04/11/2026
we spent tens of millions on google ads in q1 for 160+ brands.
i did a quick analysis to figure out which channels moved the needle the most this quarter.
here’s what i found:
1. shopping is the money placement of google
shopping placements drove a big chunk of prospecting revenue across our accounts.
Most of it was coming from product category searches like "men's sneakers" or "collagen powder."
super important that your ads show up for these keywords and rank in the top positions
our product duplication strategy helped a lot with this
not just copying campaigns. this is a structured approach we built internally.
strategic duplication across product categories, custom landing pages matched to intent, and feed-level segmentation
it expanded the range of relevant searches we could show up for, including long-tail variations
and it let us appear 2-4 times in the same search in many cases.
2. search unlocked many new layers of keywords
search also pulled a lot of weight in branded & product category keywords alongside shopping
but beyond those searches...
search offers an advantage that Shopping can’t match:
it lets you convert different keyword types with more scaling potential.
- competitor keywords ("[competitor] alternative," "[competitor] vs. [you]")
- research keywords ("best supplements for energy" or "top running shoes for marathons.")
- informational keywords ("how to fix back pain," "knee pain solutions")
search was up 33% yoy and these keyword types played a major role there
but that was only possible because we had the landing pages to back them up
our landing page department put serious work into this
over 170 google ads-specific pages across advertorials, listicles, comparison pages, and more
this significantly lift conversion rates and dropped cpcs, which made scaling these keywords possible
3. demand gen accelerated our scaling speed.
our creative department helped multiple brands scale to 5 figures/day spend through youtube ads.
right now, it’s definitely the campaign type with the highest ceiling on google.
one interesting discovery we had this year was google discover
we saw a 2,365% year-over-year increase in Discover spend. and it's now a placement we're actively building strategies around.
4. we moved with demand shifts and capitalized on search trends.
one thing that isn't tied to a specific campaign type but worth mentioning here
q1 is generally a slower quarter across most verticals
but there's still real volume out there if you know where to find it.
- supplements and beauty saw higher search volume for many keywords
- framing products around what people want in the moment (“new year new me” for new year or valentine’s gift for valentine’s day)
- big holidays like valentine's day and women's day are solid windows for running a sale
we worked with the brands ahead of time to build out the strategies & offers for those windows.
this made q1 way stronger year over year for a lot of our clients.
for some, it came out even better than december
note:
this is a general picture of what we see across most brands.
the specifics will vary depending on the brand and the industry.
but overall, the equation stays the same
- battle-tested strategies for owning the search results
- advanced scaling strategies for pushing spend from the top of the funnel
- timely strategies built around seasonal moments and emerging keyword trends
