Google Ads management for ecommerce stores

Which searches waste money for ecommerce stores?

Free and used-item searches, generic review browsing, and marketplace-intent searches are common leaks.

• Free or giveaway searches: free [product name], [product] giveaway.
• Used or secondhand searches: used [product] for sale, [product] on eBay.
• General review and comparison browsing with no purchase intent close to conversion.
• Searches for a product you don't carry, picked up by broad matching or Shopping campaign overreach.
• Searches for your brand name combined with 'complaints' or 'reviews' that rarely convert.

Common tracking problems for ecommerce stores

Purchase conversion tracking is the foundation here, and small setup issues can badly distort reported performance.

Check whether your purchase conversion value reflects actual order value, including discounts and shipping, rather than a flat estimated value. A mismatched value can make campaigns look far more or less profitable than they are.

If customers can check out as guests or through a separate payment processor, confirm that the order confirmation page is what fires the conversion in every checkout path, not just the default one.

What does a good cost per lead look like?

Judge cost per purchase against your actual margin per order, not against revenue alone.

A high-margin product can justify a higher cost per purchase than a low-margin one; blending all products into a single return-on-ad-spend target can hide which campaigns are actually profitable.

Repeat purchase rate matters too. If a cohort of customers buys again, the true value of that first purchase is higher than the order total suggests — factor that into what you're willing to spend to acquire them.

What should an ecommerce store check first?

Purchase value accuracy, search terms by cost, and whether Shopping campaigns are showing for products you don't sell.

• Confirm purchase conversion value matches actual order value
• Review search terms report for free, used and off-catalog searches
• Check product feed for mismatched or outdated listings
• Separate high-margin and low-margin product lines by campaign

Frequently asked questions

Related guides and tools

• How to audit a Google Ads account — A step-by-step checklist, in business language.
• How to find wasted spend in Google Ads — Where money leaks and how to check each place.
• Which Google Ads search terms are wasting your money — How to find the search terms wasting your Google Ads budget, group them into patterns, and exclude them with negative keywords without blocking real customers..
• How much should Google Ads cost per lead — There's no universal good cost per lead.