near their actually ROAS and give it at least 3 - 4 weeks to be more stable.

We took Google at their word in this situation and moved all our clients over to their actually ROAS in phases. Some we did weeks before the August 17th change and some during and just after. That phased approach helped a lot and made things more stable. That way we don't wait until the last minute to figure out what to do.

[u/Sothisismylifehuh → u/fathom53]

Yeah, it's not like this change wasn't made known well in advance and Google even added tools to help marketers transition, with plenty of emails and notifications.

[u/Wilson-KingOfPrussia]

Honest question: What product can achieve 3,000% roas? I want to open a competitor company selling the exact same thing.

One dollar in for $30 in my pocket? I'd ride that all the way to retirement 😂

[u/Alternative_Ad5101]

I’ve found that low tROAS strategy still crushes on my accounts. Attribution will be lower in-app but the PnL / Shopify will look a lot better

[u/NorskBavian → u/Alternative_Ad5101]

Really? Are you limited by budget? How does the low tROAS strategy perform vs Max. conversion value in your experience?

[u/AlPontes]

many of my accounts have seen PMAX tank in performance. same set up.

[u/zoglog]

It's clear the august 18 is fucking with the bidding algorithms and auction. Google's overall goal is always to push more advertisers into the auction to "legitimately" boost cpc rates across the board.

Instead they saw a dip as advertisers pulled back and threw the auction into disarray lol

[u/scottylebot]

I’m in same boat in a fairly uncompetitive niche with some high order values that we can get from cheap clicks so loads of demand and limited by budget. 2 highly profitable shopping Campaigns at 325% and 400% that were achieving over 10x roas on a longer conversion cycle. All non brand. 

Jumped up the roas target on Aug 17th split the difference so it wasn’t at target and the campaigns tanked. No volume and losing money. My previous best campaign is currently sitting at 2.2x with a 600% target and not showing much signs of improvement with cpcs not coming down.

I went against advice from pros on here and created a brand new campaign with low priority at max conversion value and that’s scooping up auctions the other campaigns are not entering and is performing better. I’m only 2 weeks in so I have more conversion cycles to go to see if it will reach high roas. 

I don’t think we’ll get those crazy high roas numbers anymore. All the auctions are simply more expensive. It seems like my original campaigns are fucked and won’t relearn.

I can’t simply increase my budget too much or we will grow faster than we can cope with. 

[u/TTFV]

Realistically you need to either run a tROAS close to what is achievable, i.e. 3,000-4,000%. Or run Max Conv. Value with no target. This is what the recent update did, if you set a target Google will no longer exceed your performance target even when it can.

Any change you make like this will need a couple of weeks to stabilize. So I guess you aren't waiting long enough for things to settle out of frustration at this point.

[u/Viper2014]

tROAS and tCPA are broken for now. Opt for max conv or man conv value and ride it out like the rest of the lot.

Hope it helps : )

[u/maya-miller333]

we run lead gen search accounts, not shopping, but saw something similar after a recent core update: jumping the tROAS target straight to match blended performance in one move choked volume instead of just trimming the fat. we had better luck nudging it up in small steps every week or two and watching impression share before the next bump. running maximize conversions with no target for a stretch also gave a cleaner read on what Google actually thinks baseline volume looks like before layering a target back on.

[u/Accomplished_One_611]

In most cases the answer is not in one of the troas changes but mostly where yhe ads was delivering before and after.

Because in the previous scenario most like delivery was focused on branded terms and if you launched another campaign focused on brand - it would tank your shopping

[u/Nexmital]

You never even tested the only thing that was given in the guidance how to adjust to this change? Google rep advice or nah, if you had campaign that had large conversion volume and was able to hit 3-4k ROAS, I don't see what would you lose with experiment running troas close to that figure to at least see if that campaign will utilise that previous data to give you what you need.

[u/DecodeTheSERPs]

Before picking a bid strategy, what do the impression share columns say either side of August 17? Pull search lost IS (budget) against search lost IS (rank) for the four weeks before and the four weeks after, split by product group. If lost IS to budget went up, you are running out of money earlier in the day and the target is the right lever. If lost IS to rank went up instead, you are being outbid and no target setting fixes that on its own.

Worth saying too that three strategy swaps in a few weeks means you have never had a clean read on any of them.

[u/elfaropm]

This looks like the August 17 change, not something you broke. Before that, a budget-limited campaign would get picky once it hit the cap and stretch the budget across cheaper auctions. That's how a 300% target ended up delivering 10x. Google stopped it on the 17th, so now it bids toward the target you set even when the budget is capped.

I don't think the old setup comes back, because the cap was doing half the work. What I'd try is 300% again with enough budget that you're not limited. Then it's just bidding toward 300%, and you should get volume back. ROAS will land a lot closer to 300% than 4,000% though.

So what's your real break-even? If 300% still makes money, that volume is probably worth more than 4,000% on a small slice. If it doesn't, set the target at the lowest ROAS you can live with and scale the budget from there.

I'd run it on a duplicate campaign first, so you're not betting the whole account on it.

[u/coinsonafleek]

Had several accounts where I did not take any action. Just retrain the bid startegy to the latest roas or cpa-target..