What is different about advertising a store
In shortA store has many products, each with its own price, so an ad can show exactly that product. A purchase has an amount, so you measure its value and not only a count. That makes three things matter more than they do for a service business: product data, purchase tracking and the cost of one order.
A business that sells a service counts enquiries. A store counts orders of different values, and some of them are never completed or are returned. So the question is not only “how many clicks” but “what is one order worth and what does it cost us”. The rest of this page follows that order.
Who this is for
It is for online stores that already have a working cart and checkout, a list of products and enough margin to pay for clicks. If the store has no checkout yet, or the products show no prices on the page, that needs fixing first, before you buy any clicks. In the first conversation, which is free, we work out together whether the store is ready.
Search, Shopping or Performance Max
There are three common routes, and they can be combined. They differ in what the ad is based on.
| Type | What it is based on | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Search (text ads) | The keywords you choose. | A text ad on the search results page. |
| Shopping ads | Product data from Google Merchant Center, not keywords. | A photo, title, price and store name before the click. |
| Performance Max | A goal and value you set, plus images, text and product data. | Ads across several Google channels from one campaign, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps. |
According to Google, Shopping ads run through either Shopping campaigns or Performance Max. Which one makes sense for your store depends on your products, your data and your goal. We write about choosing a campaign type in the guide When Performance Max makes sense.
The product feed: why errors cost money
The feed is the list of your products with images, prices and descriptions. It lives in Google Merchant Center, and Shopping ads use it. An ad shows the photo, title and price from the feed, so the shopper sees whatever the feed says before they click.
Product data can reach Merchant Center through a store connection, a file, a Google Sheet, manual entry or an API. Files at a link and linked sheets sync about every 24 hours. Google Ads and Merchant Center are not linked automatically, so you have to connect them. That is why the feed should be checked before the first ad: a wrong price or picture in an ad is a wrong message that you pay for per click.
Order value, cost and ROAS
ROAS is the value of purchases divided by ad spend. A higher ROAS is not the same as profit, because it ignores what the product, delivery, returns and fees cost you. How high it needs to be depends on your margin, and only you know that figure.
For the arithmetic only. Say a store sells a product for 100 units, and the product, delivery and other costs add up to 70. That leaves 30. If 20 was spent on ads for that order, 10 is left. If 40 was spent, the store loses 10, even though ROAS looks like a good number in both cases.
The numbers are made up to show the calculation. They are not the result of any store.
The product page and checkout
The ad brings the shopper to a product page, and that is where the purchase happens or does not. Before you pay for clicks, check what the shopper sees:
- The price and availability on the page match the ad.
- The delivery cost is visible before the last step.
- The buy button is easy to find and tap on a phone.
- Checkout has no unnecessary steps.
If the product page or checkout holds shoppers back, more ads only raise the cost. For work on the pages themselves, see website design and landing page design.
Measuring purchases
A purchase is measured as a conversion: a Google tag is placed on the site, and when a shopper clicks an ad and completes a purchase, it is recorded in the account. A value can be recorded with each purchase. Without it, the account knows only a count, not the revenue.
Purchases in the account are not the same as paid orders. Compare them now and then with the store's own records. How we count calls, messages and forms for service businesses is on the page Measuring enquiries from Google Ads.
Two reports from online store accounts
From the earlier Midaz portfolio we have two historical Google Ads account reports from online stores. We show them as an example of what a report looks like, not as a promise. The original screenshots are on the page Work and systems.
| Period | Ad spend | Tracked purchases | What the figure measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29.04.2024 - 30.12.2024 | $1.32K | 97 | Spend is the amount spent on ads. Purchases are tracked in the ad account; they do not confirm paid orders, returns or profit. |
| 28.04.2025 - 18.08.2025 | $24.1K | 226 | Spend is the amount spent on ads. Purchases are tracked in the ad account; they do not confirm paid orders, returns or profit. |
These are historical report screenshots. Purchases and revenue are values recorded in the account. They are not audited profit, not a forecast for another business and not results from Bosnia. The two reports should not be read as one store, or as a before and after.
How we work
Work on a store follows the same path as any Google Ads job: research, campaigns, measurement and management. First we understand what you sell and to whom. Then we agree what a valuable purchase is for you and check tracking before launch. After that we review searches, ads, costs and orders, and explain what we change and why.
The account and the data stay yours. Our fee and your ad budget are separate, and we confirm the scope in writing before work starts. We do not promise a number of orders or revenue. You work directly with Danijel.