If you run an ecommerce business, you may assume that advertising every product in your catalog on Google is the best way to maximize sales. After all, the more products you advertise, the more opportunities you have to reach potential customers, right?
Not necessarily.
While advertising your entire product catalog can work for some ecommerce businesses, it isn’t always the most profitable approach. Products differ in their profit margins, demand, conversion rates, and ability to generate a positive return on advertising spend. Treating every product the same can lead to wasted ad spend and missed opportunities to grow your business profitably.
The goal of Google Ads isn’t simply to generate more clicks or sales. It’s to make each click count by investing your advertising budget in products that have the greatest potential to generate profitable growth.
Let’s explore how to determine which products deserve your advertising budget and how to build a more effective Google Shopping strategy.
Why Advertising Every Product Can Be a Problem
Google Shopping makes it relatively easy to advertise a large product catalog. Once your products are approved in Google Merchant Center and your campaigns are configured, you can make a broad selection of your inventory eligible to appear in Shopping ads.
However, making a product eligible to advertise doesn’t mean it’s worth advertising.
Your catalog might include bestselling products, high-margin items, slow-moving inventory, products with limited search demand, and items that generate very little profit after expenses.
If you advertise all these products without considering their individual performance, you risk spending money on products that generate clicks but fail to produce profitable sales.
There’s another important consideration: Google Ads optimizes toward the goals and signals you provide. If you’re optimizing for conversions or revenue without accounting for profit margins, you could generate impressive-looking results while earning very little profit.
For example, a campaign might generate $10,000 in revenue and appear successful based on its return on ad spend. But if the products sold have low margins, your advertising costs could consume most or all of the profit.
That’s why successful ecommerce advertising requires looking beyond revenue and evaluating the economics of the products you’re selling.
- Prioritize Products Based on Profitability
One of the first steps in deciding which products to advertise is understanding how much profit each product can generate.
Consider two products that both sell for $100.
Product A leaves you with $40 after product costs, shipping, and other variable expenses, before advertising and overhead. Product B leaves you with just $10 after those same expenses.
If both products generate the same number of clicks and have the same conversion rate, Product A gives you considerably more room to spend on advertising while remaining profitable.
Product B isn’t necessarily a product you should never advertise. It might generate repeat purchases, encourage customers to buy additional items, or serve as an entry point to a more valuable customer relationship. However, you need to understand those economics before deciding how much to spend promoting it.
Start by identifying products with healthy margins and strong sales potential. These products may be better candidates for an aggressive advertising strategy.
For lower-margin products, evaluate whether their conversion rates, order values, or broader contribution to your business justify the advertising expense.
The key is to understand your allowable customer acquisition cost before deciding how much you’re willing to pay for a sale.
- Use Sales Data to Identify Your Best Products
Your existing sales data can provide valuable insight into which products deserve advertising attention.
Look at your ecommerce analytics and identify products that consistently generate sales. Consider their conversion rates, average order values, historical demand, and performance across different marketing channels.
Products that already sell well organically can be excellent candidates for Google Ads. Their existing sales performance suggests that customers want them, although you’ll still need to determine whether paid traffic can be acquired profitably.
On the other hand, be cautious about directing significant advertising spend toward products that receive plenty of traffic but rarely convert.
There may be an underlying problem.
Perhaps the price isn’t competitive. Maybe the product images fail to communicate its value, the product description lacks important information, or shipping costs discourage customers from completing their purchases.
It’s also possible that demand for the product is limited.
Before investing more money in advertising, investigate the reasons behind poor performance. Improving your product page, pricing, or offer may deliver better results than simply increasing your advertising budget.
Remember, Google Ads can help customers discover your products, but it can’t automatically fix an uncompetitive offer.
- Segment Your Catalog Into Meaningful Product Groups
Rather than treating every product identically, organize your catalog into groups based on performance, profitability, and business objectives.
For example, you might separate your products into the following categories:
- Bestsellers: Products with a consistent history of profitable sales.
- High-margin products: Items that provide more room to acquire customers profitably.
- New products: Items that need testing to determine whether sufficient demand exists.
