Eva Answers / Google Ads
What Should a Google Ads Agency for Ecommerce Handle?
Answered by Hai Mag, Founder & CEO, Eva Commerce, with 20+ years in eCommerce transformation, marketplace optimization, and AI-driven automation.
Last reviewed: November 6, 2026
Short answer: A capable Google Ads agency for ecommerce should own the Merchant Center product feed, Search and Shopping architecture, Performance Max audience signals, conversion measurement against store orders, and landing-page conversion, not only bids inside Google Ads. Eva ties those pieces to Shopify and Amazon inventory and margin.
What “handle” means for ecommerce Google Ads
A Google Ads agency for ecommerce should run more than keyword bids. Google’s Shopping ads overview says retailers can use Performance Max with a Merchant Center feed or Shopping campaigns to promote inventory, and that Shopping ads show a product photo, title, price and store name so shoppers see the offer before they click. That only works when product data, measurement and landing pages are managed with the campaigns.
Eva’s Google Advertising page states the work is not a media-only reseller that ignores marketplace economics: campaigns are tied to Shopify and Amazon inventory, pricing and margin the same way Eva runs marketplace ads.
Checklist: what the agency should own
| Workstream | Why it belongs with the agency | Official or Eva cue |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant Center + product feed | Shopping and many Performance Max retail setups match on product data, not keywords alone | Merchant Center product data spec; Eva continuous feed optimisation |
| Search + Shopping architecture | Purchase-intent queries need different bids and negatives than interest traffic | Eva exact-match isolation by campaign type; Search/Shopping separated from Display/YouTube by buyer state |
| Performance Max signals | Google AI optimises from conversion goals, assets and audience signals you provide | Performance Max; Eva feeds Shopify purchase history and affinity lists as signals |
| Measurement before spend | Smart Bidding trains on whatever conversion events exist | Eva: GA4 enhanced ecommerce, GTM, Shopify purchase events, cross-device attribution |
| Landing pages with ads | The ad wins the click; the page wins the sale | Eva optimises Shopify PDP hierarchy, offer framing and checkout path with the campaigns |
| Profit reporting | Platform ROAS can hide weak contribution margin | Eva judges purchases and margin, not clicks alone |
Steps to brief or audit an agency
- Confirm feed ownership. Ask who fixes disapprovals, missing GTINs, variant attributes and price or availability mismatches called out in Google’s product data specification.
- Require a channel map. Get a one-page plan for branded Search, non-brand Search, Shopping or retail Performance Max, and YouTube or Display interest, with rules so they do not cannibalise each other.
- Inspect measurement. See a sample of Shopify or store purchase events matching Google conversion actions before launch. Incomplete events train Smart Bidding on the wrong outcome.
- Ask for landing-page scope. If traffic lands on weak PDPs, paid media alone will not fix conversion rate.
- Align on economics. Eva’s Google page and Google Ads for Shopify guide emphasise purchases and profit, not traffic volume. Ask for weekly reporting that includes contribution, stock and new customers where available.
Exceptions
- Lead-gen or local-only advertisers may not need a full Merchant Center retail feed; ecommerce retailers usually do.
- Amazon-only brands without a Shopify or site storefront still need clear landing destinations and policy-compliant product pages before Google Shopping can work.
- Thin catalogs may start with Search plus a clean Shopping feed before adding large Performance Max asset groups.
- No guaranteed rank or ROAS. Auctions, relevance, feed quality and landing-page conversion decide delivery.
Eva runs Search, Shopping, Performance Max and YouTube as one system for Shopify and Amazon brands. Measurement is built before spend. The feed is treated as ongoing work. Landing pages are managed with the ads. Google Advertising starts from $950/mo on Eva’s pricing page (or $1,500/mo bundled with Meta), with ad creative included and ad spend paid to Google.
Follow-up questions
Do they need to manage Merchant Center, or only campaigns?
Yes for ecommerce. Google states Shopping ads use Merchant Center product data (not keywords alone) to decide how and where ads show. An agency that only edits bids inside Google Ads while the feed, titles, GTINs, availability and landing pages stay broken will waste spend. Eva’s Google Advertising page treats the product feed and Merchant Center as continuous work alongside Search, Shopping and Performance Max.
How should Search, Shopping and Performance Max split roles?
Google describes Performance Max as a goal-based campaign that can reach YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign, and notes exact-match Search keywords are prioritized to serve over Performance Max when a query hits that keyword. Eva separates Search and Shopping intent from Display and YouTube by buyer state so the same products do not bid against each other without a plan. Ask any agency for a written map of which campaign owns which queries and audiences.
What does Eva charge for Google Advertising?
Eva’s pricing page lists Google or Meta Advertising from $950/mo each, or Google + Meta together for $1,500/mo. Ad creative for managed campaigns is included. Ad spend is paid directly to Google. Other channels are scoped after a free account review.