In a move that reflects its growing commitment to mobile, Google has announced a significant change to how paid search marketers can manage device bidding. Until now, tablets and desktops were grouped together, making it nearly impossible to optimise effectively if performance between the two diverged.
That’s about to change.
This new feature, expected to roll out globally in Q3, will provide campaign-level control over bid adjustments across Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet—finally giving advertisers the flexibility to adapt strategy by device.
What’s Changing?
Here’s how the updated structure will work:
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Set a base bid
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Apply individual bid adjustments to any or all of the three device types:
– Desktop
– Mobile
– Tablet
This adjustment mechanism will be available at campaign level across Search and Google Shopping campaigns.
More Control, Smarter Targeting
Crucially, Google has confirmed that advertisers will now be able to completely opt out of a specific device by applying a –100% bid adjustment. Previously, the closest you could get was a –90% downweight, which still left room for exposure.
On the other end of the spectrum, the maximum upward bid adjustment has been expanded from +300% to +900%. This gives advertisers much more flexibility to amplify performance where returns justify the spend—though caution is advised, especially when scaling up aggressively.
Why It Matters
This update addresses a long-standing frustration in bid management: the inability to treat tablets independently. Marketers will now be able to isolate and optimise performance for all device types, reflecting actual performance data more accurately.
Campaigns that underperform on tablets can now be fully excluded. High-performing mobile campaigns can be prioritised with much greater confidence. And those that benefit from a strong desktop presence can be optimised more precisely.
In short, Google is handing advertisers the steering wheel, and this change will help fine-tune account performance with greater granularity than ever before.
