Build shopping campaigns that showcase your products to customers who already know your brand, protecting yourself from competitors and maximizing ROAS

Imagine someone searching for your brand on Google.

They’ve already heard about you—maybe from an Instagram ad, a YouTube video, or a friend’s recommendation.

When they type your brand name, the first thing they see is a competitor trying to steal their attention.

Without a Branded Shopping Campaign, you risk losing customers who were already interested in buying from you.

A Branded Shopping Campaign ensures your products are the first thing users see when they search for your brand, protecting your sales, reducing acquisition costs, and feeding Google’s algorithm with high-quality conversion data.

This guide will walk you through exactly how to set up and optimise your Branded Shopping Campaign step by step.

Best Practices for Branded Shopping Campaigns

1. Own The Top Spot

Your Shopping ads should always appear first when users search for your brand. If competitors are showing up, increase bids to stay ahead.

2. Protect Your Brand From Competitors

Competitors often bid on your brand name to steal potential customers. Running a Branded Shopping Campaign ensures your products show up first.

3. Optimise Product Titles & Descriptions

Google Shopping relies on your product titles and descriptions to determine relevance. Ensure these are keyword-rich and updated frequently (including your Brand name)

4. Use Manual CPC to Control Costs

Automated bidding (e.g., Target ROAS) tends to overspend on branded terms and isn’t what we’re optimising for when it comes to Branded shopping campaigns. Manual CPC (mCPC) ensures you pay only what’s necessary.

5. Exclude Existing Customers

There’s no reason to pay for returning customers. Upload your Shopify customer list to Google Ads and exclude existing customers from seeing your Branded Shopping ads.

6. Monitor & Adjust Bids for Impression Share

If competitors are bidding aggressively, increase your max CPC bid slightly to maintain over 90% search impression share on your branded terms.

7. Use Negative Keywords to Filter Out Non-Branded Traffic

Your Branded Shopping Campaign should only target users searching for your brand. Use scripts & manual exclusions to remove generic, non-branded search terms.

See here: BONUS: Automated Keyword Exclusion Mastery

8. Keep Google Merchant Center (GMC) Optimised

An outdated GMC feed can lead to:

• Higher costs per click (CPC)
• Lower visibility in Shopping results
• Poorer ad placements

Optimise titles, descriptions, and product categorisation regularly.

Branded Shopping Campaign Checklist