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Google AdsShopping & PMaxMicrosoft AdsFeed Optimisation

Shopify PPC

The Shopify PPC agency that fixes the feed and tracking first

Google Ads, Shopping, and Performance Max run against a rebuilt product feed, conversion data you can reconcile against Shopify, and landing pages that hold the traffic you paid for.

  • Break-even ROAS derived from your actual gross margin
  • Product feed rebuilt around what people search, not what reads well on a PDP
  • Branded search separated and tested for incrementality
  • Flat fees — not a percentage of your ad spend
Conversion service illustration in brand blue and green
Explore:PPC Conversion OptimizationShopify CROMeta AdsShopify MarketingBreak-Even ROAS Guide

Why accounts plateau

Most Shopify PPC problems are not in the ad account

Most underperforming Shopify paid search accounts are not badly managed inside the ad platform. They are managed only inside the ad platform. The campaign structure is reasonable, the bids are automated, the negatives are being added — and performance is capped by a product feed with weak titles, a conversion setup that double-counts, and PDPs that lose the traffic after it arrives.

That is why we treat Shopify PPC as three connected systems rather than one. The feed determines what you can compete for. The measurement determines whether your decisions are based on anything real. The landing experience determines what the click is worth. The ad account sits on top of all three and can only be as good as they are.

It also means being disciplined about what paid search is actually adding. Branded search, Performance Max absorbing demand you already had, and platform-attributed revenue that would have arrived anyway all make dashboards look better than the business does. We would rather report a smaller honest number and be trusted with the budget.

The starting point is always margin. Break-even ROAS comes from gross margin, and a brand at 35% margin should not be run to the same target as one at 70%. Getting that number right changes every decision downstream from it.

What we usually find

The patterns behind a stalled Shopify paid search account

These come up in nearly every account audit. None of them are exotic, and most of them are cheaper to fix than the spend increase usually proposed instead.

A product feed left at Shopify's defaults

Titles written for a product page rather than for search, missing GTINs and product types, and images that lose against competitors in the shopping carousel. Shopping and Performance Max match on feed content, so this quietly caps everything above it.

Conversion tracking nobody has reconciled

GA4, Google Ads, Meta, and Shopify all reporting different revenue, with no documented explanation of why. Bidding algorithms optimise toward whatever signal they are given; if the signal is wrong, the automation confidently makes things worse.

Performance Max absorbing branded demand

An excellent reported ROAS that is substantially traffic you already owned. Without brand exclusions and separate branded campaigns, PMax will take credit for demand your marketing generated elsewhere.

Everything run to one ROAS target

Prospecting, retargeting, branded, and shopping held to the same number, which guarantees over-investment in the easy wins and under-investment in the ones that actually grow the business.

Search terms nobody reads

Broad match with automated bidding and no negative keyword discipline is an efficient way to fund searches that will never convert. This is unglamorous work and reliably one of the fastest returns available.

Traffic landing on pages that cannot convert it

High-intent clicks arriving at a slow PDP with thin imagery and unclear delivery information. The account is not the constraint; the page is. Spending more on the account in this state just buys the same problem at scale.

Capabilities

What we run

Paid search on Shopify is four systems working together — feed, measurement, account, and landing experience. We work on all four.

Google Search campaigns

Intent-led structure around how people actually search for your category, with match type and negative keyword discipline that keeps spend on qualified queries.

Google Shopping and Performance Max

Feed-driven campaigns with deliberate brand exclusions, asset group structure by margin and category, and enough separation to see what is actually working.

Product feed optimisation

Titles rebuilt around searched attributes, product types and categories, GTIN coverage, custom labels for margin-based bidding, and image quality. Usually the highest-return early work.

Microsoft Ads

Google campaigns extended into Microsoft with their own negatives and bid management rather than imported and forgotten.

Conversion tracking and measurement

One canonical conversion definition, server-side tagging where it helps, deduplication across platforms, and a documented reconciliation against Shopify's own order data.

