Maximize Conversion Value
01 Definition
Maximize Conversion Value meaning: A Google Ads Smart Bidding strategy that spends your full budget chasing the highest total conversion value, not the highest number of conversions.
Maximize Conversion Value is a Google Ads Smart Bidding strategy that sets bids to earn the greatest total conversion value your budget can buy. Value here means the monetary figure your conversion tracking reports, typically an order total.
The contrast with Maximize Conversions is the whole point. Maximize Conversions treats every conversion as equally desirable, so thirty low-value sales beat ten high-value ones. Maximize Conversion Value does the opposite: it will happily buy fewer, more expensive conversions if they add up to more revenue.
You can add an optional Target ROAS to it. Without a target, the strategy simply spends the budget for maximum value. With one, it aims for a specific ratio of value to spend, which generally means it will hold back spend rather than buy volume at a worse return.
The strategy is only as good as the values you send it. If every conversion is passed at the same fixed value, or at no value, it has nothing to optimise against and behaves much like Maximize Conversions with extra steps.
Why it matters
How Maximize Conversion Value fits the work
This is the strategy that matters when your customers are not worth the same amount. Ecommerce catalogues with a wide price range, lead generation where some enquiries are worth ten times others, and subscription businesses with multiple tiers all lose money under a strategy that counts conversions equally. Getting value data into the platform is what unlocks it.
In context
A retailer selling both accessories and full appliances switched from Maximize Conversions to Maximize Conversion Value. Total conversion count fell, because the strategy stopped chasing cheap accessory sales, while tracked revenue rose as budget moved toward the higher-value appliance searches.
Practical note
Pass real transaction values, not a placeholder. If you sell leads rather than products, assign each lead type an estimated value based on close rate and average deal size, and revisit those numbers as they change. Also note that this strategy is designed to spend the whole budget, so set the budget at a level you are content to spend in full. If returns matter more than volume, add a Target ROAS rather than relying on the budget cap to restrain it.