Start with the real question: are you paying for traffic or for outcomes?
In Google Ads, “Maximize clicks” and “Maximize conversions” aren’t just two bidding options—they’re two different philosophies. Maximize clicks is built to buy as many visits as possible within your daily budget. Maximize conversions is built to buy the actions that matter (leads, purchases, calls, bookings) and will use real-time auction signals to push harder when a user looks more likely to convert.
If your business success is measured by leads or sales, you generally want to end up on Maximize conversions (or Maximize conversion value once you’re passing meaningful values). The main reason you wouldn’t switch yet is simple: if your conversion measurement isn’t reliable, Maximize conversions will optimize toward the wrong thing—or struggle to optimize at all.
What “Maximize clicks” is actually doing
Maximize clicks automatically sets your bids to get the most clicks possible within your budget. You’re not telling the system what a lead or sale is—you’re telling it “get me visits.” You can add a maximum CPC bid limit to cap how high it can bid per click, but that cap can reduce reach and click volume if it’s set too low for your auction environment. Also note that Maximize clicks doesn’t optimize toward impression share, so it’s not the right tool when your goal is “be top of page” or “dominate visibility.”
What “Maximize conversions” is actually doing
Maximize conversions uses automated bidding with auction-time optimization to tailor bids for every single auction, with the goal of getting the most conversions possible while spending your budget. If you set an optional target CPA, it behaves like a CPA-constrained strategy; if you don’t set a target, it will try to spend the budget to maximize conversion count. This is powerful, but it also means budgets and conversion definitions matter a lot more than they do under click-based bidding.
When Maximize Clicks is the better choice (and how to keep it from wasting money)
I still use Maximize clicks in real accounts—but usually as a deliberate stepping-stone, not a final destination. It’s best when your immediate constraint is “we need traffic and data,” not “we need efficiency today.”
Use Maximize Clicks when you’re still building your conversion foundation
If conversion tracking isn’t implemented, is firing inconsistently, or is counting the wrong actions, switching to Maximize conversions is like giving autopilot a broken compass. In that situation, Maximize clicks can help you generate enough site activity to validate landing pages, test messaging, identify search terms to exclude, and pressure-test your offer before you let bidding algorithms optimize toward conversions.
Maximize clicks also makes sense for campaigns whose true KPI is traffic volume (for example, content promotion, top-of-funnel education, or driving users to a store-locator page when you’re not measuring store visits properly).
Put guardrails in place so clicks don’t turn into “junk traffic”
Maximize clicks will happily buy clicks that are unlikely to convert if those clicks are plentiful and cheap. The fix isn’t to abandon the strategy immediately—it’s to control inputs so the clicks are coming from the right searches and the right people.
- Add a maximum CPC bid limit (carefully): Use this to prevent occasional auction spikes from consuming your budget. Don’t set it so low that you can’t enter the auctions you actually need to win.
- Tighten query control: Use more exact/phrase where appropriate, build a negative keyword list aggressively, and regularly audit search terms until waste is under control.
- Align targeting and intent: Keep geo targeting tight, avoid overly broad “presence or interest” reach where it doesn’t make business sense, and make sure your ads/landing pages match the intent of the keywords you’re buying.
- Know the limitation on time-based bid adjustments: This strategy doesn’t support bid adjustments based on day/time, so if your business has strict “only bid harder during business hours” requirements, you may need a different approach.
When Maximize Conversions is the better choice (and how to switch without tanking performance)
If you have real conversion tracking and your campaign objective is leads or revenue, Maximize conversions is usually the upgrade that unlocks scale and stability—especially now that older “bridge” approaches have been reduced. For example, Enhanced CPC was deprecated for Search and Display campaigns effective the week of March 31, 2025, which has pushed many advertisers to choose between true conversion-based bidding and manual control.
Before you switch, make sure you’re bidding to the right “Primary” conversions
One of the most common reasons Maximize conversions underperforms is not the bidding strategy—it’s the conversion setup. In Google Ads, only the conversion actions set as Primary (and included in the goal your campaign is optimizing toward) are used for bidding and appear in the main “Conversions” reporting. Secondary actions still matter for visibility in “All conv.” reporting, but they aren’t what the bidding system should chase in most lead-gen or e-commerce setups.
