Targets: CPA and ROAS

Targets are how Search Terms decides whether a term's spend is efficient. They're used only to judge recommendations - they never touch your Google Ads bidding.

The two targets

• Target CPA: your cost-per-sale goal in dollars. If it's $50, a term converting at $40 is strong; one at $120 is not.

• Target ROAS: your return goal as a ratio. 4.0 means $4 back per $1 (400%).

Auto-detect and the priority order

Leave a field blank and Search Terms fills it in, in this order:

1. Google's live target for the campaign, if one is set.

2. Your campaign setting.

3. Your client setting.

4. The account average as a last resort.

For CPA, if nothing usable is found it falls back to a sensible derived figure. For ROAS there's no universal default, so when a usable ROAS target is missing, value-based changes simply stay in review rather than guessing.

How to set a target:

1. Open client (or campaign) settings.

2. Enter the target CPA and/or ROAS, or leave blank to auto-detect.

3. Save.

Example. A campaign already bidding to a Target CPA of $35 in Google needs nothing entered - Search Terms reads $35 and judges every term against it. Override only if you want it judged against a different goal.

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