Google Ads for ecommerce stores that bid on margin

Google Ads for an online shop runs on one thing more than any other: the product feed. The title, price, image and availability that Google shows come from the data you send to Merchant Center. A good feed with a simple campaign beats a clever campaign on a poor feed, every time.

This page goes through the feed, the choice between Shopping and Performance Max, how to bid on margin, and the order in which a small shop builds its account.

Google writes your product ad from the feed. A title like "Lounge set Bali" says little to someone searching "grey rattan corner sofa with cushions". A title that names product type, material, colour and size wins the search and the click.

A mismatch between feed and site gets products disapproved, so let the shop platform send the feed rather than a spreadsheet. Shopify, WooCommerce and Lightspeed all have a channel for it. If you are still choosing a platform, see Shopify or WooCommerce. Which of the two campaign types fits your catalogue, we weigh up in Google Shopping vs Performance Max.

Target ROAS tells Google to bring in a certain revenue per pound or euro spent. The trap is that a 400 percent ROAS means something different on a product with a 60 percent margin than on one with 15 percent. Group your products by margin with a custom label, and give each group its own ROAS target. Better still, pass the profit of each order as the conversion value instead of the revenue, so Google bids on what you keep.

Work out the ROAS you need to break even with the ROAS calculator, and read what the number means in ROAS. For a product at 40 percent margin you break even at a ROAS of 250 percent, before shipping and returns.

Exclude your brand from Performance Max, or it takes credit for sales that brand search would have brought in anyway. How remarketing works for a shop, including dynamic ads that show the product someone viewed, is in Google Ads remarketing.

A shop in garden furniture sells in spring, a shop in heaters in autumn. Raise the budget a few weeks before the season, not during it, so the campaign has time to learn. Pause or lower bids on products that are nearly out of stock; an ad for a product you cannot deliver costs the click and the customer.

Every order with its value, the products in it and whether it was a new customer. Use the tag or GA4, with consent mode, because in the UK and the EU a tracking cookie needs consent first. How to set up GA4 is in Google Analytics 4 setup; the cookie rules are in UK cookie law. Tag links in emails and social posts with the UTM builder, so you can see what the ads add on top.

Paid and organic results compete for the same searches. A product page that ranks well lowers what you need to spend on that product. For category pages and buying guides, ecommerce SEO pays back over years; ads fill the gap while it grows.

Alcohol, supplements, medicines, weapons and some cosmetics fall under restricted policies at Google. Some need certification, some can only be advertised in certain countries, some not at all. Check the policy before you put those products in the feed, or they will be disapproved and can drag the account down. What Google asks before your first ad runs is in Google Ads advertiser verification.

A shop account needs a short weekly look, not a daily one. Four reports tell you almost everything. The search terms report shows which searches triggered your Shopping ads; add the irrelevant ones as negatives. The products report shows which items take budget without selling; lower their bids or move them to a separate group. The Merchant Center diagnostics show disapproved products and feed errors. And the conversion report shows whether new customers and returning customers come in at the ratio you expect.

Change one thing at a time and wait a week or two before you judge it. Smart bidding needs time to settle after every change, and a shop that adjusts targets daily never lets it learn.

A product with a high return rate, such as clothing or shoes, earns less than its price suggests. Count returns and shipping in the margin you bid on, or the account will push products that look profitable and are not. A shop with free shipping above a threshold can also use that threshold in its ads, because it is a reason to buy more than one item.