Once you’ve got your Google Shopping campaign up and running, the real work begins. Running a campaign is not a set-it-and-forget-it kind of deal. You need to monitor your ads and make adjustments to squeeze the best performance out of every penny you spend. This is where optimization comes in.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through some of the most effective ways to optimize your Google Shopping campaign, especially if you’re working with a small budget. By the end of this, you’ll know how to fine-tune your product listings, bids, and targeting to improve your ad performance without breaking the bank.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. Keyword Optimization
2. Negative Keywords
3. Adjusting Bids
4. Ad Group Segmentation
5. Device and Location Adjustments

As always, I’ll share some personal insights from my own experience to help you avoid common mistakes.

Step 1: Keyword Optimization for Google Shopping

Unlike traditional Google search ads, Google Shopping campaigns don’t let you bid on specific keywords. Instead, Google matches your ads to relevant search queries based on the information in your product feed. That doesn’t mean you should ignore keywords altogether—far from it.

How Google Shopping Ads Work with Search Queries

Google uses your product title, description, and other details in your feed to decide when your ad should show up for a given search term. This means optimizing your product feed with the right keywords is essential for getting your ads in front of the right people.

Here’s how to optimize your product listings for the best search queries:

1. Optimize Your Product Titles The product title is the most important part of your product feed when it comes to keyword matching. Make sure your product titles are clear, descriptive, and include the most relevant keywords. Avoid keyword stuffing, but make sure the most important details are there.

   For example, instead of just saying “Running Shoes,” try something like “Men’s Lightweight Running Shoes – Size 10, Breathable Mesh, Black.”

2. Refine Your Product Descriptions While the product title is critical, the description also plays a role in how Google matches your ads to search queries. Your product descriptions should expand on the details in your title, providing more context and including secondary keywords where it makes sense.

   Stick to natural language and focus on key features and benefits. For example, if you’re selling a laptop, mention specific features like screen size, battery life, and any unique selling points that might appeal to customers.

3. Focus on High-Quality Product Images While images don’t directly influence search query matching, they’re crucial to getting clicks once your ad appears. Use high-quality images that clearly show your product from multiple angles. If your product looks better than the competition’s, people are more likely to click on your ad.

I used to think that since Google Shopping didn’t use traditional keywords, I could just leave my product titles as they were. Big mistake! Once I started adding more descriptive titles with relevant keywords, my impressions and clicks improved dramatically. If you’re not seeing the results you want, chances are your product titles and descriptions need tweaking.

Step 2: Negative Keywords

While you can’t choose specific keywords to bid on, you can control what your ads don’t show up for by using negative keywords. These are search terms that you explicitly tell Google not to show your ads for.

Why Negative Keywords Matter

Negative keywords help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks. For example, if you sell high-end luxury watches, you don’t want your ads showing up when someone searches for “cheap watches” or “free watches.” By adding those terms as negative keywords, you prevent your ads from appearing for those searches.

How to Add Negative Keywords

1. Go to Your Google Ads Account In your Google Ads dashboard, navigate to your Shopping campaign.

2. Open the Keywords Tab Under the "Keywords" tab, click on the "Negative Keywords" option.

3. Add Negative Keywords Here, you can manually enter negative keywords that you don’t want your ads to show for. You can also create a list of negative keywords to apply across multiple campaigns.

Identifying Negative Keywords

To find out which keywords you should add as negative, take a look at the Search Terms Report in Google Ads. This report shows you the exact search queries that triggered your ads. If you notice any irrelevant terms, add them to your negative keyword list.

I once ran a campaign for premium leather bags, and my ads kept showing up for terms like “cheap leather bags” and “discount handbags.” People were clicking on my ads, but they weren’t converting because they were looking for something much cheaper. Adding “cheap,” “discount,” and similar words as negative keywords saved me a ton of money on wasted clicks.

Step 3: Adjusting Bids

As your campaign starts collecting data, one of the most important optimization tasks is adjusting your bids. This helps you get more out of your budget by focusing on the products and search queries that are delivering the best results.

Start with Manual Bidding

When you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to use manual bidding. This gives you more control over how much you’re willing to pay for each click. Once you have more data, you can switch to an automated bidding strategy, but manual bidding is great for optimizing on a small budget.

