Glossary
What is average target CPA in Google Ads?
Melvin Salas1 min readVerified 30 September 2026
Short answer
Average target CPA is, in Google's words, the traffic-weighted average CPA that your bid strategy optimised for. It includes the average of your device bid adjustments, your ad group Target CPAs and any changes you made to your Target CPA over time, so it may be different from the Target CPA you set. Google says to compare the CPA you achieved with it, because it more accurately reflects what Smart Bidding is optimising towards.
Google reports it as a column, Avg. Target CPA, which you add from the Performance category of the Campaigns table, and in the bid strategy report beside Actual CPA. By changing the date range, Google says, you can learn what your strategy actually optimised for over that period. You won't have an average Target CPA for time periods without traffic.
Target ROAS has its own version. Google describes average target ROAS as the traffic-weighted average ROAS that your bid strategy optimised for, averaging the changes you made to your Target ROAS over the period. Google says average Target ROAS is only supported for Performance Max, Search and Shopping campaigns.
The consequence is ours to draw rather than Google's: a target that was changed twice during a quarter is not the number the strategy chased for that quarter, so judging the quarter against today's target can make a campaign that met its average look like it missed, or the reverse. Google's Target CPA page recommends measuring performance over periods that have at least 30 conversions, so we treat a window with a handful of conversions as too thin to judge against either number.
Nothing that moves money happens without evidence
At Riibon a bid or budget change starts from the platform's own forecast and the account's history, and no change that touches money goes live without a person signing it off. Every change is written down with what happened after it, so the next decision starts from the last one.
Ask the Riibon app what changed in your account before your numbers moved. It is free, with no time limit and no card. Or book a call and we run it for you.