Shoutout to the guy who convinced me to drop Google Shopping

I was all in on Google Shopping ads for my little vinyl decal shop. Running them for about 8 months, spending $500 a month minimum. A dude named Mark who runs a t-shirt store in Portland told me I was throwing money away. He said my products were too niche and cheap for Shopping to work right. I switched that budget over to Etsy ads and targeted Pinterest pins instead. My sales shot up from maybe 5 a week to 15 or 20 within a month. Turns out people searching for funny cat decals don't click Shopping results much. Has anyone else had better luck with alternative channels over Google?

3 comments

3 Comments

price.ben1mo agoTop Commenter

@sean854 put it well, my own Etsy results doubled after I dropped Google Shopping for cat stuff.

shane_clark1mo ago

Gotta disagree @price.ben, my cheap niche stuff actually crushes on Shopping if you optimize the feed right.

sean8541mo ago

You mentioned "funny cat decals" which is kind of the perfect example of what I've seen with Google Shopping. The thing is, Shopping is built more for commodity items (you know, like phone cases or generic t-shirts where people just care about price). Niche stuff like cat decals doesn't really fit that model. I think your man Mark was onto something, but it's not just about being niche - it's about intent. People searching for "funny cat" aren't in a "compare prices and buy now" mindset, they're looking for something unique. Etsy and Pinterest are way better for that because people are already in a browsing mood, not a strict shopping mood. Glad it worked out for you though, always good to see someone bucking the Google machine.