The Google Ads Playbook that Generated Millions

For Our Clients

Google is not only the world’s largest search engine but also a powerful shopping platform, with users showing high purchase intent—especially in the health & wellness industry.

get the formula
65% of high-intent commercial searches happen on Google
In the U.S. in 2024, the wellness market has reached $480 billion, growing at 5 to 10 percent per year.
For brands in the health and wellness industry, this makes Google Ads a must-have tool for reaching high-intent audiences, whether they are researching products or ready to make a purchase. Keep reading to get the full strategy for reaching your ideal audience, tailored specifically to outdoor e-commerce brands.

Our Expertise

50M+

managed spend on Google

178%

average increase in revenue

300+

brand partners

1. Who and What You Should Target

While keywords are essential to any search strategy, it’s important to think beyond just the words people use. Focus on the audiences behind the searches—groups of people in different locations with specific interests who are most likely to engage with your business.

6 Targeting Options on Google:

  • Keywords: The search terms you will use to target your audience.
  • Audiences: Groups defined by interests, behaviors, and demographics.
  • Demographics: Subgroups broken down by age, gender, income range, and parental status.
  • Location: Geographic areas you can target by region, country, state, city, and postal/zip code.
  • Ad Schedules: Choose when your ads are shown.
  • Device: Target users on mobile, desktop, or tablet.

Keyword Match Types

Another way to target your audience is through keyword match types. Keyword match types are important for Search & Shopping campaigns and help control how closely searches must align with your keywords for your ads to appear.
Below is the division of how keyword match types work.

Broad Match

Ads appear for related searches, offering wider reach. Great for reaching a wider audience, but you’ll need to review search terms constantly and add negative keywords.

Example

[eye drops] may show for searches like "dry eyes relief" or "best eye care products."

Phrase Match

Ads show when the search contains your keyword phrase. Allows for some flexibility while keeping your ads relevant.

Example

[eye drops] triggers searches like "best eye drops for dry eyes."

Exact Match

Ads appear for exact or close variations of your keyword. Gives you the highest control over who sees your ads, perfect for driving highly relevant traffic.

Example

[eye drops] only shows for searches like "eye drops" or "buy eye drops."
Recently, we’ve been seeing that Google is trending more and more towards broad matches. Our recommendation would be to test different match types and see what brings the best results.

Keyword Research & Strategy

Choosing the right keywords begins with Google Keyword Planner (GKP). Input key terms, your website, or competitor sites to discover relevant keywords and categorize them by search intent:
  • Top of Funnel (TOF): Research-focused (e.g., "Hair growth tips").
  • Middle of Funnel (MOF): Consideration keywords (e.g., "Best supplements for hair growth").
  • Bottom of Funnel (BOF): High purchase intent (e.g., "Nutrafol women’s hair growth supplements").
Focus primarily on MOF and BOF keywords for search campaigns to capture more purchase-ready users. For TOF traffic, use broader campaign types like Performance Max. More on campaign types in the next section.

2. Choosing the Right Google Ad Campaigns

Now that you understand your target audience and the keywords they use, the next step is selecting the right campaign type for your brand. Your choice will depend on your business model and the specific goals you want to achieve.

Best For

Network

Ad Types

Ideal Focus

Search

E-commerce, SaaS, Services
Search Network
Text Ads
New & existing clients and retargeting

Shopping

E-commerce
Shopping Network
Shopping Ads
New & existing clients and retargeting

Performance Max (PMax)

E-commerce, SaaS, Services
Search, Display, Maps, YouTube, Gmail
Text, Shopping, Image, Video, Maps
New & existing clients and retargeting

Display

E-commerce, SaaS, Services
Display Network
Image Ads
New & existing clients and retargeting

Demand Gen (formerly “Discovery”)

E-commerce, SaaS, Services
YouTube, Display, Gmail, Apps
Image & Video Ads
New clients

Video

E-commerce, SaaS, Services
YouTube
Video Ads
New clients & retargeting

App

Businesses with apps
Google Play, Search, YouTube
Text & Image Ads
New & existing clients

Evaluating Campaign Control: Pros & Cons

When choosing a campaign, you’ll want to consider how much control you need over targeting and ad content, as well as your conversion goals. Here’s a quick comparison to help guide your decision:

Control Over
Targeting

Control Over
Ad Copy

Conversion Goals

Search

High Control: You can target exact, phrase, or broad match keywords and set up detailed audience targeting.
High Control: Full customization of headlines, descriptions, and URLs for tailored messaging.
Sales, leads, calls

Shopping

High Control: Targeting is based on product titles, descriptions, and categories from the product feed. Negative keywords can be added.
High Control: Ad content comes from the product feed. You can optimize titles and descriptions.
Sales

Performance Max (PMax)

Low Control: Google uses signals (keywords, audiences) you provide as suggestions, but targeting is mainly algorithm-driven.
Low Control: Google dynamically combines provided assets (text, images, videos) across channels.
Sales, leads, calls, local conversions

Display

High Control: You select specific audiences based on interests, behaviors, and demographics.
Moderate Control: Custom image/text ads, but the appearance can vary by placement.
Sales, lead capture

Demand Gen

Low Control: Targeting is audience-driven, but fine-tuning is limited by Google’s algorithm.
Low Control: Google mixes provided assets (images/videos) dynamically.
Sales, lead capture, calls

Video

Moderate Control: You can target based on user behavior, interests, and demographics, but placement control is limited.
High Control: Complete control over video content (script, visuals). Length may vary by placement.
Sales, lead capture
By understanding the level of control each campaign offers, you can choose the one that best aligns with your marketing strategy.

