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Shopify stores often run Google Ads through the native Shopify Google channel and call it done: Shopping and PMax on autopilot. We layer the full funnel on top: non-brand Search, brand protection, remarketing segmented by Shopify customer behaviour, and PDP CRO inside your live theme.
What it unlocks
Built for Shopify stores that have outgrown the native Google channel and want senior eyes on feed, structure, tracking, audiences, and PDPs.
Capabilities
Engagement rhythm
Free audit
Native foundations
Test, scale, prune
Quarterly strategic review
What we do
Non-brand Search wired to product and collection landing pages, not the homepage. Brand campaigns to stop competitors poaching your trademarked traffic. The campaigns Shopping cannot reach: high-intent informational queries, comparison searches, problem-aware queries that benefit from a dedicated landing page rather than a product feed result.
Merchant Centre feed audited and corrected (missing GTINs, broken images, disapprovals, taxonomy gaps). PMax run with deliberate audience signals and asset groups, not the Shopify-native autopilot. We bring the Shopify feed up to spec before we let PMax loose; otherwise PMax just optimises against a broken catalogue.
Audience-led Display that introduces your products to in-market buyers. Remarketing segmented by Shopify customer behaviour: cart abandonment via Shopify cart events, product view, collection interest, recency. Not 'all visitors last 30 days' with one banner. Customer Match fed from Shopify customer lists (VIPs, lapsed buyers, high-LTV segments).
Placement-led video campaigns built around product demos, founder stories, and use-case content. Optimised to view-through conversions and assisted revenue. YouTube where it earns its keep, off where it does not. For most Shopify stores under R150k monthly media, YouTube is a distraction; we will tell you straight.
Shopify-to-GA4 wired up cleanly via the Shopify GA4 integration plus a custom data layer for events the native integration misses. Enhanced Conversions for hashed customer data passed back to Google. Server-side tracking via GTM where it earns its keep. Numbers in Google Ads need to reconcile with numbers in Shopify Analytics.
Most Shopify accounts leak in the product page, not the ad. We test PDP variants within your live theme, collection layouts, and dedicated landing pages for paid traffic where the PDP cannot serve the query. The page and the ad are one system. We work natively in your theme rather than building parallel landing pages on a third-party builder.
How an engagement runs
Full review of Shopify Google channel setup, Merchant Centre feed, Shopping and PMax structure, GA4 integration health, Customer Match audiences, brand protection, and PDP performance. We tell you what is leaking and whether Google Ads is even the right channel for where your store is right now.
Shopify Google channel set up cleanly, Merchant Centre feed scrubbed, Enhanced Conversions deployed, GA4 data layer extended where the native integration is thin, account restructured around your actual catalogue, brand protection launched. Customer-list sync from Shopify to Google configured for VIP, lapsed, and high-LTV segments.
PDP variant tests within your theme. Ad copy and asset group tests. Shopping feed optimisation (custom labels, exclusion rules). Weekly waste sweeps. Monthly cadence on creative refresh and audience iteration.
Every 90 days: which collections pay back, which products are leaking margin, where PMax has drifted, what the data is telling us about audience and creative, where the next quarter's spend should sit. Honest read.
The lay of the land
The native Shopify Google Ads channel is a great onboarding tool. It gets Shopping live in 20 minutes and PMax running shortly after, with a feed that is mostly OK. For sub-R10k monthly media that is enough. Above that, the cracks show: PMax with no deliberate signals, Shopping feeds with taxonomy and attribute gaps that quietly cap impression share, no Search support so the funnel only catches buyers already at the bottom of the stack, no brand protection so a competitor outbidding you on your own name eats your CPA, and remarketing that retargets every visitor with the same banner.
The fix is not a different platform; it is the full funnel run on top of the native channel. We keep the Shopify Google integration for what it does well (the data sync, the GA4 link, the customer-list sync) and we layer non-brand Search, brand protection, segmented remarketing, and proper PMax asset groups on top. Most stores see a step-change in performance once Search, brand, and audience-segmented remarketing are running in parallel with the Shopping and PMax that was already there.
PDP work compounds on top of media. A 0.5 percent lift in PDP conversion rate is the same outcome as a 14 percent lift in media efficiency, only it persists across every channel forever. We test PDPs natively in your theme so the change applies to your organic traffic, email, and direct traffic as well, not just paid. That is the second source of compounding lift, and most agencies leave it alone because PDP work is messier than dashboard work.
