Hey, Alex here 👋

When talking to a lot of eCommerce business owners, many seem to believe they have a "Google Ads problem".

But the truth is, most often they don't. Not really.

In a lot of cases, they have a product mix problem (and perhaps an overreliance on Google's machine learning, but we'll get to that in a minute).

In other words…

Google ends up scaling the wrong products.

Let me explain.

Google Ads doesn't scale the products you want to scale.

Google scales the products that make Google look good.

And unless you understand how and why this happens, your campaigns will eventually hit a wall — no matter how good your tracking, creatives, or campaign structure are.

Today's issue is about that wall... and how to break through it.

Let's dive in (this will be a long one, today!)

Your Goals vs Google's Goals = Not The Same.

Your goal as a brand:

• More profit.

• New customers.

• Growth.

Google's goals as an advertising platform:

• More conversions.

• Lower CPA.

• Higher volume.

• Stable signals.

You may be thinking: but aren't these ultimately the same goals?

Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, not really.

Here's why.

Google's machine learning naturally gravitates towards SKUs that:

• Have the highest conversion rates.

• Have low friction (prices, reviews, shipping,...)

• Already have strong product-market fit.

• Require the least budget to get more conversions.

Sounds logical, right?

Until you dig deeper, and realize this:

Your highest conversion products sometimes aren't your most profitable products.

Let's look at an actual example.

In most cases, Google will scale Product A... even though Product B is clearly more profitable.

Now Google is actively scaling the wrong part of your business.

The Results: Scaling Looks Good... Until It Doesn't

This is why many eCom brands get stuck when scaling past $100k/month.

As they scale:

• Efficiency goes down.

• CPA increases.

• Spend starts flatlining.

• Profit margins get crushed.

Why?

Because they're scaling:

• Low margin SKUs

• High-return-rate SKUs

• SKUs with low LTV

Google will keep pushing these products... unless you provide accurate signals (read our previous newsletter issue "Why Your ROAS Is Lying To You..." for more on this topic).

The Problem: The SKU Concentration Problem

In most accounts we audit, we see that 60-80% of total spend goes to about 20% of the products.

And that's not a bad thing. It's actually expected (Pareto's principle).

But it is a problem when those 20% are the wrong products. Just the SKUs that:

• Have the highest conversion rates.

• Generate the easiest short-term wins.

• Fit Google's CPC → click → conversion math

This is dangerous because:

• You become dependent on a few products.

• You get "addicted" to Google's algorithm.

• You hit a natural scaling ceiling.

• You can't win new customers profitably.

• You lose margins.

The worst part?

Most founders don't even know when this is happening.

"We're hitting a 6x ROAS. Why can't we scale?"

The answer: in most cases, it's not about lowering your costs. It's about raising your scaling ceiling.

The Solution: Regain Control Of Your Product Mix

Here's how we force Google to scale the right products.

1. Identify Your "Strategic SKUs"

These are the products that have:

• Strong margins.

• Good LTV.

• Low return rates.

• Stable supply.

• Good reviews.

Most brands never define these, and let Google "take the wheel".

2. Build SKU-Level Segmentation In Your Feed

One of our favorite ways to do this is by using custom labels.

• Margin tiers.

• Best sellers.

• LTV drivers.

• Seasonal products.

• Strategic SKUs.

This will allow you to structure your campaigns properly (more on this in a minute).

3. Use POAS Instead of ROAS (Optional)

Note: use this option only if you have products with significantly different margins. Read more about this on our newsletter issue #105: Why Your ROAS Is Lying To You.

This is a great option to give better signals to Google on which products to scale.

Instead of scaling products with high ROAS, Google will actively chase after products with high POAS (profit on ad spend).

4. Product-Tiered Campaign Structure

This is one of our favorite account structures to use due to it's simplicity and ease of control over your product mix.

Here's how we do this.

1. A standard shopping "catch-all" campaign. This includes all products we want to advertise, and set a relatively high tROAS goal. For demonstration purposes, let's say we set the tROAS to 300% (you should know your breakeven ROAS and adjust accordingly).

2. Individual Performance Max campaigns to push strategic SKUs. In this campaign, we'll set our tROAS lower than the catch-all campaign (let's say 250%).

   1. (Optional) Enable new-customer bidding to improve incrementality and lower nCAC.

With this approach, we can force Google to prioritize spend on our most important products while making sure all other products will only deliver when we can deliver a higher-than-usual ROAS.

5. Measure Winner SKUs Differently

Lastly, track:

• Contribution margin.

• LTV contribution.

• SKU acquisition cost.

• New customer acquisition cost.

This lets you prioritize not just your best sellers... but your "best business builders".

That is how you scale.

Your Turn

Open your ad account and check one thing:

Which 5 SKUs got the most ad spend over the last 30 days?

If they aren’t your strategic products…

You’ve found the reason scaling stopped working.

When You’re Ready

• Free Google Ads Audit → If your eCom brand does $50k+/mo, I’ll personally review your account and send you a step-by-step list on how to fix your account.

• Google Ads Audit Checklist → Download your free checklist, pinned on my X bio.

• Follow me on X → I share daily insights on scaling with Google Ads: @almeidalexandr