Paid Ads

Google Shopping and Performance Max: A Guide for Ecommerce Stores

Set up Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns that drive profitable sales: feed optimization, asset groups, conversion values and search term insights.

Key takeaways
  • Your product feed is your targeting.
  • Separate high- and low-margin products for better control.
  • Brand search and remarketing can inflate Performance Max results — watch new-customer data.

Google captures people who are already searching for what you sell. For ecommerce, that usually means Shopping ads and Performance Max (PMax), which uses your product feed and creative assets across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail.

Start with the product feed

Your Merchant Center feed decides which searches your products show for. Improve it by:

  • Writing titles that lead with the product type and key attributes (brand, material, size, color)
  • Using high-quality images on a clean background
  • Filling in GTINs, product categories and custom labels
  • Keeping price and availability accurate to avoid disapprovals

Structure campaigns by margin and performance

Use custom labels to group products by margin, best sellers, or seasonality. This lets you set different return-on-ad-spend targets for products with different profit profiles.

Build strong asset groups

Provide multiple headlines, descriptions, images and at least one video for each asset group. Add audience signals such as customer lists and website visitors to guide early learning.

Send real conversion values

Make sure purchase values are tracked accurately. If you can, report profit-adjusted values or flag new customers so Google learns to find the customers who matter most.

Check what is really driving results

PMax can take credit for brand searches and returning visitors. Review search term insights, use brand exclusions where appropriate, and compare new-customer revenue over time, not just reported ROAS.


This article is for general information only. See our Disclaimer.

Keep reading

Related articles