About device targets in Google Ads accounts

Google Ads campaigns and ad groups are set to display ads on all devices, including desktop computers, tablets, and mobile devices. You can target each device separately by specifying a bid adjustment at the campaign or ad group level.

The separate targeting settings also enable you to choose whether ads should appear on certain devices. For example, if you set the desktop bid adjustment to -100%, you are indicating that you don’t want ads to appear on that device.

Device bid adjustments can be managed by a bid strategy

If you apply a Search Ads 360 bid strategy to a campaign or ad group, the bid strategy can also set or recommend bid adjustments for mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.

You can override the bid strategy’s management by specifying the bid adjustment in a campaign or ad group.

Inheritance and device bid adjustments

Inheritance applies to device bid adjustments too. That is, an ad groups inherits each device bid adjustment from a campaign unless the ad group specifies its own bid adjustments. For example, an ad group can inherit a 20% tablet bid adjustment from a campaign, but specify separate adjustments for desktop and mobile.

Bid adjustment range

Each device bid adjustment can range from -90% to +900%.

Specify -100% if you don't want ads to appear on the device. (-91% to -99% are excluded).

You can set bid adjustments in the Search Ads 360 user interface for a campaign or ad group or you can edit one device target for multiple campaigns or ad groups. For example, you can set the tablet bid adjustment for 12 campaigns to 20%.

You can also set bid adjustments using bulksheets.

Device bid adjustments are copied to new campaigns

If you copy a Google Ads campaign, the Google Ads device bid adjustments are copied to campaigns that support device bid adjustments. Note that a bid adjustment will be changed in the destination if the bid adjustment in the Google Ads campaign is beyond the range supported in the destination campaign. If the copy operation has to change a bid adjustment to match the destination's requirement, Search Ads 360 pauses the destination campaign so that you have a chance to review the new setting. 

For example:

A Yahoo! Gemini tablet bid adjustment can range from -20% to 300%. If you copy a Google Ads campaign with a 550% tablet bid adjustment specified for an ad group, the tablet bid adjustment in the destination ad group in Yahoo! Gemini will be set to 300% and Search Ads 360 will pause the campaign. In the destination campaign, you may want to verify the device targets before you activate the campaign.

Device bid adjustments aren't copied if the engine doesn't support it

Some engines don’t support separate bid adjustments for each device type at the campaign or ad group level. For example, Baidu doesn’t support desktop bid adjustments.

The following table lists the Google Ads campaign and ad group device bid adjustment type and the engines that support the device bid adjustment type.