Starting October 1, Microsoft Advertising will no longer let you set a Max CPC on new campaigns using automated bidding strategies. Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, Maximize Clicks — all of them lose the manual CPC cap option for any campaign you create after that date.
Existing campaigns are untouched. If you built a campaign before October 1 with Max CPC attached, it stays. Go create a new campaign in Bing Search in October, and the field is gone. This was confirmed by both Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Land in late August 2026, sourced from a Microsoft Advertising announcement.
what actually changed and what didn't
Max CPC, when attached to automated strategies like tCPA or Maximize Conversions, is supposed to put a ceiling on what the algorithm bids per click. In practice, Microsoft says it creates friction: the cap can override what the system is trying to accomplish, cause spend pacing irregularities, and prevent the algorithm from reaching the goal you stated.
Microsoft's position is that advertisers using tCPA and tROAS tend to see better results when they remove the cap and communicate their objective through the target itself — not through a parallel hard limit.
What stays: portfolio bid strategies. Create a new campaign under a portfolio, and Max CPC is still available. Enhanced CPC and Target Impression Share are also unaffected. This isn't a full removal. It's a removal from one specific configuration: standalone automated bidding with a per-click ceiling bolted on.
the same playbook google used
Google started down this road years ago. Performance Max was built without Max CPC from day one. Smart Shopping campaigns quietly discouraged it. By the time Smart Bidding became the default path on Search, most accounts had drifted to targets anyway.
Microsoft's timing is not coincidental. AI Max for Search went global in August 2026, bringing search term matching beyond your keyword list, text customization, and Final URL expansion to all markets. You cannot use AI Max and manually cap each click at the same time. The platform won't let the automation do its job under those constraints.
Removing Max CPC from new campaigns is the same architectural decision: build the next generation of infrastructure without legacy manual controls baked in. Microsoft is about two years behind Google on the same trajectory.
what advertisers actually risk
The Max CPC cap was often a safety net, not a strategy. Many search accounts running tCPA or Maximize Conversions had a Max CPC set years ago and never changed it. The cap sat there as passive insurance against the algorithm doing something unpredictable with the budget.
Removing that option from new campaigns means your risk management has to move upstream. You need a tCPA target that reflects what you're willing to pay per conversion — not a CPC floor as a backstop. If your tCPA is wrong, the algorithm will spend accordingly. If your budget is loose relative to your target, you'll find out through performance, not through a per-click ceiling.
Accounts with stale Max CPC values set well above average CPC — effectively doing nothing — won't notice the difference. Accounts that were genuinely relying on the cap to limit spend on a misfiring campaign will feel it when they try to restructure in October.
before october 1: two things to do
First, audit which campaigns in your Microsoft Ads account have Max CPC attached to automated strategies. Pull a campaign report, filter for Smart Bidding strategies, and check the Max CPC column. If you have campaigns you're likely to duplicate or restructure before October, flag them now. You have five weeks.
Second, decide whether moving to a portfolio bid strategy preserves what you actually need. Portfolio bidding still supports Max CPC on new campaigns after October 1. If the cap is genuinely structural — tied to margin math or a ROAS floor — a portfolio is the path to keep it without compromising the automation.
The deadline is a prompt, not a crisis. But spinning up a new campaign in October with no CPC ceiling and an undefined tCPA target is an easy mistake to make mid-quarter. Get the targets right before the change takes effect.
If you want a fast read on how your current bidding setup holds up, the free audit at /audit will flag campaigns running without conversion targets or with unconfigured ROAS floors.
The control is going away. The objective still works the same — it just needs to be set correctly.
Sources: Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, August 2026
