If you sell products online, two Google campaign types matter most: Shopping and Performance Max. Both show product images and prices directly in search results, but they work differently and suit different situations.
Shopping campaigns basics
Shopping ads pull data from a product feed you upload to Google Merchant Center: titles, images, prices in INR, availability and GTIN codes. There are no keywords; Google matches products to searches using the feed. This means feed quality is everything:
- Write descriptive titles: brand, product type, key attribute, size or model.
- Keep prices and stock synced automatically so ads are never disapproved for mismatches.
- Use clean white-background primary images that meet Google policies.
- Fill optional fields such as colour, material and age group; each one improves matching.
What Performance Max adds
Performance Max is an automated campaign that runs across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Discover from a single setup. You provide assets: headlines, descriptions, images, videos and your feed. Google then optimises delivery toward your conversion goal.
Strengths and cautions
- Strength: Reaches buyers across many surfaces with minimal manual work, often at strong return once it has conversion data.
- Caution: Reporting is less granular; you see less about which searches triggered spend. We mitigate this with search theme controls, brand exclusions and careful goal setup.
- Caution: It needs sufficient conversion volume to learn. Very new stores with tiny budgets may do better starting with standard Shopping.
Our typical rollout
- Fix the feed and Merchant Center health.
- Launch standard Shopping to gather baseline data.
- Introduce Performance Max once tracking and volume justify it, then compare results side by side.
Your monthly report shows spend, revenue and return for each campaign, and your ad account always remains in your name.
