Value optimization is a Meta bidding approach that optimizes for the total purchase value it expects to generate, not the number of conversions. It chases high-value buyers instead of treating every conversion as equal.
Value over volume
Standard conversion optimization aims for the most conversions at a target cost; value optimization aims for the most revenue, biasing delivery toward people likely to spend more. It is what lets Meta run against a return goal rather than a cost goal.
What it requires
It needs the pixel to pass accurate purchase values and usually a minimum recent volume of value-based events to learn from. With clean value data it can lift ROAS; without it, it has nothing to optimize and defaults to guesswork.