How to Fix Failing Google Ads for Ecommerce: The PMax Feed-Only Strategy for Beauty and Cosmetics Brands

I recently had a consulting call with a beauty and cosmetics ecommerce brand, and the conversation was so packed with lessons that I wanted to share the key takeaways with you. Because frankly, the mistakes they were making are ones I see all the time, and the fixes are surprisingly straightforward.

Here is a quick snapshot.

This brand sells around 600 to 700 SKUs, targets busy mothers, and has two customer segments: high-value customers purchasing full makeover packages ($150 to $300) and single-item buyers ($19 to $21 each). They were crushing it on Amazon with a 4 to 4.5x ROAS, but Google Ads was a disaster. Their ROAS was sitting at a painful 0.3 to 1.1x despite spending $100 a day for months.

So what went wrong, and how did we fix it?

Let me walk you through everything.

They Gave Google Everything It Asked For

This is the number one mistake I see ecommerce brands make with Performance Max. They followed Google's recommendations to the letter: loaded up 30+ images, videos, headlines, and descriptions. They gave Google every single asset type it requested.

And Google rewarded them with a 0.3x ROAS.

Here is the thing. When you hand Google that many variables to play with, the algorithm has no idea what to prioritise. Your budget ends up scattered across YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and Shopping. For a $100 per day budget, that is a recipe for failure. Too many channels, too many creative combinations, and nowhere near enough data for any single element to optimise properly.

On top of that, their product titles were generic Shopify defaults rather than keyword-rich titles like they were using on Amazon. And their Merchant Centre was occasionally showing 15,000 products instead of their actual 600 to 700 SKUs, which is a data feed issue that needed sorting out.

The Fix: PMax Feed-Only

My primary recommendation was to strip everything back and run Performance Max in feed-only mode.

What does this mean? You attach your product feed to PMax, but you do not provide any videos, headlines, descriptions, or images. None of it.

When you do this, Google can only run Shopping ads. It cannot show your ads on YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, or Maps. You are forcing all of your budget into the single highest-intent channel available.

This dramatically simplifies your setup and your optimisation. Instead of trying to figure out which of your 30 images and 15 headlines are working or failing, you have one lever to pull: your product feed. It focusses your spend on the lowest-hanging fruit, which is people actively searching for products like yours.

Start With Your Top 20% of Products

The next piece of advice was equally important: do not throw your entire catalogue at Google from day one.

Start with your top 20% of SKUs only. Your best sellers. The products you already know people want to buy. Include all colour variants of those top sellers, because each variant counts as a separate product and gives you more opportunities to appear in search results.

This is a critical point. If you have a lipstick that comes in 12 colours, each colour variant should be a separate product listing. More variants means more chances to show up when someone searches. This brand was already doing something similar on Amazon, so applying the same logic to Google Shopping was a natural step.

Only expand to additional products after you have proven profitability with your best sellers. Let PMax prove itself before you add complexity.

Your Product Titles Are Your Biggest Lever

If there is one thing I want you to take away from this, it is this:

Your product titles in Google Shopping are essentially your keyword targeting.

Google matches search queries to the words in your product titles. If your titles are generic, you are invisible for the searches that matter.

The fix is to create a supplemental feed to customise your titles without changing anything on your actual website. Google Shopping allows up to 150 characters in product titles (compared to 200 on Amazon), so you have plenty of room to stuff in relevant keywords.

Think about how your customers actually search.

If you sell a "Rose Glow Foundation," your Shopify title might just say exactly that. But your Google Shopping title should include terms like "lightweight foundation for mature skin," "dewy finish," "full coverage," and whatever other attributes your customers search for. The same keyword-stuffing approach that works on Amazon works brilliantly on Google Shopping.

One more note on images: only your primary product image shows in the main Shopping placement. Secondary images only appear if someone clicks through to the Google Shopping tab, which is rare. So focus your image optimisation efforts on that primary image.

Bidding Strategy: Keep It Simple

Do not set a Target ROAS at the beginning. I know this feels counterintuitive, but hear me out.

Control your performance through your daily budget instead. Here is how that works in practice:

If your ROAS is high (say 10x), you can raise your daily budget to scale up. More budget means more spend and more sales, but your ROAS will naturally decrease as you scale. Only increase your budget when you are comfortable with that ROAS coming down.

Add a Target ROAS later, once you have established enough data for the algorithm to work with properly. Trying to set targets before you have conversion data is like asking someone to hit a bullseye blindfolded.

Run Branded Search as a Separate Campaign

Here is something that surprised this brand owner: feed-only PMax has no search component. It only runs Shopping ads. So if you want to capture branded searches, you need a separate campaign for that.

And yes, you absolutely should capture branded searches.

I know what you are thinking. "People searching for my brand will find me organically anyway." But branded organic CTR is only 30 to 50%, not 100%. That means 50 to 70% of people searching for your brand name are not clicking on your organic listing.

A branded search campaign captures that remaining traffic, and the economics are fantastic: expect 10x ROAS or better, with cheap clicks and sky-high conversion rates.

What You Do Not Need to Worry About

This is my favourite part of the conversation, because so many advertisers waste time and energy on things that barely move the needle. Here is what you can safely ignore when starting out:

• Customer lists and Klaviyo syncing have minimal impact at this stage.

• Retargeting campaigns can be handled separately later, if at all.

• New customer acquisition bidding is a feature to save for later.

• Negative keyword lists are not as important as commonly believed.

• YouTube advertising requires video creative and is not essential.

• Individual product search campaigns unless a product has 10,000+ monthly searches.

Focus on the fundamentals first. PMax feed-only plus branded search. That is your entire Google Ads account to start.

Use Strikethrough Pricing, Not Coupon Codes

If you run promotions, strikethrough pricing is far more effective than coupon codes for Shopping ads. Google automatically picks up Shopify sale prices, so if you mark a product down from $20 to $17, that strikethrough shows up right in the Shopping ad.

Coupon-based discounts require manual setup in Merchant Centre promotions, which is fiddly and less visually impactful. Strikethrough pricing drives higher click-through rates because shoppers can see the deal instantly without needing to apply a code.

Realistic Timeline Expectations

Expect breakeven ROAS within two months maximum. For Shopping ads, it is often achievable within one month. A 3x ROAS is a reasonable target by month two. And if you are aiming for scale, a 1.2x ROAS target is actually healthy and allows you to push significant volume.

If you are not seeing breakeven by month two, something is fundamentally wrong and needs investigating.

The Two-Campaign Formula

To bring it all together, here is your starting Google Ads setup:

1. PMax feed-only with your top 20% of products, no Target ROAS, budget as your primary control lever

2. Branded search as a separate campaign, expecting 10x+ ROAS

That is it. Two campaigns. Simplify your approach, prove profitability with your best sellers, invest in keyword-optimised product titles through a supplemental feed, and expand only after you have the data to back it up.

Conclusion

The biggest lesson from this consulting call is that simplicity wins. This brand had been spending months and tens of thousands of dollars following Google's full PMax recommendations, and it was not working. The fix was to strip everything back: feed-only PMax with top-selling products, a separate branded search campaign, keyword-optimised product titles through a supplemental feed, and patience to let the data build before setting ROAS targets. Use your daily budget as the primary control lever, focus on strikethrough pricing over coupon codes for promotions, and ignore the advanced features until the fundamentals are delivering results. Two campaigns are all you need to start proving that Google Ads can work for your ecommerce brand.