What is Maximize conversion value bidding in Google Ads?

With no target, both spend the budget. Maximize conversions tries for the most conversions it buys, “regardless of the value of the conversions.” Maximize conversion value tries for the most conversion value, and may bid higher in an auction that would bring more of it.

Google’s table for choosing between them gives each one line: Maximize conversions where all conversions are treated equally, and Maximize conversion value where conversions have different values for your business. If every conversion reports the same value, value is the count times that figure, and the two strategies chase the same thing.

In your reports the count is the Conversions column and the sum is Conv. value, which adds up the values of those same conversions. The All conversions vs Conversions guide covers which actions reach either column.

Google’s page is plain about the budget. If you don’t set a target ROAS, Maximize conversion value tries to fully spend your average daily budget, so a campaign that has been spending much less than its budget “could significantly increase your spend” when you switch.

Nothing you set says what return is enough, so the return is whatever that budget buys. Google says so of both Maximize strategies: they optimize to spend your full budget without a target, so “your actual CPA or ROAS will fluctuate as you adjust your budget.”

• A day can run to twice the budget. The budget is an average. Google may spend up to two times it on a day, and never more than 30.4 times it in a month. The budget pacing guide covers both limits.
• It reads as limited by budget, by design. Google’s Maximize conversions page says the two Maximize strategies are designed to spend the full daily budget, and are “limited by budget” by design. It recommends against reading the Lost IS (budget) column on a Maximize conversions campaign, since the column doesn’t account for a strategy built to spend its budget, and names the budget simulator instead. The Limited by budget guide covers the status.
• The budget simulator shows what another budget would buy. On the Campaigns page, the simulator icon is in the Budget column, and its estimates rest on the last 7 days. Google’s page on the simulators adds a limit: one may have no estimate for a campaign that reached or nearly reached its budget in those 7 days, or that shares its budget.

Set a target ROAS and the same strategy behaves like Target ROAS, which is what Google Ads has labeled it since June 2026. For the strategy with no target, Google says it plans no change to the name or the behavior.

Google’s value-based bidding page draws the line in two sentences. Use Maximize conversion value to get as much value as you can within your daily budget “without any constraints.” Use Target ROAS for the same “at a specific efficiency (ROAS) constraint.”

Add a target when all three of these hold:

• You have a return you need. Google’s wording is “If you have a specific ROI goal, use the Target ROAS bid strategy.” The Target ROAS guide works out the least a campaign has to return from your margin.
• The campaign has the conversions. Google asks for at least 15 in the past 30 days before Target ROAS on Search and Shopping, and recommends judging one over a period with at least 50.
• The budget has room. Google’s best practices say that under a ROAS target the budget should be unconstrained, and its page on 2026’s bidding change recommends “providing a budget buffer while setting a target that reflects your desired efficiency.”

Leave it off when any of these is true:

• The budget is fixed and the return may move. The same page says that if your budget is “strictly inflexible and you’re comfortable with ROI fluctuations when budgets are adjusted,” a Maximize strategy fits.
• The campaign converts too rarely to set one by. The Smart Bidding guide covers what to do with a campaign that has too few conversions.
• Its values are new. If you recently started reporting conversion value, or changed how it’s reported, Google’s Target ROAS page recommends waiting 1 to 2 conversion cycles before you adopt a target on a Search campaign.

Start the target at or below what the campaign has returned. Google says a ROAS target “should be at or below” your historical ROAS, with the last 30 days as the benchmark, and that one set too high may limit the traffic your ads get.

Don’t start it far below, either. Since August 17, 2026, Google delivers a campaign that is limited by its budget toward the target you typed, where before it could do better than its target. A campaign on Maximize conversion value already spends its budget, so a target well under what it returns now can bring its return down toward the target. The Target ROAS guide has the steps, and how a campaign’s weeks show a target set wrong.

