Maximize Conversion Value vs Target ROAS: Which One Your Account Is Ready For
Both strategies bid on what each sale is worth. The choice is whether to spend the full budget chasing revenue or hold a return floor, and it depends on how much you trust your numbers.
How the Two Strategies Differ
Maximize Conversion Value spends your full daily budget to bring back the most total conversion value. Target ROAS chases the same value but holds bids to the return you set.
Google's help page says Maximize conversion value with a target set "will behave like a Target ROAS strategy." Since June 2026, Google labels that combination simply "Target ROAS" and says the bidding behavior is unchanged. So the real decision is whether to give the algorithm a return floor, and when.
| Maximize Conversion Value | Target ROAS | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal, in Google's words | Most conversion value for the budget | Most conversion value at your target ROAS |
| Spend | Tries to spend the full average daily budget | Can spend under budget to hold the target |
| Return control | None: ROAS moves when the budget moves | Average conversion value per cost held near the target |
| Entry bar (Search, Shopping) | Conversion tracking with transaction-specific values | 15 conversions in the past 30 days, with values |
| Budget-limited campaigns since August 17, 2026 | No target, so nothing changed | Deliver closer to the target you entered, even when they used to beat it |
| Best fit | A fixed budget you want spent, and a campaign still learning which conversions are worth more | A return the business must hit, once values are stable |
When to Use Each Strategy
Maximize Conversion Value fits when
The budget is fixed and you want all of it spent. Google's own comparison table says the same: no specific ROI target, and conversions that carry different values.
The campaign is still learning what a high-value conversion looks like. We run it as a learning stage, not a destination.
Target ROAS fits when
The business has a return it must hit, set from margin or lifetime value rather than from last month's report.
Values have been reported long enough to be stable. A target set on values that still drift holds the campaign to the wrong number.
At $100K+ a month, the question that decides the account is whether each extra dollar still returns a profit. That is why our accounts end on Target ROAS, and why Maximize Conversion Value runs only while the algorithm learns.
Get a Second Opinion on Your Bidding
What Can Go Wrong With Each
Maximize Conversion Value: spend with no floor
With no target, nothing stops the strategy from buying low-return clicks to use the budget. Google warns that a campaign spending well under its budget today could spend significantly more after the switch. If the values are inflated, it buys more of the wrong customer at full budget.
Target ROAS: a target that starves or overpays
Set the target too high and Google limits traffic. Set it too low and you pay for revenue that doesn't cover its cost. Each target change also makes the bidder recalibrate, so frequent edits keep the campaign from settling.
Deriving the target from real economics, corrected for the revenue Google never sees, is covered in our Target ROAS setup guide. How Smart Bidding learns across campaign types is in our Smart Bidding guide.
When to Switch From Maximize Conversion Value to Target ROAS
Google's guidance is to bid on the conversion goal with Target CPA first, then report values across all relevant campaigns for 4 weeks or 1-2 conversion cycles, whichever is longer, before you set a Target ROAS.
We swap the first stage and aim to finish learning in about 4 weeks:
Weeks 1 and 2: Maximize Conversions
Weeks 3 and 4: Maximize Conversion Value
Then: set Target ROAS
Hold it
This is LGG's practice, not a Google rule. If your sales cycle runs longer than two weeks, the longer clock in Google's guidance wins. To see how many days your budget needs to reach the 15-conversion minimum, use the budget and learning period calculator.
Bid Only on Values That Can't Be Faked
Each strategy trusts whatever sits in the conversion value column. If a junk lead can carry value, Smart Bidding will pay to find more junk leads.
So we bid on events a bot or a tire-kicker can't produce: cash collected, a signed retainer, a bound policy, or projected lifetime value tied to a real customer. Where the sale closes weeks after the click, a qualified stage carries a value that predicts it, and the stages must not count the same sale twice. Our conversion value calculator shows how stage values add up, and the value-based bidding guide covers where to assign them.
Google's record of our Impact Award account shows the payoff at scale. Once policy premium values reached Smart Bidding on every call, daily spend grew 26 times, from $5,000 to $130,000, with profitability held. What the award-winning account did →
A value you can trust is a tracking problem first, which is why every engagement starts with attribution tracking.
How Microsoft Advertising Handles the Same Choice
Microsoft moved the other way. Since August 4, 2025, you set Target ROAS inside Maximize conversion value, and a standalone Target ROAS can't be set up on new campaigns; existing ones keep running as before.
Microsoft recommends letting the strategy reach at least 30 conversions before you judge it, and says it needs up to two weeks to build enough data. The decision is the same on both platforms: run with a return floor, or without one.
Maximize Conversion Value and Target ROAS, Answered
Does switching to Target ROAS restart the learning period?
Yes. Google shows a "Learning" status after a new or reactivated strategy, a setting change, campaigns added or removed, and for Shopping, some ad group target changes. Google also says its algorithms keep learning after the status clears, so make the switch in a stable week, not in the middle of a promotion.
What Target ROAS should I start with?
Google says to set it from your business goals, with history as the reference: the Conv. value/cost column times 100, over a period that leaves out the most recent conversion delay. Its recommended target uses your actual ROAS over the last few weeks. Both describe the past, which is why we start from the return the business needs.
How do I get more volume from a Target ROAS campaign?
Lower the target gradually. Google says a lower target lets the strategy enter more auctions, and a higher one pushes for more value per dollar. Judge each change against the Avg. target ROAS column, which is traffic-weighted, rather than the number in the settings box.
Do bid adjustments still work under either strategy?
No, with one exception. Google says both strategies ignore existing bid adjustments, except a -100% device adjustment, which still excludes that device. You don't need to remove the old adjustments.
Platform Documentation Referenced
Google Ads Help: About Maximize conversion value bidding, About Target ROAS bidding, Changes to how Smart Bidding strategies are organized, Changes to target based bid strategies and Duration of the learning period. Microsoft Advertising: bid strategies. Award figures: Google Ads Impact Awards: LGG Media. Checked October 2, 2026. The 4-week sequence is LGG's practice, not Google guidance.