Launching on Google Ads in 2026: The Complete Step-by-Step Strategy

The goal of this article is simple: to show you how to launch on Google Ads in 2026 and reach 3K, 5K, 10K, or even 1,000€ per day as quickly as possible. Of course, everything is relative, and I don't like giving specific numbers. It's just to show you what you're capable of on Google Ads.

This time, we'll go in order, step by step. Take notes and apply them now.

Why Google Ads and not Meta?

Before getting into the steps, you need to understand why we are on Google and not elsewhere. Because the entire strategy relies on this.

1. Google is hot traffic. People come to you, not the other way around. You don't need to make creatives. People have their credit cards in hand, and if your offer is better than the competitors', they buy from you. On Meta and TikTok, people are there to scroll and laugh. They have no desire to buy. On Google, they have purchase intent. This is crucial to understand.

2. Google Shopping is a price comparator. People take their time, look at everything, and buy where they feel most reassured and where the offer is most attractive. Remember this well; we will use it at every step.

3. On Google, you can measure demand before launching. You know exactly how many people search for a keyword per month. Example with a niche I've already shared: ergonomic pillows. You know that X people type this keyword every month. So, X potential future customers. You don't guess; you measure.

4. In e-commerce on Google Ads, you will do about 80% Shopping and 20% Search. Keep this in mind; it will help you analyze competitors.

And the bonus: Google Ads pairs perfectly with SEO. We'll talk about that at the end.

Now, the steps.

Step 1: Find your niche with the right criteria

Everything starts here. A good niche for Google Ads is a product that checks these boxes:

• A problem-solution product. In reality, all products solve a problem, but the stronger the pain, the more it sells. Note one thing: on Google, every product that is searched for can be sold, even classic everyday products (sofas, artificial plants, dryers, etc.).
• A 4x margin, easily achievable.
• Easily sourceable, no supplier headaches.
• Small, not bulky, not heavy.
• Sells all year round. Not a seasonal product that only sells in winter, otherwise you'll have no sales later.
• A large enough TAM (Total Addressable Market): about 30,000 searches per month across all keywords in the niche, and between 5,000 and 10,000+ on the main keyword is always better.
• A low CPC: not above 0.70-0.80€.
• A clean curve on Google Trends over the last 5 years.

Until you have a product that checks these boxes, you don't move to the next step. Simple as that.

Let's take the "ergonomic pillow" niche for this article. The first thing once you've found your niche is to confirm demand and measure the TAM on Semrush and Keyword Planner, which is free and the most reliable tool since it's directly from Google.

As you can see here: 18,100 people search for the keyword "ergonomic pillow" alone, and 72,400 people search for keywords around "ergonomic pillow," including all variations and even spelling mistakes. We can push further and look for other keywords in the same semantic field, for example, "ergonomic cushion," "memory foam pillow," etc.

Small tip that will bring you results quickly: if you see a lot of competition, you have two choices.

• Either you look for other keywords that competitors aren't targeting. Example: the most used keyword by competitors is "ergonomic pillow"? You use "memory foam pillow," and your entire strategy revolves around that keyword.
• Or you translate your keyword and go to another market: German, Italian, Spanish, etc. And you do your competitive intelligence under a VPN, or with the free tool https://usearchfrom.com/ which gives you search results for any market.

So here, the niche checks all the criteria for a good Google Ads niche. We can move on to competitive intelligence.

Step 2: Do your competitive intelligence

Your niche is found; now you analyze the competitors. And here, there are two types of competitors to separate clearly. This is where many go wrong.

Competitors on other advertising platforms (Meta, TikTok...)

With @TrendTrack_io for example, you look for competitors selling the same product as you, but mainly on a platform other than Google Ads.

Understand this: a competitor on Meta is not necessarily a competitor in your market. They make their money on Meta; you want to make yours on Google. Generally, these stores are on Google just for branding and retargeting. They aren't fighting on the same bids as you.