• Values that are real. Google says you need conversion tracking with transaction-specific values before you can use it: each sale sends what it was worth. Its value-based bidding page asks for two or more different values, and its best practices for none of them to be zero. The value-based bidding guide covers setting them.
• Values reported for a while first. Google’s pages give three figures. Its Maximize conversion value page says 1 to 2 conversion cycles after you start or change them. Its value-based bidding page says 3 weeks or 1 to 2 conversion cycles, whichever is longer. Its best practices and its page on measuring Smart Bidding say 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles. A conversion cycle is the time a click takes to become a conversion.
• Enough conversions. The strategy’s own page gives a count for Demand Gen alone: 50 conversions with a value in the past 35 days, 10 of them in the past 7, or 100 across all your Demand Gen campaigns. For Search and Shopping it gives none, and Google’s page on Shopping bidding says only that the strategy requires conversions. Google’s value-based bidding practices say to aim for at least 15 a month at the account level. The Demand Gen guide covers that campaign’s bidding.
• A budget you mean to spend. It will try to spend all of it. For Demand Gen, Google suggests a budget that can buy 10 conversions a day.
• Time. Google says a bid strategy typically takes 1 to 2 conversion cycles to calibrate after a change, and suggests judging one over at least 2 full conversion cycles, or better a month or at least 50 conversions. The learning period guide covers what resets it, and the guide on how long Google Ads takes to work covers each wait.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns and select the campaign.
2. 02Select Settings, open Bidding, then select Change bid strategy.
3. 03Select Maximize conversion value from the drop-down menu. Google says that from June 2026 Target ROAS shows there as an option of its own.
4. 04Select Save, or Save as experiment to run the new strategy beside the campaign as it is before you commit to it.

In a new Search campaign, the Bidding section asks what to bid for: select Conversion value. Google names a third way in, the Bid strategies page, which is where a portfolio strategy for several campaigns is made.

Before you switch, Google’s page asks you to check two things: the average daily budget, since the strategy will try to spend it, and whether you have a return to hit, in which case it points you to Target ROAS.

A Performance Max campaign bids the same two ways. Google says it helps maximize conversions or conversion value, and that you can “assign an optional ROAS or CPA target.” So the choice above is the choice here: a count or a sum, and a target or none.

• A store with a product feed. Google’s tips say to set values for your conversions, then use Maximize conversion value to get the most total value within your daily budget. For better results, they add, set a ROAS target that brings you the most profit.
• Leads. Google’s lead generation practices say to bid on value where your objective is lead value, and with Maximize conversions where it’s lead volume.
• Targets. Google says to avoid overly restrictive Target CPA or Target ROAS settings on a Performance Max campaign, “as these can limit campaign reach.”
• No portfolio. Portfolio bid strategies aren’t available for Performance Max, so each campaign carries its own strategy and its own target.

Google’s pages don’t agree on the name. Its Maximize conversion value page says the strategy is “only available for Search, Shopping, and Demand Gen campaigns,” and its Performance Max tips tell you to use Maximize conversion value bidding. Either way the campaign bids for the most conversion value within its daily budget.

Google says a campaign on automated bidding typically needs 1 to 2 weeks to optimize, and sometimes up to 6. The Performance Max guide covers that wait, and what you control in the campaign besides its bidding.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns and set the date range to the last 30 days. Select the columns icon, then Modify columns. Add Bid strategy type from Attributes, and Conv. value, Conv. value / cost and Value / conv. Select Apply.
2. 02For each campaign that reads Maximize conversion value, multiply its daily budget by 30 and divide its Cost by that. Near 100% is the strategy doing what Google’s page says it does.
3. 03Read Conv. value / cost, the return that budget bought, and Value / conv., what a conversion was worth on average.
4. 04Check the values behind them. Select the segment icon, then Conversions › Conversion action. Each action the campaign counted gets a row, and Cost reads “--” under this segment. A sale at 1.00, or every action at one figure, means the bidding has nothing real to read. The value-based bidding guide works that table. Then select the segment icon and None.
5. 05Set the date range to the last 13 whole weeks. Select the segment icon, then Time › Week. Read each week’s Cost beside seven days of budget, and its Conv. value / cost.
6. 06Hold the last 30 days’ Conversions to Google’s two lines: 15 before a Target ROAS on Search and Shopping, and 50 to judge one by.

The spend is the steady column and the return is the one that moves. That is the strategy with no target: the budget is met every week, and the return is what that week had to offer. With about 14 purchases a week, one large order moves a week’s return, so read the 13 together before you call any week a trend.

Then decide what the return is to you. If 439% in the weakest week is more than you need, the campaign can stay as it is, and the question is whether to give it more budget. If you need the 510% it averages, a target says so, and Google may then spend less than the budget.

Every day Goldbeater reads each enabled campaign’s bid strategy and target, its last 30 days, its last 13 whole weeks and 4 weeks of its change history. It raises a campaign on its own Maximize conversion value strategy with no target that spent $20 or more on at least 14 of the last 30 days and converted 50 times or more, at a return of 0.1 or more. The finding is medium where the campaign carries a thousandth or more of the account’s spend, and low under that.

