A CEO tells the marketing team that the company’s priority is to grow the amount of money the business has after subtracting all costs. Which bidding instruction should the marketer set?
Correct Answer
Profit – Bidding to profit values with maximize conversion value/ROAS.
Why is this the correct answer?
The CEO is describing profit, so the instruction is Profit – bidding to profit values with maximize conversion value/ROAS. Money left after all costs is profit, not revenue, and the two pull campaigns in different directions. Bidding to revenue pushes budget towards whatever produces the biggest order totals, which can mean high-turnover, low-margin products that generate impressive reported revenue and little actual return. Bidding to profit means sending margin-adjusted values into Google Ads — order value minus cost of goods, and ideally minus fulfilment and returns — so value-based bidding pursues the customers who leave the most behind. The mechanics stay the same: Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS. What changes is the number attached to each conversion, and that number is what decides where the AI spends. This is a good example of business truth being supplied by the human, not inferred by the algorithm.
Why are the other options wrong?
Revenue – Bidding to revenue values with maximize conversion value/ROAS.
Revenue bidding maximises sales value before costs. It can grow turnover while shrinking profit if the best-selling products carry thin margins.
Volume – Bidding to max conversions on an important conversion action.
Volume bidding maximises the number of conversions and ignores what each one is worth, so it cannot serve a profit goal.
Market share – Bidding to value or volume with a break-even target (CPA/ROAS).
Market share bidding at a break-even target deliberately trades profit for growth, which is the opposite of what the CEO asked for.
Real-world example
An electronics retailer sends margin as the conversion value instead of order total. Budget shifts away from laptops, which have large order values and 4% margins, towards accessories and extended warranties with far better margins. Reported revenue dips slightly; gross profit rises 19%.
Topics in this question
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