Shopping captures product searches.
Search captures everything else.

When someone searches "best wireless earbuds under ₹3,000" or "alternative to Boat earphones," Shopping ads may not trigger — but Search ads will. Non-brand Search campaigns capture category intent, competitor comparisons and problem-aware queries that Shopping cannot reach. For ecommerce accounts running only Shopping and PMax, this is demand being left uncaptured.

Get a free Search audit ↗Ecommerce ads overview

35%Ecommerce queries Shopping cannot reach

3 typesBrand, category and competitor campaigns

WeeklySearch term review & negative sculpting

1.74×Average non-brand Search assist ratio

Shopping shows products. Search answers questions.

Not every buyer searches for a specific product. Many search for a category ("best running shoes for flat feet"), a comparison ("Nike vs Asics for marathon training"), a problem ("shoes that don’t cause knee pain") or a competitor by name ("Boat Airdopes alternatives"). Shopping ads are built for product-specific queries and do not trigger well for these broader, research-stage searches — that gap is what Search campaigns fill.

Problem-aware queries

"How to remove dark spots on face" — a skincare product is the answer, but Shopping will not trigger for this query.

Comparison queries

"Boat vs JBL earphones India" — the buyer is choosing between brands. A Search ad with the right message can intercept this decision.

Category queries

"Best organic cotton t-shirts India" — high intent, specific category. Shopping may show products, but Search lets the message be controlled.

Competitor queries

"Mamaearth face wash review" — a buyer researching a competitor. A Search ad offering an alternative can capture the switch.

Every Search account splits into three layers, each with a different job

Running one Search campaign with every keyword type mixed together is the most common structural mistake in ecommerce accounts. Brand, category and competitor keywords carry different CPCs, different conversion rates and different ROAS expectations. Separating them into distinct layers gives budget, bidding and performance measurement independent control over each one.

Surface demand — Query signals reaching the account before any campaign claims them

Problem-awareComparisonCategoryCompetitor-aware

Category & Non-BrandCapture new demandBiggest opportunity

Product categories, "best" lists, problem-aware terms and specification searches. These buyers do not know the brand yet but are actively looking for what it sells. Conversion rates run lower (1–4%) and CPCs higher (₹15–₹80) than brand, but this is where new-customer acquisition happens.

"organic cotton kurta online""best face serum for oily skin"[wireless earbuds under 2000]"buy handloom saree online India"

Budget: 10–20% of total. Bid strategy: tCPA or tROAS. Metric: assisted ROAS, new-customer rate.

CompetitorIntercept & convert

Competitor brand names, competitor plus product, and "competitor alternative" searches. These buyers are deep in consideration — they have chosen a category, possibly a product, but have not committed to a brand. Conversion rate is low (0.5–2%) and Quality Scores typically run 3–5, so CPCs are high. Measure by assisted conversions, not direct ROAS alone.

"Mamaearth face wash""Boat Airdopes alternative"[competitor brand] + review"is [competitor] worth it"

Budget: 5–10% of total. Bid strategy: manual CPC or tCPA. Metric: assisted conversions, CPA.

BrandDefend & capture

The brand name, brand plus product, and brand misspellings. These queries carry the highest conversion rate (8–15%) and lowest CPC (₹2–₹10) in the account. The campaign exists to defend brand SERP position, especially where competitors bid on the name.

[brand][brand] kurta[brand] sale[brand] reviews

Budget: 5–10% of total. Bid strategy: Target Impression Share (90%+ top-of-page). Metric: impression share, CPC.

Match types control reach. Negatives control waste. Both need weekly attention.

In India, broad match can burn 40–60% of a Search budget on irrelevant queries if negatives are not actively maintained. Ecommerce accounts need a deliberate match-type strategy and a weekly — not monthly — search-term review, because even a few days of unchecked broad match can waste a meaningful share of monthly spend.

Match type	How it works	When to use it	Risk level
[exact]	Matches the exact query (plus close variants)	High-value product keywords with proven conversion history	Low
"phrase"	Matches queries containing the phrase, in order, with additions	Category keywords and brand + product combinations	Medium
broad	Matches any query Google considers semantically related	Only with Smart Bidding and a strong negative list. Never on new campaigns.	High

Negative keyword cadence

Day 1

Shared negative keyword list added with 200+ known irrelevant terms (jobs, salary, free, PDF, course, wiki, meaning, etc).

Weekly

Search term report reviewed. Irrelevant queries added to negatives. New patterns identified and blocked at ad group or campaign level.

Monthly

Cross-campaign negative review. Brand terms kept negative in non-brand campaigns; competitor terms kept negative in category campaigns.

Quarterly

Full negative list audit. Outdated negatives that may be blocking valid queries after market changes are removed.

Queries usually worth blocking

These appear in most ecommerce search-term reports and waste budget on non-buying intent.

jobssalaryrecruitmentfree downloadPDFWikipediameaning in Hindicoursetrainingfranchisewholesalemanufacturersupplierhow to makeDIY

RSAs for ecommerce: headlines that sell, not headlines that describe

Responsive Search Ads give Google 15 headlines and 4 descriptions to mix and match. Most ecommerce accounts fill these with generic product descriptions. Stronger headlines address buyer objections, highlight differentiators and include conversion triggers — pricing, shipping, reviews, urgency — that Shopping ads cannot communicate.

