If you run Google Shopping ads for an online store, there’s a quiet but meaningful update worth knowing about. Google is rolling out Maximize Conversion Value bidding for Standard Shopping campaigns — and crucially, without forcing you to set a Target ROAS. For many store owners, this removes a frustrating reason they were pushed toward Performance Max. Here’s what changed, in plain English, and whether you should use it.
What actually changed
Until now, if you wanted your Standard Shopping campaign to optimize for conversion value (revenue) rather than just clicks or conversions, you had to attach a Target ROAS goal — a specific return-on-ad-spend number Google had to aim for. Google is now letting Standard Shopping campaigns use Maximize Conversion Value bidding on its own, with no Target ROAS required. In other words, you can tell Google “get me the most total revenue you can from this budget” without locking it to a fixed efficiency target.
Quick refresher: the two value-based bidding modes
If the jargon is fuzzy, here’s the simple version:
Maximize Conversion Value (no target): “Spend my budget and bring back as much total revenue as possible.” Google has maximum flexibility and will generally use your full budget chasing the highest-value sales.
Maximize Conversion Value + Target ROAS: “Get me the most revenue, but only while hitting at least this return.” For example, a 400% target tells Google to aim for $4 in revenue per $1 spent. More control over efficiency, but it can limit how much of your budget gets used.
The new option is the first one — and it was previously unavailable in Standard Shopping without bolting on that ROAS target.
The Performance Max workaround this kills
Here’s why this matters more than it first appears. Plenty of advertisers prefer Standard Shopping because it offers more control and transparency than Performance Max — you can see what’s happening, manage structure, and review search terms in a way PMax doesn’t fully allow. But advertisers who wanted pure value-based bidding without a ROAS constraint often had to spin up a feed-only Performance Max campaign just to unlock that one bidding option. It was a workaround, not a preference.
With this update, that workaround is largely unnecessary. You can now combine the control and transparency of Standard Shopping with flexible, value-based automated bidding — without giving up visibility by moving everything into a PMax black box. Google is narrowing one of the biggest feature gaps between the two campaign types.
Why this matters for your store
For a lot of small and mid-size online stores, this is genuinely good news:
More control without sacrificing automation. You keep Standard Shopping’s transparency while still letting Google’s bidding chase revenue.
Simpler account structure. If you’d built a feed-only PMax campaign purely to access this bidding, you may be able to consolidate and simplify.
Less pressure to go all-in on PMax. One of the main reasons advertisers felt forced into Performance Max just got weaker.
Should you switch to it? Read this first
Maximize Conversion Value without a target isn’t automatically the right choice — it depends on your goals and margins. A few honest cautions:
It will typically spend your whole budget. With no ROAS guardrail, the strategy chases volume of value. That’s great for scaling or for gathering data, but risky for thin-margin stores that need to protect profitability.
If you have a strict break-even, keep a target. Businesses with tight margins or a firm minimum return are often better served by Maximize Conversion Value with a Target ROAS, so efficiency stays protected.
Give it data and time. Like all Smart Bidding, it needs sufficient conversion data and a learning period to perform. Don’t judge it in the first few days, and make sure your conversion tracking and product values are accurate — the bidding is only as good as the data feeding it.
A sensible approach for many stores: test it on a campaign where you want to scale revenue and aren’t margin-constrained, watch it against your previous setup, and keep Target ROAS where protecting efficiency matters most.
Frequently asked questions
Is Standard Shopping still worth using over Performance Max?
For many advertisers, yes — especially those who value transparency and control. Standard Shopping lets you see and manage more of what’s happening. This update strengthens the case for it by closing a key bidding gap with Performance Max, though the right choice still depends on your goals and how much hands-on control you want.
What’s the difference between maximizing conversions and conversion value?
Maximizing conversions chases the most number of conversions, treating each as equal. Maximizing conversion value chases the most total revenue, so it will favour higher-value sales over cheap ones. For most stores selling products at different price points, value-based bidding aligns better with actual business goals.
Do I need to change anything right now?
No — this is a new option, not a forced change. If your current setup is performing, there’s no urgency. But if you’d moved to feed-only Performance Max only to access this bidding, or you’ve wanted value-based bidding without a ROAS cap, it’s worth testing now.
Will this work without good conversion tracking?
Not well. Value-based bidding depends entirely on accurate conversion and revenue data being sent back to Google. If your tracking is broken or your product values are wrong, the strategy will optimize toward bad signals. Getting tracking right is the prerequisite, not an afterthought.
Want your Shopping campaigns set up the right way?
Choosing the right bidding strategy — and making sure your tracking and product feed actually support it — is the difference between Shopping ads that quietly lose money and ones that scale profitably. The Social Shepherd is a Google Premier Partner agency in Toronto that helps online stores get more revenue from Google Shopping without overspending. Book a free audit and we’ll review your Shopping setup, bidding, and tracking, and tell you exactly what to fix. Get your free Shopping campaign review → https://thesocialshepherd.ca/
Want a second pair of eyes on your account? Get a free 48-hour Google Ads audit — wasted spend, tracking gaps and a realistic lead forecast, yours to keep.
Related reading: Google’s August 17 bidding change explained