Adjust Bids Based on Performance

Here’s how to adjust your bids:

1. Look at Your Top-Performing Products Identify which products are getting the most clicks and conversions. For these products, consider increasing your bids slightly to get more visibility and clicks.

2. Lower Bids on Underperforming Products If a product isn’t getting many clicks or conversions, lower your bid to save money. This is especially important if you’re working with a small budget—there’s no point wasting money on products that aren’t performing.

3. Use Bid Adjustments for Devices and Locations We’ll cover this in more detail later, but you can also adjust bids based on the devices and locations that are performing best for your campaign.

When I first started, I didn’t realize how important bid adjustments were. I was running all my ads at the same bid, and I ended up spending way too much on underperforming products. Once I started adjusting my bids based on performance, I saw a big improvement in both my ROAS and overall ad efficiency.

Step 4: Ad Group Segmentation

If you’ve lumped all your products into a single campaign, it’s time to rethink your strategy. One of the most effective ways to optimize your Google Shopping campaign is through ad group segmentation.

Why Segment Your Ad Groups?

Segmenting your products into different ad groups allows you to create more targeted campaigns. Instead of having one campaign for all your products, you can create separate campaigns for different product categories or even individual products.

How to Segment Your Ad Groups

1. Group Products by Category Start by grouping your products into categories. For example, if you sell clothing, you could create separate ad groups for men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing. This allows you to tailor your bids, product titles, and descriptions to each category.

2. Segment by Price Range Another way to segment your products is by price range. Higher-priced products might require higher bids to compete with other advertisers, while lower-priced items might perform well with lower bids. This segmentation helps you optimize your budget for each price tier.

3. Test Individual Products If you have a few top-selling products, consider creating separate ad groups for those individual products. This allows you to focus your budget on your best performers and tweak the ads to maximize sales for those items.

I used to throw all my products into one big campaign, thinking it would be easier to manage. But I quickly realized that some products needed more attention than others. Once I started segmenting my ad groups, I could adjust bids and optimize listings for specific categories and products, which led to a big boost in performance.

Step 5: Device and Location Adjustments

Finally, let’s talk about device and location adjustments. These are two powerful optimization tools that can help you get more out of your budget.

Device Adjustments

You can adjust your bids based on the device people are using to search for your products. For example, if you notice that most of your conversions are coming from mobile users, you can increase your bids for mobile devices to get more clicks. On the other hand, if desktop users aren’t converting well, you can lower your bids for desktop traffic.

Here’s how to adjust bids by device:

1. Go to Your Campaign Settings In your Google Ads account, navigate to your Shopping campaign and click on “Settings.”

2. Click on Devices Under the “Devices” section, you’ll see a breakdown of performance by device (desktop, mobile, and tablet).

3. Adjust Your Bids Increase or decrease your bids for each device based on how well it’s performing. If mobile users are converting at a higher rate, increase your bid for mobile traffic. If desktop users aren’t converting, lower your desktop bids.

Location Adjustments

You can also adjust bids based on location. If you notice that certain locations are driving more sales, you can increase your bids for those areas. Conversely, if some locations aren’t performing well, you can lower your bids or exclude them altogether.

Here’s how to adjust bids by location:

1. Go to Your Campaign Settings In your Google Ads account, navigate to your Shopping campaign and click on “Settings.”

2. Click on Locations Under the “Locations” section, you’ll see a breakdown of performance by geographic area.

3. Adjust Your Bids Increase your bids for locations that are driving the most sales and lower them for underperforming areas.

I was initially targeting all locations equally, but I found that some regions were performing much better than others. By increasing my bids in those high-performing areas, I was able to drive more traffic and get better results without increasing my overall budget.

Final Thoughts

Optimizing your Google Shopping campaign is an ongoing process, but it’s crucial if you want to get the best results from your ad spend. Start by tweaking your product listings and negative keywords, then move on to adjusting bids, segmenting your ad groups, and fine-tuning your device and location settings.

In the next tutorial, we’ll dive into advanced strategies for scaling your Google Shopping campaigns, including retargeting, audience segmentation, and using automation to take your ads to the next level. Stay tuned!