Scaling Google Shopping Ads: A Product Variant Strategy for E-commerce Success

By: Santosh Kumar, Founder, Guided PPC

Are you an e-commerce business owner struggling to scale your Google Shopping Ads? Do you feel like you're hitting a ceiling with Performance Max campaigns overshadowing your Shopping efforts? Many e-commerce advertisers face the challenge of maximizing their reach and conversions with Google Ads.

In this blog post, we'll explore a powerful strategy that can help you overcome these obstacles and achieve significant growth: scaling Google Shopping Ads with product variants. This innovative approach I came up with offers a way to leverage the strengths of both Performance Max and Shopping campaigns while expanding your keyword targeting and unlocking new opportunities for success.


What We'll Cover:


The Challenges of Scaling Google Shopping Ads

Performance Max Dominance: Performance Max campaigns, with their ability to serve ads across all Google channels, often overshadow traditional Shopping campaigns, leading to decreased visibility and clicks for the latter.

Limited Keyword Targeting: Shopping Ads rely on keywords in product titles for targeting, limiting the number of keyword variations you can effectively target for a single product.

Prospecting vs. Remarketing: Shopping Ads are primarily geared towards prospecting (reaching new customers), while Performance Max excels at remarketing (targeting existing customers), creating a potential conflict when running both campaigns simultaneously.


Understanding Product Variants

Product variants are essentially duplicates of your existing products created within Google Merchant Center, not on your actual website. These duplicates retain the same core product attributes but have unique product titles, allowing you to target different keyword variations for the same product.


The Benefits of Using Product Variants

Overcome Performance Max Dominance: By using different product variants in your Performance Max and Shopping campaigns, you avoid direct competition and ensure both campaigns receive adequate exposure and clicks.

Expand Keyword Targeting: Product variants enable you to target a wider range of keyword variations for the same product, increasing your reach and potential conversions.

Enhanced Prospecting: You can create variants specifically tailored for prospecting, allowing you to reach new customers more effectively through Shopping Ads.

Improved Campaign Performance: By addressing the challenges mentioned above, product variants can lead to increased clicks, conversions, and overall campaign success.


How to Implement Product Variants in Your Campaigns

Identify Keyword Opportunities: Use keyword research tools to discover different ways people search for your products and identify relevant keyword variations.

Create Product Variants in Merchant Center: Duplicate your existing products in Google Merchant Center and assign unique product titles to each variant, incorporating the targeted keywords.

Structure Your Campaigns: Organize your campaigns strategically, using different product variants in Performance Max, Shopping, and other campaign types to avoid competition and maximize reach.

Monitor and Optimize: Track the performance of your product variants and make adjustments as needed to ensure optimal results.


Scaling Google Shopping Ads with product variants is a game-changing strategy for e-commerce businesses looking to overcome the challenges of Performance Max dominance, limited keyword targeting, and the prospecting vs. remarketing dilemma. By implementing this approach, you can unlock new opportunities for growth, expand your reach, and achieve greater success in your Google Ads campaigns.

Santosh is the Founder and CEO of Guided PPC, a Google Ads agency specializing in Ecommerce DTC brands. Prior to this, he was the Director of Google Ads Specialists at Solutions 8, where he managed over 200 Google Ads accounts and $5 million in monthly ad spend. 

You can find him on LinkedIn