What “Conversion Value” Means in Google Ads (and Why It’s Not Just Revenue)
In Google Ads, conversion value is the number you assign (or pass dynamically) to represent how much a conversion is worth to your business. The platform then adds those values up to show the total value driven by your ads, and—crucially—uses that value signal for value-based bidding when you choose strategies like Maximize conversion value or Target ROAS.
Think of conversion value as your “business scoring system.” If you sell products online, it’s often revenue per order. If you generate leads, it’s usually an estimated value based on what those leads turn into over time. The better your values reflect reality, the smarter your optimization decisions become.
How Google Ads Calculates the Conversion Value Metric
Once values exist on your conversion actions, Google Ads calculates the Conversion value metric as the sum of the values of all conversions in the “Conversions” column. If you also report “All conversions,” then “All conv. value” is the value sum across both primary and secondary conversion actions.
From there, several key performance metrics are simple math:
- Conv. value = total of all conversion values tracked (for the relevant column)
- Value / conv. = Conv. value ÷ Conversions (average value per conversion)
- Conv. value / cost = Conv. value ÷ Cost (your ROAS-style efficiency metric inside Google Ads)
- Conv. value / click = Conv. value ÷ Eligible clicks
Primary vs. Secondary Conversions: Why Your Numbers Sometimes “Don’t Match”
Google Ads reporting depends on which conversion actions are set as primary (used for optimization and shown in “Conversions” and “Conversion value”) versus secondary (reporting only, shown in “All conv.” and “All conv. value”). If you’re trying to calculate ROI or train bidding, you generally want your most meaningful outcomes to be primary—and everything else to be secondary—so the bidding system isn’t optimizing toward the wrong value signal.
How to Calculate Conversion Value for Your Business (Before You Touch Any Tags)
The most common mistake I see is setting conversion value based on what’s easy to measure rather than what’s strategically correct. A strong value model doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be consistent, defensible, and aligned to profit or growth goals.
Ecommerce (Purchases): The Straightforward Model
If you sell products online, the cleanest approach is usually transaction-specific (dynamic) conversion values where each order passes its actual value at checkout. This is especially important if you have multiple products with different price points, discounting, bundles, or variable cart sizes.
In many accounts, “purchase value” is set to revenue. That’s fine as a starting point. But if margins vary wildly by product category, you’ll often get better decisions by passing profit (or a margin-adjusted value) instead of raw revenue—because that’s the value you actually keep.
Lead Generation (Forms, Calls, Bookings): A Practical Value Formula
Lead gen needs an estimated value. The goal is to translate a lead into an expected financial outcome using your close rates and economics. A practical model looks like this:
- Lead Value = (Lead-to-sale close rate) × (Average revenue per sale) × (Gross margin)
If you track multiple lead types (for example, “quote request” vs “schedule consultation”), give them different values. Even simple weighting (like $20 for a high-intent lead and $5 for a low-intent lead) is far better than treating everything as equal.
Decide: Same Value Every Time vs. Different Value Per Conversion
Use the same value when the conversion is essentially uniform (for example, a single service with a consistent average ticket) or when you’re intentionally using values to compare actions (like valuing a signup at $20 and a call at $5).
Use different values when the value truly changes per conversion—like ecommerce orders, variable pricing, or leads that can be priced based on form selections. This approach is more representative of reality and usually improves value-based bidding decisions.
How to Set Conversion Value in Google Ads (Static and Dynamic)
Option A: Set a Static (Same) Value in the Conversion Action
If you want each conversion to have the same value, you can set it directly in the conversion action settings. This is also the route you’re effectively taking when you use URL-based, codeless website conversion tracking—because that setup supports static in-platform values.
Here’s the fastest, reliable workflow:
- Go to your conversion actions in the Goals area and open the conversion action you want to value.
- Edit settings, then find the Value section.
- Select Use the same value for each conversion, then enter the value you calculated.
- Save your changes and allow a short ramp time—changes generally affect future conversions, not past ones.
Operational tip: if you change a conversion’s value later, keep a note of the change date. Your reporting trend lines will naturally shift, and you’ll want to interpret performance with that context.
Option B: Track Transaction-Specific (Dynamic) Values via Tag Parameters
If values vary by transaction, you’ll set the conversion action to use different values for each conversion and pass the value dynamically at the moment of conversion. This is common for purchases, but it’s also very effective for lead gen when your form captures intent or deal size indicators.
At a high level, your site needs to send two essentials at runtime:
- value as a number (use a period as the decimal delimiter)
- currency as a string using ISO 4217 currency codes (for example, “USD”)
A simplified example (your IDs/labels will differ):
<script>
gtag('event', 'conversion', {
'send_to': 'AW-CONVERSION_ID/CONVERSION_LABEL',
'value': 123.05,
'currency': 'USD'
});
</script>
Best practice: always set a reasonable default value in the conversion action settings for cases where a value fails to pass. That prevents “zero value” conversions from quietly poisoning your bidding signals.