3. Structuring Your Google Ads Account

Building the right account structure is crucial for long-term success. The structure you choose will help manage budgets, optimize targeting, and ensure that your campaigns run efficiently. There are four main types of campaigns:
  1. Evergreen Campaigns: Always-on campaigns that promote your key products/services.
  2. Defensive Campaigns: Branded campaigns designed to protect your brand from competitors.
  3. Offensive Campaigns: Target your competitors’ brand terms and products to gain market share.
  4. Promotional/Seasonal Campaigns: Run for limited-time offers, like Black Friday, Mother’s Day, brand sales, product launches, etc.
A typical account structure for e-commerce should look something like this:
For most health & wellness e-commerce brands, we recommend Search, Shopping, and PMax campaigns for evergreen strategies.
  • Search & Shopping: These campaigns capture high-intent traffic and are budget-friendly. For top-performing product categories, consider transitioning them to PMax for greater reach.
  • Performance Max: Ideal for larger budgets, PMax taps into multiple channels (Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, Maps). Avoid using PMax for new accounts—gather conversions and data first (at least 30 days, 30 conversions).
    Pro Tip: Create product subcategories to target specific audiences more effectively. For example, “men’s multivitamin” and “women’s multivitamin” should be different asset groups.
  • Performance Max: Ideal for larger budgets, PMax taps into multiple channels (Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, Maps). Avoid using PMax for new accounts—gather conversions and data first (at least 30 days, 30 conversions).
    Pro Tip: Create product subcategories to target specific audiences more effectively. For example, “golf belts” and “hiking belts” should be different asset groups.
For promotions or sales, prioritize PMax campaigns. If you have a very large budget, you can try Display, YouTube, or dynamic campaigns as well. IMPORTANT: Avoid running promos within existing Search/Shopping campaigns to prevent budget spikes and performance drops once the sale ends.

4. Creating Copy & Assets

After deciding on which campaigns to use, you’ll need to make copies and assets.

Search Campaigns

✏️ Copy Guidelines

Headlines: Add up to 15 headlines (minimum 5)
Descriptions: Include up to 4 descriptions (minimum 2)
  • Pro Tip #1: The more headlines and descriptions you provide, the better Google can test combinations to find what resonates with your audience. Fill out as many as possible.
  • Pro Tip #2: Use as many keywords as possible in your headlines to improve your ad score.
  • Pro Tip #3: Try to use the same keywords and phrasing in your ads and landing pages to improve your ad relevance and quality score.

🗂️ Use Assets (formerly known as “extensions”)

Assets in Google Ads improve ad relevance, engagement, and targeting through machine learning. They also increase ad space in search results, boosting visibility, clicks, and conversions (and pushing competitor ads further down the page). There are several different types of assets, including sitelinks, callouts, promotions, prices, and more that can be useful for e-commerce businesses.

PMax Campaigns

PMax campaigns require different and more assets than search campaigns, as these ads appear across multiple channels.
Performance Max campaigns help you increase conversions across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

🖼️ Visual Asset Guidelines

Collect as many visual assets as you can. The more you provide, the better Google’s algorithm can optimize your ads for performance and reach. Aim for variety—different image styles, formats, and video options.
Asset Sizing for PMax CampaignsWhen preparing visuals, make sure they meet the following size requirements for optimal display across placements and devices:
Landscape
1200 x 628 px
Square
1200 x 1200 px
Portrait
960 x 1200 px
Videos
Use 1:1 (square) and 16:9 (landscape) aspect ratios
Here is a full list of image specs for Google Ads campaigns.

✏️  Copy Guidelines for PMax

  • 15 Headlines (up to 30 characters)
  • 5 Long headlines (up to 90 characters)
  • 5 Descriptions (1 of these descriptions is up to 60 characters and the other 4 are up to 90 characters)
Pro Tip: PMax campaigns rotate assets like headlines, descriptions, and visuals to find the best-performing combinations, so provide as many variations as possible.

‼️ Other Useful Information to Know for PMax

1. No Direct Keyword TargetingUnlike traditional search campaigns that rely on keyword bidding, PMax uses signals from various data sources to show ads across multiple Google placements (Search, YouTube, Gmail, Display, Discover).
2. Keyword and Audience SignalsYou’ll want to use keywords and audience signals 99% of the time. PMax relies on keyword themes and audience data to guide Google's machine learning in targeting relevant users. Keyword signals help align your ads with user intent, while audience signals (e.g., past site visitors or interest data) help identify potential buyers across different platforms. For example, if you sell a camping shower, your signals might look something like this:
Audience signals: health, fitness, organicKeyword signals: protein powder, whey protein, post-gym protein

Book Your Free Call Today and Let’s Crush Google Ads

We win if you win. And believe us, we love winning.

Book Your Free Call Today and Let’s Crush Google Ads

We win if you win. And believe us, we love winning.

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