FAQ
Same fundamentals, Shopify-specific implementation. Shopify Google channel setup, native Merchant Centre app, Shopify-to-GA4 data layer, Customer Match fed from Shopify customer lists, PDP CRO inside your live theme. If you only run Shopify, this is the right page. If you run Shopify alongside Magento or WooCommerce, the general ecommerce page is broader.
Yes, for what it does well: the data sync, the GA4 link, the customer-list sync. We keep the native channel as the integration layer and we run a separate Google Ads account on top with full-funnel Search, Shopping, PMax, brand protection, and proper remarketing. Best of both.
Yes. Headless Shopify (Next.js, Remix, Hydrogen, custom React) needs a custom GA4 data layer because the native Shopify-GA4 integration assumes the standard Storefront. We wire it up properly. Merchant Centre and PMax still work the same; the back-end product source is still Shopify so the feed flow is unchanged.
We use Shopify Audiences as one input among many, not as a replacement for Customer Match. Shopify Audiences is useful for cold prospecting on Meta primarily; for Google Ads remarketing and Customer Match, your own Shopify customer lists segmented by behaviour and LTV are the higher-quality signal. We use both where each one earns its keep.
Around R20,000 per month in media. Below that, PMax and Smart Bidding cannot exit learning, Search cannot compound, and you are better off running the native Shopify Google channel solo plus organic SEO. Above R20k, the layered approach starts to pay back.
Yes. PDP variants get built and tested in your live theme using Shopify section settings, theme app extensions, or a controlled CRO tool depending on what's already wired up. Dedicated landing pages for ad-heavy campaigns get built natively as well. We do not push you onto a separate landing-page builder unless you genuinely need one.
Offline import from Shopify Orders to Google Ads conversions, with refund events deducted so Smart Bidding optimises against net revenue, not gross. For categories with high return rates this is a meaningful correction; for low-return categories it is still worth doing because it protects against worst-case scenarios when a single high-value refund could distort bidding.
Everything we do
Pick any other engagement that fits your business, or take the whole stack from one senior team.
Custom Shopify themes, performance-tuned from launch, conversion-led PDPs, SEO and Merchant Centre wired clean.
Custom WooCommerce themes that perform like Shopify, with the editorial flexibility and ownership of WordPress.
Custom WordPress sites built code-first as the default, with the option of a properly configured page builder when your team needs ongoing editorial freedom.
We update, back up, monitor, and patch your WordPress site every week so a stale plugin never takes your business offline.
Technical SEO, content, local, schema, and Search Console health, run as a retainer and measured against revenue.
Most Shopify SEO is left to an app that emits duplicate or invalid schema. We do the work in Liquid, where it belongs.
WooCommerce SEO done at theme and plugin level, not delegated to the Yoast WooCommerce add-on.
WordPress SEO done at theme, plugin, and hosting level, not delegated to a Yoast or Rank Math settings page.
We build Google Ads accounts around conversions: tight structure, clean tracking, landing pages that match the query.
Paid search, paid social, SEO, content, and analytics run by the same senior people, with reporting tied to pipeline.
Most PPC agencies run Google only. We run Google plus Microsoft Ads in parallel, with cross-channel tracking and audience strategy.
Shopping and Performance Max are the start, not the strategy. We run the full funnel for ecommerce accounts, with margin context, not just ROAS.
Shopify-specific Google Ads work: native Merchant Centre integration, customer-list sync, Shopify Audiences, and PDP-level CRO.
Service businesses optimise to form fills. We optimise to sales-qualified leads and closed-won revenue, wired into your CRM.
We run Facebook and Instagram Ads with senior account managers, server-side tracking, and continuous creative testing so spend earns its keep.
No templates. No page builders. Bespoke websites with Lighthouse 95+, SEO foundations baked in, and CMS controls that make sense.
Custom-built ecommerce, sized to your catalogue and ops. Shopify, WooCommerce, or custom-built; the platform follows the business model.
Cape Town-focused SEO: local pack and Google Business Profile, technical foundations, content, and GSC discipline, run as a retainer and measured against revenue.
Cape Town web design agency. Bespoke builds, Lighthouse 95+, SEO foundations baked in, CMS controls your team can actually use. In-person discovery meetings across the city.
Bespoke website builds engineered around your stack, your integrations, and how the site has to perform under real load. Custom code, headless where it fits, observability and security treated as deliverables.
Continuous CRO: diagnose where the funnel leaks, run hypothesis-led tests, measure against revenue, not vanity engagement metrics.