Google Ads · Bidding
Conversion value rules let you multiply or add to conversion values by location, device, or audience, and Smart Bidding factors the adjusted value in at auction time. Google built them for a real problem. Our position, after running value-based bidding across accounts spending up to $400,000 a month, is that the same problem has a better answer, and the rules are a band-aid we reach for only when a tech stack forces it.
Google’s documentation illustrates value rules with a lead business that values every lead at $5 but knows Californian leads are worth twice as much, so it applies a 2x multiplier to California. That is the intended use: you know some customers are worth more, but your account cannot report it. When a rule is active at the account or campaign level, Smart Bidding considers it at auction time and bids accordingly.
Read that example again and notice what it assumes. The business knows Californian leads are worth double, on average, historically. The multiplier is a manual assumption layered on top of a bidding system that is already weighing auction-time signals. We call the result synthetic inflation: Target ROAS starts optimizing toward numbers you invented rather than revenue you collected. If you know what customers are actually worth, you can send the real number instead. Offline conversion import attaches actual revenue, per transaction, to the exact click that produced it. The algorithm gets truth instead of a rule of thumb, and your reporting stays anchored to money.
Some legacy CRMs cannot send dynamic conversion values through an API. Until that is fixed, value rules are the workaround. We treat them as temporary and remove them once real values flow, and Google confirms that removing a rule makes bidding resume optimizing on your original definition of value.
Where rules are unavoidable, positive multipliers of 1.2x to 1.5x on metros with demonstrably higher deal sizes or margin push the algorithm toward higher-tier territory. The multiplier comes from measured deal data, never from instinct.
First-party Customer Match lists and past buyers close faster and at higher rates. Bumping their value is defensible because the differential is measured.
Smart Bidding already prices device conversion rates at auction time. Layering a manual device modifier on top restricts volume without adding signal. This is the clearest case of a rule duplicating what the algorithm does natively.
Google’s documentation states that a value rule created at the campaign level does not affect other campaigns, with one exception: inside a portfolio bid strategy, a change to one campaign can affect the others through portfolio optimization. If you run portfolios, a rule you applied to a single campaign is quietly shaping bids on its portfolio siblings. Most advertisers using both features have never connected them. Check which campaigns share a portfolio before applying any rule.
Also worth knowing before you build on them: value rules apply to Search, Shopping, Display, Hotel and Performance Max campaigns only, and Google provides a dedicated conversion value rules report showing the adjustments separately, which is where you audit what the rules are actually doing.
Target CPA and the August 2026 change → · What Google’s attribution model misses →
Rules that adjust conversion values by multiplying or adding based on location, device, or audience conditions. When a rule is active at the account or campaign level, Smart Bidding considers the adjusted value at auction time. They apply to Search, Shopping, Display, Hotel and Performance Max campaigns.
If your systems can send real transaction values through offline conversion import, send the real values. A rule is a static assumption about average worth; an import is the actual revenue tied to the exact click. We use rules only as a temporary workaround when a legacy CRM cannot stream values, and remove them once it can.
Adjustments appear in a dedicated conversion value rules report, and removing a rule returns bidding to your original definition of value. The risk is not hidden reporting. It is that Target ROAS optimizes toward the inflated values while the rules are active, so budget follows your assumption rather than your revenue.
We never do. Smart Bidding already accounts for device-level conversion behaviour at auction time, so a manual device modifier duplicates the algorithm’s own signal and typically restricts volume without improving anything.
Not normally. The exception is portfolio bid strategies, where Google notes a change to one campaign in the portfolio can affect the others through portfolio optimization. If you use portfolios, audit which campaigns share a strategy before applying any rule.
Platform claims on this page are drawn from Google’s documentation: Impact of conversion value rules on Smart Bidding, About conversion value rules, and About Target ROAS bidding.
Next Step
If your account leans on value rules because your CRM cannot stream real values, that is the constraint we remove. For advertisers spending $30,000 or more per month.
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