However, you use them for inspiration: their site structure, their offer, their bundles, their product page structure, their visual identity, their emailing, etc.

My advice: go to TrendTrack, then to Brand Tracker, and create two files. One for competitors running mainly on Google Ads, and another for competitors running on other platforms. Or do it on a Google Doc, and note all the important info for each competitor: traffic, number of products, how many ads on Meta, when the shop was launched, etc.

Real Google Ads competitors

These are the ones you'll be most inspired by. To find them, it's logical: search directly on Google in the Shopping results with your keywords. Let's go back to the ergonomic pillow example; we'll go to Google.

The goal is to find a competitor running mainly on Google Ads. As a bonus, it's best if they launched recently (less than a year), but it's not mandatory. Then, you calculate their monthly revenue: they need to be doing at least 20-30K in revenue per month. And that competitor (or several, if you have multiple making money on Google Ads) will be the one we base everything on.

To calculate revenue, the formula is:

Revenue = Traffic × Conversion Rate × Average Order Value

For example: 10,000 visitors/month × 2% conversion × 45€ average order = 200 orders × 45€ = 9,000€ monthly revenue.

Next, you take this competitor and analyze them on the Google Ads Transparency Center and on TrendTrack. This feature is incredible: you see if the store runs mainly on Google Ads or not. If they have more than 30% of campaigns in Shopping, they run mainly on Google. Because if there's only Search, it's usually retargeting, or they've exhausted the niche and have a high impression share on the search network, so they moved to a Search-heavy strategy.

Signals of a competitor making money on Google Ads:

• They do at least 30% Shopping and very little Search (Search is usually retargeting or branding).
• They have no ads on Meta, or very few creatives, so it's just retargeting.

If you see all this, it's a good sign: this store makes its money on Google Ads. So the market is profitable on this platform, and that's the model you'll dissect.

Step 3: Choose your products

Single-product or multi-product? Both work on Google, but Google likes multi-product sites: ten, twenty, fifty products, always in the same niche.

• Selling pillows? You have ten or fifteen different pillows to test.
• In a broader niche like cats? You have several types of products: brushes, mats, toys, etc. Not just brushes.

You test until the best product takes off, and then you scale on it.

How to know which products to launch? A quick win: look directly at your competitors' best-sellers with the free TrendTrack extension, and launch literally the same ones. They've already paid for that data; use it.

And if you want more products to flesh out your catalog, import products with high sales on AliExpress. If it sells there, you know it sells.

Step 4: Find your persona and marketing angle

Before building your offer and product pages, choose your persona, your marketing angle, and your positioning relative to competitors.

Two options:

• You take an under-exploited angle that competitors aren't using.
• Or you take the competitor's angle and just do it better: more aggressive offer, more value, and ABOVE ALL, you sell your product cheaper.

To find your angles, you have free gold mines:

• Reddit: people describe their problems in their own words.
• TikTok: comments, etc.
• Competitor reviews: read the negative reviews especially; every customer frustration is an angle for you.

And with Claude, you remix all the data you've sent it, and boom: it will copywrite your entire site in the best way because it will base it on your main persona and main angle.

Step 5: Build your offer

This is where everything is decided. Once again: Google Ads is a price comparator. Your offer is what makes the difference.

Rule 1: always sell cheaper at the beginning. Don't think about the brand; don't think about branding. You sell cheaper to get data, traction, and sales. The brand will come later.

Rule 2: provide more value than the competitor. Point by point:

• Your competitor offers nothing? Offer a complementary product that costs you next to nothing (1€, 2€, 3€).
• Their shipping is paid? Make shipping free no matter what.
• Put in a rock-solid guarantee.
• Offer free returns. At the beginning, this is very important.
• Import reviews from the supplier you use.
• They have bundles? Make more attractive, more enticing bundles.

