Bid Adjustments in Google Ads: How to Perfectly Tune Your Bidding Strategy
You want more control over where and when your ad spend goes, so you searched to understand what a bid adjustment actually is and whether it still moves the needle. This guide gives you a clean definition, walks through every type of Google Ads bid adjustment, and clarifies the 2026 reality of which ones still work now that Smart Bidding runs most accounts.
Fine-tuning your bidding strategy is how you squeeze more return out of the same budget. By the end, you will know exactly which levers to pull, which to ignore, and how to avoid managing controls that quietly do nothing.
Key Takeaways
- Definition: A bid adjustment is a percentage increase or decrease to your bid that shows your ads more or less often based on device, location, time, or audience.
- Ranges: Device adjustments run from -100% to +900%; location and ad schedule run from -90% to +900%.
- Smart Bidding reality: Under Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize Conversions, most manual adjustments are ignored, with the -100% device exclusion as the main exception.
- The trap: Adjustments stay visible after you switch to Smart Bidding, giving no warning that they are inactive.
- Data first: Review a 60- to 90-day window and act only on segments with enough volume to be statistically valid.
What Is a Bid Adjustment in Google Ads?
A bid adjustment is a percentage increase or decrease to your bid that shows your ads more or less often based on where, when, and how people search. A bid adjustment is a percentage increase or decrease in your bids that allows you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search. In plain terms, you are telling Google how much more or less you are willing to pay for a click under specific conditions.
The mechanics are simple math. With a max CPC bid of $1, increasing your bid by 20% for searches on mobile devices results in a final bid amount of $1.20. A decrease of 20% takes that same bid down to $0.80.
These modifiers change individual bids under set conditions, not your overall average daily budget. Adjustments are set as percentages and can be positive or negative, and a negative bid adjustment of -100% opts you out of a device entirely.
The Main Types of Bid Adjustments
Google offers several adjustment types across Search and Display, each targeting a different signal, with availability and ranges that depend on the campaign type. Here are the ones you will use most.
- Device: Adjust how often your ads reach computers, tablets, and mobile. Set at the campaign or ad group level, with a range from -100% to +900%. You can enter -100% to opt out of a device for the selected campaigns or ad groups.
- Location: Bid more or less for specific countries, cities, or regions at the campaign level, ranging from -90% to +900%. A B2B advertiser might raise bids in high-performing states and lower them in weak ones.
- Ad schedule: Raise or lower bids by day of week or hour, which requires a custom ad schedule. A restaurant might increase bids during lunch hours and lower them late at night.
- Audience: Adjust for remarketing lists and in-market segments, for example increasing bids for users who viewed your pricing page.
- Demographics: Adjust by age, gender, or household income to reach segments that convert best.
- Interaction (call): Change how often your call assets appear so more clicks turn into phone calls.
The table below shows how each type applies.
| Adjustment Type | What It Targets | Where You Can Set It | Adjustment Range | Works With Smart Bidding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Device | Computer, tablet, mobile | Campaign or ad group | -100% to +900% | Only -100% exclusion; target shift on Target CPA |
| Location | Countries, cities, regions | Campaign | -90% to +900% | Ignored |
| Ad Schedule | Day or hour | Campaign | -90% to +900% | Ignored (schedule still respected) |
| Audience | Remarketing, in-market | Campaign or ad group | -90% to +900% | Used as a signal, not a bid |
| Demographics | Age, gender, income | Campaign or ad group | -90% to +900% | Ignored |
| Interaction (Call) | Call asset frequency | Campaign | -90% to +900% | Ignored |
How to Set a Bid Adjustment (Step by Step)
You can add an adjustment inside your account in a couple of minutes. Follow these steps.
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- Open the relevant campaign or ad group.
- Choose the adjustment type from the page menu: Devices, Locations, Ad schedule, or Audiences.
- Click the bid adjustment column, then the pencil icon.
- Select increase or decrease and enter a percentage.
- Save your changes.
To remove an adjustment, clear the value in the field. Before you act, review a longer window of data, often 60 to 90 days, and adjust only segments with enough volume to be statistically valid.
Treat this as a habit, not a one-time task. Regularly review performance and refine your adjustments as new data comes in, since device and location trends shift over time.
