We know pay-per-click advertising can generate valuable traffic and sales for online retailers. But increasing campaign expenditure does not automatically deliver profitable growth. A retailer might see rising conversions, improving click-through rates and apparently strong return on ad spend (ROAS), while still losing margin through acquisition costs, discounting, fulfilment expenses and returns.
Equally, automated campaigns may direct advertising budgets towards products or customers that generate revenue without contributing sufficient commercial value.
That makes PPC optimisation about more than improving individual advertising metrics. The most useful question is not: How can we get more clicks and conversions from our budget?
It is: How can we spend more of our advertising budget on activity that creates profitable, incremental sales?
Answering that question requires retailers to examine product economics, campaign targeting, bidding, conversion tracking and the experience customers encounter after clicking an advert.
Start with Profitability, Not Traffic
PPC performance is often judged through metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions and ROAS.
These indicators are useful, but they do not necessarily show whether advertising is generating profitable business.
For example, a product delivering a high ROAS may still make a relatively small contribution after product costs, delivery, payment processing and returns.
Another product might generate fewer sales but deliver greater overall profit.
Google’s guidance on conversion values recommends aligning advertising optimisation with commercial objectives, including the use of revenue or profit-related values where appropriate.
Retailers should therefore establish which products and customer groups create the most value before deciding where additional advertising expenditure should go.
Agencies such as 26PMX, CTI Digital and Eskimoz offer paid media and performance marketing services that can support this type of ongoing campaign analysis.
The priority is to ensure that advertising strategy reflects the economics of the business rather than simply the metrics within the advertising platform.
Identify Where Budget Is Being Wasted
One of the most practical ways to improve PPC performance is to understand which activity consumes budget without producing useful results.
For paid search campaigns, search-term reports can reveal the actual queries that triggered advertisements.
Google recommends using this information to identify irrelevant searches, refine targeting and add negative keywords where appropriate.
For example, a retailer selling premium office furniture may discover that some advertising expenditure is being directed towards searches for free furniture, second-hand products or repair instructions.
Those users may not represent the audience the campaign is intended to reach.
Excluding genuinely irrelevant searches can help protect advertising budgets.
However, retailers should avoid excluding terms simply because they have not yet converted. Some may require more data or contribute to a longer purchasing journey.
The objective is to remove demonstrably unsuitable traffic without unnecessarily reducing valuable reach.
Use Negative Keywords Carefully
Negative keywords allow advertisers to prevent their adverts appearing against selected searches.
They can be particularly useful where broad keyword matching generates traffic from enquiries that are not commercially relevant.
Google now also supports campaign-level negative keywords within Performance Max campaigns, alongside account-level exclusions.
Its Performance Max search-term reporting provides visibility into queries associated with campaign activity, helping advertisers identify opportunities to refine targeting.
For retailers, the important task is to review exclusions regularly.
Customer language changes, product ranges evolve and seasonal demand can create new search patterns.
An exclusion that made sense six months ago may become inappropriate when the business introduces a new product category.
Negative keywords should therefore form part of ongoing optimisation rather than a one-off account-cleaning exercise.
Segment Products by Commercial Value
Retailers selling hundreds or thousands of products face another challenge: not every item deserves the same advertising investment.
Some products may have strong margins and reliable availability. Others may generate significant demand but produce relatively little profit.
Seasonal items, clearance stock and bestselling products can also require different approaches.
Google Merchant Center allows retailers to use custom labels to group products according to criteria such as seasonality, price range and sales performance.
These labels can then support reporting and product selection within Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
CTI Digital offers paid media and product-feed management services relevant to this type of segmentation, while specialist eCommerce technology providers such as Magebit and On Tap can support the product and commerce data underpinning campaign activity.
The question is not simply which products sell most frequently.
It is which products the business should actively invest in selling.
Keep Product Feeds Accurate
A well-designed campaign can still perform poorly if the product information supplied to advertising platforms is inaccurate.
Incorrect prices, outdated availability, weak descriptions or missing product attributes can reduce advertising relevance and create problems for customers.