Option C: Use Offline Value for Qualified Leads (CRM-Based Value)
For many service businesses, the most accurate conversion value lives in the CRM: qualified opportunities, closed-won revenue, or margin. In those cases, you’ll get the strongest optimization by feeding back offline conversion values after the lead matures—so the system learns what actually produces revenue, not just what produces form fills.
If you’re doing this seriously, prioritize durability and accuracy: capture click identifiers properly, keep timestamps clean, and make sure values represent what you want to optimize for (often revenue or profit, not “number of leads”).
Validate Your Conversion Value (So Smart Bidding Can Actually Use It)
Confirm You’re Looking at the Right Columns (and the Right Time Basis)
In Google Ads, primary conversion columns are typically attributed back to the time of the click, not the day the conversion happened. This is great for ROAS analysis because spend is also tied to click date. But if you’re reconciling against another system, you may need to use “by conversion time” columns to line up dates more closely.
Also note that conversion data can show decimals. That’s normal when attribution assigns fractional credit across interactions.
Set the Right Count Setting for Value Accuracy
If you’re optimizing toward transaction value (especially ecommerce), counting matters. “Every” counts every conversion after an interaction for that conversion action, while “One” counts only one conversion per ad interaction. For purchases, “Every” is usually the right choice because each additional sale adds value; for lead actions, “One” is often more realistic if repeat submissions aren’t truly incremental.
Use Conversion Value Rules When Value Depends on Audience, Location, or Device
Sometimes your underlying value is real, but it’s not uniform. Maybe certain regions have higher close rates, certain audiences have higher lifetime value, or mobile leads are less likely to convert into sales. In these cases, conversion value rules let you adjust values in real time based on conditions like location, device type, and audiences—so both reporting and bidding use the adjusted value.
This is one of the most practical “advanced” levers in Google Ads because it upgrades your value model without requiring your website or CRM to calculate every nuance.
Turn Conversion Value into ROI Improvements with the Right Bidding Strategy
If you have reliable values, value-based bidding is where accounts usually take a big step forward. If you want to spend the budget and maximize total value, Maximize conversion value is a natural fit. If you need to hit a specific efficiency target, Target ROAS is typically the next step—but it works best when you have enough recent conversion volume with valid values to train the system.
The key is sequencing: get your value model stable first, confirm it’s flowing correctly, then let automation scale what your values define as “success.”
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
What “Conversion Value” Means in Google Ads (and Why It’s Not Just Revenue)
In Google Ads, conversion value is the number you assign (or pass dynamically) to represent how much a conversion is worth to your business. The platform then adds those values up to show the total value driven by your ads, and—crucially—uses that value signal for value-based bidding when you choose strategies like Maximize conversion value or Target ROAS.
Think of conversion value as your “business scoring system.” If you sell products online, it’s often revenue per order. If you generate leads, it’s usually an estimated value based on what those leads turn into over time. The better your values reflect reality, the smarter your optimization decisions become.
How Google Ads Calculates the Conversion Value Metric
Once values exist on your conversion actions, Google Ads calculates the Conversion value metric as the sum of the values of all conversions in the “Conversions” column. If you also report “All conversions,” then “All conv. value” is the value sum across both primary and secondary conversion actions.
From there, several key performance metrics are simple math:
- Conv. value = total of all conversion values tracked (for the relevant column)
- Value / conv. = Conv. value ÷ Conversions (average value per conversion)
- Conv. value / cost = Conv. value ÷ Cost (your ROAS-style efficiency metric inside Google Ads)
- Conv. value / click = Conv. value ÷ Eligible clicks
Primary vs. Secondary Conversions: Why Your Numbers Sometimes “Don’t Match”
Google Ads reporting depends on which conversion actions are set as primary (used for optimization and shown in “Conversions” and “Conversion value”) versus secondary (reporting only, shown in “All conv.” and “All conv. value”). If you’re trying to calculate ROI or train bidding, you generally want your most meaningful outcomes to be primary—and everything else to be secondary—so the bidding system isn’t optimizing toward the wrong value signal.
How to Calculate Conversion Value for Your Business (Before You Touch Any Tags)
The most common mistake I see is setting conversion value based on what’s easy to measure rather than what’s strategically correct. A strong value model doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be consistent, defensible, and aligned to profit or growth goals.
Ecommerce (Purchases): The Straightforward Model
If you sell products online, the cleanest approach is usually transaction-specific (dynamic) conversion values where each order passes its actual value at checkout. This is especially important if you have multiple products with different price points, discounting, bundles, or variable cart sizes.
In many accounts, “purchase value” is set to revenue. That’s fine as a starting point. But if margins vary wildly by product category, you’ll often get better decisions by passing profit (or a margin-adjusted value) instead of raw revenue—because that’s the value you actually keep.
