The pattern
Smart Bidding, Performance Max and automated recommendations all learn from conversion volume. Below a steady flow, they are extrapolating from noise — and they do it confidently.
What that looks like
- Spend swinging wildly week to week.
- A campaign that stops spending entirely after a target change.
- Budget flowing to whatever converted by chance last week.
What to do instead
Manual or maximise-conversions bidding, a tight keyword set, and a human reading search terms. It is more work and it produces a readable account, which is what you need while volume builds.