- Underperforming products: Products that require additional analysis before receiving more budget.
- Seasonal products: Items whose demand changes significantly throughout the year.
- Inventory-sensitive products: Items that require advertising adjustments based on available stock.
Google Shopping campaigns and product feeds provide several ways to organize products. Attributes such as product type and brand, along with custom labels in Google Merchant Center, can help you categorize products and develop a more deliberate campaign structure.
For instance, custom labels can identify bestsellers, margin tiers, seasonal products, or performance categories. Depending on your campaign type and setup, these attributes can help you control which products are included in particular campaigns and how you manage their budgets and bidding strategies.
Your bestsellers might receive a larger share of your advertising budget, while new products receive a smaller, controlled testing allocation.
The goal isn’t to create as many campaigns as possible. It’s to build a structure that gives you meaningful control over your advertising investment without adding unnecessary complexity.
- Give New Products a Chance to Prove Themselves
Focusing exclusively on proven bestsellers can be a mistake.
If you only advertise products that have already demonstrated strong performance, you may miss opportunities to discover your next bestseller.
New products need an opportunity to generate data and demonstrate their potential.
Consider allocating a controlled portion of your budget to testing new products. Monitor impressions, clicks, conversion rates, cost per acquisition, and profitability as sufficient data becomes available.
Some products will perform well. Others won’t. That’s the purpose of testing: identifying opportunities while limiting the amount of money spent on unproven products.
However, avoid making decisions too quickly.
A product with few impressions may have limited search demand rather than poor conversion potential. A product that receives clicks but no sales might need more data, a stronger offer, or an improved landing page.
You should also distinguish between a product that isn’t receiving traffic and one that receives relevant traffic but fails to convert. These situations require different solutions.
Use the available evidence to determine whether a product deserves more investment, needs improvement, or should be excluded from advertising.
- Know When to Exclude Products From Advertising
There are legitimate reasons to exclude certain products from your Google Ads campaigns.
For example, a product might consistently generate unprofitable sales, have insufficient inventory, or attract relevant traffic without converting despite a reasonable testing period.
In these circumstances, pausing or excluding the product may be the right decision.
However, don’t automatically eliminate a product simply because its return on ad spend is lower than that of your best performers.
Consider the broader business impact.
Does the product encourage customers to purchase complementary items? Does it lead to repeat purchases? Does it help acquire customers who subsequently spend more with your business?
Customer lifetime value and the contribution of additional products to an order can influence how much you’re willing to spend to acquire a customer.
You should also verify your conversion tracking before making significant decisions. If Google Ads isn’t recording purchases correctly, you could mistakenly conclude that a product is underperforming when it is actually generating sales.
Ultimately, product exclusions should be based on reliable data and a clear understanding of profitability, not arbitrary rules.
How to Measure Success Beyond Return on Ad Spend
Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a useful metric, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
ROAS measures the revenue attributed to advertising relative to advertising costs. It doesn’t account for product costs, fulfillment expenses, or other variable costs that determine whether a sale is profitable.
Consider a product generating a 400% ROAS. That means it generates $4 in attributed revenue for every $1 spent on advertising.
Whether that result is profitable depends on the product’s economics.
A high-margin product might perform very well at that ROAS, while a low-margin product could lose money at the same level.
To make better advertising decisions, evaluate ROAS alongside contribution margin, customer acquisition cost, conversion rate, average order value, and—where appropriate—repeat purchase behavior and customer lifetime value.
Establish profitability targets that reflect your business model rather than applying the same ROAS goal to every product.
This gives you a clearer picture of which products are truly contributing to sustainable ecommerce growth.
So, Should You Advertise Every Product in Your Catalog?
The answer is that you shouldn’t advertise every product simply because it’s available in your catalog.
Instead, build your Google Ads strategy around the products most likely to generate profitable growth.
Start by identifying your best-performing products and understanding their margins. Use your sales data to prioritize opportunities, segment your catalog into meaningful groups, and test new products with a controlled budget. Review performance regularly and make adjustments based on reliable data.
