Maximize Clicks vs Maximize Conversions: Which Works Best for Your Campaign?

When you start running a new Google Ads campaign, one of the first things you’re going to do is to choose a bidding strategy. In the past, we had to do this task manually, but everything’s different now with automated bidding. It does the heavy lifting and guesswork and saves you some effort from setting bids to achieve your performance targets.

However, the question here is which automated bidding to choose for your campaign so that it can deliver the expected results. That’s when Maximize Clicks vs Maximize Conversions are put on the table.

Many Google Ads newbies are confused between these 2 bidding strategies. That’s why this blog is here to give you a better understanding of them and how you should approach these strategies to optimize your campaign performance. Most importantly, we’ll also share some best practices to apply in the right place, at the right time.

An overview of Maximize Clicks vs Maximize Conversions

How does Maximize Clicks work?

Maximize clicks is a bidding strategy that focuses on using simple and real-time algorithms to manage bids and Maximize Clicks your ads receive within your budget. Thus, it doesn’t rely heavily on conversion data or AI to perform.

For example, you set an average daily budget, and Google Ads will set the maximum cost per click on your behalf to get the most clicks possible. You can also set a maximum cost-per-click limit if you prefer, such as $5 per click.

However, it’s important to note that this strategy focuses on the quantity rather than the quality of clicks. This means you can achieve a higher volume of website visits, but those clicks may not always convert. So, low conversion rates are not singular cases.

Therefore, this approach is suitable if your campaigns merely want to build brand awareness or reach a broader audience. Yet, it’s not the best choice for maximizing direct sales or leads.

How does Maximize Conversions work?

Maximize conversions, on the other hand, uses advanced AI to optimize bids based on your historical data and contextual signals at the auction. The goal is to get the most conversions possible at the lowest cost per conversion.

For instance, someone searches in a particular area at a time when you usually see high conversion rates. Google Ads will increase your bid for that click to maximize your chances of securing a conversion.

To sum up, Maximize Clicks aims to get as many clicks as possible within your budget, focusing on running the auction for you. In contrast, Maximize Conversions uses advanced AI to determine the optimal bid for each auction to help you get the most cost-effective conversions.

Which bidding strategy should you apply?

We don’t want to say Maximize Clicks vs Maximize Conversions, which one is better. That’s because these two bidding strategies actually do their own job at different times of your campaign growth process. Let’s discuss further when you should use Maximize Clicks vs Maximize Conversions.

When to use Maximize Clicks?

As we mentioned, Maximize Conversions works best with historical data, which mostly be your conversion data. So if you have just started with Google Ads, we recommend using Maximize Clicks first. 

Moreover, Maximize Clicks allows you to quickly identify the best-performing keywords, ad copies, and landing pages. Hence, it’s the fastest and most cost-effective way for a new Google Ads account to gather valuable conversion data. So it’s better to wait until your account has enough data, such as 300 clicks and regular conversions of at least 30 over several months, then switch to Maximize Conversions.

At this time, if your account already has conversion data from previous campaigns, you can even start a new campaign directly with Maximize Conversions while using the existing data to let AI optimize bids from the start.

*Maximize Clicks use cases

• Brand awareness campaigns: When the primary goal is to increase brand visibility and reach a wider audience.
• Driving website traffic: When you want to generate more traffic to a website, regardless of the specific action taken by visitors.
• Testing new ad creatives: To gather data on how different ad variations perform in terms of clicks and engagement.

When to use Maximize Conversions?

If you already have a lot of conversion data, using Maximize Clicks may not be the best use of your budget. Instead, you can be more efficient by switching to Maximize Conversions with a target cost-per-acquisition (tCPA). This approach focuses on getting conversions at a cost that meets your goals.

While you might see higher CPC sometimes, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re getting conversions at a good price. If you’re reaching your conversion targets and keeping your tCPA within your budget, you’re on the right track. Additionally, paying attention to the actual search terms people use can help keep everything running smoothly.

*Maximize Conversions use cases

• Lead generation campaigns: When the goal is to collect leads, such as email addresses or phone numbers.
• Sales-driven campaigns: When the objective is to drive direct sales or increase revenue.
• App install campaigns: To encourage users to download an app.

Important notes for Maximize Clicks to Maximize Conversions transition

When you decide to transition from Maximize Clicks to Maximize Conversions, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Be ready for the transition

It’s okay to hold off on moving to Maximize Conversions if you’re not sure you have enough conversion data yet. This bidding strategy relies heavily on past conversion data to make informed decisions, so if there isn’t enough data available, it might not perform effectively.

You can wait for an additional 2–6 weeks to gather more conversion data and give Google Ads a better foundation to work from. By doing this, when switching to Maximize Conversions, you’re more likely to see good results because the machine will have the information it needs to make smarter bidding choices.

*Small note: Remember to set up your conversion tracking properly!

Unstable performance is normal

When you switch from Maximize Clicks to an automated bidding strategy like Maximize Conversions, you might see a drop in performance for a week or two. And this is completely normal!

Google goes through a learning phase during the first 7–14 days, where it tests different strategies and gathers data to understand which traffic is most likely to convert. During this period, Google is also adjusting how it spends your budget to focus on getting higher-quality traffic.

After the learning phase, results would improve as Google becomes better at identifying and bidding on the clicks that are most likely to lead to conversions.

Avoid making frequent changes

You should avoid making changes to your bidding strategy too often. Try to keep any major changes to once every 60 to 90 days. Although Google Ads lets you adjust your daily budget, Google really plans its spending based on a monthly total.

Automated bidding strategies, like Maximize Conversions, are designed to concentrate conversions on specific days when they’re most likely. If you make frequent changes to your strategy, you disrupt Google’s ability to accurately plan its spending to maximize conversions. A steady budget and strategy give Google the time it needs to make the most of your monthly budget.

Don’t solely focus on CPC

When you switch to Maximize Conversions, you often notice your CPC may double, and that makes you feel stressed. But CPC isn’t as important as it might seem, instead, you should focus on your conversion metrics.

Let’s break it down. Suppose you’re spending $1,000 on Google Ads. In one scenario, you get 100 clicks at $1 each, which leads to five conversions. In another scenario, your CPC is $2, so you get only 50 clicks, but those result in 10 conversions. Even though each click costs more in the second case, you’re actually getting double the conversions for the same ad spend.

Hence, this shift in focus is key: you’re now prioritizing the number of conversions, not just the cost per click. If your goal is to maximize results, the amount you’re paying per click is less relevant than how well those clicks convert. So when you transition to Maximize Conversions, remember that it’s all about improving conversion results, not keeping CPC low.

This is also why in NestAds, rather than just CPC, we give you a more comprehensive view of your ads’ return on investment through the metric ROAS & other detailed insights to help you understand it thoroughly. We show you how much each ad spends converts to actual leads or sales.

NestAds attributes your conversions back to the exact ads, keywords, or campaigns responsible. Thereby, you know which ads truly drive valuable actions to adjust your strategy confidently, instead of reacting to CPC increases without context.