If one Google Ads campaign targets the US and Canada alongside Europe and Australia, every market shares one budget and one bid strategy. Our read from running accounts is that delivery drifts toward the countries where clicks are cheaper, and the expensive market you care about most gets squeezed. Google doesn't document that drift, but its docs explain why you can't correct it from inside the campaign. So when click costs differ sharply, we split countries by region.
What one campaign can and can't do across countries
Google says Smart Bidding sets bids in every auction using signals that include a person's physical location, down to the city, and their location intent. So a single campaign already bids differently in Sydney and in Chicago. What it can't do is take instructions from you about which country matters more:
- No location bid adjustments. Google's bid adjustment table lists location adjustments as unsupported for Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value. Google says a manual bid adjustment on a Smart Bidding strategy won't be supported, so a +30% on the US won't help.
- One budget. Every country draws from the same daily budget, so a dollar spent in one market is a dollar the other can't use.
- One target. A Target CPA or Target ROAS is set for the campaign, not per country, even when a customer in one market is worth far more than in another.
Why the cheaper market wins
On the mentoring call we describe in our campaign structure guide, a bootstrapped SaaS company had campaigns spanning the US, Western Europe and Australia. The advice was blunt: targeting a lot of countries in a single campaign is the worst thing you can do, because Google Ads "will inherently move to bringing people from the countries which have lower CPCs." That's our read from accounts, not a Google rule.
Location signals alone don't fix it. Google's conversion value rules page notes that Smart Bidding already uses geography, and that if users in a segment convert better "and this is reflected in your reporting," Smart Bidding accounts for it. That condition is the catch. If a signup in Melbourne counts the same as a signup in Boston, the cheaper one looks like the better deal. On that call, the company's Performance Max campaigns across the US, the UK and Australia were bringing in plenty of signups and almost no activations. A conversion count can't tell bidding which market's signups become customers.
How we split it
- Group markets by click cost and value. On that call the split was North America, Europe and APAC, each its own campaign with its own budget and target.
- Let each region optimize for what works there. In SaaS accounts we've seen the US respond well to self-serve signups, while Europe can be better for booked demos.
- Don't split below what bidding can learn from. A region with a handful of conversions a month may be better grouped with a similar-cost neighbor. We cover that trade-off in the structure guide.
If you can't split yet and the campaign bids on value, Google's conversion value rules let you raise the value of conversions from a location, and Smart Bidding uses the adjusted values in real time for Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value. That changes what a conversion is worth to bidding. The markets still share one budget.
Check before you rebuild
Open the campaign's Locations report and switch to the Matched locations view, which Google says shows performance by where your ads appeared. Compare cost per conversion by country against what those conversions became in your CRM. If a cheap country takes most of the spend and little of the revenue, the split is overdue. Check the location option too, as we explain in Presence or interest: the location default.
The takeaways
- Countries in one campaign share one budget and one bid target.
- Smart Bidding uses location signals, but location bid adjustments aren't supported on Smart Bidding strategies.
- Bidding only favors a market if its extra value shows up in your conversion data. A signup is a signup unless you say otherwise.
- Split high-CPC and low-CPC markets by region, keep each campaign big enough to learn, and judge countries on revenue, not cost per conversion.
Common questions
Should I target several countries in one Google Ads campaign?
When the countries have very different click costs or customer value, we split them into separate campaigns, usually by region such as North America, Europe and APAC. In one campaign they share a single budget and a single bid strategy target, and our read from running accounts is that delivery drifts toward the cheaper markets. That drift is our observation, not documented Google behavior.
Do location bid adjustments work with Smart Bidding?
No. Google's bid adjustment documentation lists location bid adjustments as not supported for Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value, and says a manual bid adjustment on a Smart Bidding strategy won't be supported. Those strategies set bids themselves using signals that include location.
Does Smart Bidding consider where someone is searching from?
Yes. Google says Smart Bidding can optimize bids based on a person's physical location, down to the city, even if your location targeting is broader, and on their location intent. It optimizes toward the conversions or conversion value you report, so it can only favor a market for being more valuable if that difference shows up in your conversion data.
Can I make conversions from one country worth more to Smart Bidding?
If the campaign bids on value, yes. Google's conversion value rules let you adjust conversion values by geographic location, device or audience, and Smart Bidding uses them in real time for Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value. They apply to Search, Shopping, Display, Travel and Performance Max campaigns. The markets still share one budget.
How do I see which countries my Google Ads budget is going to?
Open the campaign's Locations report and use the Matched locations view. Google says it shows performance based on where your ads appeared, which can be people's physical locations or locations of interest, while the Targeted locations view shows performance by the locations you targeted.