Choosing between Maximize Clicks and Maximize Conversions is one of the most common — and most costly — mistakes affiliate marketers make on Google Ads. The right bidding strategy at the bottom of the funnel can double your ROI. The wrong one will drain your budget with no results. This guide breaks down how each strategy works, when to use each one, and why conversion tracking is the non-negotiable prerequisite most affiliates skip.
Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) campaigns target users who have already shown purchase intent. In Google Ads Search, this means keywords like 'buy', 'best', 'review', or the product name itself. These campaigns have the highest conversion potential — and the highest stakes when it comes to bidding strategy.
What is Maximize Clicks?
Maximize Clicks tells Google to get you as many clicks as possible within your daily budget. The algorithm adjusts bids automatically at each auction to buy the most traffic it can. It has no idea what happens after the click — whether the user bought, bounced, or never even saw your offer.
- Goal: traffic volume, not quality
- Works from day one — no conversion history required
- You can set a max CPC cap to prevent overbidding
- Treats all clicks as equal regardless of keyword intent
- Best for data collection in new campaigns
What is Maximize Conversions?
Maximize Conversions uses Google's machine learning to optimize bids with one goal: get the most conversions possible within your budget. The algorithm analyzes signals like device, time of day, location, and browsing history to decide how much to bid in each auction — always prioritizing clicks most likely to convert.
- Goal: conversions, not clicks
- Requires a conversion tag installed and firing correctly
- Needs a learning period — minimum 30 conversions in 30 days recommended
- Can be combined with a target CPA for cost control
- Best for mature campaigns with reliable conversion tracking
What's the practical difference for affiliates?
For an affiliate, the difference comes down to this: Maximize Clicks spreads your budget across all keywords democratically, with no idea which ones convert. Maximize Conversions concentrates your budget on the keywords and audiences that have historically generated sales. The catch is that most affiliates try to use Maximize Conversions without properly configured conversion tracking — which leaves the algorithm flying blind and often produces worse results than Maximize Clicks.
If you switch to Maximize Conversions without a working conversion tag, Google will optimize for zero conversions — and simply spend your budget on the cheapest available clicks, not the most profitable ones. The result is consistently worse than Maximize Clicks. Before switching strategies, verify that your conversions are actually being recorded in the Google Ads interface.
When should affiliates use Maximize Clicks?
Maximize Clicks is the right choice in specific situations:
- New account with no conversion history — run for 2–4 weeks to collect data
- New campaign for a product you're still testing for profitability
- Very low daily budget (under $15–20/day) where Maximize Conversions won't get enough volume to learn
- You want to drive traffic to a presell page while you set up conversion tracking
When should affiliates switch to Maximize Conversions?
The switch makes sense once you have enough data for the algorithm to learn from:
- At least 30 tracked conversions in the last 30 days
- Conversion tag installed and firing reliably on every sale
- Affiliate platform sales (ClickBank, Digistore24, MaxWeb, AdCombo) connected back to Google Ads
- Daily budget large enough to generate consistent conversion volume
How AdsTracking solves the affiliate conversion tracking problem
The biggest blocker for running Maximize Conversions successfully is affiliate conversion tracking. Platforms like ClickBank, Digistore24, MaxWeb, and AdCombo don't automatically send sale data back to Google Ads — you need a dedicated integration. AdsTracking handles this automatically: it connects the sale made on the affiliate platform back to the exact campaign, ad group, and keyword that generated it, in real time. With AdsTracking active, the Maximize Conversions algorithm gets the data it needs to actually work in your favor.
Affiliates who activate proper conversion tracking before switching to Maximize Conversions report CPA reductions of up to 40% within 30 days, based on internal AdsTracking usage data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Maximize Conversions from day one?
Technically yes, but it's not recommended. Without conversion history, the algorithm enters a learning phase and may spend significant budget without results. Start with Maximize Clicks or Manual CPC, collect the first 30 conversions, then switch.
Is Maximize Conversions always better than Maximize Clicks?
No. Maximize Conversions outperforms when you have reliable tracking and sufficient history. Without those two elements, Maximize Clicks typically performs better because it doesn't depend on conversion data to function.
How do I track affiliate conversions in Google Ads?
You need to integrate your affiliate platform (ClickBank, Digistore24, Hotmart, etc.) with Google Ads via GCLID or a conversion pixel. AdsTracking automates this integration for 20+ platforms without any coding required.
Which bidding strategy works best for bottom-of-funnel keywords?
High-intent BOFU keywords like 'buy', 'price', or the product name have the highest purchase probability. With active tracking and 30+ conversions in history, Maximize Conversions will concentrate your budget precisely on these keywords — which is exactly where it performs best.
Conclusion
The choice between Maximize Clicks and Maximize Conversions isn't about which is universally better — it's about which is right for your campaign's current stage. Use Maximize Clicks to collect data, switch to Maximize Conversions once you have reliable tracking and sufficient history. The missing link for most affiliates is simply conversion tracking. Without it, no bidding strategy will perform the way it should.
Set up conversion tracking and unlock Maximize Conversions
AdsTracking connects sales from 20+ affiliate platforms directly to your Google Ads campaigns in real time — giving the algorithm the data it needs to optimize for you.