Google Shopping and Performance Max run on feed quality and margin.
We run Google Shopping and Performance Max for e-commerce brands, and for our own stores, through our own Google Ads manager account.
Shopping results are decided by the product feed long before bidding matters: titles, GTINs, product types, images and custom labels decide which searches your products can show for and how the budget gets split. We fix the feed in Merchant Center, resolve disapprovals and misrepresentation suspensions, then structure Performance Max and standard Shopping campaigns around margin instead of a single catalog-wide target. We feed Google real profit and new customer data so bidding chases the orders you actually want, and we report on contribution after ad spend, not platform ROAS.
Questions this page answers
- Ecommerce ppc agency for a Shopify brand
- Google shopping agency that fixes product feeds
- How to fix a Merchant Center misrepresentation suspension
- How to structure Performance Max campaigns by margin
- Should I run standard Shopping alongside Performance Max
- How to stop Performance Max spending on branded searches
- How to bid on profit instead of revenue in Google Ads
Step 1 of 2
How can we help you get found?
Next: name, email and budget. That’s it.
Where Google Shopping and Performance Max pays off, and where it stalls.
Shopping ads are built from your product feed, not from keywords. Google reads the title, description, product type, Google product category, GTIN, brand, price, availability and images from Merchant Center and decides which searches each product is eligible for. A title that reads like an internal SKU name, a missing GTIN or a vague product type limits reach before a single bid is placed. Performance Max then takes that feed plus your creative assets and spreads spend across Shopping, Search, YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail, optimizing toward whatever conversion value you tell it to chase.
Most accounts get stuck in the same places. Feeds sync from Shopify with default titles and no custom labels, so every product sits in one campaign with one return target, and the top sellers starve the long tail. Merchant Center flags pile up, and a misrepresentation suspension can take the whole store off Shopping over a missing return policy or unclear business information. Performance Max quietly spends on branded searches you would have won anyway, which makes its ROAS look better than it is. And bidding runs on revenue, so it treats a low-margin clearance item the same as your best product.
We start in Merchant Center, not in the campaign settings. We rewrite titles in the order shoppers actually search, fill GTINs and product types, and add custom labels for margin band, best sellers, seasonality and stock depth. Then we split Performance Max by those labels so each group gets its own budget and return target, add brand exclusions and search themes, and run standard Shopping alongside for control where it earns it. Bidding gets profit-adjusted values and new customer goals, and we report contribution after ad spend.
Feeds it
- Shopify product catalog
- Supplemental feeds
- Customer lists
- Product margin data
It feeds
- Shopping and PMax sales
- New customer orders
- Profit after ad spend
- Weekly scoreboard
Every connection is built on your accounts and documented, so the data survives any change of vendor.
Google Shopping and Performance Max management, scoped to the result.
Merchant Center feed rebuild
Titles rewritten in the order shoppers search, GTINs and brand filled, product types structured, images checked, and supplemental feeds or feed rules for fixes that should not touch the store.
Disapproval and suspension recovery
We diagnose policy flags and misrepresentation suspensions, fix return, shipping, contact and checkout issues on the site, then file the review request with the evidence Google asks for.
Margin-based campaign structure
Custom labels for margin band, best sellers, seasonality and stock depth, then Performance Max and Shopping campaigns split so each group gets a return target that fits its economics.
Performance Max build and control
Asset groups by product theme, search themes, audience signals from customer lists, brand exclusions, negative keywords at account level and placement reviews through the reporting Google makes available.
Profit and new customer bidding
Conversion values adjusted toward gross profit, new customer acquisition goals using customer lists, and offline adjustments for refunds so bidding learns from the orders that actually make money.
Reporting on contribution
A weekly scoreboard showing spend, revenue, gross profit after ad spend, new customer share and branded versus non-branded split, reconciled against store orders rather than platform claims.
Where Google Shopping and Performance Max setups break.
The problems we are most often hired to fix, in the order they tend to cost money.
One campaign for the whole catalog
A single Performance Max campaign with one return target lets a few best sellers absorb the budget while hundreds of products get no impressions, and high and low margin items are bid exactly the same way.
Branded search inside PMax
Without brand exclusions, Performance Max can take credit for searches of your own brand name, orders you would mostly have won through organic results or a cheap brand campaign.
Ignoring Merchant Center warnings
Warnings about missing GTINs, price mismatches, shipping or return policies become disapprovals, and site-level issues can trigger a misrepresentation suspension that removes every product from Shopping.
Bidding on revenue, not profit
Value-based bidding optimizes whatever value you send. Sending full order revenue pushes spend toward high-price, low-margin products and discounted orders that look good in the platform and lose money.
Google Shopping and Performance Max, wired into the rest of the business.
Google Merchant Center
The feed, policy status, shipping and returns settings, and diagnostics for every product.
Shopify
Product data synced through the Google and YouTube app, with metafields feeding custom labels.
Google Ads
Performance Max, standard Shopping and brand Search run from our manager account.
Google Analytics 4
Cross-checks landing page behavior and revenue against Google Ads conversion data.
Klaviyo
Customer lists for new customer goals, audience signals and exclusion of existing buyers.
Feedonomics
Feed management layer for large catalogs that need rules beyond Merchant Center's own.
Looker Studio
Margin and new customer reporting combined from Google Ads, Merchant Center and store data.
From audit to running it.
Audit.
We review Merchant Center diagnostics, feed attributes, campaign structure, brand leakage, conversion setup and product-level spend, then show which products get budget and which never do.
Fix the feed.
We rewrite titles, fill GTINs and product types, set custom labels for margin and performance, and resolve disapprovals or suspensions in Merchant Center before we restructure or rebid any campaign.
Rebuild and connect.