✕ Generic headlines to replace

Buy Cotton Kurtas Online

Best Kurtas for Women

Shop Now at Our Store

Quality Cotton Kurtas

Wide Range of Kurtas

✓ Conversion-focused headlines

Organic Cotton Kurtas — ₹799 Onwards

Free Shipping on Orders Over ₹999

4.6★ Rated by 12,000+ Buyers

Easy 7-Day Returns, No Questions

New Arrivals — Season Collection

How Search, Shopping and PMax work together, not against each other

The biggest risk when adding Search campaigns to an account that already runs Shopping and PMax is cannibalisation — all three types bidding on the same query and competing in the same auction. Clear keyword separation, cross-mapped negative keywords and budget allocation rules prevent that from happening.

Query type	Primary campaign	Why
"buy blue denim jacket men"	Shopping	Product-specific intent. Shopping shows image, price and reviews — higher CTR than text ads for this query.
"best winter jackets for men India"	Search (category)	Category-level. The buyer is comparing options; a Search ad with USPs and a landing page wins over a product listing.
"Zara jacket alternative India"	Search (competitor)	Competitor intent. Shopping will not target this well; the Search ad positions the brand as the alternative.
"[brand] jacket"	Search (brand)	Brand query. Low-CPC defence, excluded from PMax to prevent cannibalisation.
Broad discovery across all surfaces	PMax	Cross-channel reach. PMax handles the unpredictable, long-tail queries across Search, Display and YouTube.

Anti-cannibalisation rule: brand terms are added as negatives in non-brand and competitor campaigns, competitor terms are added as negatives in category campaigns, and PMax receives account-level brand exclusions. Each campaign then serves only the query types it is built for, with no internal competition or wasted budget.

Six Search campaign mistakes worth fixing in ecommerce accounts

All keyword types in one campaign

Brand, category and competitor keywords sharing a campaign means cheap brand clicks and expensive category clicks share the same budget and bid strategy. Smart Bidding cannot optimize for both at once — separate campaigns need separate budgets and separate targets.

Broad match without negatives or Smart Bidding

Broad match in India matches almost anything. "Cotton kurta" can trigger ads for "kurta stitching class" or "kurta manufacturer in Surat." Without a robust negative list and Smart Bidding filtering intent, broad match becomes a budget drain within days.

Sending Search traffic to the homepage

A buyer searching "best organic face serum for oily skin" who lands on a homepage has to find the product unassisted. A dedicated category or product landing page using the same keywords in the headline converts several times higher.

Ignoring the search terms report

The search terms report shows exactly what Google matched a keyword to. Monthly review is not enough for ecommerce — new irrelevant patterns appear weekly, and a single unchecked week of broad match can waste a meaningful share of a month’s Search budget.

Using Maximize Clicks on ecommerce Search

Maximize Clicks optimizes for volume, not value, and drives the cheapest clicks possible — often low-intent, information-seeking queries. For non-brand Search, tROAS or tCPA is almost always the stronger choice because it forces the system to find buyers rather than browsers.

Not cross-referencing Search with Shopping coverage

If Shopping already covers a specific product query effectively, adding a Search ad for the same keyword creates internal competition that raises CPC without adding conversions. Auction overlap data identifies where Search adds value versus where it simply duplicates Shopping coverage.

Ecommerce Search Campaign FAQ

My Shopping campaigns are already performing well. Do I really need Search?

Shopping is built for product-specific queries. When a buyer is searching a category, a comparison, a problem or a competitor instead of a specific product, Shopping either does not trigger or shows a generic listing with no message control. Non-brand Search captures that traffic. Whether it is worth adding depends on the growth goal: once Shopping and PMax are maxed out and new-customer acquisition is the target, Search is the next lever. A small test budget before a full expansion is the usual starting point.

Should we bid on competitor brand names?

It depends on market and margin. Competitor bidding has the lowest conversion rates (0.5–2%) and highest CPCs of any Search layer, because Quality Score for competitor terms is inherently low. It works well for considered-purchase categories — fashion, electronics, skincare — where buyers actively compare brands. It is worth running only when gross margin can absorb the higher CPA, and success should be measured by assisted conversions rather than direct ROAS.

How do you stop Search and Shopping competing on the same queries?

Both can show on the same results page — that is normal and gives two positions rather than one. The risk is internal CPC inflation. That is managed by keeping Search focused on queries where Shopping does not trigger well, using negative keywords to exclude product-specific queries from Search, and reviewing auction overlap reports monthly to catch emerging cannibalisation.

What budget should an ecommerce account allocate to Search?

Brand Search typically takes 5–10% of total budget — a low-CPC defence layer, not a growth layer. Non-brand Search takes 10–20% depending on category and competitor demand. Competitor Search takes 5–10% at most. Combined, Search usually accounts for 20–35% of a well-structured ecommerce account, with Shopping and PMax taking the rest. Starting smaller and scaling on assisted-conversion and new-customer data is the safer sequence.

Where should Search ad clicks land — homepage, category page or product page?

It depends on query intent. Category queries should land on a curated category page with filters and multiple options. Specific product queries should land on the product page. Brand queries can land on the homepage. Non-brand traffic should never land on the homepage — forcing the buyer to navigate from scratch can cut conversion rate sharply compared with a relevant landing page.

Missing 35% of Buyer Queries?

A Search audit identifies the category, comparison and competitor queries Shopping is not capturing, and shows the opportunity currently left on the table.

Request a free Search audit ↗WhatsApp us

Shopping captures product searches.Search captures everything else.