Some ecommerce businesses may ultimately find that advertising nearly their entire catalog is profitable. Others may achieve better results by concentrating their budgets on a smaller selection of products.
Neither approach is automatically right or wrong. What matters is whether your strategy supports your business goals.
The objective isn’t to spend your entire advertising budget or generate the greatest possible number of clicks. It’s to invest in the opportunities that produce the strongest financial results.
More clicks don’t necessarily mean more profit.
By making thoughtful decisions about which products to advertise, you can improve your Google Ads efficiency, reduce wasted spend, and build a more profitable ecommerce business.
That’s what it means to make each click count.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Should ecommerce brands advertise every product in their catalog on Google?
No, ecommerce brands don’t necessarily need to advertise every product in their catalog. The best approach is to prioritize products based on profitability, demand, conversion rates, and historical sales performance. While advertising an entire catalog can work for some businesses, focusing on products with the strongest potential for profitable growth can help reduce wasted ad spend and improve overall campaign performance.
- How do I decide which products to advertise on Google Shopping?
Start by analyzing your product margins, historical sales, conversion rates, average order values, and demand. Products that consistently generate profitable sales are often strong candidates for advertising. You should also consider inventory availability and competitive pricing. New products can be tested with a controlled budget to determine whether they have the potential to become profitable advertising opportunities.
- Should I advertise low-margin products on Google Ads?
Low-margin products can still be worth advertising, but you need to evaluate their economics carefully. Consider how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer while remaining profitable. Low-margin products may also generate repeat purchases, encourage customers to buy complementary products, or increase average order value. However, if advertising costs consistently exceed the profit a product generates, you may need to reduce spending or exclude it from your campaigns.
- How can I organize my product catalog for Google Shopping campaigns?
You can organize your catalog using product attributes such as brand, product type, and custom labels in Google Merchant Center. Custom labels can identify bestsellers, profit-margin categories, seasonal products, and performance groups. Depending on your campaign setup, these attributes can help you control product eligibility and manage budgets and bidding strategies more effectively. The goal is to create a structure that gives you useful control over your advertising spend without unnecessary complexity.
- Should I advertise new products that haven’t generated sales yet?
Yes, testing new products can help you discover future bestsellers. However, rather than committing a large budget immediately, allocate a controlled amount to testing. Monitor impressions, clicks, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition as data accumulates. If a product receives traffic but doesn’t convert, investigate its pricing, product page, images, and offer before deciding whether to continue advertising.
- When should I stop advertising a product on Google?
Consider pausing or excluding a product when it consistently generates unprofitable sales, has insufficient inventory, or fails to convert after receiving a reasonable amount of relevant traffic. Before making that decision, verify your conversion tracking and consider the product’s contribution to repeat purchases, complementary sales, and customer lifetime value. Decisions should be based on reliable data and your overall profitability goals rather than a single metric.
- What is a good ROAS for Google Shopping campaigns?
A good return on ad spend (ROAS) depends on your product margins, operating expenses, and profitability targets. ROAS measures the revenue generated relative to advertising costs, but it doesn’t account for the cost of the products sold or other business expenses. For example, a 400% ROAS means you generate $4 in attributed revenue for every $1 spent on advertising. Whether that is profitable depends on your margins and other costs. Calculate your break-even ROAS and set targets that support your business’s financial goals.
Need Help with Google Ads? If you’re ready to take your online store’s performance to the next level with Google Shopping Ads but need a helping hand, consider reaching out. I’m Andy Splichal, author of Make Each Click Count and host of the Make Each Click Count podcast. Whether it’s about creating high-performing Shopping Ads or mastering your overall Google Ads strategy, I’m here to help. Let’s make those clicks count!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy Splichal is the founder and managing partner of True Online Presence, author of the Make Each Click Count book series, host of the Make Each Click Count podcast, founder of Make Each Click Count University and certified online marketing strategist with twenty plus years of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.
He was named to Best of Los Angeles Awards’ Most Fascinating 100 List in both 2020 and 2021. To find more information on Andy Splichal, visit trueonlinepresence.com or read The Full Story on his website or his blog, blog.trueonlinepresence.com.