There are a lot of strategies and tactics that go in to taking a consumer product brand from $10K to $100K revenue per month on Google Ads. Lucky for you, we’ve listed out those exact strategies in this case study.
Your Performance Max campaigns are flat. You're spending, you're waiting, but the growth just isn't happening.
PMax can feel like a black box, and when results plateau, it's tempting to throw more budget at the problem.
Instead of doing that, I want to share five advanced PMax optimisations I use on client accounts. These strategies have been refined through millions of dollars in ad spend.
That impressive 800% ROAS you're seeing in Performance Max?
It might be hiding an uncomfortable truth:
Your branded traffic could be propping up the entire thing while your non-branded traffic runs unprofitably in the background.
I see this constantly. Business owners celebrating their PMax performance, completely unaware that their brand terms are doing all the heavy lifting. Let me show you exactly how to fix this.
Before you blame Google's algorithm for disappointing Shopping Ads performance, check your product feed first!
After auditing hundreds of Google Ads accounts over 12+ years, I can tell you with certainty:
When Shopping campaigns underperform, it is almost always the product feed that trips advertisers up.
Not bids. Not budgets. Not competition. The feed.
Let me walk you through the five critical feed mistakes I see the most often.
Let me show you something that has doubled (and in some cases tripled) return on ad spend (ROAS) for ecommerce brands running Performance Max and Search campaigns together.
It’s a simple workflow using AI, and it will show you all the search terms that convert inside Performance Max, but that you’re not yet targeting in your Search campaigns.
If you’ve ever wondered how to squeeze more profit out of Google Ads without increasing spend, this is it.
Performance Max (PMax) is a jack of all trades. It’s great at running ads across multiple placements — Shopping, Display, YouTube, and yes, Search — but it’s not a master of any of them.
What it is good at, though, is discovery.
It will often uncover profitable search terms that you never knew existed.
But here’s the catch: PMax doesn’t always handle those search terms optimally. It mixes them with all the other networks, gives them generic ad copy, and you never quite get the full potential ROAS that a well-structured Search campaign can deliver.
That’s where this AI prompt comes in.
It identifies every converting search term in your PMax campaigns that isn’t currently being targeted in Search, so you can move them into their own, tightly optimised Search campaigns where they’ll perform far better.
One of our ecommerce clients was running both PMax and Search.
When we checked their data, PMax was generating about 2.5x ROAS from its Search segment.
But once we extracted those converting search terms and moved them into a dedicated Search campaign, ROAS for those same keywords shot up to 6.72x.
That’s more than a 3x improvement, just by putting the right keywords in the right campaign type.
In your Google Ads account:
Go into your Performance Max campaign.
Click Insights & Reports → Search Terms.
Set a generous date range — at least the past 120 days.
Make sure these columns are included:
Clicks
Impressions
Conversions
Cost
Conversion Rate
Conversion Value
If you don’t see them, click Modify Columns and add them manually.
Next, filter your report to include only search terms that have actually converted.
Set your filter to “Conversions > 0.1” (Google can record fractional conversions due to attribution).
Now you’ll have a clean list of all search terms that produced at least one conversion.
Once you have that, download the report.
I recommend downloading to Google Sheets first, deleting the first two header rows, and then exporting it as a CSV file named:
![[CASE STUDY] From $10K to $723K Monthly Revenue for Manta Sleep](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5352434ee4b0aedbe40d16dd/1587016094478-BGJG6NC7K6KQN8H81JMW/62020860_2438306076387608_3911898948121395200_n.jpg)
![[CASE STUDY] 600% Increase in Revenue at 611% ROI for Elite Supplements](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5352434ee4b0aedbe40d16dd/1524125532955-1UMZP1303RVFWUCI8PNJ/SupplementsFreeVectorIconPack3.png)
search_terms_report.csvThis small cleanup step helps the AI parse the file correctly.
Now, you need a list of all the keywords you’re already targeting in your Search campaigns.
In Google Ads:
Click on All Campaigns.
Make sure both Campaign Status and Ad Group Status are set to “All”.
Go to Keywords → Search Keywords.
Download this as a Google Sheet or CSV. Again, delete the first two header rows so that the first row begins with “Ad Group,” “Currency Code,” “CPC,” “Conversions,” and so on.
