On the day we checked, Misen's 10-inch stainless frying pan was on sale for $101.15. Its 12-piece stainless cookware set was on sale for $855.20. Both are one order. Both would count as one purchase. To a bid strategy that counts orders, they're the same win.
They aren't the same win for the store. The set brings in more than eight times the revenue from one click, and a store that bids as if every sale were a pan can end up underbidding for the shoppers most likely to buy the set.
This chapter covers how a store's bidding grows up: manual bids while the account learns, Maximize conversion value once the store reaches about 30 sales a month, then a target ROAS set from the store's own numbers. It also covers the minimum Google sets, why we wait longer, and a change Google made in August 2026 that rewards setting the target carefully. The examples come from the cookware stores in this guide. Your prices will differ. The order of steps holds.
Manual Bids Carry the First Month. Google Shows a Benchmark Bid for Every Shopping Product Group.
Chapter 6 launched Standard Shopping on manual bids, with each product group's ceiling worked out from break-even ROAS. Those bids still need tending, and Shopping gives you more to tend them with than most store owners use.
Open the product groups in a Standard Shopping campaign and add these columns:
- Benchmark max. CPC: what other advertisers are bidding on similar products. If yours sits far below it, your ads may show less often.
- Impression share and click share: the share of available impressions and clicks you actually got.
- Absolute top impression share: how often your product led the row.
Group products the way your margins group. Merchant Center's custom labels let you tag each product, for example as high margin, low margin or clearance, and Standard Shopping can split product groups on those labels. Then each group gets a bid ceiling that matches what it earns.
For the products that carry your margin, aim to show most of the time. If a product group's impression share is low and the benchmark is well above your break-even ceiling, the auction may simply be too expensive for that product right now. Two more tools help you decide. Auction insights shows which other stores you meet in the same auctions. And the bid simulator built into Shopping estimates what the last seven days might have looked like at a different product group bid, before you spend a dollar finding out.
Target CPA Counts a $101 Pan and an $855 Set as the Same Sale. Value Bidding Doesn't.
Once the store reaches about 30 sales a month, automated bidding can take over, and the choice of strategy matters more for a store than for almost any other business.
Google's two families of automated bidding treat a sale differently. Its own help page says Maximize conversions aims for the most conversions "regardless of the value of the conversions." Maximize conversion value aims for the most total value and "may bid higher for auctions that would result in greater conversion value." Target CPA sits in the first family. Target ROAS sits in the second.
For a lot of service businesses, one lead is worth roughly the same as the next, so counting them works. A store's orders swing from a $25 bag of coffee to an $855 set of pans. Count them as equals and the bidding has no reason to prefer the bigger sale, so it can drift toward cheap, easy orders.
Google's own Target ROAS page suggests a path that runs through Target CPA first, then value bidding. For stores, we skip that step. Bidding to an order count teaches the account the wrong lesson, then you spend weeks unteaching it.
After Manual Bids, Maximize Conversion Value Is the First Automated Step. With No Target, It Spends the Whole Budget.
Value bidding only works if the account knows each order's value. That's why Chapter 1 insisted on a purchase conversion that reports the real order total. Google requires conversion tracking with transaction-specific values before you can use Maximize conversion value.
The value doesn't have to be revenue. Google says you define what to maximize, "such as sales revenue or profit margins." A store whose margins differ a lot by product can report profit instead of revenue, and the bidding will chase profit. Most stores start with revenue because order revenue is the easiest value to send, then refine.
Know what you're switching on. Without a target, Google says Maximize conversion value "tries to fully spend your average daily budget," and if you've been spending much less than your budget, it "could significantly increase your spend." Before switching, set the daily budget to an amount you're truly willing to spend every day.
Google recommends this strategy for a reason that suits small stores. Its Shopping guidance says that with a limited budget, start with Maximize conversion value rather than a target. We read that as giving the bidding room to find where the valuable orders come from before you hold it to a number.
