In this lesson, you’ll learn how to segment your products in Google Ads and identify which items should be separated into their own campaigns. This ensures that your ad budget is fairly distributed, giving every product — from your top sellers to niche items — the opportunity to perform and scale profitably.
Step 1: Open Keyword Planner to Research Search Volumes
We’ll start by identifying which products have high versus low search volume. To do this, head to your Google Ads dashboard and follow these steps:
- In the left-hand menu, click Tools.
- Navigate to Planning → Keyword Planner.
- Select Discover New Keywords.
Now, set the correct target location — this is crucial, as search volume differs from country to country.
- Remove your current location (the default is often your physical location).
- Add your target country, such as United States, then click Target → Save.
This ensures that the search data reflects your actual ad audience — not random global numbers.
Step 2: Compare Search Volume Across Products
Let’s say your Shopify store sells eco-friendly home goods. When you connect it to Google Merchant Center, all products sync automatically — for instance:
- Reusable Stainless Steel Bottles
- Bamboo Toothbrushes
- Compost Bins
- Beeswax Food Wraps
Now, we’ll compare their search volumes using the Keyword Planner.
Example 1: Reusable Water Bottles
Search for “reusable water bottle” and click Get Results. You might see:
- Reusable water bottles: 100K–1M searches/month
- Eco water bottles: 10K–100K searches/month
- Insulated bottle: 10K–100K searches/month
This is clearly a high-volume product category that can easily dominate your ad spend.
Example 2: Bamboo Toothbrushes
Next, search “bamboo toothbrush” and compare:
- Bamboo toothbrush: 10K–100K searches/month
- Eco toothbrush: 1K–10K searches/month
This still has decent volume but much lower than water bottles.
Example 3: Compost Bins
Now search “kitchen compost bin” and review the data:
- Kitchen compost bin: 1K–10K searches/month
- Countertop compost bin: 1K–10K searches/month
Clearly, compost bins are niche — fewer searches but potentially higher profit margins per sale. If all these products share the same campaign, the reusable bottles will absorb nearly all the ad budget — starving the smaller, higher-margin products of exposure.
Step 3: Segment Products by Volume
Now that you know which products attract more traffic, it’s time to group them by search volume tiers:
- High Volume: Reusable bottles
- Medium Volume: Bamboo toothbrushes
- Low Volume: Compost bins, beeswax wraps
Each tier should have its own campaign. This allows you to set different budgets and bidding strategies for each group, giving lower-volume products a fair chance to compete.
Step 4: Segment Products Inside Google Ads
Back in your Google Ads dashboard:
- Go to Campaigns.
- Click the campaign you want to segment (e.g., “Eco-Friendly Home Products”).
- Navigate to Ad Groups and click the ad group name.
- Switch to the Product Groups tab.
You’ll see that all your items are currently grouped together. To segment them:
- Click the “+” button to create a new subdivision.
- Choose Item ID (or Product Type if easier).
- Select all variants of the product you want to include — for instance, all reusable bottle colors and sizes.
- Click Save Without Editing Bids.
Then scroll down and exclude “Everything else in All Products” to ensure only the selected products remain active in this campaign.
Step 5: Duplicate for Other Product Groups
Instead of creating brand-new campaigns from scratch, always duplicate your existing campaign to keep its performance data. To do this:
- In Campaigns, select your existing one.
- Click Edit → Copy.
- Then click Edit → Paste.
Rename your new campaign to match the next product category — for instance, “Bamboo Toothbrushes.”
Adjust Budgets
If your original campaign had a $15 daily budget, you’ll need to adjust both campaigns so you’re not overspending:
- Reusable Bottles Campaign: $10/day
- Bamboo Toothbrushes Campaign: $10/day
This setup ensures each group has its own budget and can perform independently.
Step 6: Verify and Finalize Segmentation
Once your campaigns are duplicated and renamed, check your Product Groups again:
- Exclude unrelated products.
- Include only those relevant to each campaign.
After saving, head back to the Campaigns Overview — you should now see separate campaigns such as:
- Reusable Bottles
- Bamboo Toothbrushes
- Compost Bins
Each of these now operates independently with its own data, allowing Google’s algorithm to optimize bids and traffic for each product type more effectively.
Key Takeaways
- Use Keyword Planner to check which products attract the most or least search traffic.
- Group products by search volume tiers (high, medium, low).
- Always duplicate campaigns instead of starting from scratch to retain historical data.
- Exclude “Everything else” to prevent overlapping spend across campaigns.
- Adjust your budgets after segmentation to control total ad spend.
Next Step: Optimizing for Performance
Great job — your products are now properly segmented! In the next lecture, we’ll explore advanced optimization techniques to fine-tune your Google Shopping campaigns, improve conversion tracking, and achieve a stronger Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).