Save the file as:
search_keywords_report.csvThe reason you’re doing this is because the AI prompt will deduplicate your keyword lists.
It’ll remove any search terms that already exist in your campaigns so that your keyword gap report only shows new opportunities.
Once you’ve got both CSV files ready, open ChatGPT.
Attach both files:
search_terms_report.csvsearch_keywords_report.csvThen, paste in the full AI prompt (which you can download here).
No need to tweak or edit anything — just paste and go.
After a short wait, the AI will output a Keyword Gap Report.
Here’s what you’ll see in the output:
Missing Keywords: Search terms that are converting in Performance Max but completely missing from your Search campaigns.
Action: Add these keywords into your Search campaigns.
Not Eligible Keywords: Keywords that exist in your account but are paused or inactive (e.g., in an old ad group or campaign).
Action: Unpause or move them into active campaigns.
This is your goldmine — all the proven, money-making keywords your Performance Max has discovered but your Search campaigns have ignored.
Now that you’ve got your keyword gap report, jump into your Search campaigns and make sure those converting terms are being targeted.
That’s how you’ll start getting that stronger ROAS you just can’t achieve with Performance Max alone.
But remember, this only works if you’re actively optimising your Search campaigns.
If you just set them up and forget them, you’re leaving money on the table.
If you’re not sure where to start, I’ve made another video that walks through my Weekly Search Optimisation Checklist. It’s the system I use to make sure every client’s campaigns stay healthy and profitable.
Watch that next and use it alongside this prompt to truly level up your Google Ads results.
If you’ve been running Google Ads but feel like you’re not getting the results you should be, my team at Big Flare can help.
We’ve been managing millions in ad spend for ecommerce stores for over 12 years — and we’ve helped clients generate more than $150 million in online sales.
When you book a free audit, we’ll personally review your campaigns and show you exactly where your account can improve and where you’re leaving money on the table.
It’s completely free and no-strings-attached.
If you like what you see, we can even take over and scale your campaigns for you.
If that sounds good, click the link below and let’s make your Google Ads work harder for you.
To recap:
Download your Search Terms report from Performance Max.
Download your Keyword report from Search campaigns.
Clean up both CSVs and run them through the AI prompt.
Use the Keyword Gap Report to find profitable search terms that PMax discovered but you haven’t yet targeted.
Add those terms into new or existing Search campaigns and optimise regularly.
This workflow combines automation with human optimisation — letting Google discover what works, and you capitalising on it properly.
It’s the perfect example of how smart marketers use AI not to replace strategy, but to amplify it.
I get asked all the time:
If you are just starting with Google Ads for ecommerce, what is the fastest path to real sales without wasting budget. Below is exactly how I set new accounts up, what I ignore at the start, and the few numbers I actually care about. It is the same approach my team at Big Flare uses across hundreds of ecommerce stores, distilled and simplified so you can execute today.
I have a very simple rule when writing Google Ads:
Headlines move the money.
Descriptions help, but they are the supporting cast.
In account after account, headlines carry roughly 90 percent of performance, with descriptions adding at most 10 percent. People skim. They decide to click based on what those 30 characters say and how it makes them feel.
What this means in practice:
Spend most of your energy crafting, testing and pruning headlines.
Think benefit first, clarity second, cleverness a distant third.
Keep options varied. You need different headline types, not ten clones of your main keyword.
I love control as much as the next media buyer, but there are two settings that regularly sandbag results.
Pinning feels safe. In testing, it usually reduces click-through rate.
Let Google rotate.
When you give the system room to assemble different combinations, you get more impressions at better positions and more clicks. Pin only if you must avoid a regulatory or compliance issue.
Dynamic Keyword Insertion sounds neat until your ad groups widen and you end up with odd phrasing that hurts performance. Unless your structure is incredibly tight, write the keywords in manually. That way the copy always reads the way you want, and it remains on brand and on message.
A common mistake is spamming the same keyword across most headlines and descriptions. Include a few keyword mirrors, then branch into benefits, offers, social proof, brand-led lines and credibility markers. Varied inputs give the system better permutations and broader match to intent.
These are the building blocks I reach for each time I write or edit ad copy. Mix them through your headlines and, to a lesser extent, descriptions.
