Tracking and measurement
Conversion value
The amount attached to a conversion event. Platforms optimize toward it, so whether it holds revenue or profit shapes what your campaigns learn.
Conversion value is the amount attached to a conversion event when it is sent to an ad platform. For a purchase it is usually the order revenue, but it can be anything the sender chooses: revenue after discounts, gross profit, contribution margin or a fixed value per lead. The platform reports it, computes ROAS from it and, under value-based bidding, optimises toward it.
That last point is why the choice matters. A platform does not know what the number means. If it receives revenue it will find more revenue; if it receives profit it will find more profit. The value is set in the tracking layer, which is where profit-based optimisation is implemented in practice.
An assistant reading ad data sees conversion values as the platform recorded them. When comparing campaigns or channels, ask what each platform's value represents, whether refunds are reflected, and whether all orders carry a value at all. A campaign with high conversion value and low margin is the classic case where the reported number and the business result disagree.