Short answer: to scale a Shopify app with Google Ads, keep “Shopify” out of your keywords, turn real merchant searches into clean phrase-match keywords, exclude competing platforms, and block irrelevant searches continuously. Keep manual CPC until you have around 30 conversions; after that, AI Max or Performance Max can bid toward the revenue each keyword brings.
Shopify Ads get more crowded and expensive every season. Google is where the room is: few Shopify apps advertise there, and merchants use it all day to fix the problems apps like yours fix. Here is the playbook we use for clients, step by step.
| # | Step | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don’t use “Shopify” | Add “Shopify” as a phrase-match negative |
| 2 | List search queries without “Shopify" | "Popups for Shopify” and “Best Shopify popup app” become clean keywords |
| 3 | Add the clean keywords in phrase match | ”popup app for ecommerce” |
| 4 | Exclude competing platforms | Wix, BigCommerce, WooCommerce |
| 5 | Add clean keywords as exact-match negatives | Same list, exact match, as negatives |
| 6 | Block irrelevant searches continuously | Weekly search terms review |
| 7 | Track performance and revenue | Installs, subscriptions and payments by keyword |
1. Don’t use “Shopify”. Don’t bid on it and don’t put it in your ads. Add it as a phrase-match negative. Your ad still reads as a Shopify app: when it points to your app store listing, Google adds the Shopify logo and a “Shopify App Store” label by itself.
2. List search queries without “Shopify”. Start from what merchants actually search. Queries like “Popups for Shopify” or “Best Shopify popup app” show the demand; stripped of “Shopify”, they become your clean keywords.
3. Add the clean keywords in phrase match. Target the non-Shopify versions of those searches, such as “popup app for ecommerce” or “email automation tool”.
4. Exclude competing platforms. Add Wix, BigCommerce and WooCommerce as negatives, so your budget goes to Shopify merchants.
5. Add clean keywords as exact-match negatives. The same clean list goes in again, this time as exact-match negatives.
6. Block irrelevant searches continuously. Review the search terms every week and add anything irrelevant as a negative. The account never stops needing this.
7. Track performance and revenue. Clicks and installs aren’t enough. Track installs, subscriptions and payments, with their values, by keyword, so you can see which searches lead to paying merchants. We use Prys for this on every client account; it also sends those events and values back to Google, where the AI needs them.
Start on manual CPC. Once you have about 30 conversions, switch to AI bidding and pit the two AI campaign types against each other:
Both are only as good as the values you give them. Report install, subscribe and payment events with real values, by keyword, and they go looking for merchants who pay rather than for clicks.
“We’ve been testing Google Ads’ latest AI campaigns, AI Max. Phenomenal. One account, 8 weeks: 740% ROAS.”
Boaz Lantsman, Founder, Convert2x
Once AI bidding is live, the weekly routine is short:
Timing matters too: the AI learns from conversions, so start well before your busy season. The peak-season version of this setup is in Google Ads before BFCM.
| Account | Result |
|---|---|
| A store optimization app | 563% ROAS at a $0.07 average CPC, $45.8K in value on $8.1K of spend |
| AI Max, one account, 8 weeks | 740% ROAS |
Send clicks to your app store listing by default; it converts best. A landing page makes sense when you monetize outside Shopify, when a keyword is too competitive for the listing, or when you run an offer. The details are in landing pages for Shopify app Google Ads.
Our team builds the clean keyword list and negatives, handles the move from manual to AI bidding, sets up conversion values by keyword, and optimizes every week. Pricing is $1K per month plus your media budget, which typically starts around $2K a month. Details on managed Google Ads for Shopify apps; the first step is a free growth assessment.
No. Don't bid on it or use it in your ads. Add Shopify as a phrase-match negative and build your keywords from the searches merchants make without it.
A real merchant search with Shopify taken out. List the searches that bring merchants to apps like yours, remove Shopify, and add what's left as phrase-match keywords.
Competing ecommerce platforms such as Wix, BigCommerce and WooCommerce, added as negative keywords, so the ads reach Shopify merchants.
After about 30 conversions on manual CPC. Then test AI Max and Performance Max, feeding them install, subscribe and payment events with their values by keyword.
Results we published: 563% ROAS at a $0.07 average CPC for one store optimization app ($45.8K in value on $8.1K of spend), and 740% ROAS in 8 weeks for one account on AI Max.
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