Microsoft Advertising told advertisers by email on August 20 that Max CPC will no longer be available when creating new non-portfolio campaigns on three automated bidding strategies, effective October 1. Trade headlines read it as Microsoft retiring Max CPC outright. The notice is narrower than that, and it leaves unanswered the question every existing account actually has: what happens to the caps already running.
What Microsoft’s email says
The email, subject line “Updates to Max CPC for new campaigns”, went out August 20. Navah Hopkins, Microsoft Advertising Liaison, posted the same details on LinkedIn; freelance Google Ads consultant Joey Bidner shared the notice publicly. The email’s core line reads: “In order to simplify bidding and make it easier for advertisers to achieve success on the Microsoft Advertising platform, we will be removing the ability to add a Max CPC to new campaigns using stand alone Max Conversion, Max Conversion Value, and Max Click bidding strategies October 1, 2026.” A second line narrows it further: “From 1 October 2026, Max CPC will no longer be available when creating new non-portfolio campaigns.”
What changes for Max CPC on October 1?
Starting October 1, Microsoft Advertising removes the Max CPC field at campaign creation for new non-portfolio campaigns built on three standalone strategies: Max Conversion, Max Conversion Value, and Max Click. Portfolio bid strategies, Target Impression Share, and Enhanced CPC keep the field on both new and existing campaigns, and any campaign created before October 1 keeps whatever Max CPC it already has.
Retained vs. removed
| Bid strategy | New campaigns from October 1 |
|---|---|
| Standalone Max Conversion, Max Conversion Value, Max Click | No Max CPC field |
| Portfolio bid strategies | Max CPC available |
| Target Impression Share | Max CPC available |
| Enhanced CPC (eCPC) | Max CPC available |
| Any campaign created before October 1 | Keeps its current Max CPC |
Search Engine Land, reporting on the notice, confirmed there is “no immediate migration” for existing campaigns. Microsoft’s own line adds only that “further updates about the future of Max CPC will be provided later.”
Microsoft’s stated rationale
The rationale, per Hopkins’ account of the notice: Max CPC limits “can interfere with automated bidding by overriding an advertiser’s stated performance goals” and “can lead to spend pacing irregularities.” Advertisers running conversion-based bidding with Target CPA and Target ROAS goals, the notice said, “tend to have an easier time achieving their goals” than those relying on legacy controls such as Max CPC. Microsoft’s suggested alternatives for controlling performance: budgets, Target CPA and Target ROAS goals, conversion value rules, and seasonality adjustments.
Why the strategy count doesn’t match across coverage
Microsoft’s sentence names three strategies losing the field: standalone Max Conversion, Max Conversion Value, and Max Click. Search Engine Land, PPC Land, and Search Engine Roundtable report the same three. Search Engine Journal and RS Web Solutions report five, adding Target CPA and Target ROAS.
Microsoft retired standalone Target CPA and Target ROAS as selectable bid strategies for new campaigns on August 4, 2025, a change Search Engine Land covered when Microsoft folded them into the two Maximize strategies. Since then, Target CPA sits inside Maximize Conversions as an optional target value, and Target ROAS sits inside Maximize Conversion Value the same way; Hopkins said at the time there was “no functional change in the bidding strategies.” Portfolio bid strategies were not part of that consolidation and still list Target CPA and Target ROAS as selectable types. The five-name list uses labels Microsoft retired a year ago; the three-name list uses what replaced them, and the campaigns losing Max CPC on October 1 are the same either way.
A separate Google change, and what’s still open
Google made a separate change on August 17, to budget-limited campaigns on target-based bid strategies, covered in elsop’s report on Google’s change to budget-limited campaigns. Different platform, different change: Microsoft’s notice narrows a bid field at campaign creation on three standalone strategies.
Conversion-based bidding runs on the quality of the conversion signal reaching the platform, the subject of elsop’s guide to GBRAID and offline conversions. Microsoft’s notice points to Target CPA and Target ROAS goals among the alternatives it suggests.
What happens to the caps already running is still open. Until Microsoft says more, a new standalone Max Conversion, Max Conversion Value, or Max Click campaign built from October 1 will launch without a cap, and running those same strategies inside a portfolio is the route that still carries one.
