Performance marketing for ecommerce combines Google Shopping and Performance Max to catch buyers searching for products with Meta ads that introduce the brand and bring visitors back. The goal is profitable new customers, so ROAS targets should be set from margin rather than copied from a benchmark.
How Google and Meta work together for ecommerce brands
| Job | Meta | |
|---|---|---|
| Capture buyers | Shopping and Performance Max fed by a clean Merchant Center feed | Not the lead channel here |
| Find new customers | YouTube and Demand Gen for products that need showing | Creative testing and broad audiences with Advantage+ campaigns |
| Recover and repeat | Remarketing and brand search | Catalog ads for viewed products and repeat purchase offers |
What makes this industry different
Reported ROAS can look healthy while the business loses money. Platforms take credit for existing customers and brand searches, and a 4x ROAS means something very different at a 25% margin than at a 70% margin.
What to track
- Send purchase value, ideally margin-aware, through a server-side setup alongside the browser tag
- Use Meta's Conversions API and Google's enhanced conversions
- Separate new from returning customers in reporting wherever possible
The numbers we report on: Contribution margin after ad spend, new customer CAC, blended marketing efficiency, ROAS by product group and repeat rate.
Platform and legal rules to plan for
Product data must match the landing page, including price and availability, or Merchant Center can disapprove products. Restricted categories such as supplements have extra rules on both platforms.
Common mistakes
- Treating the whole catalog as one campaign, so bestsellers absorb the budget
- Letting brand search inflate the results of prospecting campaigns
- Running the same creative until performance collapses
From our work with ecommerce brands
Common questions
What is a good ROAS for ecommerce?
It depends on your margin. Work out break-even ROAS as 1 divided by contribution margin: at a 40% margin, that is 2.5x. Below that, a campaign loses money on the first order unless repeat purchases make up for it.
Is Performance Max enough on its own?
It can work well, but it can also lean on brand searches and existing customers. Review what it is actually reaching, and separate brand from new-customer activity in your reports.
How much creative does Meta need?
Enough to keep testing real differences: new angles, formats and offers. Fatigue shows up as rising frequency and falling click-through, and that is the signal to refresh.