Google recommends maintaining comprehensive product feeds with accurate descriptions, images, prices and availability, while using Merchant Center diagnostics to identify product issues.
Retailers should establish clear responsibility for feed maintenance.
When a product goes out of stock, the advertising data should reflect that change promptly. When a promotion ends, customers should not continue encountering outdated pricing information.
These problems can waste advertising expenditure and damage trust.
Product-feed optimisation is therefore an ongoing operational responsibility rather than simply a technical task completed when campaigns launch.
Improve Landing Pages Before Increasing Bids
Advertising can attract relevant visitors, but the website must convert that demand into sales.
If a landing page is slow, difficult to navigate or inconsistent with the advertised product, the retailer may be paying for traffic that never had a reasonable opportunity to convert.
Before increasing advertising spend, businesses should examine whether the destination experience is limiting performance.
Does the landing page match the customer’s search? Is the product clearly presented? Are delivery costs and availability easy to understand? Can shoppers find relevant information without unnecessary effort?
Magebit provides eCommerce development and conversion-rate optimisation alongside paid advertising services, while Dotsquares combines digital marketing with website development capabilities.
SOZO Design brings website design and user-experience expertise relevant to improving the customer journey.
These capabilities illustrate why effective PPC optimisation may require changes outside the advertising account.
Sometimes the best way to improve campaign performance is to fix the page customers reach after clicking.
Look at the Whole Checkout Journey
A successful advert and product page can still lead to an abandoned purchase.
Unexpected delivery charges, limited payment options, confusing forms or unnecessary checkout steps can all affect conversion.
Retailers should therefore consider how PPC traffic moves through the complete purchasing journey.
A campaign attracting shoppers with high purchase intent may appear to underperform when the underlying problem is actually checkout friction.
Digital commerce specialists such as CTI Digital, Magebit and On Tap can support the technical aspects of improving eCommerce experiences, including integrations and platform performance.
The commercial opportunity lies in understanding where customers abandon the journey and whether that problem can be resolved.
Improving conversion at checkout can potentially make existing advertising expenditure more productive without attracting a single additional visitor.
Check Conversion Tracking Before Trusting the Results
Automated bidding systems depend heavily on the quality of conversion data.
If transactions are recorded incorrectly, duplicated or assigned inaccurate values, the platform may optimise towards misleading outcomes.
Google’s guidance recommends maintaining accurate conversion tracking and using enhanced conversions where appropriate to improve measurement.
Retailers should periodically validate recorded purchases against their commerce and financial systems.
They should also examine whether relevant conversion actions are being treated appropriately.
For example, adding an item to a basket should not automatically be considered equivalent to completing a profitable purchase.
Privacy and consent requirements must also be considered when implementing advertising measurement technologies.
A sophisticated optimisation strategy will struggle if the underlying information is unreliable.
Make Automated Bidding Work for the Business
Automated bidding can evaluate large numbers of signals and adjust bids according to an advertiser’s objectives.
But the system will optimise towards the goals it has been given.
If those goals prioritise revenue without considering profitability, automated bidding may favour products or customers that do not provide the strongest commercial returns.
Google supports value-based bidding strategies designed to maximise conversion value, with or without target ROAS settings.
Retailers should consider whether their conversion values accurately reflect the relative importance of different transactions.
That might involve product profitability, new customer acquisition or other commercially relevant measures.
Automation should make better use of reliable business information.
It should not become a substitute for deciding what the business actually wants to achieve.
Distinguish New Customers from Existing Demand
Not every sale attributed to PPC represents a newly acquired customer.
A returning customer searching directly for a retailer’s brand may already have intended to purchase.
That does not mean branded advertising has no value, but its contribution should be evaluated differently from campaigns introducing the business to new customers.
Google provides new customer acquisition goals within supported campaigns, enabling advertisers to place additional value on acquiring customers.
Retailers should examine the relationship between brand, non-brand and customer acquisition activity.
Are campaigns generating new demand or mainly capturing customers already familiar with the business?
The answer can influence budget allocation.
It can also help organisations avoid overestimating the incremental value of advertising.
Test Whether Changes Create Additional Sales
PPC optimisation often involves changing several variables: bids, targeting, creative assets, product selection and landing pages.