Margin-based bidding

Break-even ROAS derived from real gross margin, with custom labels so high-margin and low-margin products are not bid to the same target.

Incrementality testing

Geo holdouts and brand bidding tests where spend justifies them, to distinguish revenue paid search created from revenue it merely recorded.

Landing page and PDP work

Conversion work on the pages paid traffic lands on, because half of paid search performance is decided after the click.

Creative and asset testing

Responsive search asset coverage, shopping imagery, and PMax asset groups tested systematically rather than refreshed when someone gets bored.

Account audits

Structure, search terms, bidding, feed, tracking, budget allocation, and landing alignment — with prioritised findings you keep regardless of what happens next.

Budget and forecast modelling

Where incremental spend can go at a ROAS above break-even, and where it cannot, so budget conversations are grounded rather than aspirational.

Profit reporting

Reporting against contribution where margin data is available, alongside the platform numbers and an explanation of where they diverge.

Want a straight read on your Google Ads account?

We will audit structure, search terms, feed quality, tracking, and budget allocation, and give you the prioritised findings — yours to keep either way.

30-minute call · No commitment · Custom quote in 48 hours

Process

How we take over an account

Conversion's four-stage growth process visualized in brand blue and green
01

Margin and measurement audit

Before touching campaigns: gross margin by category, break-even ROAS, and whether the conversion data can be reconciled against Shopify. Everything downstream depends on these being right.

02

Account and feed audit

Structure, search terms, negatives, bidding status, budget allocation, and a full feed quality review. Findings prioritised by expected return rather than by how easy they are to fix.

03

Tracking remediation

Conversion definitions, deduplication, server-side tagging where it improves durability, and a documented reconciliation. Done before restructuring, because restructuring on bad data wastes the restructure.

04

Feed optimisation

Titles, product types, GTINs, custom labels, and imagery. Frequently produces more improvement in the first month than any change inside the ad account.

05

Restructure and launch

Campaign architecture built around intent and margin, with branded demand separated so it can be measured rather than absorbed.

06

Learning period discipline

Deliberate restraint while automated bidding stabilises, with obvious waste fixed immediately and structural changes held until the data supports them.

07

Landing page work

Conversion improvements on the pages paid traffic reaches, run as tests where volume allows rather than as opinions applied directly.

08

Ongoing optimisation and incrementality

Search term review, budget reallocation against margin, creative testing, and periodic holdout tests to keep the reported numbers honest.

How we differ

Two ways to run a Shopify PPC account

The column on the right is not incompetence — it is the standard model. It just stops working once the easy inefficiencies are gone.

FeatureHow we workTypical account management
What is optimisedFeed, measurement, account, and landing experienceCampaign settings and bids
Primary success metricContribution against break-even ROASPlatform-reported ROAS
Branded searchSeparated and measured for incrementalityBlended into overall performance
Product feedActively rebuilt around searched attributesShopify default export
Conversion trackingReconciled against Shopify order dataAssumed correct
Landing pagesIn scope and testedClient's responsibility
Fee modelFlat fee, or performance-linked where attribution allowsPercentage of ad spend

Sectors

Where the economics differ

Break-even ROAS, repeat rate, and returns behaviour vary enormously by category, and bidding should reflect that.

Fashion and apparel

High competition, heavy returns, and strong seasonality. Returns-adjusted margin rather than gross margin is the number that should drive bidding here, and it frequently is not.

Beauty and personal care

Repeat purchase economics justify a lower first-order ROAS, provided the repeat rate is actually measured rather than assumed from a category benchmark.

Home and furniture

High AOV, long consideration, and few conversions per month — which makes automated bidding data-starved and makes upper-funnel measurement genuinely difficult.

Health and supplements

Subscription economics and advertising policy restrictions. Claims review matters as much as campaign structure, because disapprovals cost more than inefficiency.

Food and beverage

Regional delivery limits and perishability mean geographic targeting and feed availability rules carry more weight than usual.

