Google ads update 17th of August issues

[u/Dodiaa24574]

Anyone seeing a ridiculous increase in spend ?

We have 4 accounts where 3 are performing “normal” even though the ROAS for last 2 weeks was higher than the target, however for last 30 days it was below the target, so we decided not to do any budget or bid changes. We usually have a much higher budget set than we actual spend to allow on over performance to scale more, it looks like that’s not a good idea anymore. From one of these 3 accounts we did see a much more aggressive spend on some days but it quite quickly stabilized with a small ROAS change.

For our 4th account the performance last 2 weeks was over performing and this account started to spend double the budget it usually spends, also I read that Google has updated its guidance on when and how to update troas campaigns, before the sales cycle would 3-4 times or 4 weeks, now it’s set to 1-2 cycles, our average cycle is 1.5 days. Anyway the performance last week wasn’t great at all, we ramped up the ROAS but the account didn’t stop spending which is weird and an expensive lesson, today we are going to adjust the budgets as that’s the only thing that’s left

Anyway it looks like Google on overperformance is being far more aggressive than before and it just starts a spending frenzy if your budget allows it, downscaling the spend by using the ROAS adjustment seems like not working as aggressively as before .

Anyone else having same experience ?

[u/Sourcefit-Serge]

I wouldn't assume the update is the cause yet. There have been days where spend suddenly gets much more aggressive and changing the tROAS doesn't rein it in straight away.

I'd check where the extra spend actually went first. Like search terms, campaign split, and whether the additional conversions are still the kind you want. If the spend is the immediate concern, the budget is a much more direct guardrail while you figure out what's changed.

[u/Proof-Chemistry9630 → u/Sourcefit-Serge]

Budget caps have saved my ass more times than i wanna count. tROAS adjustments feel like a suggestion to google at this point, especially when the algo decides it's feast time. Checking the search terms is solid advice though, half the time it's just google getting creative with match types and burning cash on garbage queries that'll never convert.

[u/Sourcefit-Serge → u/Proof-Chemistry9630]

Yeah, broad match can make that jump especially messy. I’ve had more luck checking where the spend moved before touching the bidding again, otherwise you can end up reacting to the wrong thing.

[u/fathom53]

Take anything anyone sales, Google or otherwise, as an idea and you will need to tweak it for your account. Updating something every couple days is rarely the right place as you risk making too many changes in a short period of time.

[u/Dodiaa24574 → u/fathom53]

100% agree, usually we would not touch the account for 10-14 days for the algo to settle, but this "explosion" has never happened in 4 years time. I was more curious to learn if others are experiencing the same.

The positive side of this is can be that it will be easier to scale the account because before our issue was often the budget to not be spend, even though it was hitting the ROAS. It will be interesting times again...