There’s one single setting in Google Ads that I guarantee, if adjusted correctly, WILL increase your Shopping Ads profit. This is something I’ve applied across every single Google Ads account I’ve worked on in my 10+ years running an ecommerce PPC agency — and it works.
That setting? Your bid strategy.
If your Shopping Ads aren’t hitting their full revenue potential, chances are, you’re leaving money on the table with the wrong bid strategy settings. Today, I’m going to walk you through a simple way to check your settings and make one crucial tweak that can help you capture more revenue while maintaining profitability.
How to Check If You’re Losing Revenue Due to Bidding Strategy
The first step is to pull up the right performance columns in your Google Ads account.
Go to the All Campaigns view in Google Ads.
Select a longer date range (e.g., the last two months) to get a solid data set.
Click on Columns > Modify Columns > Competitive Metrics.
Add these three crucial columns:
Impression Share
Search Lost IS (Rank)
Search Lost IS (Budget)
Once you’ve got these metrics on-screen, it’s time to analyse what they’re telling you.
Understanding the 3 Key Metrics
1. Impression Share
This tells you what percentage of total available impressions your ads are actually getting. If your Impression Share is 66%, that means you’re showing up for 66% of the searches you’re eligible for.
✅ For non-branded campaigns, I typically look for at least 30-40% Impression Share. ✅ For branded campaigns, I aim for 95%+.
If your Impression Share is lower than it should be, the next step is to figure out why.
2. Search Lost IS (Rank)
This tells you how much Impression Share you’re losing due to ad rank (which is influenced by your CPC bids, quality score, and competition).
If this number is high, it means your bids are too low, preventing your ads from showing as often as they could.
The solution? Lower your Target ROAS slightly.
Google Ads responds to a lower Target ROAS by increasing your bids, which improves your Ad Rank and reduces Impression Share loss.
Example: If your Target ROAS is 500% but you’re losing a lot of impressions due to rank, consider lowering it to 400% or 350%.
Don’t go below a profitable ROAS! If your break-even point is 200% ROAS, never go lower than 300%.
Above I am assuming you are using a Target ROAS bid strategy. If you are using Maximise Conversion Value (without a Target ROAS) then the way to get the system to decrease your ROAS (and thus increase your CPC bids and increase your impression share) would be to increase your daily budget.
3. Search Lost IS (Budget)
This tells you how much Impression Share you’re losing because of budget limitations.
If you see ANY percentage here, you can immediately increase your daily budget to capture those lost impressions (assuming your current ROAS is good).
The best part? Increasing budget won’t reduce your ROAS.
If your Target ROAS is working properly, raising the daily budget just gives you more impressions, clicks, and conversions at the same efficiency.
Again, above I assume you are using Target ROAS. If you are not, if you are using Maximise Conversion Value without a Target ROAS, then increasing your daily budget WILL actually decrease your ROAS. One of the many reasons why I usually recommend using a Target ROAS!
Applying the Fix: The Right Way to Adjust Your Target ROAS
Now that you understand the numbers, here’s how to apply this strategy in Google Ads:
Go to Campaigns > Settings.
Scroll down to Bidding Strategy.
If you’re not using Target ROAS, switch to it.
If you are using Target ROAS, reduce the target gradually, for example:
If your current average ROAS is 4.3, set your Target ROAS to 400% first.
Let it run for at least 30 days (or 50 conversions) to allow the algorithm to adjust.
If performance remains strong, consider dropping it further to 350%.
These are just example numbers to illustrate the overall point of adjusting ROAS in increments rather than sudden big steps.
Bonus Tip: Adjusting Budgets Without Disrupting Performance
Avoid changing your Target ROAS more than once every 30 days.
However, you CAN adjust daily budgets as long as you increase them by no more than 20% per week.
Keeping a higher budget than your daily spend allows Google to scale up on high-traffic days without capping performance.
The End Result? More Revenue
By applying these small changes, you can systematically increase your Google Shopping Ads revenue without hurting your profit margins.
📌 Key Takeaways:
Use Impression Share and Search Lost IS metrics to diagnose revenue losses.
If you’re losing impressions due to Rank, lower your Target ROAS slightly.
If you’re losing impressions due to Budget, raise your daily budget (if ROAS is profitable and you are already using Target ROAS).
Wait 30 days after changing Target ROAS before adjusting it again.
Increase daily budgets gradually (max 20% per week).
This is one of the easiest and fastest changes you can make in Google Ads to increase your ecommerce profit. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!