Budget adjustments advice

[AdhesivenessLow7173]

Your consultant’s advice about doubling from $175 to $350 daily is too aggressive for what you’re trying to accomplish. Drastic budget increases trigger Google’s learning phase because the algorithm needs to recalibrate bidding based on your new spend level, which causes 2-3 weeks of unstable performance.

The better approach: Increase budget by 20% every 3-4 days if performance stays stable. This keeps campaigns in optimization mode without forcing re-learning. For your situation, go from $175 to $210, wait 3 days, monitor CPA and conversion volume. If stable, increase another 20%.

Key indicator to watch: If your cost per conversion jumps more than 15-20% after a budget increase, you’ve moved too fast. Pause the increase and let it stabilize for 5-7 days before pushing again.

During Q4 specifically, gradual increases work better because auction competition is already high. Sudden budget spikes amplify volatility since you’re bidding against aggressive holiday budgets. Slow scaling gives you better cost control when CPCs are elevated.

[No-Egg7514]

Your consultant is technically correct that learning mode from budget changes was removed in 2022, but that doesn’t mean drastic budget shifts have zero performance impact – they absolutely do, especially in Q4 when auction dynamics are volatile. The algorithm still needs time to recalibrate bidding behavior when available budget doubles overnight.

For your specific situation with 3 competing PMax campaigns: Consolidating into one campaign makes strategic sense, but the execution timing matters. Don’t make both changes simultaneously (killing 2 campaigns AND doubling budget). That creates too many variables. Instead, gradually shift budget from the weaker two campaigns to your strongest performer over 5-7 days. Reduce their budgets by 20% daily while increasing the winner by equivalent amounts. Once the two weaker campaigns hit minimum spend, pause them. This preserves your conversion history while minimizing algorithm shock.

The gradual approach isn’t about learning mode – it’s about maintaining stable auction participation. When you double a campaign’s budget instantly, Google’s bidding algorithm gets aggressive trying to spend that budget quickly, often overbidding in auctions you’d normally win cheaper. This causes CPA spikes for 7-14 days until the algorithm realizes it doesn’t need to bid so aggressively to hit the new budget target.

For Q4 specifically, I’d go even more conservative: 15% increases every 3 days instead of 20% daily. Black Friday through Cyber Monday have such compressed auction windows that any performance dip costs you peak season revenue. The upside of faster consolidation doesn’t justify the downside risk during your highest-value weeks of the year.

[fathom53]

Unless you have tons of conversion data and are exceeding your KPI. Increase your budget by 20% every 5 -7 days and monitor performance. The issue with increasing the budget in one shot is you could front load your ad spend and not see enough conversions to cover your new daily budget.

[thescco]

I wouldn’t double a PMax budget overnight. Shift it in steps: +10-20% every 3-4 days while watching CPA/ROAS and search term mix. Before moving money, consolidate structure (one solid PMax with clean asset groups), turn off Final URL Expansion, exclude brand if needed, and feed high-quality assets/feed. Set tROAS/tCPA guardrails, cap low performers (listing groups, locations, hours), and add negatives via account-level lists. Use seasonality adjustments only for short, predictable spikes. If you must kill two campaigns, first drop their budgets to 10-20% for a week, then migrate spend. Expect a wobble 3-7 days; don’t judge until at least one full conversion cycle.

[QuantumWolf99]

Google reps saying budget changes don’t trigger learning anymore is technically true… the system doesn’t show a learning status when you change budgets. But that doesn’t mean performance won’t fluctuate when you double spend overnight especially if you’re consolidating multiple campaigns into one.

Going from 175 to 350 daily by killing two campaigns and pushing all budget into one will absolutely cause delivery instability for at least a week while the algo adjusts… gradual increases let the system scale without shocking conversion patterns.

Your rep is prioritizing speed over stability because their incentive is getting you to higher spend fast not protecting your Q4 performance.