Practically, you want your Primary conversion to represent a meaningful stage of the funnel (purchase, qualified lead, booked appointment), not a low-intent micro-action. If you optimize to a weak event (like “page view” or “time on site”), Maximize conversions can absolutely deliver “more conversions”—they’ll just be the wrong conversions.
Expect (and plan for) a learning period
Any meaningful bidding change can trigger a learning phase while the system recalibrates. Learning status is typically driven by a new strategy, a setting change, or a composition change (like adding/removing ad groups or keywords). A practical rule of thumb is that it can take up to around 50 conversion events or about 3 conversion cycles to calibrate to a new objective, depending on how much conversion data you already have and how long your typical click-to-conversion delay is.
This is why I recommend you avoid “rapid-fire” edits right after switching. If you change the bid strategy, then change the budget, then change the conversion goal, then rewrite all your ads within the same conversion cycle, you create overlapping learning events and you’ll have no clean read on what actually helped.
Choose the right way to set (or not set) a Target CPA
In Search campaigns, Maximize conversions can run with or without an optional Target CPA. If you set a Target CPA, the system will aim to get as many conversions as possible at that target. If you don’t set one, it will try to spend the daily budget to get the maximum conversion count.
For most accounts, the safest transition is to start without an aggressively tight Target CPA, let performance stabilize, and only then introduce a realistic target once you understand what the market is willing to do at your current ads/keywords/landing page quality. Targets that are set too low can throttle volume by forcing the system to avoid auctions that could have converted—just not at the price you demanded.
A simple decision framework you can apply today
If you want the shortest, most reliable rule
If your campaign’s success is measured by leads/sales and conversion tracking is accurate with the right Primary conversions, switch to Maximize conversions. If you don’t yet trust your conversion tracking (or you’re not collecting enough meaningful conversions to steer bidding), stay on Maximize clicks temporarily while you fix measurement and tighten traffic quality.
Critical pre-switch checklist (use this before touching bidding)
- Conversion tracking is accurate: The conversion fires once per real action, on the right page/event, and reflects meaningful business outcomes.
- Your bidding conversions are “Primary” and aligned to the campaign goal: The campaign is optimizing toward the goal that contains the right Primary conversion actions.
- Your budget matches your intent: Maximize conversions will generally try to spend the daily budget to drive results—so confirm the budget is acceptable if volume increases.
- You understand your conversion cycle: Know your typical click-to-conversion delay so you don’t judge performance too early.
- You have a clean test window: After switching, minimize other major changes for at least one to two conversion cycles so learning can settle.
What I’d do if you’re still unsure
If you’re on the fence, run a structured test: keep targeting and creatives stable, switch one campaign (or a draft/experiment) to Maximize conversions, and evaluate after the system has had enough time to learn based on your conversion cycle. The goal isn’t to see an instant drop in CPA on day two—it’s to see whether conversion volume and cost stabilize and improve once the bidding model has enough signal to optimize correctly.
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
| Section / Question | Core Point | When to Favor Maximize Clicks | When to Favor Maximize Conversions | Practical Actions & Helpful Docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traffic vs. outcomes | Maximize clicks and Maximize conversions reflect two different philosophies: buying visits vs. buying meaningful actions (leads, sales, calls, bookings). The real choice is whether you’re paying for traffic or business outcomes. | Use when your immediate need is traffic and data, or when your success metric is truly visits (content promotion, early-funnel education, store locator traffic without proper store visit tracking). | Use when success is measured by leads or revenue and you have reliable conversion tracking with meaningful events (purchases, qualified leads, bookings). | Align your strategy with your primary business goal using Pick the right bid strategy. |
| What Maximize Clicks actually does | Automatically sets bids to get the most clicks within budget. You can cap bids with a max CPC, but the strategy doesn’t optimize for impression share or conversion outcomes. | Use as a temporary stepping-stone when you need to gather search term data, validate landing pages and offers, or when conversion tracking is missing or unreliable. | Once you’re confident in your conversion tracking and want to optimize for conversions instead of raw traffic, plan to move off Maximize clicks. | Review how Maximize clicks works and where it fits among automated strategies in Pick the right bid strategy. |
| Guardrails for Maximize Clicks | Left alone, Maximize clicks will buy cheap, low-intent traffic. You need controls on bids, queries, and targeting so “more clicks” doesn’t mean “more junk.” |
