James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands

Google Ads for 6-7 figure eCom brands | All We Know is Scale | Managed over $5M+ in Ad Spend | Follow for Google Ads Tips & Actionable Insights

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Google Ads audience targeting vs. Facebook (Meta)

Audience targeting is essential and any type of advertising success

The way Google does it is a little different, not as many options as Facebook

But this is typically a warmer audience

Refining your targeting on Google looks like this:

🏁 Demographic Targeting: Start by targeting specific age groups, genders, household incomes, or even parental status.

This ensures your ads are seen by the right audience

🏁 Affinity Audiences: These audiences are based on people’s long-term interests and behaviors

For example if you’re selling luxury products, target users who show an affinity for high-end brands

🏁 In-Market Audiences: In-market audiences are people who are actively searching for products or services similar to yours

These are typically high-intent users, so your chances of converting them are a lot higher

🏁 Remarketing: Don’t forget about people who have already visited your site

Use remarketing lists to target users who are familiar with your brand and more likely to convert

🏁 Custom Audiences: With custom audiences, you can create highly specific groups based on a combination of demographics, interests, and search behaviors

This is where you can get creative and target exactly who you want

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Ad relevance is plays a massive role on your Quality Score and overall ad performance

🏁 What Is Ad Relevance?: Ad relevance measures how closely your ad matches the user’s search intent.

The more relevant your ad is, the higher Google will rank it. Simple.

🏁 Align Your Ad Copy with Keywords: If your ad doesn’t reflect the keywords you’re targeting, your relevance will drop

Make sure your ad copy includes the primary keywords while still being engaging

🏁 Target Specific Search Intent: Not all searches are created equal

Segment your keywords based on intent—

informational, or transactional— then tailor your ad copy to each group

🏁 Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI): This advanced feature allows Google to insert the user’s search term directly into your ad, making it more relevant.

While this sounds great and it is this can result in awkward or irrelevant ad copy

🏁 Regularly Update Your Ads: Google changes so often, and so does your customer behavior

Make sure to refresh your ad copy regularly to stay relevant and keep your performance high.

Improving ad relevance isn’t just about keyword stuffing—it’s about matching your message to the user’s intent

Focus on relevance, and you’ll see improvements the way your ad performs more specifically in CTR, Quality Score, and ad rank

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Google Ads Tip# 1

Use Auction insights as your tool

Auction Insights provides data to help you understand how your ads are performing in comparison to your competitors

🏁 What are Auction Insights?: This is a tool that allows you to see where your ads stand in relation to your competitors

Looking at this gives you the ability to track metrics like impression share, overlap rate, and position above rate

🏁 Impression Share: Impression share tells you how often your ads are being shown compared to the total available impressions

If you’re looking at it and losing impression share, it might be time to adjust your bids or budgets

🏁 Analyze Overlap Rate: Overlap rate shows how often a competitor’s ad appears alongside yours

High overlap means you’re fighting for the same audience—this is where differentiation becomes key.

🏁 Position Above Rate: This metric reveals how often a competitor’s ad ranks higher than yours

If your position above rate is low, it’s time to improve your ad rank through better Quality Scores or higher bids

Use this data to adjust your bidding strategy, ad copy, and targeting to stay ahead of the competition.

Auction Insights is one of the best tools for competitive research. If you’re not using it, you’re missing out on valuable data that can help you outrank your competitors.

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

@andreibreha Scale baby, scale!

[Andrei Breha | CRO @andreibreha]

Looking to hire a full-time CRO Strategist.

High paying job.
Minimum 2 years of experience.

Data analysis experience (Heatmap/GA4/Shopify etc)
Strategy experience
Design QA experience

Culture fit is a big bonus.

Tag someone or DM me.

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Attribution Models are one of the most misunderstood areas of Google Ads

Why does anyone care?

You're able to actually understand the full customer journey

This is key to accurate performance measurement.

🏁 First-Click vs. Last-Click: Last-click gives full credit to the final interaction

First-click values the introduction, showing you which ads are bringing new prospects in

🏁 Time Decay for Long Sales Cycles: If your customer journey is longer, time decay attribution might be a better fit.

This will give more weight to interactions that happen closer to the actual conversion

🏁 Data-Driven Attribution: This is solely what we use. This is being completely reliant on Google.