Google Allows Target ROAS at 15 Sales in 30 Days. We Wait for About 30 Sales a Month.
Google's minimum for Target ROAS in Search and Shopping campaigns is at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days, and those conversions need real values for the bidding to learn from.
We use a higher bar. Our gate for opening Exploration, broad match and Performance Max is about 30 purchases a month, and value bidding starts there, on Maximize conversion value. Target ROAS comes after that, once a few weeks of order values show where the store's ROAS really sits. Fifteen orders is enough for the setting to unlock. It's thin evidence for the bidding to set a target from, especially when a few large orders can swing a month's ROAS on their own. A store that sold one $855 set and fourteen $101 pans has a very different month from one that sold three sets.
One naming note so the account doesn't confuse you. Since June 2026, Google has been renaming the value strategy with a target set so that it shows up on its own as Target ROAS. Google calls it a visual change only. If the older, longer name still appears in some places during the switch, the bidding behind it is the same.
Google Suggests a Low Target to Help a New Shopping Campaign Grow. Below Break-Even, You Pay for That Growth.
Google's guidance for Shopping and Performance Max says to "consider setting a low ROAS target in order to encourage scaling for a new campaign," then raise it once the campaign grows. The same page says your target "should be set close to the current ROAS to start," and suggests changing it gradually, for example in steps of 30%, waiting one to two conversion cycles between changes.
Both pieces of advice can be right, but only one of them protects a store's margin. A low target lets the bidding buy more sales. If that target sits below your break-even ROAS, every extra sale it buys loses money.
Go back to Chapter 3. Its example store breaks even at about 4.3 once shipping, payment fees and returns come out. A 3.0 target there isn't a growth plan. It's a decision to lose money on purpose for a while. Some stores make that choice to win first orders from customers who'll come back, and that can work. Make it on purpose, with a date to end it.
Remember that a target is an average, not a rule for each order. Google's Target ROAS page says some conversions will come in above the target and some below, while the campaign aims to hit it overall. A 500% target can still buy a sale at 200% if others make up for it.
Google Now Holds Budget-Limited Campaigns Close to the Target ROAS You Set. A Low Target Becomes the Return You Get.
On August 17, 2026, Google's bidding changed for campaigns on a target, Target ROAS included, whose budget runs out, across Search, Shopping and Performance Max. Before the change, a campaign like that could run well ahead of its target. Now Google says these campaigns "perform more consistently toward your bid target," and a campaign that was beating its target may trend back toward it.
Here's what that looks like for a store, as an illustration. A Shopping campaign has a Target ROAS of 400% and a budget that runs out most days. It has been returning 600%. Under the change, it can drift toward 400%, spending more for each sale. Nothing about the store changed. The target was simply lower than what the campaign had been achieving.
Google won't fix that for you; it says plainly that it won't adjust your targets or budgets automatically. Checking takes a few minutes. In the campaigns table, add the conversion value per cost column, which is your actual ROAS, next to the bid strategy's target. Then look at the status column for "Limited by budget." A campaign that shows both a return well above its target and a budget limit is the one this change affects.
Check every campaign on Target ROAS this way. If one is returning far more than its target and is limited by budget, either raise the target toward what it's actually achieving or accept the lower return on purpose. Google's example uses Target CPA; the change covers Target ROAS too.
Next: Made In's Best Reviews Praise the Warranty. That's Your Ad Copy.
Bidding decides how much to pay for a click. Chapter 8 covers what the ad says once you've paid for it, starting with the words a store's own customers already use in their reviews.
Earlier chapters cover why Standard Shopping comes first and what a click can cost before it loses money. Every chapter is on the guide's home page.
When we move a store to value bidding through Google Ads management, the first target comes from the account's own ROAS and never goes below break-even without a plan to end it. Doing it yourself? Open each Target ROAS campaign, compare its actual ROAS to its target, and check whether it's limited by budget.
