Google Ads for ecommerce: build Search campaigns around your catalog

The problemSearch and Shopping do different jobs

Shopping ads show a photo, price and title pulled from your product feed, and they win on visual, high-intent product searches. Search ads are plain text, but they let you control the message, target broader category and comparison queries, and own searches Shopping does not always cover, like buying guides, bundles or "best X for Y".

Run both and they reinforce each other. Shopping captures the shopper who already knows the exact product; Search catches the one still deciding, plus your brand defenders and competitor conquesting.

• Shopping: visual, price-led, fed by your product data.
• Search: message you control, broader and comparison intent.
• Together: more coverage of the same demand, less overlap than you think.

The approachStructure your account like your catalog

A store that sells running shoes, trail gear and apparel should not pour every keyword into one campaign. Map campaigns to your top-level categories, then ad groups to subcategories or specific products. When the structure mirrors your navigation, reporting becomes obvious and budget follows the categories that actually sell.

Keep a separate Brand campaign so people searching your store name get a cheap, high-intent click instead of being lumped in with generic traffic.

• One campaign per major category, so budget maps to product lines.
• Ad groups per subcategory or hero product, kept tight on theme.
• A standalone Brand campaign for searches that include your store name.

In practiceCategory ad groups for the browsing shopper

Category terms like "trail running shoes" or "merino base layer" pull in people who know the type of product but not the exact item yet. Group these by intent, write ads that lead with range, price point and what makes your store the right place to buy, and send the click to the matching category page, never the homepage.

These keywords carry more volume and a bit less intent than product searches, so they are where a clear offer and strong landing page do the heavy lifting.

What you getProduct-specific ad groups for the ready buyer

When someone searches an exact model, SKU or product name, they are close to buying. Build tight ad groups around your best sellers and highest-margin items, with the product name in the headlines and the product page as the destination. Match here is usually strong, so conversion rates and ROAS are at their best.

You will not build a dedicated ad group for all 10,000 SKUs, and you should not. Reserve product-level ad groups for the items that justify the attention: top sellers, high margin, or products people search by name.

• Lead with the exact product name and a concrete detail like price or free shipping.
• Point clicks at the product page, so the ad and landing page match.
• Prioritise best sellers and high-margin items, not the whole catalog.

QualityNegative keywords that protect store margin

For ecommerce, the wrong clicks are not just irrelevant, they cost you real money on real CPCs. Block searches that signal no purchase intent, plus anything that drags you into queries you cannot profitably serve. Review the search terms report weekly and keep adding negatives as new junk appears.

• Freebie and how-to intent: "free", "diy", "tutorial", "second hand".
• Out-of-stock or unstocked brands and models you do not carry.
• Job, manual and warranty searches that rarely lead to a sale.
• Competitor or marketplace names where you will only burn budget.

OverviewPromotions and seasonal campaigns

Stores live and die by their calendar: sales, holidays, restocks and peak seasons. Plan dedicated campaigns or ad variants for these moments so the offer in your ad matches the offer on site. A "20% off winter jackets" headline running in July, or pointing at an expired sale, wastes spend and erodes trust.

Keep an evergreen version always on, then layer time-boxed promo campaigns on top so you can switch them on and off cleanly without breaking your baseline.

• Build promo campaigns ahead of time and schedule their start and end dates.
• Match ad copy to the live offer, and pause it the moment the sale ends.
• Lift budgets on proven categories before known peaks, not during.

How it worksScaling across a large catalog

Hand-building Search campaigns for hundreds of categories and thousands of products does not scale, which is why most stores never get past Shopping. The answer is a repeatable pattern: a consistent naming convention, templated ad copy that swaps in the category or product, and a shared negative list reused everywhere.

Decide what deserves its own ad group and what can ride in a broader category group. Coverage at the category level plus product ad groups for your top items captures most of the demand without an unmanageable account.

• Use one naming convention so a large account stays readable.
• Template ad copy per category, then customise the headlines that matter.
• Maintain one shared negative list across every campaign.

The trade-offOptimize and track Search performance after launch

Launching the campaigns is the start, not the finish. For ecommerce the money is in what happens next: cutting wasted spend, defending ROAS and shifting budget toward the categories and products that convert. AdBuilder watches your real performance after launch and turns it into live recommendations you can apply in one click in Google Ads, and reverse just as easily if you change your mind.

Typical recommendations protect margin directly: exclude search terms that burn budget without selling, adjust budgets toward winners, pause campaigns or ad groups that are not converting, add missing extensions, fix broken or dead product links so you never pay for a click that lands on an error, and tune location bids around where your buyers actually are.

Alongside that, the Insight dashboard shows how the account is doing with charts, segments and period-over-period comparison, plus a written AI analysis of cost, conversions, CPA, ROAS and impression share. You can also ask the built-in chatbot questions about your own account and get answers in plain language, no report-building required.

• One-click, reversible recommendations applied straight in Google Ads.
• Exclude wasted search terms, shift budgets, pause non-converting campaigns.
• Add missing extensions, fix broken product links, tune location bids.
• Insight dashboard with charts, segments and period comparison.
• Written AI analysis of cost, conversions, CPA, ROAS and impression share.
• A chatbot you can ask about your own account.

PricingHow AdBuilder helps (the Search side)

AdBuilder builds the Search campaigns for your store from your website. Paste your URL and it reads your catalog structure, then produces category and product ad groups with keywords, negative keywords, Responsive Search Ads and extensions, all within Google's character limits and policies. You review everything and push it straight to your Google Ads account, with no spreadsheets and no import. After launch it keeps working for you, surfacing live optimizations and tracking performance in the Insight dashboard.

To be clear about scope: AdBuilder builds Search, not Shopping. It does not create or manage a product feed, Performance Max or Display. Treat it as the fast way to stand up the Search half of your ecommerce setup, and to keep it profitable, alongside the Shopping campaigns you run from your feed.

Building and previewing your campaigns is free. Paid plans (Solo, Basic, Pro and Agency) add publishing to Google Ads plus ongoing optimization and the Insight dashboard. AI is included on every plan.