There’s been a lot of conversation recently about how Google is refining its automation and budget pacing. If you feel like the PPC landscape is moving at lightning speed in 2026 (and at times reeeeally screwing you over), you aren’t alone!

Google has rolled out some major changes that dictate exactly how and when your money is spent.

So here’s some information on two of the biggest updates you need to be aware of right now – the budget pacing update from June, and the bidding target change coming this August.

Budget Scheduling:

Historically, if you had a limited ad schedule (for instance, running ads Monday to Friday only), Google would pace your budget based on the number of active days. Most people would recognise this calculation as approximately 21.7x your daily budget. BUT. As of June 1st, that rulebook was thrown out.

Now, Google paces toward your full monthly budget limit (which is 30.4x your daily budget), regardless of how many days your schedule allows.

This means that even though your ads will continue to run only Monday to Friday, Google will push much harder to spend your full monthly cap during those active windows. Your daily spend on active days could accelerate to as much as up to 2x your daily budget!!! For brands with tight, weekday-only schedules, this means you might be spending a lot more aggressively on those active days than you used to.

Unfortunately, Google kept this rather quiet and it has affected tens of thousands of accounts. The best way to combat this and move forward, especially if your goal is strict cost control, is to recalculate and lower your daily budget settings to compensate ASAP!

Campaign Targets:

An update we ARE given a bit of warning of (thanks Google…)

Coming into effect on August 17th, Google is changing how budget-limited campaigns behave when using target-based bidding, such as Target CPA or Target ROAS.

Currently if your campaign is over-performing, say you set a Target CPA of £20, but you’re actually getting conversions for £10, the system just lets you enjoy the cheaper results. After August 17th, Google’s system will actively optimise to bring your results much closer to your actual set target. In this scenario, it will intentionally push your CPA closer to the £20 you told it you were willing to pay…Make it make sense.

To maintain your current over-performing results, you need to manually update your targets to match your recent actual performance before the deadline. If left unchecked, your costs per acquisition could unexpectedly rise!

How these automation updates will affect your strategy:

Automation will continue to grow, and control will keep shifting towards Google’s machine learning. But for brands, this isn’t something to fear or panic about!

It’s no longer about just launching campaigns and letting automation run. It’s about knowing when to rein in daily budgets, when to adjust your Target ROAS, and how to work with Google’s systems, not against them.

As platforms change, we pride ourselves on learning to adapt quickly, test intelligently, and make sure our clients are not just keeping up with the industry, but staying ahead of it!