Google rolls out maximize conversion value smart bidding strategy

The newest smart bidding strategy in Google Ads’ lineup, maximize conversion value, is now available in all Search campaigns.

First announced at Google Marketing Live (GML) in May, maximize conversion value aims to optimize for the greatest conversion value within budget.

As with maximize conversions, it will try to spend your budget, so set it accordingly. However, I’ve noticed that when a campaign that is spending well below its daily budget, on average, Google will show an option to lower your daily budget based on your actual average daily spend.

Google says maximize conversion value uses historical campaign data and the searcher’s contextual signals to determine the “optimal CPC bid” at auction time.

To use or test out maximize conversion value, you’ll need to be using transaction-specific values or have set conversion values for the conversion types you’re optimizing for from the Conversion page under Tools.

Conversion value rules still to come. Google also teased conversion value rules at GML to give advertisers more flexibility in assigning value to conversion actions. When it becomes available, rules can be set based on characteristics such as location, device and audience.

Why we should care. As we noted in May, manual bidding is still available in Google, but it’s largely de-emphasized and missing some capabilities. With the proliferation of smart bidding strategies, it’s important to understand how each is designed to work and which goals, settings and metrics best align with each. For example, Google notes that if you need to hit return on ad spend goals, you may want to set a target ROAS with the strategy, while understanding how that target may impact optimization.