Bidding Strategies

Enhanced CPC vs Target CPA: From Bid Multiplier to Cost Target

In short: Enhanced CPC adjusted your manual bid by predicted conversion likelihood and has been retired on Search and Display. Target CPA is not a strategy of its own any more, it is the optional target field inside Maximize Conversions. Moving from one to the other means giving up bid ownership in exchange for a cost per conversion constraint.

By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026

Enhanced CPC

Legacy Google setting that raised or lowered manual bids at auction time based on conversion likelihood, now retired for Search and Display.

eCPC sat between manual and fully automated bidding, nudging your max CPC on each auction. Google wound it down and moved Search and Display campaigns onto Manual CPC, so campaigns still labeled eCPC in older exports no longer receive the adjustment. If a strategy document still references it, the current equivalent is Maximize Conversions with or without a target CPA, not a manual bid with a multiplier.

Full definition

Target CPA

Bids automatically toward a chosen average cost per conversion, letting individual conversions land above or below that number.

It now lives as a target field inside Maximize Conversions rather than a standalone strategy. Google bids up on auctions it expects to convert near your target and backs off elsewhere, so a target far below recent actual CPA simply throttles volume. Set it close to what the account already achieves, then move it in increments and let the learning period settle before judging the outcome.

Full definition

Side by side.

The differences that actually change what happens in your account.

 Enhanced CPCTarget CPA
Status todayRetired for Search and Display.Live, as a field inside Maximize Conversions.
What you setA max CPC that Google scaled at auction time.An average cost per conversion you want the campaign to hold.
Unit of controlPrice of a click.Price of a conversion.
Volume effect of tighteningLower bids simply lost auctions.A lower target makes the bidder decline more auctions, so traffic falls first.
DependencyYour bid quality plus conversion tracking.Conversion tracking and enough volume for the target to mean something.
MigrationMove to Maximize Conversions, then add the target.Already the destination.

What actually separates them.

01

eCPC constrained an input, the click price; a target CPA constrains an output, the cost per conversion, and lets click price float to reach it.

02

Target CPA cannot be applied without adopting Maximize Conversions, so there is no way to keep manual bids and gain a cost per conversion target.

03

eCPC never spent beyond what your base bids supported, while a Maximize Conversions campaign with a target CPA will spend the budget if it can find qualifying auctions.

04

Because a target CPA is an average, individual conversions land above and below it by design, which is a different mental model from a hard bid ceiling.

05

A target set well below the CPA the account already achieves throttles delivery, an outcome that eCPC's multiplier had no equivalent of.

Which one should you use?

Use Enhanced CPC when

  • Reading pre-migration data and needing to know how bids were formed.
  • Auditing documentation that still recommends eCPC.
  • Reconciling third-party reporting that carries the old label.
  • No live configuration decision remains here.

Use Target CPA when

  • Conversions arrive steadily and the tracked action matters to the business.
  • You have an achieved cost per conversion from history to anchor the target to.
  • Cost discipline is required and hand editing bids is not delivering it.
  • Traffic varies enough by device, hour, and geography that a single bid cannot be correct everywhere.

Common questions.

What target CPA should replace my old eCPC bids?

Use the cost per conversion the campaign actually achieved on eCPC over a recent representative window, not a number from a plan. Bear in mind that eCPC campaigns often underspent their budgets, so once the campaign starts spending fully the achievable CPA may sit somewhat higher. Set the target near observed performance and adjust in increments.

Is Target CPA a separate bid strategy I select?

No. You select Maximize Conversions and then optionally enter a target CPA. The behavior matches what the old standalone strategy did, but the setup path changed, which is why older account plans and vendor documentation that treat it as its own strategy send people looking for a menu item that is not there.

Can I get eCPC style behavior with a bid cap instead?

Not on a standard campaign strategy. Bid limits exist on portfolio strategies, which cap what the bidder may pay while still setting the price itself. That is a ceiling rather than a multiplier on your number, and tight limits work against conversion bidding since the auctions predicted to convert are often the expensive ones.

Or stop choosing between them.

AdFlint picks the setting, writes the ads, and keeps optimizing inside the Google and Meta accounts you already own.

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