We split campaigns by margin and role, add brand exclusions and search themes, send profit-adjusted conversion values and customer lists, and verify conversions against store orders.
Run and report.
We manage bids, assets, feed updates and budgets month to month with a weekly contribution scoreboard, or hand over a documented account and feed to your team.
A good fit
- E-commerce brands spending meaningfully on Google Ads whose Performance Max results are hard to explain or trust.
- Stores with Merchant Center disapprovals or a misrepresentation suspension that has taken products off Shopping.
- Catalogs with mixed margins where one return target clearly does not fit every product line.
- Brands that can share margin data and want bidding and reporting built around profit, not revenue.
Probably not a fit
- Stores with too few conversions for automated bidding to learn; we will say so and suggest a simpler start.
- Anyone who needs a Google Premier Partner badge for procurement; we are independent and do not hold that status.
- Advertisers selling products Google restricts or bans, which no amount of feed work will get approved.
Pricing, plainly.
Google Ads charges for clicks and there is no platform fee for Shopping or Performance Max; your cost is your ad spend. Merchant Center is free, and free product listings run alongside paid Shopping. Third-party feed tools, where needed, bill separately. Our work begins with a fixed-scope audit and feed fix, quoted after a short call and read-only access to Google Ads and Merchant Center. Ongoing management is a monthly fee scoped to the size of the catalog and account, month to month after an initial term. We do not take a percentage of recovered sales and we do not mark up media.
Google Shopping and Performance Max by business type.
- Product brandsMarketing agency and e-commerce builder for product brands: headless Shopify storefronts, Amazon Brand Registry and listings, Klaviyo, ads tracked to orders.
- Home and kitchen brandsHome goods marketing and Amazon agency work for home and kitchen brands: listings, bundles, Vine launches, Wayfair and Target Plus, Shopify and Q4 planning.
- Outdoor and sporting goods brandsAn outdoor brand marketing agency for gear makers selling DTC, on Amazon and through dealers: seasonal media, reviewer programs, MAP discipline and ad policy.
- Tools and hardware brandsTool brand marketing and Amazon agency work for tools and hardware brands: demo video, Buy Box and MAP defense, dealer programs and home center listings.
- Pet product brandsA pet product marketing agency for brands selling on Amazon, Chewy and Shopify: autoship, compliant pet food and supplement claims, and ads pet parents trust.
- Supplement brandsA supplement marketing agency running Amazon and Shopify as one system: compliant claims, TIC testing, subscriptions, creators and paid media that hold margin.
Reading on Google Shopping and Performance Max.
- Paid Media · Takeaway
In-house Google Ads is usually cheaper only once the account is large enough to keep a senior specialist busy full time and the business already has analytics, creative, and development support.
Paid Media · 11 min read
Google Ads Agency vs In-House: Is It Cheaper to Run It Yourself?.
The salary and the agency fee are both incomplete numbers. This is the full cost comparison, when in-house is actually cheaper, how e-commerce and Shopping change the math, and how referral leads compare to Google Ads leads.
Read - Paid Media · Takeaway
Enhanced conversions send hashed customer data such as email and phone with a conversion so Google can match it to a signed-in user when cookies fall short.
Paid Media · 11 min read
Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads: Web, Leads and CRM Imports.
Enhanced conversions add hashed first-party data to your Google Ads conversions so more of them get measured, and the leads version lets you import qualified, booked and sold outcomes from your CRM. Here is how both work and how to set them up.
Read - Paid Media · Takeaway
Paid media reports show different conversion numbers than the CRM because each platform uses its own attribution windows, view-through credit, modeled conversions, and click-date reporting.
Paid Media · 11 min read
Paid Media Reporting: Why Ad Numbers Differ From Your CRM.
Your ad platforms and your CRM will never agree exactly. Here is why the conversion numbers differ, how to reconcile them, the four numbers a report should lead with, and the reporting and cadence to expect from a partner.
Read
Hiring help with Google Shopping and Performance Max.
- Are you a certified Google Partner?
- No. We are independent and do not hold Google Partner or Premier Partner status. We run Google Ads through our own manager account for our brands and clients. For you it means we are not measured by Google on how much you spend or which products we adopt, so we can recommend cutting spend or skipping features when that is right.
- Should we run standard Shopping alongside Performance Max?
- Often yes. Standard Shopping gives search term visibility, precise negatives and tight control for specific products or brand terms. Google changed the rules so Performance Max no longer automatically takes priority over standard Shopping for the same product, and ad rank decides instead. We use both where each earns its place.
- How do you fix a Merchant Center misrepresentation suspension?
- We check what Google expects a trustworthy store to show: clear contact details, business identity, accurate return and shipping policies, secure checkout, realistic claims and matching prices. We fix the site and Merchant Center settings, document the changes, then request review. Rushing repeated appeals without fixes can lengthen the wait before another review is allowed.
- What are custom labels and why do they matter?
- Merchant Center allows five custom label fields per product that you define yourself. We use them for margin band, best seller status, seasonality, price range or stock depth. Campaigns and asset groups then split on those labels, so each group of products gets a budget and return target that matches its economics.
- Can Performance Max bid on profit instead of revenue?
- Yes, indirectly. Performance Max optimizes toward the conversion value you send. We send values adjusted toward gross profit, either by passing margin-based values at purchase or through value rules and adjustments, and we add a new customer acquisition goal where acquiring first-time buyers is worth more than repeat orders.
- How do we stop Performance Max from taking credit for branded searches?
- We apply brand exclusions to Performance Max, run a separate low-cost brand Search campaign, and add account-level negative keywords where needed. Then we report branded and non-branded results separately, so you can see what Performance Max adds beyond buyers who already knew your name.
Let’s get Google Shopping and Performance Max working for you.
A short note on where the business is and where it needs to go. A senior partner replies within one business day.