Rule 3: always, always, always justify your offer. A promotion without a reason is suspicious. Is it September? Back-to-school offer, -30%. There's always an event to justify a promo.

Caution with the French market: don't do ultra-aggressive offers at -60% and such. Maximum -30/35%. People smell dropshipping too easily, and a promo that's too big breaks trust instead of creating it.

Step 6: Work on each product in your GMC

Now, you work on each product page in your GMC (Google Merchant Center) to get the best possible CTR and the best possible ranking on Google.

The title is the most important part. On Google Shopping, your title defines which keywords you'll be positioned for and whether they are relevant or not. Everything happens there.

Structure of a good title:

1. The main keyword: Ergonomic Pillow
2. An important feature people search for: Memory Foam
3. Reassurance: 3-Year Warranty, 90-Day Free Returns

This gives, for example: Ergonomic Memory Foam Pillow – Cervical – 3-Year Warranty.

Base it on your competitors: Put plenty of keywords in your titles with several variations: ergonomic pillow, memory foam pillow, etc. That way you're positioned for all types of keywords and Google sends you the best traffic, the kind that buys.

My advice: work on your titles directly in the Merchant Center; it gives you control over the feed.

Images: differentiate yourself. If all your competitors have images on white backgrounds, use a styled background. On a price comparator, the image gets the click.

The description, a little glitch:

1. Take the 10 most searched keywords in your niche and all their variations: ergonomic pillow, ergonomic memory foam pillow, black ergonomic pillow, healthy ergonomic pillow, etc.
2. Ask Claude to write a paragraph for you that naturally integrates these keywords and bolds them.
3. Paste this paragraph into your description.

This helps Google calibrate traffic and intent. It's simple, but it makes a difference in positioning.

Step 7: Technical Setup

To do everything I showed you before, you obviously need to do your setup first. On your Shopify:

1. Download the Google & YouTube app.
2. Connect your Merchant Center account and your Google Ads account to Shopify. Don't have them? Just log in with the store's email: the accounts are created automatically and connect to Shopify. Nothing simpler.

Tracking is the sinews of war. Without tracking, you won't be profitable. Without tracking, we do nothing, and this applies to all platforms. If your conversions don't report back, Google doesn't know who is buying, so it can't send you the right traffic and qualified persona.

Two types of tracking:

• Free: Google gives you the conversion tag directly, the code to paste on your site. There are free tutorials on YouTube for this.
• Paid: via a dedicated app. Personally, I use TrackBee; no headaches.

Small tip: always use double tracking. Two paid, one paid + one free, or two free, whatever you want. Just to be sure your conversions and ATCs (Add to Carts) are reporting correctly. If one fails, you'll see it immediately.

Next, Merchant Center (GMC) validation. You pass the test. If you pass, great. If you're banned, don't panic: follow Google's advice; there's a checklist to follow, and they will unban you.

The key is consistency. Everything on your site must match what's in the Merchant Center:

• You say your product is polyester on the site? Don't put another material in the GMC.
• Your name is Mohamed on the site? Don't call yourself Yannis in the GMC.
• Same prices, same shipping times, same return policies everywhere.

This is the number one cause of bans for beginners. Simple as that.

Step 8: Launch your first campaign

Now, we create our first campaigns. And there's nothing simpler.

1. Create a standard Shopping campaign. No PMax to start.
2. Choose 5-6 products to push, or more, for a budget of about 50€ per day (between 30 and 50€, depending on your budget).
3. Manual CPC. Always at the start. To set your average CPC: go to the Google Ads Keyword Planner; it's free. It gives you the lowest and highest CPC for your keywords. Take the average of the two and set it in your campaign.

I'm putting the screenshots here, in order, to create your campaign:

• [screenshots] *

And later, the product that performs best, you isolate it to launch in PMax with its own budget. Standard Shopping to test, PMax to scale. That's how we do it.

