How does Google Ads for ecommerce work?
Most online shops use three things. Shopping ads show a product image, price and shop name at the top of results. Performance Max uses the same feed across Search, Shopping, YouTube and more. Search ads cover your brand and the key terms where you want to control the message.
Shopping ads don't use keywords. Google matches searches to products using the feed, which is why feed quality matters so much.
What makes a good product feed?
Accurate, complete and written for searchers. Google can only match what you give it.
- Titles that lead with what the product is, then brand, model, size or colour: the words people type.
- Correct prices and stock, matching the site exactly.
- Clean, clear images on a plain background where the category allows.
- Identifiers such as GTINs where products have them.
- Custom labels for margin, bestsellers or season, so you can group products later.
How do you set up Google Ads for ecommerce, step by step?
Do it in this order. Each step makes the next one work better.
- Set up purchase tracking with order values, and test it with a real order.
- Connect your store to Merchant Center and fix every feed error and warning.
- Rewrite titles for your top sellers first, using the words customers search.
- Add custom labels for margin and performance.
- Launch a brand Search campaign, so searches for your name are kept separate.
- Launch Shopping or Performance Max with the feed, and apply brand exclusions to Performance Max.
- Add Search campaigns for a few high-value non-brand terms where the landing page matters.
- After a few weeks, split products into groups by how they sell, with their own budgets or targets.
- Review search terms, product performance and feed issues at least twice a month.
Should ecommerce stores use Performance Max or Shopping?
Many stores use Performance Max as the main campaign, with brand Search alongside. Some keep standard Shopping for products they want to control closely.
There's no rule that suits every shop. Test on your own data, and read our Performance Max pros and cons before you hand it the whole catalogue.
How should you judge ecommerce Google Ads?
On your store's own numbers. Look at total sales before and after, how much reported revenue came from brand searches, and how each product group performs against its margin.
A campaign that reports great results while total sales stay flat is probably taking credit for orders you'd have had anyway.
What do ecommerce stores get wrong most often?
The same few things come up again and again.
- Tracking add to basket or checkout started as the main conversion.
- Product titles that are just product names or codes.
- Every product in one group with one target.
- No brand exclusions, so new-customer results look better than they are.
- A slow product page on mobile. The ad can only send the click.