Optimize for conversion value with eCPC in Google Ads

Why we should care

Google rolled out its maximize for conversion value smart bidding strategy to search campaigns at the end of last month. That option aims to optimize for the greatest conversion value (cart value or a value you’ve applied to your conversion actions) while spending your entire daily budget.

The optimize for conversion value option with eCPC is a simplified version of the smart bidding option. It doesn’t have a goal of spending your daily budget, and you can’t set a target return on ad spend like you can with the smart bidding option. It will raise your max. CPC bids for clicks deemed more likely to lead to higher conversion value (rather than simply a conversion) when you choose that option.

If you have products or services with varying prices, conversion value might align better than conversions with your goals. If you switch over to conversion value optimization, you’ll want to closely monitor the impact on your metrics and ROAS, or ROI if you have cost data.

It may seem surprising Google is adding functionality to manual bidding given its desire to push advertisers to smart bidding (as the bold “lower performance” warning in the manual CPC setting makes crystal clear). But eCPC automates bids, too, of course — it’s like the gateway to smart bidding.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.