How conversion value rules work
A conversion action records a value. Conversion value rules sit between that recorded value and the bidding system, adjusting it according to conditions you set — where the person was, what device they used, or which audience list they belong to. Conditions can be combined, and the adjustment can multiply the value or replace it outright.
The adjustment happens before bidding sees the number, which is the whole point. A strategy working to a return target treats the adjusted value as the truth, so it will bid harder for the segments you have declared valuable and ease off elsewhere. Reporting shows the adjusted figures too, so once rules are live, periods before and after are no longer directly comparable.
Why conversion value rules matter
Most conversion tracking treats every lead as identical, and most businesses know perfectly well that they are not. An enquiry from a city you can serve profitably is worth more than one from a district that would cost a day of travel. A returning customer is worth more than a stranger. Value rules are how you tell the auction what you already know, without waiting for a CRM integration to be built.
For businesses working across borders — Nepali firms selling into Australia or the UK, for example — the geographic version is often the most useful. It lets one campaign serve several markets while bidding reflects the fact that a lead from each is worth a different amount, which is otherwise very hard to express with value-based bidding alone.
Common mistakes with conversion value rules
Inventing the adjustments is the first and most damaging. A rule is an assertion about worth, and if the multiplier came from a hunch rather than from margin, close rate or lifetime value, the bidding system will act on the hunch with real money. Work the ratio out from your own records before you set anything.
Using rules to patch broken tracking is the second. If values are missing or wrong at source, fix the source. The third is forgetting the effect on targets: adjusted values change your reported return, so a return-on-ad-spend target set under the old numbers no longer means what it did, and it needs re-baselining after the rules go live. Overlapping rules that apply to the same conversion also need care, since the outcome may not be the one you pictured.
How to act on it
Start with real evidence. Pull closed business by location, device and customer type from your own records, and only build a rule where the difference is large enough to matter and consistent enough to trust. One or two well-founded rules beat a dozen approximate ones.
Record the date each rule goes live, reset your targets against the new value baseline, and review the rules whenever your prices, margins or service areas change. If you later gain the ability to import the actual value of each sale from a CRM, do that instead: real values imported per conversion always beat a rule that estimates them, and the rules can then be retired.