- Add a reasonable max CPC to avoid occasional auction spikes. - Tighten query control: use more precise match types, build strong negative lists, and audit search terms frequently. - Keep geo and audience targeting aligned with real business reach; avoid overly broad interest-based reach when it’s not needed. - Note that time-of-day bid adjustments aren’t supported with this strategy. |
Once traffic quality is under control and you can measure meaningful conversions, use that cleaner data to transition into conversion-based bidding. | Use conversion tracking to judge which traffic is valuable by setting up web conversions in Set up your web conversions. |
| What Maximize Conversions actually does | Uses auction-time automated bidding to get the most conversions possible for your budget. With an optional Target CPA, it behaves like a CPA-constrained strategy; without a target, it prioritizes conversion volume while spending the daily budget. | Less appropriate if you lack trustworthy conversion data, have extremely low conversion volumes, or your main objective is pure reach/traffic rather than measured outcomes. | Best when you have solid conversion tracking, clear business objectives tied to conversions, and budgets that can support the algorithm’s learning and optimization. | Learn how this strategy behaves and how it fits into Smart Bidding in Pick the right bid strategy and the automated bidding overview linked from that article. |
| Primary vs. secondary conversions | Maximize conversions only optimizes toward conversion actions marked as Primary and included in the goal your campaign is bidding to. Secondary actions are for reporting/observation and shouldn’t usually drive bidding for lead gen or e‑commerce. | If your “Conversions” column is polluted with weak micro-actions (page views, time on site), stay on Maximize clicks until you clean up your conversion setup so algorithms don’t chase the wrong events. | Switch once Primary conversions represent meaningful funnel milestones (purchases, qualified leads, booked calls). That ensures Maximize conversions learns from the right signals. | Review how primary and secondary conversion actions work, and how they appear in reporting and bidding via conversion goals. |
| Conversion tracking quality | Poor or inconsistent tracking makes any conversion-based strategy unreliable. The system can only optimize to what it “sees,” so misfires, duplicates, or weak proxy events will distort bidding. | Stay on Maximize clicks if conversions fire on the wrong pages, fire multiple times per action, aren’t implemented yet, or are tracking low-intent signals that don’t correlate with real business value. | Once tracking is accurate (correct event/page, one fire per real action, meaningful outcomes), Maximize conversions can use that data to improve scale and stability. | Implement and verify robust tracking using Set up your web conversions, then map them into appropriate conversion goals. |
| Learning period after switching | Any major bidding change triggers a learning phase while the system recalibrates. It often takes roughly 50 conversions or about three conversion cycles to stabilize, depending on data volume and conversion lag. | If you can’t tolerate short-term volatility and have very few conversions, you might temporarily stay on Maximize clicks while building enough volume and clarifying your conversion cycle. | Accept that performance may fluctuate during learning. Avoid overlapping changes (bids, budgets, goals, major structural edits) so you can clearly evaluate the impact of the new strategy. | Monitor learning and bid strategy status in the bid strategy report, and use the related guidance on bid strategy statuses and learning behavior linked there. |
| Target CPA decisions | With Maximize conversions on Search, you can run with or without a Target CPA. Overly aggressive (too low) targets can choke volume; starting without a strict target often makes for a smoother transition. | If your historic data is thin or noisy, forcing a tightly constrained Target CPA immediately after switching may hurt traffic too much; you might gather more performance benchmarks first, possibly using Maximize clicks plus manual analysis. | Common approach: start Maximize conversions without an aggressive Target CPA, let performance stabilize, then add a realistic Target CPA informed by actual results and market constraints. | Use the goal-based guidance in Pick the right bid strategy and your bid strategy reports to judge when your Target CPA is too strict or too loose. |
| Simple decision rule | If your goal is leads/sales and you trust your conversion tracking and Primary actions, move to Maximize conversions. If you don’t yet trust measurement or have too few meaningful conversions, stay on Maximize clicks while you fix tracking and tighten traffic quality. | Use as a temporary home when you’re still fixing attribution, restructuring campaigns, or validating that incoming traffic matches your ideal customer profile. | Make Maximize conversions your default once measurement and goals are in good shape, since it’s better aligned with outcome-based optimization. | Revisit your goals and tracking setup with conversion goals and web conversion setup before changing bid strategies. |