When someone searches for “best running shoes for men”, the winning headline mirrors that intent: “Shop Men’s Running Shoes.” Simple, relevant, high intent.
Why it works: mirroring reduces cognitive friction. The user feels they are in the right place and quality score benefits via ad relevance.
Practical tip: build two or three mirror-headlines per ad group that use the main keywords naturally. Do not force grammar. Clarity beats exact-match awkwardness.
Tell people what to do.
Use strong verbs:
Buy, Get, Check, Learn, Look, Order, Purchase, Request, Take, Watch.
Then combine the verb with a reason to act.
Examples you can swipe:
Shop Now and Save
Get Free Delivery Today
Claim Your 20% Off
Try Risk-Free Today
Join 10,000+ Happy Customers
Grab The Deal Before It’s Gone
Learn More
Limited Offer. Act Fast.
Features describe what something is. Benefits describe what it does for me.
The brain buys the change in feeling.
Feature example: “Breathable mesh. Cushioned sole. Eco-friendly materials.”
Benefit example: “Stay cool, feel light, and run all day without tired feet.”
Use my favourite mini formula to combine them:
Feature, so that, Benefit.
“Built with extra cushioning, so that you can run longer without sore feet.”
Too long for a headline? Extract the benefit:
“Comfortable For Longer Runs”
“No More Sore Feet”
Based on my experience, emotion sells best.
People do not buy foam density.
They buy running without pain, more energy, and the confidence of looking fit. Keep copy focused on one emotional outcome per line. Trying to cram every feature and benefit into a single ad weakens the message.
Put your brand name into some headlines and descriptions. It builds recognition and credibility. Better yet, pair it with the keyword or the CTA.
“AeroStep Running Sneakers”
“Shop AeroStep Today”
This links your name with what they want and what they should do next. Repeated exposure pairs trust to your brand and improves click-through rate.
Recency builds trust. Urgency drives action. Combine them and your copy gets harder to ignore.
A simple pattern:
[Recent Proof] + [Urgency Line] = High-converting copy
Examples:
Fashion: “3,200 dresses sold in July. Order by Sunday, get free shipping.”
Supplements: “2,500 bottles shipped last week. Stock up now. This month’s batch is almost gone.”
Tech: “Over 1,000 pre-orders already placed. Secure yours before the early-bird discount ends this week.”
Only use urgency when it is real. Credibility matters.
People believe people. Use reviews, counts, ratings, media mentions and awards directly in the ad.
“Rated 4.9 by 1,200+ Shoppers”
“Trusted by 10,000+ Runners”
“As Featured in Forbes”
“AeroStep Men’s Running Shoes | 1,000 Marathon Titles in 2025”
Most brands bury social proof on their product page. Put it into your ad to reduce perceived risk before the click.
Deals get attention and tip the scales. If you have a genuine offer, lead with it.
“Running Sneakers 20% Off | This Weekend Only”
“30% Off Today Only”
“Buy One, Get One Free”
“Free 2-Day Shipping | Online Exclusive”
Do not invent discounts. Align copy with real promos and set the ad schedule to match.
Your prospect worries about regret. Credibility markers remove those doubts.
“30-Day Money-Back Guarantee”
“GMP Certified”
“FDA Approved”
“Secure Checkout”
“UK-based Support”
Small lines, big impact. They tell the buyer that your attractive offer is also safe and reliable.
Google does not care if you use AI. It cares about quality and relevance. AI will not replace your market understanding, but it is a brilliant assistant when you give it a clear brief.
Here is a compact framework for ChatGPT that reflects what I use on real accounts.
Run the prompt, then act like an editor. Select the best lines, polish for accuracy, and mix the eight elements above across your final set. You will end up with a high-variance pool of headlines and descriptions that the system can rotate for maximum performance.
To show how the pieces fit:
Headline 1: “AeroStep Running Shoes”
Headline 2: “Run All Day”
Headline 3: “No More Tired Feet”
Description: “Feel stronger and faster every run. Shop Now and Save.”
Path fields: “running” and “mens”
That pairing mirrors intent, leads with a benefit, adds a CTA, includes brand, and keeps everything tight and readable.
Draft 30 to 50 headlines using the framework above, ensuring at least one of each element type.
