Google and Meta ads for online stores, judged on profit.
Store ads work when the target starts from margin and the tracking counts real orders. Ad management and ad creation on Google and Meta, with reporting tied to orders and break-even ROAS instead of platform-reported revenue.
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Why store ad budget leaks.
Revenue is not profit
Platform ROAS counts revenue. A 4x ROAS can still lose money after product cost, shipping, fees and returns, so the target has to start from margin.
Returning customers get the credit
Brand searches and retargeting often claim orders that would have happened anyway. Splitting new from returning customers shows what the ads actually add.
Catalog quality drives results
Shopping and Performance Max choose products from the feed. Weak titles, missing data and low-margin items waste spend before any creative is tested.
What the work covers.
Ad management, ad creation and tracking on Google, Meta and LinkedIn, shaped around online stores.
Ad management
Google Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Meta sales campaigns structured around margin tiers and a break-even target. Budget moves toward the products and audiences that pay back.
Ad creation
Product-led creative for each placement: static, short video and catalog formats, written around one offer and one product page so the ad and the page make the same promise.
Tracking that counts
Purchase events from the store, checked for duplicates between browser and server tracking, matched against store orders and reported by new and returning customers.
The numbers that matter.
- Break-even ROAS
- The lowest return at which an order still covers product cost and ad spend.
- Cost per new customer
- What it costs to win a customer who has not bought before.
- Contribution margin
- Revenue after product cost, shipping and fees: the real base for any ROAS target.
- Average order value
- Sets how much can be spent to win a single order.
- Blended return
- Total revenue divided by total ad spend. A check on platform numbers that does not depend on attribution.
Common leaks and the first fix.
Purchases counted twice
First fix. Compare platform purchases with store orders for one week. If the platform shows more, fix deduplication between browser and server events.
Brand search taking the credit
First fix. Split brand and non-brand campaigns and judge them separately, so brand demand does not hide weak prospecting.
Every product treated the same
First fix. Group products by margin and set a different return target for each group.
Retargeting outgrowing prospecting
First fix. Cap retargeting at a share of spend and track the share of new customers in every report.
Common questions.
What ROAS should an online store target?
It depends on margin. Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by contribution margin, so a store with a 40% margin breaks even at 2.5x. The break-even ROAS calculator does the math, and the real target sits above that to leave profit.
Is Google or Meta better for an online store?
They do different jobs. Google captures people already searching for a product, and Meta creates demand by showing products to people who were not searching. Most stores need both, with budget split by what each returns on new customers.
Does the store platform matter?
Ad management works with any store platform that can send purchase data to the ad platforms. If purchase tracking is missing or unreliable, it is set up or repaired first.
How are results reported?
In orders, new customers and cost per new customer, shown next to platform-reported figures and checked against store orders.
Other industries.
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