Step 9: Don't touch anything (this is where everyone fails)

The most important step. Everyone loves to:

• Touch the conversion tag.
• Touch the campaign goal.
• Touch the bid type: switching back to maximize clicks, maximize conversion value, etc., instead of staying on manual CPC.

The more you touch it, the more Google goes back into a 2-3 day learning phase. And during that time, you're just losing money because it's not sending you the right traffic.

The goal: let it run for at least 7 to 10 days without testing anything. And then, you see what happens, quite simply.

If it doesn't spend at first: it's okay, leave it, leave it. If it still doesn't spend, increase the CPC. It's just that it's too low, so Google can't spend much. Nothing more.

Sort your keywords: in your search terms, exclude irrelevant or unprofitable keywords. Generally, we do this after 10 days, but you can do it every 48 hours. Sometimes Google will position you for keywords that have nothing to do with your niche or keywords that are way too broad. Every excluded keyword is budget that goes back to what converts.

Step 10: Diagnose your results

Remember this: the problem is never Google Ads. Very, very rare that it's Google Ads. The problem is almost always your site and your offer.

The diagnosis is simple:

• No ATC (Add to Carts)? You have a problem on your site.
• ATCs but no sales? It's also your site: the checkout, surprise fees, lack of reassurance.
• Google spends and nothing happens? It's your product, and your site too.

The only exception where it's really Google Ads: if you put thirty products with very little budget, like 20-30€. Obviously, Google can't spend on all products; it will put 1€ per product, and you'll get your data in 3 months instead of a few days. Hence the importance of staying with 5-6 products per campaign.

What's next: SEO and duplication

Once your Google Ads machine is running, you pair it with SEO. And then you have the best of both worlds:

• SEO: traffic that comes in every month with purchase intent without paying anything.
• Google Ads: which boosts your SEO and sales in parallel.

Result: after a year or a year and a half, you have a shop that generates sales every month almost automatically. You have almost nothing left to do. And then, you duplicate the process across multiple stores and multiple markets. That's how you build something solid, not a flash in the pan.

Timing: it's THE moment

Know that this is truly the best time to launch. It's late August, early September: the best time of year to be ready for Q4, the period when everyone buys.

So that's how you launch on Google Ads today, quite simply. Once that's done, all that's left is to scale. And maybe I'll make another thread about that. 👊

Put plenty of keywords in your titles with several variations: ergonomic pillow, ergonomic memory foam pillow, etc. That way you're positioned for all types of keywords and Google sends you the best traffic, the kind that buys.

My advice: work on your titles directly in the Merchant Center; it gives you control over the feed.

Images: differentiate yourself. If all your competitors have images on white backgrounds, use a styled background. On a price comparator, the image gets the click.

The description, a little glitch:

1. Take the 10 most searched keywords in your niche and all their variations: ergonomic pillow, ergonomic memory foam pillow, black ergonomic pillow, healthy ergonomic pillow, etc.
2. Ask Claude to write a paragraph for you that naturally integrates these keywords and bolds them.
3. Paste this paragraph into your description.

This helps Google calibrate traffic and intent. It's simple, but it makes a difference in positioning.

Step 7: Technical Setup

To do everything I showed you before, you obviously need to do your setup first on your Shopify:

1. Download the Google & YouTube app.
2. Connect your Merchant Center account and your Google Ads account to Shopify. Don't have them? Just log in with the store's email: the accounts are created automatically and connect to Shopify. Nothing simpler.

Tracking is the sinews of war. Without tracking, you won't be profitable. Without tracking, we do nothing, and this applies to all platforms. If your conversions don't report back, Google doesn't know who is buying, so it can't send you the right traffic and qualified persona.

Two types of tracking:

• Free: Google gives you the conversion tag directly, the code to paste on your site. There are free tutorials on YouTube for this.
• Paid: via a dedicated app. Personally, I use TRACKBEE; no headaches.