Electronics and technical products

Price-comparison behaviour and thin margins. Feed accuracy and competitive pricing visibility matter more here than creative.

Jewellery and luxury

High AOV with long consideration and heavy branded search. Separating branded from prospecting is essential or the reported ROAS becomes meaningless.

Pet and specialty retail

Strong repeat behaviour and broad catalogs where feed structure and custom labels do most of the useful work.

B2B and wholesale

Long cycles and offline conversion. Lead quality rather than conversion volume is the metric, which requires CRM data flowing back into the ad platforms.

Deliverables

What you get

Scope varies by engagement and spend level. This is the shape of a full paid search programme.

Everything included in a Conversion engagement, laid out as tangible deliverables

Account management

  • Google Search, Shopping, and Performance Max
  • Microsoft Ads with independent management
  • Search term review and negative keyword programme
  • Bid strategy and budget allocation against margin
  • Responsive search and PMax asset testing
  • Brand exclusion and branded campaign separation

Feed and catalog

  • Title and product type optimisation
  • GTIN and attribute coverage
  • Custom labels for margin-based bidding
  • Image quality review
  • Feed error monitoring and alerting

Measurement

  • Canonical conversion definitions
  • Server-side tagging where it improves durability
  • Cross-platform deduplication
  • Documented reconciliation against Shopify orders
  • Break-even ROAS model from gross margin
  • Geo holdout and brand incrementality tests

Reporting and conversion

  • Contribution reporting where margin data exists
  • New versus returning customer mix
  • Landing page and PDP recommendations
  • Test results with decisions, not just charts
  • Monthly review with the reasoning written down

Why Conversion

How we work

We fix the feed before the bids

On Shopify, feed quality caps shopping and Performance Max performance. Optimising bids against a weak feed is optimising the wrong layer, and it is where most accounts we inherit have been stuck.

Measurement before restructuring

Restructuring an account whose conversion data cannot be reconciled wastes the restructure. We fix the signal first, even though it is slower and less impressive to demo.

Branded search reported honestly

We separate branded demand and test its incrementality rather than letting it flatter the blended number. This usually makes our reported ROAS look worse and our advice worth more.

Flat fees, not percentage of spend

Percentage-of-spend pays an agency to recommend spending more. We would rather remove the incentive than explain it away.

The page is in scope

Half of paid search performance happens after the click. We run paid media and conversion work together and will tell you when the constraint is the PDP rather than the account.

Profit, not just ROAS

Where margin data is available we report contribution, because ROAS targets set without reference to margin are how profitable-looking accounts lose money.