When Bid Adjustments Work and When They Are Ignored
Bid adjustments are fully active under Manual CPC and Maximize Clicks, and mostly ignored under Smart Bidding. Smart Bidding sets bids at auction time using thousands of signals, so a static manual modifier cannot compete and gets overridden. Under Smart Bidding strategies, the vast majority of manual bid adjustments are not supported, and Google’s help documentation confirms that a manual bid adjustment made to an automated Smart Bidding strategy will not be applied.
Two exceptions matter. The -100% device exclusion still works under every Smart Bidding strategy. Under Target CPA, a device adjustment modifies the target rather than the bid; device bid adjustments don’t actually adjust your bids but adjust your target, so a -50% mobile bid adjustment with a $100 Target CPA sets your mobile Target CPA at $50. As Google’s Target CPA documentation notes, non-device bid adjustments are ignored on the Search and Display Network.
Watch the practical trap: adjustments stay visible in the interface after you migrate to Smart Bidding and give no warning that they are inactive, so managers waste effort on modifiers that do nothing. Under manual bidding, multiple adjustments multiply together. Per Google’s guide on bid adjustments, combined bid adjustments can’t exceed a 900% bid increase, and the lowest possible bid adjustment when combining multiple is -90%.
| Bidding Strategy | Bid Adjustments Applied | What Still Works | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual CPC | Yes, all types | Everything | Diagnostics, tight manual control |
| Maximize Clicks | Yes, all types | Everything | Traffic growth, new campaigns |
| Maximize Conversions | No | -100% device exclusion | Volume with conversion data |
| Target CPA | No | Device (adjusts target), -100% exclusion | Efficient cost per lead |
| Target ROAS | No | -100% device exclusion | Value and revenue goals |
Common Bid Adjustment Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced managers slip on the same few points. Keep this list handy.
- Acting without enough data: Adjusting bids on thin numbers leads to decisions that reverse next month. Wait for statistical validity.
- Stacking aggressive modifiers: Layered adjustments multiply in ways that are hard to predict and can inflate bids far beyond intent.
- Set and forget: An adjustment that made sense last quarter may hurt today. Schedule regular reviews.
- Applying manual adjustments to Smart Bidding: These do nothing under Target CPA, Target ROAS, or Maximize Conversions, so you are managing controls that do not apply.
- Leaving stale adjustments after migrating: After switching from Manual CPC to Smart Bidding, audit and clear old modifiers so your account reflects what is actually running.
The Bottom Line
Use bid adjustments aggressively when you run Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks, and stop hand-tuning them the moment you switch to Smart Bidding, where only the -100% device exclusion and Target CPA device targets carry weight. Your next move: open your account, check which bidding strategy each campaign uses, and clear any manual modifiers sitting on Smart Bidding campaigns. If tuning bids across a growing account is eating your week, Velocity manages Google Ads for B2B, SaaS, and local service businesses and offers a free account audit.
FAQs
A bid adjustment is a percentage increase or decrease to your bid that changes how often your ads show based on device, location, time of day, or audience. It fine-tunes individual bids under specific conditions rather than changing your overall daily budget.
Most are ignored under Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize Conversions, because the system sets bids at auction time using real-time signals. The main exception is the -100% device exclusion, which works across every Smart Bidding strategy, and under Target CPA, a device adjustment shifts the target instead of the bid.
Device adjustments range from -100% to +900%, while location and ad schedule adjustments range from -90% to +900%. Combined bid adjustments can’t exceed a 900% increase, and the lowest possible combined adjustment is -90%.
In the bid adjustment column, click the pencil icon, choose “decrease,” and enter a percentage. You can enter -100% to opt out of a device entirely, which stops your ads from showing on that device type.
Yes. Device and targeting-method adjustments can be set at the ad group level, and they take priority over campaign-level settings. If you set a device bid adjustment at the campaign level and another for the same device at the ad group level, the ad group adjustment is used.
Review a longer window, often 60 to 90 days, so seasonality and day-of-week swings do not distort the picture. Act only on segments with enough volume to be statistically valid; a handful of clicks is not a reliable signal.
Manual bidding suits brand campaigns, new campaigns with no conversion history, and diagnostic work where you want tight control. Once a campaign has consistent conversion volume, Smart Bidding generally wins because it reads thousands of auction-time signals that no static modifier can match.