by Austin LeClear
on October 20, 2025
Picture this: You’re spending money on Performance Max campaigns. Maybe you’re even seeing decent results — a solid ROAS (return on ad spend) and consistent sales. Despite all of that, you’re stuck.
Every time you try to increase your ad spend, your return on ad spend drops. Your campaign performance plateaus. And you’re left wondering how you’re supposed to scale when Google’s AI seems to have hit a wall.
Sound familiar?
Our client, an e-commerce business selling hardware parts, was in the exact same boat. They were stuck at around $50,000 per month in sales. Then we implemented something called the Google Ads feeder strategy, and everything changed.
Last month, they did over $120,000 in sales. That’s double where they started. And we only spent $2,000 more than they were spending before.
So, how did we do it? In this post, we’ll walk you through the exact approach we took to doubling this company’s sales. Prefer video? Check out I DOUBLED Sales with This New Google Ads Strategy (Here’s How) on YouTube:
Still with us? Good, let’s dive in.
Proof of Concept
Here’s a quick overview of what happened. Bear in mind, there is not a lot of seasonality for this client, as they are in the hardware parts space. In January, they made $49,600 at a 600% ROAS.
In February, they made $57,600 at 560% ROAS. March was similar — around $50,000. Same story, different month.
Then in May, we implemented the feeder strategy. Sales from Google Ads jumped to $91,000 with a 900% return on ad spend.
In June and July, the account stayed elevated — making around $65,000 to almost $80,000 in sales with an 8x ROAS. This was much better than where they started, but we knew there was more potential in their Google Ads account.
In August, we restructured the entire approach. The result? $120,000 in sales at a 1,000% ROAS. That’s double where this client was just six months ago. Not seasonal. Not a fluke. Just a better campaign structure that finally gave us more control over scaling effectively.
The Problem: Performance Max Isn’t Designed for Scale
Before we took on this account, 90% of the company’s Google Ads budget was going to Performance Max campaigns.
They had one PMax campaign for their top brand (think of it like Nike if you’re selling sports equipment), and another PMax campaign where they lumped all their other brands together.
This made sense in theory. Performance Max is supposed to use machine learning to optimize across the entire Google network — search results, Shopping ads, Display, YouTube ads, everything. Set your target ROAS or target CPA, feed it your product data, and let it run.
But here’s what actually happened: They’d increase their budget, and their ROAS would dip. Sales wouldn’t even increase — they’d just waste more money at lower efficiency. They couldn’t bid higher without tanking results. They were stuck between two bad options: stay plateaued or lose money trying to grow.
This problem isn’t new. It’s something we’ve seen in hundreds of audits this year. E-commerce businesses running PMax campaigns are hitting a ceiling. The automated strategies work great until they don’t. And when you need more conversions, Google’s AI doesn’t give you any levers to pull.
Enter the Feeder Strategy
The feeder strategy, originally developed by Google Ads wizard, John Moran, flips the script on how you structure campaigns for scaling effectively.
This is the core concept: Instead of relying entirely on Performance Max, you set up standard Shopping campaigns to act as “feeders” that drive high intent traffic to your site. These Shopping campaigns capture first-click visitors with more aggressive bidding strategies. Then, Performance Max becomes more of a remarketing campaign that scoops up warm audiences for conversion.
It’s a bit hacky, and it’s not how Google tells you to use these campaign types. But it works.
Here’s how we implemented it.
The Technical Setup: How to Structure Your Campaigns
In May, we built a standard Shopping campaign with all their brands. We set the target ROAS for this campaign at 400% (lower than their Performance Max campaign), while their PMax campaign was set at 500% ROAS.
Why does this matter? Well, when you have the same product in both a Shopping campaign and a PMax campaign, Google decides which campaign to show based on ad rank. And ad rank is determined by your bid strategy.
By setting a lower ROAS target in the Shopping campaign (400% vs. 500%), we’re essentially telling Google to bid higher there. The Shopping campaign becomes more aggressive. It captures those first clicks from potential customers who’ve never heard of the brand.
That said, most people don’t buy on the first click. They need multiple touch points. They’ll browse, maybe add something to cart, then leave. They’ll search again later or see a remarketing ad.
That’s where Performance Max comes in. Once someone has been tagged as a warm audience — meaning they’ve spent time on the site, looked at the product feed, and showed intent — PMax can maximize conversions with those qualified leads at the higher ROAS target.
The Shopping campaigns feed warm, high intent traffic into the Performance Max campaigns. Hence the name: feeder strategy.
The Results: From $50K to $91K in One Month
In May, we spent $10,000 total. But now, $3,000 went to the standard Shopping campaign, and $6,700 went to PMax.
Compare that to January and February when almost nothing was going to Shopping ads.
Sales jumped to $91,000. The campaign structure was finally letting us drive more conversions without tanking our return on ad spend.
We could see it clearly in the data. That top brand went from 2,000 clicks to almost 4,000 clicks. We’d doubled the conversion volume on their best-performing products just by restructuring how we allocated ad spend.
June and July were good — still above historical averages. But we wanted to hit $100K+. We knew we could do better.
The August Restructure: Going All-In on What Works
In August, we made another critical change. We’d been feeding all of their brands through one Shopping campaign. But 90% of sales came from their one top brand.
So, we restructured. The Shopping campaign now only ran that top brand. Everything else got excluded or moved to separate campaigns with smaller budgets.
We also created a second feeder structure for the other brands — a separate standard Shopping campaign and a PMax campaign for “everything else.”
This multi-feeder strategy meant we could focus more budget on what was actually driving results. The top brand feeder got aggressive ad spend. The “others” feeder got $25/day to test and validate without risking the main revenue driver.
The result? $120,000 in sales in August. Double where they started. And we spent roughly the same on the Performance Max campaign as we had in previous months. This increase came from how we structured the Shopping campaigns and allocated budget across campaign types.
What You Need to Know Before You Try This
This isn’t a universal approach. If you’re spending under $10K per month and Performance Max is working (scaling as you add more budget), keep doing what you’re doing.
But if you’re plateaued? If every time you try to scale, your campaign performance tanks? This is worth testing.
You need enough data to make this Google Ads feeder strategy work. You need conversion volume. You need to be able to create product groups that actually have search terms and search queries coming in. If you’re brand new or dealing with super niche product attributes, you might not have the valuable traffic necessary yet.
But for established e-commerce businesses stuck in the PMax scaling trap, the feeder strategy might just be the solution you’re looking for. Better still, we’re seeing more success from this strategy across multiple Google Ads accounts.
Final Thoughts
Performance marketing shouldn’t feel like you’re flying blind. Yes, smart bidding and automated strategies have their place. But when you can’t scale, when you can’t get more control over where your budget goes and which product groups get prioritized, you need a different campaign structure.
The Google Ads feeder strategy gives you that control. Standard Shopping campaigns with aggressive ROAS targets feed high intent keywords and high intent traffic into your Performance Max campaigns. You’re not abandoning automation — you’re just structuring your campaigns so the automation works better.
This company is now primed to keep hitting $100K+ in sales every month. If they had more budget available, we genuinely think they could scale to $15-20K in monthly ad spend without seeing diminishing returns.
So if you’re stuck with Performance Max, if your Google Ads account has hit a wall, consider this approach. Test it. Monitor your campaign structure, and be ready to adjust as you learn what works.
Sometimes you need to think outside the box. This Google Ads feeder strategy proves it.
