Time to read: 4 minutes
Google Ads is rolling out several important shifts in bidding behavior, campaign integration, and feature migrations that may impact your campaigns. Whether you’re managing direct-response or local lead generation campaigns, these upcoming changes could impact your account performance and workflow.
Here’s everything you need to know and how to prepare.
Target CPA/Smart Bidding Changes (Effective Aug. 17)
Starting August 17, Google Ads is updating target-based bidding behavior, which will impact campaigns constrained by budget. Historically, campaigns that outperformed their set target (delivering a lower CPA or higher ROAS than target) were allowed to run smoothly below target.
But with this update, Google will push campaigns to deliver closer to the explicit CPA/ROAS target set in the system. Here’s what this means:
- Higher CPA/lower ROAS – If you set a target CPA expecting the system to auto-optimize well below it, you may see your actual CPA rise or ROAS decrease as Google expands spend to hit the target.
- Budget realignment – Budget-limited campaigns may see shifting auction dynamics as Google attempts to use available budget closer to the target thresholds.
What You Need to Do Now
Review your current Target CPA and Target ROAS settings across all Smart Bidding campaigns before August 17. Ensure your targets reflect your actual ROI thresholds rather than artificially inflated/deflated numbers.
2. Local Services Ads (LSA) Integration into Google Ads
Google is taking major steps to integrate Local Services Ads directly into the standard Google Ads interface, including cross-campaign synergies via Performance Max. This means that you will soon have:
- Unified management – Instead of toggling between separate LSA and Google Ads dashboards, advertisers can streamline budget allocation, performance reporting, and ad management in one place.
- PMax synergy – The expansion allows local service businesses to leverage Google’s AI assets while keeping verified lead generation front and center.
What You Need to Do Now
Keep an eye on any announcements in the LSA platform, as select advertisers will be chosen to migrate starting in August and throughout 2027. So, if you rely on LSAs for local lead capture, get ready for unified workflow options that will make tracking overall ROI much simpler.
3. DSA to AI Max Migration Now Postponed
In better news, Google has officially postponed the automatic migration from Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) to AI Max from September 2026 until February 2027. This thankfully gives advertisers more time to prepare before the automatic migration to AI Max.
If you haven’t heard much about this upcoming shift, when the change happens, it will result in:
- An automatic switch – Campaigns that are still using DSA come February will be automatically switched to AI Max.
- Settings changes – This upgrade will also impact your automatically created assets (ACA) and campaign-level broad match settings when the switch to AI Max is made.
What You Need to Do Now
Google is suggesting users make the switch before their system makes automatic updates to ensure their setup is fully aligned with their business goals. So take advantage of this delay to run controlled experiments comparing standalone DSA performance against AI Max campaigns rather than rushing in the new year.
Your Preparation Checklist
- Audit Smart Bidding targets – Check Target CPA/ROAS across budget-constrained campaigns prior to August 17.
- Review local workflows – Prepare for your LSA ads to be integrated in the traditional Google Ads ecosystem.
- Pace AI transitions – Keep running DSAs while systematically testing AI Max at your own pace.
Can’t Keep Up with Google? Need Help Managing Your Paid Campaigns?
We’re ready to step in when you need it. We’d be happy to answer any questions about how these updates will impact your specific campaigns and what we can do to help. Schedule an initial call with our sales team to tell us your situation, and then we can review your account strategy.