Data-driven attribution distributes credit across all touchpoints based on how they influence conversion

What's most important is:

🏁 Knowing Your Customer Journey: Which path do your customers typically take to purchase?

If you’re not measuring every step, you’re missing the full picture.

🏁 Optimize Based on What Drives Real Results: Once you understand how each ad and interaction contributes to a sale, you can allocate your budget more effectively

Focus on the campaigns and keywords that genuinely drive conversions.

By using the right attribution model, you’re not just improving reporting—you’re gaining actionable insights to fuel better decision-making.

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Milk Manual Bidding for everything it has

Control Is in Your Hands

Google Ads gives you so many powerful tools to optimize campaigns

I've seen a lot of accounts really struggle to make manual bidding work

But it can be super effective — if you use it right

Here’s what you need to know to get it working for you:

🏁 Bid Adjustments Are Your Friend: Google Ads is not a set and forget it. Don't just set one bid for everything. Adjust your bids by device, location, and even time of day to make sure you’re spending where it counts.

🏁 Give High-Margin Products More Love: You have to know your data, know what products have your best profit margin. Your bids should reflect the products that drive higher margins. (why wouldn't you spend more money on more profitable products)

🏁 Segment Campaigns Based on Performance: If you’re running manual bids across broad categories without segmentation, you’re missing out. This might be a strategy for you at scale, but before you get to that level. Separate high and low performers to control spend more efficiently.

🏁 Keep a Close Eye on Data: Manual bidding means you’re in the driver’s seat. Monitor performance, adjust based on trends, and adapt quickly. (Don't get attached to a specific strategy, cut what doesn't work)

🏁 Don’t Forget the Basics: Take advantage of negative keywords, use ad extensions, and review search terms to cut wasted spend. Every dollar counts in manual bidding.

With manual bidding, control is in your hands. When done right, it gives you precision you're just not able to see with automated strategies.

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Quality Score Is More Than Just a Number to be ignored

Quality Score impacts way more than you think

It directly influences your ad rank and your (CPC), this means if you’re not paying attention to it, you’re wasting money

🏁 What’s in a Quality Score? It’s all about CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience.

If your score is low, it means your ads aren’t resonating with users or your landing page no matter how pretty you might think it is just isn’t cutting it

🏁 Higher Score = Lower CPC: A high-quality score allows you to get more clicks for less spend.

It's well know fact that Google rewards relevancy, user-focused campaigns with cheaper CPC

🏁 Optimize Your Ads for Relevance: If your ad doesn’t align with what users are searching for, your relevance will tank.

Make sure your ad copy directly reflects the search terms you’re targeting

🏁 Landing Page Matters: You can have the best ads in the world, but if your landing page doesn’t offer a seamless experience, your score will suffer.

Make sure the landing page aligns with the ad and is optimized for mobile devices

🏁 Keep Testing to Improve CTR: Your CTR is the most significant part of Quality Score.

A/B test your headlines and descriptions to find what really resonates with your audience.

Focus on improving your Quality Score, and you’ll see better results across the board—more impressions, higher rankings, and lower CPCs.

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

@MitjaDrame It's like one of the easier fixes, I have no idea either

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

How to Cut Wasted Spend & Actually Drive Quality Traffic

With the most recent account I audited Negative keywords were completely overlooked

Negative Keywords are not an option, you're not the exception

They’re absolutely crucial if you want to avoid wasting budget on clicks that have nothing to do with you

🏁 Why Negative Keywords Matter: Without them, your ads will most likely show up for searches completely unrelated to your product. Especially if you are using broad match.

Every irrelevant click eats into your budget, but if you're paying attention you'll find search terms you never would've thought of which brings me the next point

🏁 Review Your Search Terms Regularly: How often are you checking what users are literally searching to trigger your ads? This is the fastest way to find where you’re wasting money—and more obviously to find where to add negative keywords.

🏁 Set up Negative Keyword Lists by Campaign Type: The "One-size-fits-all" approach is not the best way to do this. Create lists for each campaign type—whether it’s Search, Shopping, or Display—so you can better tailor your exclusions.

🏁 Fine-Tune for Better ROAS: Using negative keywords isn’t just about avoiding waste—it’s about optimizing for a better return on ad spend. The more focused your traffic, the better your results.

