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

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