Max CPA vs Target CPA

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vhoang

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Mar 11, 2010, 7:22:25 PM3/11/10

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Hi,

Can anyone help with the following questions?

1. When setting "targetCpa" using AdGroupService v2009, why does the
new value show up in the AdWords interface as "Max CPA"?
2. When retrieving "AdGroupTargetCpa" using ReportService v13, is it
really Target CPA? Or Max CPA?
3. Is it possible to set targetCpa and maxCpa separately using v2009?

Thanks.

AdWords API Advisor

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Mar 12, 2010, 7:46:04 PM3/12/10

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Hi,

The documentation on this field isn't very clear at the moment, but
I'll try to explain the behavior. In general CPA bidding is not an
exact science, and the goal of the system is to get CPA values to
match the customer's desired values. Because it isn't possible to set
a firm maximum CPA we instead refer to this as setting a "target" max
CPA. Because you are still setting a desired maximum value it shows
up in the UI as "Max CPA". More information on this behavior is
available here:

https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60788
https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113232

To answer your specific questions:

1. Because it is a target maximum CPA. We'll work on clarifying the
documentation on this.
2. This is the same value, the target maximum CPA.
3. It is not possible to set a target "average" CPA. Only target
maximum CPA values are possible.