Google Ads Clarifies 'Profit' as a Banned Conversion Signal
Google restated that profit cannot be entered as a conversion value. A compliance note that explains why some accounts lose eligibility.
In September 2025 Google Ads restated its policy wording on conversion values: reporting raw profit or income as a conversion outcome breaks the *excluded conversion types* rule and can trigger disapproval or suspension.
What you need to know
The update in four points:
- Conversion value must reflect revenue or agreed business value, not P&L profit
- Importing profit as a signal hides true ROAS from smart bidding
- Accounts flagged for this lose access to value-based optimisation
- Re-import corrected values to restore eligibility
What this means for advertisers
This reads bureaucratic, but it matters: value-based bidding is blind when the value column is wrong. Every agency has seen campaigns optimised to laughable ROAS because someone imported profit as revenue.
Next step
Audit your conversion imports and value pass-backs this week. If 'profit' appears anywhere in your value mapping, that's a ticket to the bottom of the account's usefulness rankings.
Platform updates move budgets. Get the playbook applied to your campaigns with a free ad audit from ADZBE (Bengaluru & Hyderabad) — Google Ads, Meta Ads, ChatGPT Ads, JioHotstar, LinkedIn and Moj.
Want this applied to your ads?
Get a free audit of your current Google, Meta & AI media setup.