Google tests “Journey Aware Bidding” to optimize Search campaigns

Google is preparing a new Search bidding model called Journey Aware Bidding, designed to factor in the entire customer journey — not just the final biddable conversion — to improve prediction accuracy and campaign performance.

How it works:

• Journey Aware Bidding learns from your primary conversion goal plus additional, non-biddable journey stages.
• Advertisers who fully track and properly categorize each step of their purchase funnel stand to benefit the most.
• Google recommends mapping the entire journey — from lead submission to final purchase — and labeling all touchpoints as conversions within standard goals.

Why we care. Performance advertisers have long struggled with fragmented signals across the funnel. Journey Aware Bidding brings more of their conversion funnel into Google’s prediction models, potentially improving efficiency for long, multi-step journeys like lead gen.

Instead of optimizing on a single end-stage signal, Google can learn from every meaningful touchpoint, leading to smarter bids and better alignment with real business outcomes. This update rewards advertisers with strong tracking and could deliver a meaningful performance lift once fully launched.

What advertisers need to do:

• Choose a single KPI-aligned stage (e.g., purchase, qualified lead) as the optimization target.
• Mark other journey stages as primary conversions, but exclude them from campaign-level or account-default bidding optimization.
• Ensure clean tracking and clear categorization of every step.

Pilot status. A closed pilot is due to launch this year for a small group of advertisers, with broader availability expected afterward as Google refines the model.

The bottom line. Journey Aware Bidding could represent a major shift in Search optimization: Google wants its bidding systems to understand not just what converts — but how users get there.

First seen. The details of this new bidding model was shared by Senior Consultant Georgi Zayakov on LinkedIn, amongst other products that were featured at Think Week 2025.