Lead Generation (Forms, Calls, Bookings): A Practical Value Formula
Lead gen needs an estimated value. The goal is to translate a lead into an expected financial outcome using your close rates and economics. A practical model looks like this:
- Lead Value = (Lead-to-sale close rate) × (Average revenue per sale) × (Gross margin)
If you track multiple lead types (for example, “quote request” vs “schedule consultation”), give them different values. Even simple weighting (like $20 for a high-intent lead and $5 for a low-intent lead) is far better than treating everything as equal.
Decide: Same Value Every Time vs. Different Value Per Conversion
Use the same value when the conversion is essentially uniform (for example, a single service with a consistent average ticket) or when you’re intentionally using values to compare actions (like valuing a signup at $20 and a call at $5).
Use different values when the value truly changes per conversion—like ecommerce orders, variable pricing, or leads that can be priced based on form selections. This approach is more representative of reality and usually improves value-based bidding decisions.
How to Set Conversion Value in Google Ads (Static and Dynamic)
Option A: Set a Static (Same) Value in the Conversion Action
If you want each conversion to have the same value, you can set it directly in the conversion action settings. This is also the route you’re effectively taking when you use URL-based, codeless website conversion tracking—because that setup supports static in-platform values.
Here’s the fastest, reliable workflow:
- Go to your conversion actions in the Goals area and open the conversion action you want to value.
- Edit settings, then find the Value section.
- Select Use the same value for each conversion, then enter the value you calculated.
- Save your changes and allow a short ramp time—changes generally affect future conversions, not past ones.
Operational tip: if you change a conversion’s value later, keep a note of the change date. Your reporting trend lines will naturally shift, and you’ll want to interpret performance with that context.
Option B: Track Transaction-Specific (Dynamic) Values via Tag Parameters
If values vary by transaction, you’ll set the conversion action to use different values for each conversion and pass the value dynamically at the moment of conversion. This is common for purchases, but it’s also very effective for lead gen when your form captures intent or deal size indicators.
At a high level, your site needs to send two essentials at runtime:
- value as a number (use a period as the decimal delimiter)
- currency as a string using ISO 4217 currency codes (for example, “USD”)
A simplified example (your IDs/labels will differ):
<script>
gtag('event', 'conversion', {
'send_to': 'AW-CONVERSION_ID/CONVERSION_LABEL',
'value': 123.05,
'currency': 'USD'
});
</script>
Best practice: always set a reasonable default value in the conversion action settings for cases where a value fails to pass. That prevents “zero value” conversions from quietly poisoning your bidding signals.
Option C: Use Offline Value for Qualified Leads (CRM-Based Value)
For many service businesses, the most accurate conversion value lives in the CRM: qualified opportunities, closed-won revenue, or margin. In those cases, you’ll get the strongest optimization by feeding back offline conversion values after the lead matures—so the system learns what actually produces revenue, not just what produces form fills.
If you’re doing this seriously, prioritize durability and accuracy: capture click identifiers properly, keep timestamps clean, and make sure values represent what you want to optimize for (often revenue or profit, not “number of leads”).
Validate Your Conversion Value (So Smart Bidding Can Actually Use It)
Confirm You’re Looking at the Right Columns (and the Right Time Basis)
In Google Ads, primary conversion columns are typically attributed back to the time of the click, not the day the conversion happened. This is great for ROAS analysis because spend is also tied to click date. But if you’re reconciling against another system, you may need to use “by conversion time” columns to line up dates more closely.
Also note that conversion data can show decimals. That’s normal when attribution assigns fractional credit across interactions.
Set the Right Count Setting for Value Accuracy
If you’re optimizing toward transaction value (especially ecommerce), counting matters. “Every” counts every conversion after an interaction for that conversion action, while “One” counts only one conversion per ad interaction. For purchases, “Every” is usually the right choice because each additional sale adds value; for lead actions, “One” is often more realistic if repeat submissions aren’t truly incremental.
Use Conversion Value Rules When Value Depends on Audience, Location, or Device
Sometimes your underlying value is real, but it’s not uniform. Maybe certain regions have higher close rates, certain audiences have higher lifetime value, or mobile leads are less likely to convert into sales. In these cases, conversion value rules let you adjust values in real time based on conditions like location, device type, and audiences—so both reporting and bidding use the adjusted value.
This is one of the most practical “advanced” levers in Google Ads because it upgrades your value model without requiring your website or CRM to calculate every nuance.
Turn Conversion Value into ROI Improvements with the Right Bidding Strategy
If you have reliable values, value-based bidding is where accounts usually take a big step forward. If you want to spend the budget and maximize total value, Maximize conversion value is a natural fit. If you need to hit a specific efficiency target, Target ROAS is typically the next step—but it works best when you have enough recent conversion volume with valid values to train the system.
The key is sequencing: get your value model stable first, confirm it’s flowing correctly, then let automation scale what your values define as “success.”
