Microsoft Advertising Is Removing Max CPC From New Standalone Bidding Campaigns

Microsoft Advertising is phasing out a manual safeguard: from October 1, 2026, advertisers creating new campaigns on standalone Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value or Maximize Clicks bidding strategies won't be able to add a Max CPC limit.

What's changing

• New campaigns on those three standalone strategies lose the Max CPC option from October 1
• Existing campaigns created before the deadline keep their Max CPC settings — there's no forced migration
• Target Impression Share, eCPC and portfolio bidding strategies continue to support Max CPC
• The restriction also extends to Target CPA and Target ROAS campaigns, beyond what Microsoft first flagged in August
• A January 12 deadline applies to API users, tool providers and Google Import: after that, Max CPC won't be supported for new campaigns or for existing campaigns that don't already have it — and once removed after October 1, it can't be added back

Microsoft Advertising Product Liaison Navah Hopkins confirmed the details and is encouraging advertisers to run optimization experiments now, testing campaigns without Max CPC before the option disappears for new builds.

Why Microsoft says it's doing this

Microsoft's official August 2026 product update confirms the reasoning directly: "when advertisers set a Maximum CPC, which overrides advertisers' own CPA/ROAS targets, this provides conflicting instructions" to Microsoft's bidding system, and that advertisers "miss their overall desired outcomes, even when the cap is above average CPC." In other words, Microsoft's position isn't just that Max CPC is unnecessary alongside automated bidding — it's arguing the two actively work against each other, with the manual cap undermining the automated strategy's ability to hit the advertiser's own stated goal. The company wants budgets, target CPA, target ROAS, conversion value rules and seasonality adjustments to do the job Max CPC used to do.

This mirrors a path Google Ads has already walked. Google phased out standalone Max CPC alongside Target CPA and Target ROAS bidding on its own platform years ago, for a similar stated reason — a manual ceiling constraining an algorithm that's meant to be optimising freely toward a conversion or value goal. Microsoft's move brings its bidding philosophy closer in line with Google's on this specific point, even as the two platforms' automated bidding systems remain otherwise distinct.

What this means for you

If you use Max CPC as a safety net against unexpectedly expensive clicks, that safety net disappears for anything you build fresh after October 1. Worth testing removal on a live campaign now — via an experiment, not a blind switch — so you have your own data on how your account's automated bidding behaves before the option is gone for new campaigns. This is particularly relevant heading into the holiday season, when many accounts restructure or launch new campaigns regardless.

For agencies managing multiple accounts, the more time-sensitive risk is the API/tool provider deadline: after January 12, any account or process that creates campaigns programmatically — including Google Import — loses the ability to set Max CPC on new campaigns entirely, and once it's removed from an existing campaign after October 1, it cannot be re-added. Any automated campaign-build process, template, or Google Import migration workflow that currently sets a Max CPC value needs updating before that date, not after.

Sources

• Navah Hopkins on LinkedIn — updates to Max CPC for new campaigns
• Microsoft Advertising: AI Max for Search and other product news for August 2026 — official confirmation and stated reasoning