Draft 12 to 20 descriptions focused on one benefit each, with a clear CTA.
Remove duplicates and low-energy lines. If two headlines mean the same thing, keep the stronger one.
Ensure at least two keyword mirrors, three benefit headlines, one brand headline, one social proof, one offer, and one credibility marker.
Avoid pinning. Launch with rotation, watch combinations in the asset report, and iterate weekly.
If you want this level of thinking applied inside your account, we do exactly this every week for clients. Everyone on my team has more than 10 years of hands-on experience. We do not put juniors on your revenue. If that sounds like what you want, you know where to find us.
Great Google Ads copy is a system, not a guess. Focus your energy on headlines because they carry the performance. Avoid pinning and Dynamic Keyword Insertion so the system can discover winning combinations while you keep control of tone and message. Build ads from eight elements: intent-mirroring keywords, strong CTAs, benefit-led lines, brand usage, time and FOMO, social proof, genuine offers and credibility markers. Use ChatGPT as a structured assistant by supplying clear inputs and strict rules, then edit down to the strongest lines. Keep it simple, keep it emotional, and present one clear benefit per line. Do that, and you will see more clicks from the right people and more sales at better rates.
I’ve audited hundreds of ecommerce accounts and I keep seeing the same problems ruin what should be one of your most profitable campaigns in Google Ads.
Retargeting, done correctly, consistently drives some of the highest return on ad spend in an account.
Done badly, it quietly bleeds budget, misses easy revenue, and gives you the false impression that retargeting is not worth it. Below I am going straight into the six mistakes I see most often, and exactly how to fix each one.
A lot of businesses assume Performance Max takes care of retargeting well enough. PMax does some retargeting, but it is a jack of all trades. It will never be as effective as a properly configured, dedicated Display retargeting campaign.
What works best in the real world is simple. Keep Performance Max running as a catch all, then layer a dedicated Display retargeting campaign on top as your main driver of remarketing performance. In side by side comparisons, I commonly see 100 to 200 percent higher ROAS from the dedicated retargeting campaign versus leaving PMax to handle everything.
From the main campaign screen, click the plus button and choose New campaign.
Choose Sales as the objective. Confirm your conversion goal is Purchases. Remove Phone calls if it appears.
Select Display as the campaign type. Enter your homepage URL. You will set precise destination URLs in the ad stage, or dynamic ads will route users to the right product page automatically.
Name it clearly, for example Display Retargeting.
Set locations and languages correctly.
Under More settings, open Dynamic ads and attach your product feed. I will explain this fully in Mistake 2.
Set an initial daily budget that matches your remarketing audience size. As a rough rule, start small and scale as spend and results stabilise.
In Targeting, choose Audience segments, then Your data segments, then Website visitors. Select the precise audiences you build in Mistake 4.
Turn Optimised targeting off. If you leave it on, Google will expand to cold traffic, which defeats the point of retargeting.
If you skip the Merchant Center feed, you are not running true dynamic retargeting. Dynamic ads show people the exact products they viewed or left in their basket. This is where the best results come from.
In Google Ads, go to Tools, then Data manager. Confirm your Google Merchant Center account is linked and your feed is live.
If it is not linked, link it now. If the feed is not healthy, fix that first.
In the Display retargeting campaign settings, find Dynamic ads.
Tick Use dynamic ads feed for personalised ads.
Select your product feed. If you have multiple feeds, select the one you want this campaign to use.
That is it. You now have product aware retargeting that can show each shopper exactly what they were considering.
This is where many campaigns go off the rails. Click focused strategies like Manual CPC or Maximise Clicks feel safe, but in retargeting they usually give you more clicks and less revenue. Avoid them.
Set Bidding to Focus on conversion value. Do not tick the Target ROAS box at the start.
This approach lets the algorithm learn, find converting users, and build momentum without choking volume.
Once the retargeting campaign has 50 or more conversions, ideally within 30 days, you can switch to Target ROAS. Until then, stay on Maximise conversion value without a target. I have tested this repeatedly and it consistently outperforms starting on Target ROAS from a cold start.
Not all visitors are equal. Someone who bounced from the homepage is very different to someone who added to cart. If you throw them all into one giant All visitors audience, you lose control over bids, budgets, and message match.