🏁 Update Constantly: Your market and customer behavior change over time. Regularly update your negative keyword lists to stay ahead of the game. With a newer campaign you should be checking these ideally at least every 72 hours

When you fine-tune your campaigns with negative keywords, you’re not just cutting waste—you’re sharpening your targeting and driving higher-quality traffic which translates into a better ROI

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Milk Manual Bidding for everything it has

Control Is in Your Hands

Google Ads gives you so many powerful tools to optimize campaigns

I've seen a lot of accounts really struggle to make manual bidding work

But it can be super effective — if you use it right

Here’s what you need to know to get it working for you:

🏁 Bid Adjustments Are Your Friend: Google Ads is not a set and forget it. Don't just set one bid for everything. Adjust your bids by device, location, and even time of day to make sure you’re spending where it counts.

🏁 Give High-Margin Products More Love: You have to know your data, know what products have your best profit margin. Your bids should reflect the products that drive higher margins. (why wouldn't you spend more money on more profitable products)

🏁 Segment Campaigns Based on Performance: If you’re running manual bids across broad categories without segmentation, you’re missing out. This might be a strategy for you at scale, but before you get to that level. Separate high and low performers to control spend more efficiently.

🏁 Keep a Close Eye on Data: Manual bidding means you’re in the driver’s seat. Monitor performance, adjust based on trends, and adapt quickly. (Don't get attached to a specific strategy, cut what doesn't work)

🏁 Don’t Forget the Basics: Take advantage of negative keywords, use ad extensions, and review search terms to cut wasted spend. Every dollar counts in manual bidding.

With manual bidding, control is in your hands. When done right, it gives you precision you're just not able to see with automated strategies.

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Hey siri

How do I go monk mode and completely lock in with a wife and kid

Tons of respect to the people that completely figured it out

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are a game-changer for capturing missed opportunities

But they are massively overlooked

Here’s why they can be so important

No matter how detailed your keyword research is, you’re bound to miss some searches

🏁 DSAs don’t rely on keywords alone

They dynamically match your product pages to relevant searches that you haven’t targeted manually

This allows you to discover new keywords you didn't know would be profitable for you

🏁Long-tail searches and different variations that might've otherwise slipped through the cracks

🏁 Google crawls your site and generates ads based on your product page content

This ensures your ads show for more searches that align with user intent

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

@JordanWhite_X 100% showing up consistently is half of the battle

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Learning Google Ads has been a journey

The further I go

The more I learn

The more I realize I still have so much to learn

The only way you really understand something is when you have the experience with it

At least that’s the way I learn

If you’re caught in the learning phase, you just have to start

You’ve probably heard that so many times, but it’s true.

Just start

Whatever you’re procrastinating or think you’re not ready for, just start

It’s worth it.

With Google Ads you get better with every challenge you overcome

All the YouTube videos that you watch, the Google help library you’re trying to master

It will be worth it

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

@syedmuhib55 Exactly! And you're able to find converting search terms you didn't know would have converted for you before

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are a game-changer for capturing missed opportunities

But they are massively overlooked

Here’s why they can be so important

No matter how detailed your keyword research is, you’re bound to miss some searches

🏁 DSAs don’t rely on keywords alone

They dynamically match your product pages to relevant searches that you haven’t targeted manually

This allows you to discover new keywords you didn't know would be profitable for you

🏁Long-tail searches and different variations that might've otherwise slipped through the cracks

🏁 Google crawls your site and generates ads based on your product page content

This ensures your ads show for more searches that align with user intent

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

@JordanWhite_X The key there is "beyond your keyword list"

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

@MitjaDrame Most of the time this is true and reflected in the account

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

Learning Google Ads has been a journey

The further I go

The more I learn

The more I realize I still have so much to learn

The only way you really understand something is when you have the experience with it

At least that’s the way I learn

If you’re caught in the learning phase, you just have to start

You’ve probably heard that so many times, but it’s true.

Just start

Whatever you’re procrastinating or think you’re not ready for, just start

It’s worth it.

With Google Ads you get better with every challenge you overcome

All the YouTube videos that you watch, the Google help library you’re trying to master

It will be worth it

[James Maxwell | Google Ads for eCom and DTC brands @JamesOnGoogle]

@MitjaDrame Super valueable thread and great results