Summary
The marketer should choose Profit, bidding to profit values with Maximize conversion value or target ROAS. Money remaining after all costs is profit, so the conversion value sent to Google Ads must be margin, not the order total. Smart Bidding then allocates spend towards the searches that generate real margin.
Nitin Batra is a Google Ads Search certified professional who configures value based Smart Bidding and profit level conversion values for ecommerce and lead generation accounts.
Last updated: August 22, 2026
When the CEO wants to grow money left after all costs, the marketer should choose Profit, bidding to profit values with Maximize conversion value and a target ROAS so Google Ads optimises on margin, not gross sales.
- Profit – Bidding to profit values with maximize conversion value/ROAS.
- Revenue – Bidding to revenue values with maximize conversion value/ROAS.
- Volume – Bidding to max conversions on an important conversion action.
- Market share – Bidding to value or volume with a break-even target (CPA/ROAS).
The correct answer is: Profit – Bidding to profit values with maximize conversion value/ROAS.
Key Takeaways
- – The correct answer is Profit, bidding to profit values with Maximize conversion value or target ROAS.
- – Profit bidding only works if your conversion tag sends margin as the conversion value, not the order total.
- – Revenue bidding, volume bidding and break-even bidding all serve different business goals, so match the bid strategy to what the business is actually measuring.
- – A common mistake is switching to Maximize conversion value while still sending revenue values, which pushes spend towards high revenue but low margin products.
How do I send profit values instead of revenue values to Google Ads?
Set the conversion action to use different values for each conversion, then change the value parameter in your conversion tag or gtag event so it carries margin rather than order total. Most ecommerce setups calculate this in the data layer or pull a profit field from the order backend. If you cannot get exact margin per SKU, an approximate category level margin percentage applied to revenue is still far better than raw revenue.
What is the difference between Maximize conversion value and Maximize conversions?
Maximize conversions optimises for the number of conversions and treats every conversion as equally important. Maximize conversion value optimises for the total value of those conversions, so it will happily take fewer conversions if they are worth more. When the goal is profit, you need value based bidding because conversion count says nothing about what each sale earns you.
Should I use target ROAS immediately after switching to profit values?
No. When you change the value from revenue to profit, your historical ROAS numbers become meaningless because the denominator changed. Run Maximize conversion value without a target for a few weeks, see where the profit ROAS settles, then set a target around that level and adjust in steps of ten to fifteen percent.
Why does bidding to revenue hurt a business that cares about profit?
Smart Bidding does exactly what you tell it. Give it revenue and it will chase high ticket items even if they carry a five percent margin, while ignoring smaller products that return forty percent. The account report will show strong ROAS and the accounts department will still see thin profits. Feeding profit values fixes the gap between the ads dashboard and the P&L.