The 50 is the count Google recommends judging a Target ROAS over, which is more than the 15 it asks for before you start one. A campaign whose bid strategy or target changed in the last 4 weeks waits, since part of its month was bought under the earlier bidding. One in a portfolio is left alone, since the target is the portfolio’s. On Maximize conversions the line is 30 conversions, and what Goldbeater offers is a target CPA.

That is Lighting — Phrase: the finding’s figures are the first table’s sums, and its weeks are the second table’s. Goldbeater offers a target ROAS at the 5.10 the campaign returned, which is 510% in Google Ads, and you can set it anywhere from 2.55 to 10.20. It doesn’t recommend the change. A target leaves out the dearer conversions the budget was buying, and whether those are worth having is your call. The offer’s note says what Google says of either side of 5.10: a ROAS target belongs at or below what the campaign has returned, and one set well under it can bring the return down.

Three more Cedar & Pine campaigns bid this way with no target. Performance Max — All products made 45.9 conversions in its 30 days, Brand — Exact 25.5 and Rugs — Broad 3.8. Each is under the 50, so Goldbeater offers them nothing.

Other checks read a campaign on this strategy:

• A placeholder value. Goldbeater raises a sale or lead that a campaign bidding on conversion value counts, where 5 or more conversions in 30 days carried 1 or less each. The value-based bidding guide shows that finding, and the next.
• A step valued like the sale. It raises an add to cart, a begun checkout, a lead or a sign-up that bidding counts, valued at or above its share of a sale, and drafts the step’s value at half that share.
• A budget that binds. Goldbeater raises a campaign that spent on at least 14 of the last 30 days, loses 20% or more of its searches to its budget and more than to rank, and spends 95% of the day’s budget on half its days or more. With no target, where it converts and returns at least a third of what your typical campaign does, Goldbeater offers a budget 20% higher, which you can take up to double, and doesn’t recommend it. The finding rests on the share Google reports lost to budget, the column its page says not to lean on for these strategies, together with the days the budget was spent. The Limited by budget guide shows the check’s finding.
• A bid limit. Google’s value-based bidding practices say to avoid extra constraints like CPC limits. Goldbeater raises a campaign that spent $20 or more whose strategy Google reports limited by its bid limit over the last 30 days, medium from $200. Where the limit is a portfolio’s on Maximize conversion value, the finding names the portfolio, gives that advice of Google’s and says to raise or remove the limit. The Smart Bidding guide covers bid limits.
• Once it has a target. A target set on too few conversions, one no week reached and one every week beat each have a finding. The Target ROAS guide lists them, and the Target CPA guide covers a target on Maximize conversions.

The audit checklist has every bidding line with where to find it in Google Ads.

What is Maximize conversion value in Google Ads?

A Smart Bidding strategy that sets a bid in every auction to get the most conversion value your budget buys. It reads the values your conversions report, and may bid higher where it expects a conversion worth more. With no target ROAS it tries to spend your whole average daily budget.

Maximize conversions vs Maximize conversion value: which should I use?

Maximize conversion value where your conversions are worth different amounts and each one reports its value, since it bids more for the more valuable one. Maximize conversions where every conversion is worth about the same to you. If every conversion reports the same value, the two chase the same thing.

Is Maximize conversion value the same as Target ROAS?

It is one strategy with or without a target. With no target ROAS, Maximize conversion value spends the budget on the most value it buys. With a target set, Google says it behaves like Target ROAS, and since June 2026 Google Ads labels it Target ROAS.

Does Maximize conversion value spend my whole budget?

With no target ROAS, Google says it tries to fully spend your average daily budget, and that a campaign spending much less than its budget could significantly increase its spend after the switch. A day can run to two times the average daily budget, and a month to no more than 30.4 times it.

How many conversions does Maximize conversion value need?

Google’s page gives a count for Demand Gen alone: 50 conversions with a value in the past 35 days, 10 of them in the past 7, or 100 across all your Demand Gen campaigns. For Search and Shopping it gives none. Google’s value-based bidding practices say to aim for at least 15 a month, and Target ROAS on Search and Shopping asks for 15 in the past 30 days.

When should I add a target ROAS to Maximize conversion value?

When you have a return you need, the campaign has the conversions (Google asks for 15 in 30 days on Search and Shopping, and judges a Target ROAS over 50), and the budget has room above what the target will spend. Start at or below what the campaign has returned. Leave it off where the budget is fixed and a moving return is acceptable.

What bidding strategy does Performance Max use?

Smart Bidding toward the conversion goals you choose: it maximizes conversions or conversion value, and Google says you can assign an optional CPA or ROAS target. A portfolio bid strategy isn’t available for Performance Max, so each campaign carries its own.