Google Ads promotion mode: temporary ROAS and budget for sales

By Piyush Sachdeva · Performance marketer. Founder of Performance Marketing News and Social Masla. · Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the linked official sources.

Published Oct 28, 2026Announced Jun 15, 2026Last verified Oct 27, 2026

Google Ads promotion mode lets you tell Smart Bidding, in advance, that you will accept a lower return and spend more for a few days. You schedule a temporary increase in your ROAS tolerance and extra daily budget for a sale, a festive campaign or a launch. It is a beta for Search and Performance Max campaigns, announced on 15 June 2026, and Google raised it again on 21 October as one of its tools for the holiday season.

Diagram of Google Ads promotion mode: usual target and budget before a sale, a higher ROAS tolerance plus extra daily budget during the scheduled sale dates, then back to normal. Google's example: 200% target ROAS with 10% tolerance gives an effective 180%. — Promotion mode as a scheduled window around a sale, with Google's ROAS tolerance example.

Key facts
Platform	Google Ads
Feature	Promotion mode
Announced	Jun 15, 2026
Status	Beta
Where available	Beta for Search and Performance Max campaigns since Google’s 15 June 2026 announcement. Google says advertisers interested in the beta should contact their account team. It names no countries and has no public help page for the feature yet.
Who is affected	Advertisers bidding to a target ROAS on Search or Performance Max who run sales, festive campaigns, flash sales or product launches.
Action needed	Optional. If you have a sale coming, ask your Google account team for promotion mode access now, and decide the dates, the ROAS you will accept and the extra daily budget before the sale starts.
Sources	Google Ads (Accelerate with Google): Bidding and Budgeting Updates to Scale Your Growth · Google Ads & Commerce blog: New bidding and budgeting tools can transform your upcoming holiday ad strategy · Google Ads Help: Set up Smart Bidding Exploration · Google Ads Help: About campaign total budgets · Google Ads Help: Changes to target based bid strategies · Google Ads (Accelerate with Google): Demand-led budget pacing

What changed

Until now, a Search or Performance Max campaign bidding to a target ROAS (return on ad spend) behaved the same during a sale as on any other day, unless you edited the target and budget yourself and remembered to change them back. Google’s seasonality adjustments help Smart Bidding expect a jump in conversion rate, but they leave your target where it is.

Promotion mode adds a scheduled override. Google’s announcement says it “lets you schedule temporary changes to your ROAS tolerance and add extra daily budget during peaking periods”, for “seasonal events, flash sales, product launches, and more”.

ROAS tolerance comes from Smart Bidding Exploration. It is how far below your target ROAS Google may bid in order to reach traffic you are not winning today. Google’s help page gives the arithmetic: a 200% target ROAS with a 10% tolerance gives an effective average target of 180%. Promotion mode raises that tolerance for the dates you choose, and adds budget on top.

The details Google has published:

Campaigns: Search and Performance Max.
Budgets: works with daily budgets. The ROAS tolerance adjustment can also be combined with campaign total budgets, a fixed amount spent over a campaign’s run that Google never exceeds, with a three-day minimum.
Access: a beta. Google’s instruction is to “reach out to your account team” if you are interested.

The same announcement had two other changes that matter for a sale:

Smart Bidding Exploration expanded to all Performance Max campaigns without a product feed, with a beta for Shopping. Google says campaigns using it see on average 18% more unique search query categories with conversions and 19% more conversions, from its internal data for March to April 2025.
Target-based bidding changed on 17 August 2026. Target CPA and target ROAS campaigns that are limited by budget now bid more consistently toward the target, even when you raise the budget. Google says it will not adjust your targets or budgets for you.

Separately, demand-led budget pacing is now available in all Search campaigns. It spends more on high-demand days and less on slow ones, without going over your daily and monthly limits. Google’s 21 October holiday blog post introduces an Ads Decoded podcast episode on both tools.

Why it matters

The 17 August change is the reason promotion mode matters now. Google says budget-limited campaigns that beat their targets are the ones most affected, and that bidding now stays closer to the target even when you change the budget. So raising the budget for a sale may not raise spend on its own if the target stays strict. Promotion mode is Google’s supported way to say “accept a lower return for these few days”, then go back to normal on its own.

For Indian advertisers, the festive and year-end sale weeks are the obvious use: a Diwali sale, a Black Friday or end-of-season sale, a launch week. These are the days when conversion rates spike and a strict ROAS target leaves demand on the table.

Our view: treat promotion mode as a planned decision, not a panic button. Decide before the sale what return you will accept and how much extra you will spend, and write it down. A lower ROAS during a sale is fine if it brings in customers you would not otherwise get. Check that afterwards against new versus returning customers in your own sales data, not only Google’s reported ROAS. If you don’t have a Google account team, you probably won’t get the beta in time for this season. The fallback is the old way: a seasonality adjustment plus manual target and budget changes on a calendar reminder.

What to do

If you have an account team, ask now for promotion mode on the Search or Performance Max campaigns you will push during your sale, before the dates arrive.
For each sale, set three numbers in advance: start and end dates, the lowest ROAS you will accept, and the extra daily budget.
Check whether your target ROAS campaigns show “limited by budget” in Google Ads. Since 17 August, more budget alone may not raise spend; you may need to lower the target for the sale.
For a short sale with a fixed spend, use a campaign total budget on a new campaign, so Google paces the full amount across the dates.
After the sale, compare new-customer orders and revenue in your own data with Google’s reported ROAS for the same dates, before you repeat it at the next sale.

Still unknown

Google has not published a help page for promotion mode. It gives no allowed range for ROAS tolerance in promotion mode, no minimum or maximum window length, no limit on extra budget, and no list of eligible bid strategies beyond its link to ROAS tolerance. It names no countries and no date for wider availability. Smart Bidding Exploration’s results are Google’s internal data from March to April 2025.

Frequently asked questions

What is promotion mode in Google Ads?

A beta feature for Search and Performance Max campaigns that lets you schedule temporary changes to your ROAS tolerance and add extra daily budget during a peak period, such as a sale, a seasonal event or a product launch. Google announced it on 15 June 2026.

How do I get promotion mode in Google Ads?

Google says advertisers interested in the promotion mode beta should reach out to their account team. It has not published a help page or a date for wider availability.

What is ROAS tolerance in Google Ads?

A setting from Smart Bidding Exploration that lets Smart Bidding accept a lower effective target ROAS to reach new traffic. Google’s example: a 200% target ROAS with a 10% tolerance gives an effective average target of 180%.

Can promotion mode be used with campaign total budgets?

Yes. Google says promotion mode works with daily budgets, and its ROAS tolerance adjustment can also be combined with campaign total budgets, which spend a fixed amount over a campaign’s run without exceeding it.

Official sources

Related coverage

Update history

Oct 28, 2026 — First coverage of Google’s 15 June 2026 promotion mode announcement, published after Google raised it again for the holiday season on 21 October; sources checked on 27 October.

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