| Pre-switch checklist | Before changing bidding, confirm: accurate conversion tracking, correct Primary conversions tied to the campaign goal, budgets that match your risk appetite, clear understanding of your conversion cycle, and a clean window with minimal other changes. | If any checklist item fails (especially tracking accuracy or goal alignment), keep Maximize clicks while you fix that issue so you don’t mislead Smart Bidding. | Once all checklist items are satisfied, switch a campaign (or test variant) to Maximize conversions and allow enough time and volume for learning. | Use primary and secondary conversion actions and conversion goals to ensure the right actions are driving bidding before you flip strategies. |
| What to do if you’re unsure | Instead of guessing, run a structured test: keep targeting and creatives stable, switch one campaign (or an experiment) to Maximize conversions, and evaluate after the learning period based on your normal conversion lag. | Keep a control campaign on Maximize clicks for comparison if you’re worried about short-term risk, especially in accounts with limited budgets or seasonal volatility. | Judge success by whether conversion volume and cost-per-conversion stabilize and improve over time, not by day‑two results. | Combine controlled experiments with performance insights from the bid strategy report to interpret learning status, conversion delay, and top signals as you test. |
If you’re debating between Maximize Clicks and Maximize Conversions, the real question is whether you’re currently paying for traffic to learn (when tracking is missing, noisy, or you need to validate queries and landing pages) or paying for measurable business outcomes (when your Primary conversions are accurate and meaningful, and you can tolerate a short learning period). Blobr can help make that decision less guesswork by connecting to your Google Ads account and running specialized AI agents that continuously review tracking and goal setup, surface wasted spend and low-intent queries, and suggest practical, prioritized changes—like tightening traffic quality while you’re in a clicks phase or improving landing page/message alignment as you transition toward conversion-based bidding—so your bid strategy matches what you can reliably measure.
Start with the real question: are you paying for traffic or for outcomes?
In Google Ads, “Maximize clicks” and “Maximize conversions” aren’t just two bidding options—they’re two different philosophies. Maximize clicks is built to buy as many visits as possible within your daily budget. Maximize conversions is built to buy the actions that matter (leads, purchases, calls, bookings) and will use real-time auction signals to push harder when a user looks more likely to convert.
If your business success is measured by leads or sales, you generally want to end up on Maximize conversions (or Maximize conversion value once you’re passing meaningful values). The main reason you wouldn’t switch yet is simple: if your conversion measurement isn’t reliable, Maximize conversions will optimize toward the wrong thing—or struggle to optimize at all.
What “Maximize clicks” is actually doing
Maximize clicks automatically sets your bids to get the most clicks possible within your budget. You’re not telling the system what a lead or sale is—you’re telling it “get me visits.” You can add a maximum CPC bid limit to cap how high it can bid per click, but that cap can reduce reach and click volume if it’s set too low for your auction environment. Also note that Maximize clicks doesn’t optimize toward impression share, so it’s not the right tool when your goal is “be top of page” or “dominate visibility.”
What “Maximize conversions” is actually doing
Maximize conversions uses automated bidding with auction-time optimization to tailor bids for every single auction, with the goal of getting the most conversions possible while spending your budget. If you set an optional target CPA, it behaves like a CPA-constrained strategy; if you don’t set a target, it will try to spend the budget to maximize conversion count. This is powerful, but it also means budgets and conversion definitions matter a lot more than they do under click-based bidding.
When Maximize Clicks is the better choice (and how to keep it from wasting money)
I still use Maximize clicks in real accounts—but usually as a deliberate stepping-stone, not a final destination. It’s best when your immediate constraint is “we need traffic and data,” not “we need efficiency today.”
Use Maximize Clicks when you’re still building your conversion foundation
If conversion tracking isn’t implemented, is firing inconsistently, or is counting the wrong actions, switching to Maximize conversions is like giving autopilot a broken compass. In that situation, Maximize clicks can help you generate enough site activity to validate landing pages, test messaging, identify search terms to exclude, and pressure-test your offer before you let bidding algorithms optimize toward conversions.
Maximize clicks also makes sense for campaigns whose true KPI is traffic volume (for example, content promotion, top-of-funnel education, or driving users to a store-locator page when you’re not measuring store visits properly).
Put guardrails in place so clicks don’t turn into “junk traffic”
Maximize clicks will happily buy clicks that are unlikely to convert if those clicks are plentiful and cheap. The fix isn’t to abandon the strategy immediately—it’s to control inputs so the clicks are coming from the right searches and the right people.
- Add a maximum CPC bid limit (carefully): Use this to prevent occasional auction spikes from consuming your budget. Don’t set it so low that you can’t enter the auctions you actually need to win.
