Shopping ads
Google Shopping and Performance Max management
In Shopping, the product feed is the campaign. Google reads your titles, prices and images and decides which searches to show them on. We fix the feed first, then bid on what each product actually earns you.
The feed decides where you show up
A Shopping ad has no keywords. Google matches searches to products using your feed: title, description, product type, brand, GTIN, price and image. A title that reads “Model X200 Blue” loses to “Women’s waterproof hiking boots, blue, size 38”, because the second one contains the words people type.
Most weak Shopping accounts have a feed problem before they have a bidding problem. Disapproved items, missing identifiers, prices that differ from the site, titles written for the warehouse.
So feed work comes first, and it never quite ends. Prices, stock and ranges change every week.
What we manage in Merchant Center and Google Ads
Merchant Center health
Disapprovals, policy warnings, price and availability mismatches, shipping and returns settings, fixed and then watched.
Titles and attributes
Titles rewritten with the words buyers search, and product type, GTIN, brand, colour and size filled in.
Custom labels
Products tagged by margin, best sellers, season or stock level, so bids and budgets can follow profit.
Supplemental feeds
Corrections applied in Merchant Center without touching your shop, useful when the site cannot change quickly.
Revenue tracking
Order value passed with each purchase, margin where you share it, and refunds corrected through conversion adjustments.
Standard Shopping or Performance Max?
| Standard Shopping | Performance Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Where ads run | Google Search, the Shopping tab, search partners | Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, Maps |
| Control | Bids and exclusions by product group | Asset groups and audience signals, fewer exclusions |
| Reporting | Search terms and product detail | Less detail on searches and placements |
| Suits | Tight budgets, tests, strict margin control | Accounts with clean conversion data and enough volume |
How we run Shopping and Performance Max
Fix the feed
Errors cleared, titles and attributes rewritten for search, images checked against Google’s rules.
Group products by role
Best sellers, steady lines, long tail, clearance. Each group gets its own return target and budget.
Keep brand searches apart
Searches for your own name are cheap and would have converted anyway. Mixed into Performance Max, they flatter its results.
Bid on profit
Return-on-ad-spend targets are set from margin, so a low-margin product is not pushed just because it sells.
Check against real orders
Orders matched to your shop data, new and returning customers split, refunds removed. Google’s figure is where the check starts.
Performance Max for lead generation
Performance Max also runs without a feed, for leads. It can find buyers on YouTube and Display that Search would miss. It can also fill your CRM with junk, because those placements produce accidental and automated form fills that Google happily counts as conversions.
We run it for leads only with a qualified-lead goal: CRM stages sent back as offline conversions, enhanced conversions for leads, and a form that asks a real question. Google then optimises for leads your team accepted. The Google Ads management page explains how that feedback is wired.
What we report
Profit after ad cost
By product group, using the margins you share with us.
ROAS by product group
Next to its break-even point, worked out with our ROAS calculator.
Feed health
Items approved, limited and disapproved, and what changed since last month.
New customer share
How much revenue came from first-time buyers and how much from people who already knew you.
Frequently asked questions
Do Shopping ads work for a small catalogue?
Yes, if people search for the products and your prices compete. With a short catalogue, Standard Shopping is often easier to steer than Performance Max.
Why did Performance Max sales rise but not profit?
It may be selling low-margin products, taking credit for brand searches you would have won anyway, or counting orders that were later refunded. We separate brand traffic, bid on margin and take refunds out.
What is a good ROAS?
One that leaves profit once margin and ad cost are paid. A ROAS target means nothing until you set it next to your margin, which is why we start from your numbers.
Do you work with Shopify or WooCommerce shops?
Yes. Both can send products to Merchant Center through Google’s integrations. We usually add a supplemental feed for the fixes the integration cannot make. For the shop itself, see ecommerce.
Should we also advertise on Amazon?
It depends on your margin and on where your buyers start their search. Our marketplace advertising page covers how ads work inside Amazon and other marketplaces.
Last updated · By the Napexy team
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