Questions

Shopify PPC, answered

What does a Shopify PPC agency do?
A Shopify PPC agency runs paid search and shopping campaigns for ecommerce brands — Google Ads, Google Shopping and Performance Max, Microsoft Ads, and usually paid social alongside them. For Shopify specifically, a meaningful share of the work sits outside the ad platforms: the product feed, the conversion tracking, and the landing experience. A campaign structure can be immaculate and still underperform because the feed has poor titles, or because conversions are being double-counted, or because the PDP the ads point at does not answer the question the search implied. Agencies that only work inside the ad account tend to plateau for exactly these reasons.
How much should we spend on Shopify PPC?
The useful starting point is not a budget figure but your break-even ROAS, which comes from your gross margin. A brand with 70% margin can sustain a much lower ROAS than one at 35%, and the two should not be run to the same target. Once break-even is known, budget follows from how much volume exists at a ROAS above it. Most brands starting seriously on paid search find $5,000 to $15,000 a month is enough to generate the data needed for real decisions, but the honest answer is that the right number depends on margin, AOV, repeat rate, and how much of the demand is branded.
What does a Shopify PPC agency cost?
Common models are a flat monthly retainer, a percentage of ad spend, or a hybrid. Market ranges run roughly $2,000 to $10,000 a month for management, or 10% to 20% of spend, with the percentage falling as spend rises. Percentage-of-spend creates an incentive to spend more, which is worth naming out loud. We prefer flat fees, and we offer performance-linked arrangements on growth work where the attribution is clean enough to make them honest.
How long before PPC works?
You will see data immediately and should not act on most of it for a few weeks. Meaningful signal on a new account usually takes 4 to 8 weeks: enough conversions to evaluate structure, enough search term data to build negatives, and enough time for automated bidding to exit its learning phase. Brands that restructure in week two, which is common, mostly reset that clock. The exception is obvious waste — irrelevant search terms, broken tracking, feed errors — which should be fixed on day one.
Is Performance Max right for a Shopify store?
Often yes, with conditions. Performance Max works well when the feed is strong and the conversion data is clean, because it is largely a feed-and-signal system. It works poorly as a way to avoid doing that work. The recurring problem is transparency: PMax will happily absorb branded search and report an excellent ROAS that is substantially demand you already had. Running branded search separately, using brand exclusions, and watching the channel mix matters more than the campaign type itself.
Should we bid on our own brand name?
Usually yes, but measure it honestly. Brand terms convert at high rates and low costs, which makes blended ROAS look excellent while contributing less incremental revenue than the numbers imply — you often would have received much of that traffic organically. The case for bidding is defensive, when competitors bid on your terms, and for controlling the message. The case against is paying for clicks you already had. The only real way to settle it for your brand is a geo holdout test, which we run when spend justifies it.
How does the product feed affect PPC performance?
More than almost anything else in the account. Shopping and Performance Max match queries to products largely through feed content, so titles, product types, GTINs, and image quality determine which searches you can appear for at all. Shopify's default feed output is serviceable and rarely optimal — titles that read well on a PDP are often missing the attributes shoppers actually search on. Feed work is usually the highest-return early activity on a Shopify account and the one most often skipped.
How do you handle conversion tracking on Shopify?
Deliberately, because most accounts we audit have a measurement problem rather than a bidding problem. That means one canonical conversion definition, server-side tagging where it improves durability, deduplication between GA4 and ad platform pixels, correct handling of Shopify's checkout events, and a documented reconciliation between Shopify's own order data and what the ad platforms report. If those three numbers cannot be reconciled, no amount of bid strategy work will produce reliable decisions.
Do you work on landing pages and PDPs as well?
Yes, and we would argue you cannot separate them. Half of paid search performance is decided after the click. A campaign sending high-intent traffic to a PDP with weak imagery, unclear shipping information, or a slow mobile experience is paying full price for a fraction of the value. We run paid media and conversion work together for this reason, and we will tell you when the constraint is the page rather than the account.
Google Ads or Microsoft Ads for Shopify?
Google first, almost always, on volume. Microsoft Ads is worth adding once Google is stable: the audience skews older and higher income in several categories, competition is thinner, and CPCs are often materially lower. Importing campaigns from Google is straightforward, but importing and then ignoring them is the common failure — Microsoft needs its own negatives and bid management to be worth the attention.
Can you audit our existing Google Ads account?
Yes. An audit covers account structure, search term and negative keyword hygiene, bidding strategy and its learning status, feed quality, conversion tracking accuracy and deduplication, budget allocation against margin, creative and asset coverage, and landing page alignment. You get a prioritised list of findings with the reasoning, and you own it whether or not you work with us afterwards.
How do you report on performance?
Against profit where we can get the margin data, not just ROAS. Platform-reported ROAS is a useful operational number and a poor decision-making number on its own, because it counts attributed revenue rather than incremental contribution. Reporting covers spend, revenue, blended and channel ROAS, new versus returning customer mix, and where those figures diverge from Shopify's own numbers — because they will, and knowing why matters more than picking whichever dashboard is most flattering.

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Next step

Tell us what your paid search is doing now

A 30-minute call, an honest read on whether the constraint is the account, the feed, the tracking, or the page — and what we would do first.

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