Bidding Strategies

Maximize Clicks vs Maximize Conversions: Traffic or Outcomes

In short: Maximize Clicks buys the cheapest clicks your budget can find and needs no conversion tracking. Maximize Conversions spends the same budget on auctions it predicts will convert, and is useless without accurate tracking. Cheap clicks and valuable clicks are rarely the same clicks, which is the entire difference between them.

By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026

Maximize Clicks

Automated Google strategy that spends the available budget to buy as many clicks as possible, optionally bounded by a maximum CPC limit.

Google buys the cheapest clicks it can find within your budget, which is why it drifts toward wide, low-intent queries when match types are loose. It is genuinely useful on new campaigns with no conversion history, for traffic goals, and as a temporary way to gather data. Always set the max CPC limit; without one, the strategy will pay whatever a single expensive term happens to cost.

Full definition

Maximize Conversions

Automated Google strategy that spends the full daily budget chasing the highest conversion count, with an optional target CPA to constrain cost.

Bids are computed at auction time from signals Google holds, and the budget becomes the real control lever because the strategy is built to spend it. Add a target CPA once conversion data is steady and you want cost discipline. The recurring mistake is switching to it while conversion tracking is broken or counting the wrong action, which trains the system to buy more of something worthless.

Full definition

Side by side.

The differences that actually change what happens in your account.

 Maximize ClicksMaximize Conversions
Optimizes forClick count.Conversion count.
Conversion tracking neededNo.Yes, and it has to be accurate.
Guardrail availableA maximum CPC bid limit - always set it.An optional target CPA.
Traffic quality tendencyDrifts toward cheap, broad, low-intent queries.Concentrates on queries with conversion history or predicted intent.
Typical useNew campaign with no conversion history, or a genuine traffic goal.Any campaign with steady conversions and a real outcome to buy.
Failure modeNo CPC limit set, so one expensive term absorbs the budget.Trained on a broken or trivial conversion action.

What actually separates them.

01

Maximize Clicks has no notion of what happens after the click, so it will buy a great many bounces if they are cheap.

02

Maximize Conversions needs conversion history to price auctions, which is why it performs badly on brand-new campaigns with none.

03

The max CPC limit is the only guardrail on Maximize Clicks and it is optional, so leaving it blank is a blank cheque.

04

Maximize Clicks pairs badly with loose match types, because cheap clicks and irrelevant queries are usually the same set.

05

Switching from clicks to conversions normally raises CPC and lowers click volume; that is the intended effect, not a problem to fix.

Which one should you use?

Use Maximize Clicks when

  • Brand new campaign with no conversion data, and you need traffic to generate some.
  • The goal genuinely is traffic - a content launch, a comparison page, a top-of-funnel test.
  • Conversion tracking is not yet installed or has not been verified.
  • You are testing landing pages and need volume through them quickly.

Use Maximize Conversions when

  • Conversion tracking is verified and the campaign converts consistently.
  • You are accountable for leads, sales, or calls rather than sessions.
  • Cheap clicks have already proved not to convert.
  • You want to add a target CPA later, which requires being on this strategy first.

Common questions.

Should I set a max CPC limit on Maximize Clicks?

Always. Without one, the strategy pays whatever a given auction requires to keep buying clicks, and a single expensive term can absorb the budget. Set the limit near what you would have bid manually on mid-value keywords, and review search terms often, since this strategy finds the widest queries fastest.

Can Maximize Clicks help a campaign exit learning faster?

It builds traffic and search-term data, but click history is not conversion history, so a later Maximize Conversions campaign still has to learn what converts. It is more useful as a way to validate keywords, landing pages, and negatives before you hand auction pricing to an automated conversion strategy.

My conversions dropped after switching to Maximize Conversions. Why?

The likeliest causes are a learning period still in progress, a conversion action the model can chase but the business does not value, or too little conversion history for the model to price auctions well. Check tracking first, wait out learning, and only then ask whether volume is genuinely too thin for automation.

Or stop choosing between them.

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