The Google Ads Strategy That’s Helping Small E-commerce Brands Turn a Profit

ecom strategy small business google ads

Your Campaign Structure: Simple and Strategic

Start with two Shopping campaigns:

1. Top Sellers Campaign

  • Focus only on your best-performing products
  • Allocate 80% of your budget here
  • Set competitive bids to ensure strong visibility
  • Monitor closely and adjust as needed

2. Everything Else Campaign

  • All remaining products go here
  • Allocate the other 20% of your budget
  • Use more conservative bids
  • Use this as a discovery campaign to find potential future winners

Tip: Keep these campaigns mutually exclusive – exclude top sellers from the “Everything Else” campaign to avoid overlap and wasted spend.

Identifying Your Top Performers

Use existing site data to guide you:

  • Which products drive the most revenue?
  • What categories have the highest conversion rates?
  • Are there brands that sell consistently well?

Segment these into your “Top Sellers” campaign – they’re the foundation of your account.

Product Group Structure

Within each campaign:

  • Segment products clearly by brand, category or individual item
  • Don’t lump all products into a single group
  • Break things out so you can monitor performance and adjust bids with precision

Bidding & Device Strategy

  • Use Manual CPC to stay in full control of spend
  • Exclude tablets – typically low converting
  • Adjust mobile bids based on UX and performance data
  • Start bids using search CPC benchmarks
    • Use Keyword Planner to find average CPCs
    • Set Shopping bids at roughly 50% of Search CPC
    • Top Sellers: aim for strong visibility
    • Everything Else: 10–20% lower bids for testing

Core Campaign Settings

Apply these best practices to both campaigns:

  1. Use Manual CPC bidding
  2. Exclude Search Partners – low-quality traffic
  3. Target by location: “People in or regularly in your target location”
  4. No end dates – use pause instead for flexibility

Negative Keywords Are Non-Negotiable

Even in Shopping campaigns, irrelevant search terms burn budget fast.
Before launch:

  • Research irrelevant terms and build your negative keyword list
  • Apply it to both campaigns
  • Check the search terms report regularly and keep refining

Month-by-Month Approach

Month 1–2: Data Collection Phase

  • Monitor benchmark CPCs
  • Adjust bids based on performance
  • Identify additional top sellers from data

Month 3+: Optimisation Phase

  • Once you’ve hit 30+ conversions, consider testing Target ROAS
  • Evaluate whether top sellers can move to Performance Max
  • Rebalance budgets based on real revenue impact
Paid Ads Specialist Jke Cronin

Jake Cronin

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We’re a seasoned team of paid advertising consultants with extensive experience in both B2C and B2B, managing large budgets and ambitious growth objectives. We combine data-driven strategy with creative execution to deliver tangible, measurable results. No fluff—just smart, scalable advertising that drives revenue. 

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