Budgets, bidding & AI-powered campaigns: Best practices for 2026
Getting your bidding and budget dialled in has always been a vital part of campaign success, but it takes on new significance in the era of AI. The strategies and settings you use do more than manage spend - they’re how you signal your business priorities to the system, so it can more effectively deliver on those goals.
Join host Ginny Marvin as she sits down with Kristina Park and Carlo Buchmann, Google Ads product managers who specialize in budgets and bidding, to discuss modern best practices and the new capabilities AI is unlocking in these areas.
00:00 - The biggest advancement in biddi…
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Chapters (17)
The biggest advancement in bidding in years
1:00
Cold starts: what bidding strategy should you start with?
2:46
What to do when you see 'Limited by target'
3:46
Approaching target and target changes to limit performance volatility
5:25
What causes swings in CPC?
6:13
How to deal with learning periods as a small business, or a business with limi
8:07
Why value-based bidding is encouraged whenever possible
10:22
Common pitfalls with value-based bidding
11:00
How to bid based on profit margin with value-based bidding
12:00
New capabilities spotlight: campaign total budgets
12:58
When to use seasonality adjustments
14:08
New capabilities spotlight: Smart Bidding Exploration
15:45
How to tell if Smart Bidding Exploration is working
16:56
How is Smart Bidding Exploration different from just lowering your tROAS targe
18:15
What small businesses should do to ensure Smart Bidding works effectively in A
19:42
New capabilities spotlight: Journey Aware Bidding
24:29
Community Q&A: If I mark a conversion as secondary, does the algorithm use it
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