- Tighten query control: Use more exact/phrase where appropriate, build a negative keyword list aggressively, and regularly audit search terms until waste is under control.
- Align targeting and intent: Keep geo targeting tight, avoid overly broad “presence or interest” reach where it doesn’t make business sense, and make sure your ads/landing pages match the intent of the keywords you’re buying.
- Know the limitation on time-based bid adjustments: This strategy doesn’t support bid adjustments based on day/time, so if your business has strict “only bid harder during business hours” requirements, you may need a different approach.
When Maximize Conversions is the better choice (and how to switch without tanking performance)
If you have real conversion tracking and your campaign objective is leads or revenue, Maximize conversions is usually the upgrade that unlocks scale and stability—especially now that older “bridge” approaches have been reduced. For example, Enhanced CPC was deprecated for Search and Display campaigns effective the week of March 31, 2025, which has pushed many advertisers to choose between true conversion-based bidding and manual control.
Before you switch, make sure you’re bidding to the right “Primary” conversions
One of the most common reasons Maximize conversions underperforms is not the bidding strategy—it’s the conversion setup. In Google Ads, only the conversion actions set as Primary (and included in the goal your campaign is optimizing toward) are used for bidding and appear in the main “Conversions” reporting. Secondary actions still matter for visibility in “All conv.” reporting, but they aren’t what the bidding system should chase in most lead-gen or e-commerce setups.
Practically, you want your Primary conversion to represent a meaningful stage of the funnel (purchase, qualified lead, booked appointment), not a low-intent micro-action. If you optimize to a weak event (like “page view” or “time on site”), Maximize conversions can absolutely deliver “more conversions”—they’ll just be the wrong conversions.
Expect (and plan for) a learning period
Any meaningful bidding change can trigger a learning phase while the system recalibrates. Learning status is typically driven by a new strategy, a setting change, or a composition change (like adding/removing ad groups or keywords). A practical rule of thumb is that it can take up to around 50 conversion events or about 3 conversion cycles to calibrate to a new objective, depending on how much conversion data you already have and how long your typical click-to-conversion delay is.
This is why I recommend you avoid “rapid-fire” edits right after switching. If you change the bid strategy, then change the budget, then change the conversion goal, then rewrite all your ads within the same conversion cycle, you create overlapping learning events and you’ll have no clean read on what actually helped.
Choose the right way to set (or not set) a Target CPA
In Search campaigns, Maximize conversions can run with or without an optional Target CPA. If you set a Target CPA, the system will aim to get as many conversions as possible at that target. If you don’t set one, it will try to spend the daily budget to get the maximum conversion count.
For most accounts, the safest transition is to start without an aggressively tight Target CPA, let performance stabilize, and only then introduce a realistic target once you understand what the market is willing to do at your current ads/keywords/landing page quality. Targets that are set too low can throttle volume by forcing the system to avoid auctions that could have converted—just not at the price you demanded.
A simple decision framework you can apply today
If you want the shortest, most reliable rule
If your campaign’s success is measured by leads/sales and conversion tracking is accurate with the right Primary conversions, switch to Maximize conversions. If you don’t yet trust your conversion tracking (or you’re not collecting enough meaningful conversions to steer bidding), stay on Maximize clicks temporarily while you fix measurement and tighten traffic quality.
Critical pre-switch checklist (use this before touching bidding)
- Conversion tracking is accurate: The conversion fires once per real action, on the right page/event, and reflects meaningful business outcomes.
- Your bidding conversions are “Primary” and aligned to the campaign goal: The campaign is optimizing toward the goal that contains the right Primary conversion actions.
- Your budget matches your intent: Maximize conversions will generally try to spend the daily budget to drive results—so confirm the budget is acceptable if volume increases.
- You understand your conversion cycle: Know your typical click-to-conversion delay so you don’t judge performance too early.
- You have a clean test window: After switching, minimize other major changes for at least one to two conversion cycles so learning can settle.
What I’d do if you’re still unsure
If you’re on the fence, run a structured test: keep targeting and creatives stable, switch one campaign (or a draft/experiment) to Maximize conversions, and evaluate after the system has had enough time to learn based on your conversion cycle. The goal isn’t to see an instant drop in CPA on day two—it’s to see whether conversion volume and cost stabilize and improve once the bidding model has enough signal to optimize correctly.
