As a small start-up, we’re splitting our ad spend between two target markets across both Meta and Google. Realistically, this leaves us with quite a limited budget on each channel, and we’re not seeing meaningful returns. On Google specifically, we’ve been told our budget isn’t big enough to make an impact. At the same time, we saw the Shopping carousel disappear for a few days recently, and now there’s talk of a new AI-driven strategy being rolled out. How should smaller businesses approach Google Ads when budgets are thin and fragmented — is it still worth being on the platform at all, and will smaller players be able to keep up with these AI-driven changes? Do you have any tips that we can impliment today that will not only drive traffic, but also sales?
Topic summary
A small start-up is struggling with limited Google Ads budget split across multiple markets and platforms, seeing minimal returns. They’ve been told their budget is too small to be effective and are concerned about keeping pace with Google’s new AI-driven advertising strategies.
Expert Response:
- Budgets as low as $30/day can work if selling products consumers actually want
- Success heavily depends on business model:
- Drop shippers face challenges due to low-quality, oversaturated products
- Own-brand sellers need significant time for brand awareness
- Resellers of established brands typically see easier conversions
Actionable Recommendations:
- Optimize product feed attributes beyond basic website imports (follow Google Merchant Center requirements)
- Use standard Shopping campaigns with advanced bidding strategies that adjust based on search intent
- Focus on Google Shopping, which remains profitable when properly configured
AI Concerns Addressed:
AI integration shouldn’t be a barrier—ads will continue appearing alongside AI overviews as part of the consumer journey.
The discussion emphasizes that no universal strategy exists; success varies by merchant, with some finding better results on Meta versus Google.
Hello RaineCP, thank you for your question and for joining the Shopify AMA. My name is Emmanuel, founder of FeedArmy, and your host for today’s AMA.
I help clients with budgets as small as $30 per day. Yes, I don’t really like working with small budgets, but it does work as long as what you sell is what consumers want.
If you did not get any sales, or no profit, the best thing is to first try to understand why.
For example discovering answers to this question depends on for example if you sell your own manufactured products / brand, or if you are a reseller, or if you are a drop shipper.
Drop shippers will have a very difficult time, because they are selling low quality products that are sold by thousands of other merchants.
If you sell your own brand, here the issue is brand awareness, and that takes a lot of time and effort.
If you are a reseller of someone elses brand, that usually is easier to sell.
AI should not be an issue, consumers will always want to buy products, so if AI is in the middle, all that will do is show ads along side AI overviews. So advertising will still be part of the journey.
For eCommerce Google Shopping is still very profitable, if setup correctly.
First you need to make sure every attribute is added and improved, just importing data from your website is not enough. Follow the guides and requirements here: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=en
Then once that is done, focus on first setting up standard shopping campaigns if you have limited budget, with an advanced strategy. Which I explain in the video below. This allows you to bid differently on the intent of the search term.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiRIDzRrHno
But please note, each business will have a different strategy, there is no one rule fits all.
Some merchants find success with meta, some if not most will find success with Google Ads.
But the video above should give you a great starting block.