Smart Bidding is optimized to achieve its targets, not necessarily to grow the business. That’s why an ad account can consistently hit its Target CPA or Target ROAS while revenue, profit, and overall business growth barely change.

Unfortunately, this is often the result of a disconnect between advertising metrics and business reality. The algorithm keeps optimizing toward the goal it was given, even when that goal is no longer the bottleneck to growth.

That disconnect may become even more important following Google’s August 17 bidding update . Google has indicated that budget-constrained campaigns using tCPA and tROAS will now be pulled closer toward their stated targets rather than significantly outperforming them.

In practical terms, the number in the target field in account settings should no longer be viewed as a suggestion.…