But if all these elements change simultaneously, it becomes difficult to determine what actually improved performance.
A more disciplined approach involves identifying a hypothesis, making a controlled change and assessing the result.
For larger advertisers, campaign experiments and appropriate incrementality testing may help distinguish genuine additional value from sales that would have occurred anyway.
This is particularly important when evaluating promotional offers.
A discount might increase conversion, but some customers may have purchased at full price.
The useful question is: Did the campaign create additional profitable sales, or did it simply reduce the margin on sales we were likely to receive anyway?
Look Beyond Individual Campaigns
Customers may interact with several marketing channels before purchasing.
A shopper might discover a product through paid social, research it through search and later return directly to the website.
Retailers should therefore avoid treating every campaign as an isolated source of commercial value.
Attribution reporting can provide useful information about customer journeys, but no single model gives a perfect account of what caused a purchase.
Ecommerce Intelligence and Alchemy Network are among the suppliers operating within the broader eCommerce and digital marketing ecosystem, while ICS-digital and Eskimoz provide digital acquisition capabilities relevant to multi-channel and international campaigns.
Buyers should establish which reporting and analytical services each provider currently offers.
The objective is to understand how marketing channels work together rather than allow each platform to claim all the value for itself.
Review Performance by Market and Audience
A PPC strategy that works in one market may not perform equally well elsewhere.
Customer expectations, search language, competition, delivery costs and product preferences can all vary.
For international retailers, campaign optimisation should therefore reflect local conditions.
ICS-digital provides multilingual digital marketing and PPC services, while Eskimoz offers international paid search and performance marketing expertise.
Rather than simply translating successful UK campaigns, businesses should review local search demand, landing-page relevance and the commercial viability of serving different markets.
A lower acquisition cost in one territory may be offset by higher delivery or return expenses.
Profitability should remain the consistent measure.
Build a Regular Optimisation Routine
Successful PPC management requires ongoing review rather than occasional major changes.
A practical routine can involve checking tracking accuracy, reviewing search terms, identifying feed errors, examining product-level performance and assessing landing-page issues.
Less frequent reviews can address broader questions around channel investment, customer acquisition and profitability.
The appropriate frequency depends on campaign scale and transaction volume.
However, retailers should avoid changing automated bidding targets or campaign structures so frequently that meaningful performance patterns cannot emerge.
The strongest approach combines regular monitoring with disciplined decision-making.
Optimisation should be continuous, but not reactive.
Questions to Ask PPC Optimisation Providers
Retailers should consider:
- How will you identify wasted advertising spend?
- How frequently are search terms and exclusions reviewed?
- Can campaigns be segmented by product profitability?
- Who is responsible for product-feed quality?
- How are out-of-stock or low-margin products handled?
- How do you evaluate landing-page performance?
- Can you identify checkout problems affecting PPC conversion?
- How is purchase tracking validated?
- How are automated bidding goals aligned with commercial value?
- Can new customer acquisition be distinguished from existing demand?
- How will you measure the incremental value of campaigns?
- What testing process is used before making major changes?
- How are international market differences addressed?
- Which metrics will be included in regular reporting?
- How will improvements in profitability be demonstrated?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is PPC optimisation?
PPC optimisation involves reviewing and improving paid advertising campaigns to achieve more valuable outcomes. It can include targeting, bidding, product feeds, creative assets, landing pages, conversion tracking and budget allocation.
How can eCommerce businesses reduce wasted PPC spend?
Retailers can review irrelevant search terms, use appropriate negative keywords, maintain accurate product feeds, improve landing pages and focus spending on commercially valuable products and audiences.
What is the difference between ROAS and profitability?
ROAS compares attributed advertising revenue with advertising spend. Profitability also accounts for relevant costs, including product costs, fulfilment, returns and other expenses.
Does Performance Max allow negative keywords?
Yes. Google supports campaign-level and account-level negative keywords for Performance Max, allowing advertisers to exclude selected search terms from eligible Search and Shopping inventory.
How can retailers measure whether PPC changes are working?
