Most ecommerce stores running Google Ads today are running something close to the same setup: one Performance Max campaign, the full product catalog inside it, a budget assigned, and not much else deliberate about the structure. Google’s setup wizard encourages this. It is quick to launch. And it is not completely wrong, because Performance Max can work even with minimal configuration.
But “can work” and “working properly” are very different things. This post draws a clear comparison between the default that most stores are running and what a well-structured account actually looks like in 2026, so you can assess where your account sits.
What Most Stores Have
A single Performance Max campaign containing all products. No separation between product categories, margin tiers, or product types. The full catalog is in one asset group.
No brand exclusions. The campaign bids on branded searches (people searching for the store’s name directly) alongside non-branded searches (people searching for product categories). The branded conversions, which are mostly customers who were already coming back, are mixed into the account-level ROAS, making the overall number look stronger than the non-branded performance actually is.
Minimal or no audience signals. Performance Max uses signals to accelerate its learning process. Most stores either leave signals empty or add a single generic in-market audience. The algorithm learns from scratch, with no guidance from the store’s actual customer data.
Conversion tracking set up via Shopify’s native Google app or a simple tag on the thank-you page. This is functional in basic cases but misses a significant portion of conversions that require enhanced conversion methods to capture, particularly on iOS devices and in privacy-restricted browsers.
No negative keyword strategy. Whatever search queries Google decides to enter the products into, those impressions are served. There is no systematic effort to exclude irrelevant or wasteful query types.
Reports that show account-level ROAS and spend, without visibility into which products are working, which are wasting budget, or what queries are driving spend.
This setup is what Google’s default onboarding produces. It is not the result of bad intentions. It is what happens when setup is treated as a one-time task rather than the beginning of ongoing management.
What a Well-Structured Account Looks Like
The differences are not primarily about using more complex tools. They are about structure, data quality, and control at the right level.
Brand campaigns run separately from non-branded campaigns. Branded keywords (searches for the store name, brand name, and specific branded product names) are captured in their own campaign with a separate budget. This serves two purposes: it protects the brand name from competitors who might bid on it, and it keeps branded performance data separate from non-branded. The account-level ROAS reflects both, but the non-branded ROAS can be evaluated on its own, which is the only meaningful measure of whether the ads are acquiring new customers efficiently.
Shopping or Performance Max is structured around the business, not just the catalog. Rather than a single campaign for all products, a well-structured account typically separates product groups in a way that maps to how the business thinks about them. This might be by product category, by margin tier, or by product type. The goal is to be able to set different budget levels and different ROAS targets for groups of products that have different economics.
For example, a store selling both basic accessories (low price, high volume, lower margin) and premium statement pieces (higher price, lower volume, higher margin) benefits from having these in separate campaigns. A single Target ROAS applied to both will either underbid on the premium items or overbid on the basics.
Audience signals are populated with real business data. A well-configured Performance Max account has audience signals built from actual customer data: an uploaded customer email list from the CRM, website visitors segmented by behavior (people who viewed a product versus people who added to cart versus people who purchased), and potentially a lookalike-style signal based on existing customer characteristics. This gives the algorithm a meaningful starting point rather than a blank slate.
Conversion tracking is accurate and complete. A proper setup records each purchase exactly once, passes the actual order value, and uses enhanced conversions to recover the portion of conversions that cookie-based tracking misses. On a typical Shopify store today, enhanced conversions can increase recorded conversions by 15 to 30 percent compared to basic tracking alone, not because more conversions happened, but because more of the ones that did happen are captured.
Search campaigns include a mature negative keyword strategy. Not a starting list of 20 exclusions, but a list built over time from regular search terms reviews: specific irrelevant queries, competitor names (unless there is a deliberate strategy for bidding on them), broad category terms that consistently attract clicks but not buyers, and product variations the store does not actually carry.
Performance is reviewed at the right level of granularity. A well-managed account has visibility into which products are spending budget and at what efficiency, which search queries are generating that spend, and how performance varies by geography and device. Account-level ROAS is one number in a larger picture, not the only number being watched.
The Gap Between the Two and What It Costs
The practical gap between these two setups is not primarily about which features are turned on. It is about data quality and control.
An account with poor structure and no signals teaches the algorithm from scratch, with your budget as the tuition. An account with clean data, proper signals, and deliberate structure gives the algorithm a head start. The result over time is usually lower cost per acquisition and more consistent performance.
The missing negative keywords are direct waste: money going to searches that cannot convert. The branded traffic mixing into ROAS is a reporting problem that leads to bad decisions about scale. The single undifferentiated campaign prevents budget allocation decisions that would improve overall efficiency.
None of this is insurmountable. Most accounts can be restructured over a period of weeks to months without requiring a full restart. But it requires knowing what to build toward and having someone who does the ongoing work to maintain it.
How to Assess Where Your Account Sits
A few quick checks that reveal where on this spectrum your account falls:
Can you see product-level performance in your current reports? If not, your account probably lacks the structure to provide this visibility.
Are there separate campaigns for branded and non-branded activity? If everything is in one campaign, branded performance is inflated in the aggregate numbers.
When did you last review search terms for Shopping campaigns? If you cannot remember or have never done it, negative keyword coverage is almost certainly thin.
Does your conversion tracking record a different number of purchases than your actual Shopify orders? If the numbers diverge significantly, something is wrong in the tracking setup.
Getting This Fixed
Building an account toward the well-structured version described here is exactly what I do, either as a one-time restructure or as part of ongoing management. The work pays for itself through reduced waste and better algorithmic performance.
If you want a clear picture of where your account sits today and what it would take to get it working properly, reach out at adnanagic.com/#contact.
Part of the Google Ads for Store Owners series, written for ecommerce owners who want their ad spend to actually work.
Related Posts
- A Google Ads Account Audit: What I Check and What It Usually Finds
- Performance Max: What to Actually Do With It
- Google Ads Account Structure for Ecommerce
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