The Hard Truth About Shopping Ads in 2026
If your Google Shopping ROAS is plummeting, stop looking at your bids. The problem isn't the auction; it's the data you’re feeding it. In 2026, Google Ads has become a giant data-processing engine. If you feed it garbage, it will spend your budget on garbage traffic.
Most Australian agencies will tell you to just "switch on Performance Max and let the AI do the work." This is lazy advice that leads to wasted spend. At Local Marketing Group, we see Brisbane retailers losing thousands every month because they've handed the keys to an algorithm without setting the boundaries.
Here are the critical mistakes currently killing your Shopping performance and how to fix them.
1. The "Set and Forget" Feed Mentality
Your Merchant Center feed is not a static document; it is your primary sales tool. A common mistake is relying on a basic Shopify or WooCommerce plugin to sync data and assuming it’s optimized.
If your product titles look like Blue Summer Dress - Size M, you are failing. Google’s algorithm relies on your title to determine relevancy. Without rich, descriptive keywords—Brand, Colour, Material, Style, and Intent—you are invisible to high-intent shoppers.
The Fix: Use supplemental feeds or a feed management tool to rewrite titles. Data shows that moving the most important keyword to the front of the title can increase CTR by up to 18%. If you're still treating your landing page experience as a secondary concern to the ad itself, you’re paying for clicks that will never convert.
2. Feeding the AI "Digital Junk Food"
Google’s AI is hungry, but it isn't discerning. If you don't provide high-quality signals, it will find the cheapest, lowest-intent traffic just to spend your daily budget. This is particularly true with Performance Max.
Many businesses fail to exclude junk placements or provide specific audience data. By failing to refine your audience signals, you are essentially telling Google to guess who your customer is. In a competitive market like Brisbane or the Gold Coast, "guessing" is a luxury your margins cannot afford.
3. The Zombie Product Trap
In almost every Australian e-commerce account we audit, we find the "80/20" rule is actually more like "95/5". Five percent of products generate 95% of the revenue, while the rest—the "Zombies"—eat up the budget with small, non-converting clicks.
The Data Point: We recently audited a QLD-based outdoor furniture retailer. 60% of their Shopping budget was being spent on products that hadn't seen a single sale in 90 days.
The Fix: Segment your campaigns by performance, not just category. Create a "Top Performers" campaign with a higher budget and a "Catch-all" campaign with a very low target ROAS for testing. If a product doesn't convert after a statistically significant number of clicks, kill it. Stop subsidising Google’s data collection with your profits.
4. Ignoring Negative Keyword Lists in PMax
One of the biggest lies in modern digital marketing is that you don't need negative keywords for Shopping anymore. While Google makes it harder to add them (especially in PMax), ignoring them is a recipe for disaster.
Without a robust negative keyword list, your Shopping ads will often trigger for your own brand name. This inflates your ROAS and makes the campaign look successful, but you're actually paying for clicks from customers who were already looking for you. This is a form of bidding on your own brand that provides zero incremental value.
5. Price Competitiveness: The Invisible Killer
Google Shopping is a price-comparison engine first and an advertising platform second. You can have the best-optimised feed in Queensland, but if your product is $120 and your competitor is selling the exact same SKU for $95, Google will stop showing your ad.
Google tracks price competitiveness. If your "Benchmark Product Price Difference" in Merchant Center is consistently negative, your Impression Share will drop regardless of your bid.
Actionable Advice: Monitor the 'Price Competitiveness' report in Google Merchant Center weekly. If you can't beat them on price, you must win on "Value Add" (Free Brisbane delivery, extended warranty, etc.) and ensure these are highlighted in your Merchant Center Promotions.
Stop Wasting Your Budget
Google Shopping isn't a "set and forget" channel. It requires aggressive feed manipulation, ruthless product pruning, and a deep understanding of how to steer the AI. If your current agency is just looking at the ROAS figure in the dashboard without digging into your feed health, they are costing you money.
Ready to stop the bleed and actually scale your e-commerce results? Contact Local Marketing Group today for a brutal, honest audit of your Google Shopping setup.