Retailers should define the intended outcome, validate tracking, compare performance over suitable periods and use controlled experiments where appropriate. Measures should reflect incremental commercial value rather than traffic or conversions alone.
Product & Services Guide
The eCommerce Forum brings together senior retail and eCommerce decision-makers with relevant solution providers through pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, providing an opportunity to explore PPC, digital marketing, conversion optimisation, eCommerce technology and payments solutions. Participating suppliers include:-
26PMX
Performance marketing agency providing paid search, Google Shopping, marketplace advertising, paid social and wider digital acquisition services.
Website: https://www.26pmx.com/
Alchemy Network Ltd
Digital commerce and marketing business included in the PPC supplier category. Retailers should confirm its current campaign management, performance optimisation and analytics services directly.
Website: https://www.alchemy-network.co.uk/
CTI Digital
Digital agency providing paid search, Shopping, Performance Max, product-feed management and wider eCommerce optimisation services.
Website: https://www.ctidigital.com/
Dotsquares Ltd
Technology and digital marketing provider offering PPC services alongside eCommerce development, website optimisation and related digital capabilities.
Website: https://www.dotsquares.com/
Ecommerce Intelligence
eCommerce-focused supplier included in the PPC category. Buyers should verify its current paid advertising, campaign analytics and optimisation capabilities directly.
Website: https://www.ecommerceintelligence.com/
Eskimoz
Digital marketing agency providing PPC, SEO, analytics and performance marketing services, including international paid search and retail media.
Website: https://www.eskimoz.co.uk/
ICS-digital
International digital marketing agency offering multilingual PPC and paid media services, SEO and related digital acquisition support.
Website: https://ics-digital.com/
Magebit
eCommerce specialist combining platform development, conversion-rate optimisation and performance marketing services, including paid advertising.
Website: https://magebit.com/
On Tap OÜ
eCommerce technology and solutions provider supporting online retail platforms, development and integrations. Buyers should confirm its current standalone PPC optimisation capabilities directly.
Website: https://www.ontapgroup.com/
Sozo Design
Digital design and marketing agency offering website design, user experience and related services relevant to improving digital conversion journeys. Specific PPC management requirements should be confirmed directly.
Website: https://sozodesign.co.uk/
Spend Smarter Before Spending More
PPC optimisation should not begin with an automatic recommendation to increase the budget.
It should begin by examining whether the existing investment is reaching the right customers, promoting the right products and creating the right commercial outcomes.
A useful optimisation cycle is: measure → identify waste → improve → test → reinvest
Measure what campaigns actually contribute.
Identify expenditure that is poorly targeted or commercially unproductive.
Improve targeting, product data and conversion journeys.
Test whether those changes produce additional value.
Then reinvest where the evidence supports it.
The best PPC optimisation strategy isn’t necessarily the one generating the most conversions. It’s the one making more of those conversions worth having.
The eCommerce Forum brings together senior retail and eCommerce decision-makers with relevant solution providers through pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, providing an opportunity to explore PPC, digital marketing, conversion optimisation, eCommerce technology and payments solutions.
Related Reading
This is the second article in our October PPC series.
Our first article, PPC Advertising: What eCommerce Retailers Should Compare, examined how retailers should evaluate PPC agencies, channel strategies, product feeds, automation, attribution and profitability.
This follow-up moves from selecting the right approach to making campaigns work harder, focusing on reducing wasted advertising expenditure, improving conversion and allocating budgets towards genuinely profitable growth.
Sources
- Google Ads – About the Search Terms Report: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708
- Google Ads – Search Terms Report in Performance Max: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16327396
- Google Ads – Conversion Values Best Practices: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14791574
- Google Merchant Center – Custom Labels: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324473
- Google Ads – Use Custom Labels for Shopping Ads: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6275295
- Google – Retailer Best Practices for Performance Max: https://business.google.com/us/accelerate/resources/articles/retailer-best-practices-for-ai-powered-performance-max-campaigns/
- ICO – Online Advertising and Storage Technologies: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guidance-on-the-use-of-storage-and-access-technologies/how-do-the-rules-apply-to-online-advertising/
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