Small tip: always use double tracking. Two paid, one paid + one free, or two free, whatever you want. Just to be sure your conversions and ATCs are reporting correctly. If one fails, you'll see it immediately.

Next, Merchant Center (GMC) validation. You pass the test. If you pass, great. If you're banned, don't panic: follow Google's advice; there's a checklist to follow, and they will unban you.

The key is consistency. Everything on your site must match what's in the Merchant Center:

• You say your product is polyester on the site? Don't put another material in the GMC.
• Your name is Mohamed on the site? Don't call yourself Yannis in the GMC.
• Same prices, same shipping times, same return policies everywhere.

This is the number one cause of bans for beginners. Simple as that.

Step 8: Launch your first campaign

Now, we create our first campaigns. And there's nothing simpler.

1. Create a standard Shopping campaign. No PMax to start.
2. Choose 5-6 products to push or more, for a budget of about 50€ per day (between 30 and 50€, depending on your budget).
3. Manual CPC. Always at the start. To set your average CPC: go to the Google Ads Keyword Planner; it's free. It gives you the lowest and highest CPC for your keywords. Take the average of the two and set it in your campaign.
4. Launch your campaigns at midnight.
5. I'm putting the screenshots here in order to create your campaign:

And later, the product that performs best, you isolate it to launch in PMax with its own budget. Standard Shopping to test, PMax to scale. That's how we do it.

Step 9: Don't touch anything (this is where everyone fails)

The most important step. Everyone loves to:

• Touch the conversion tag.
• Touch the campaign goal.
• Touch the bid type: switching back to maximize clicks, maximize conversion value, etc., instead of staying on manual CPC.

The more you touch it, the more Google goes back into a 2-3 day learning phase. And during that time, you're just losing money because it's not sending you the right traffic.

The goal: let it run for at least 7 to 10 days without testing anything. And then, you see what happens, quite simply.

If it doesn't spend at first: it's okay, leave it, leave it. If it still doesn't spend, increase the CPC. It's just that it's too low, so Google can't spend much. Nothing more.

Sort your keywords: in your search terms, exclude irrelevant or unprofitable keywords. Generally, we do this after 10 days, but you can do it every 48 hours. Sometimes Google will position you for keywords that have nothing to do with your niche or keywords that are way too broad. Every excluded keyword is budget that goes back to what converts.

Step 10: Diagnose your results

Remember this: the problem is never Google Ads. Very, very rare that it's Google Ads. The problem is almost always your site and your offer.

The diagnosis is simple:

• No ATC (Add to Carts)? You have a problem on your site.
• ATCs but no sales? It's also your site: the checkout, surprise fees, lack of reassurance.
• Google spends and nothing happens? It's your product, and your site too.

The only exception where it's really Google Ads: if you put thirty products with very little budget, like 20-30€. Obviously, Google can't spend on all products; it will put 1€ per product, and you'll get your data in 3 months instead of a few days. Hence the importance of staying with 5-6 products per campaign.

What's next: SEO and duplication

Once your Google Ads machine is running, you pair it with SEO. And then you have the best of both worlds:

• SEO: traffic that comes in every month with purchase intent without paying anything.
• Google Ads: which boosts your SEO and sales in parallel.

Result: after a year or a year and a half, you have a shop that generates sales every month almost automatically. You have almost nothing left to do. And then, you duplicate the process across multiple stores and multiple markets. That's how you build something solid, not a flash in the pan.

Besides, for all those who already have a shop running on Meta or Google Ads and want to work on their SEO, there is the brother

@rgnr___ whom I trained myself in SEO over the last few years. He is really good; he can take care of working on your SEO. And I think the first 3 who DM him, he'll do a free audit for them. Go for it!!! Timing: it's THE moment

Know that this is truly the best time to launch. It's late August, early September: the best time of year to be ready for Q4, the period when everyone buys.

So that's how you launch on Google Ads today, quite simply. Once that's done, all that's left is to scale. And maybe I'll make another thread about that. 👊