Create these Website visitors audiences in Audience manager:
Homepage viewers
Category page viewers
Product page viewers
Cart abandoners
Previous purchasers
Catch all All visitors
Tools, Audience manager, plus button, Website visitors.
Name it clearly, for example Product Viewers 30 days.
Segment members: Visitors of webpages.
Past 30 days.
Rule: Page URL Contains /product.
Exclusions: Page URL Contains /cart and Page URL Contains /thank_you to exclude cart visitors and buyers.
Prefill with past 30 days if available.
Create segment.
Note on URL rules: the above examples work for a default Shopify setup. If your site structure differs, update the rules accordingly.
Homepage audience: exclude Category, Product, Cart, Buyers.
Category audience: exclude Product, Cart, Buyers.
Product audience: exclude Cart, Buyers.
Cart abandoners: exclude Buyers.
Catch all: exclude every other audience.
Homepage: 3 to 7 days.
Category: 14 days.
Product: 30 days.
Cart abandoners: 60 to 90 days.
Previous purchasers: depends on your buying cycle, for example 60 days for supplements, or do not retarget at all if you sell one time products.
Catch all: roughly 30 days.
This structure lets you bid more and for longer on hot segments, and trim spend on colder ones. Your ROAS and overall Google Ads performance will improve because budget follows intent.
If every audience sees the same creative, performance drifts down. Message match matters.
Cart abandoners and product viewers: dynamic product ads showing the exact items they viewed.
Category viewers: testimonials, reviews, comparisons, social proof.
Previous buyers: cross sells, upsells, loyalty offers, or replenishment reminders.
Now for an opinion I hold strongly after testing this across many accounts:
Do not hard map each creative type to a single audience with rigid ad group splits.
Give Google a full menu of creatives and let it choose the best dish for each user. It has more behavioural data than you do and it will generally serve the right format to the right person at the right time.
This one is about mindset. Retargeting audiences are smaller than prospecting, so conversion data comes in more slowly. If you judge performance off a week, you are mostly looking at noise. One or two conversions can swing ROAS wildly.
Give retargeting at least 30 days, ideally 60, before making judgement calls. Let the algorithm learn on Maximise conversion value. Iterate calmly on audience definitions and creatives. If the setup is correct, retargeting almost always becomes one of the highest efficiency parts of the account.
When you run a big offer, exclude purchasers from the last 7 to 14 days from your sale retargeting. Nothing upsets a customer more than buying full price today and seeing 30 percent off tomorrow. Excluding recent buyers protects brand goodwill, reduces refund requests, and saves wasted spend.
If you would rather have a specialist team set this up and scale it for you, my agency Big Flare has generated over 150 million dollars in tracked revenue from Google Ads for clients across the UK, USA, and Australia. We are a small senior team with fully customised service, meaning no copy-pasted campaign templates. Capacity is usually tight, but if you see a spot available, feel free to book a time to talk!
Retargeting should be one of your highest efficiency levers in Google Ads. The common failures are predictable and fixable. Run a dedicated Display retargeting campaign alongside Performance Max, and enable dynamic ads by attaching your Merchant Center feed. Start with Maximise conversion value without a Target ROAS, then switch to Target ROAS only after you hit roughly 50 conversions in 30 days. Segment audiences by intent, keep buckets clean with sensible exclusions, and set durations that match how hot the prospect is. Build creatives that match intent, but let Google choose which creative to serve per user. Finally, judge results over 30 to 60 days, and exclude very recent buyers during promotions to protect goodwill and avoid wasted spend. Follow these steps and you turn retargeting from a leaky bucket into a reliable profit engine.
Let’s cut to it. I’ve spent over $30 million on Google Ads and helped ecommerce brands generate over $150 million in revenue.
Here’s exactly how I would build a 7-figure campaign today that hits 400%+ return on ad spend (ROAS). This is the playbook I’ve used across hundreds of client accounts.
And yes, I still use it.
Today, I’m showing you a game-changing Google Ads campaign structure that we use across loads of ecommerce client accounts at my agency, Big Flare.
This structure has helped us generate over $150 million in ecommerce revenue, and it’s simple to implement once you understand how it works.
I call it the ROAS-based 4 Campaign Structure, and it works beautifully for both Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns.
Let’s jump right in.