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Daily Read: Marketing

Optimising Ecommerce Ad Accounts for Q4 Success

Ecommerce advertisers must proactively restructure their Google and Meta accounts to ensure full-funnel coverage before the Q4 peak. Automated campaign types like Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+ tend to concentrate spending on bottom-funnel conversions because they are cheaper and more efficient. While this maintains short-term returns, it risks exhausting existing demand without investing in brand awareness or new customer acquisition. To combat this, advertisers should implement manual controls to protect prospecting budgets. On Meta, the removal of the automated existing customer budget cap means marketers must now manually use custom audience exclusions or ad set spending limits to control the split between new and returning customers. This manual approach also allows for more tailored creative for different audience segments. On Google, the new customer acquisition goal provides a way to prioritize new buyers, but its effectiveness depends on high-quality data. Marketers are encouraged to move beyond basic conversion history by uploading comprehensive Customer Match lists to ensure the system accurately identifies existing buyers. Preparing these structures now is essential for maintaining scalable growth during the Black Friday period.

· Search Engine Journal

The essential points

  1. 01Automated campaigns on Google and Meta naturally gravitate toward cheap bottom-funnel conversions, often neglecting top-of-funnel brand awareness.
  2. 02Advertisers should use manual customer exclusions on Meta to replace the lost automated existing customer budget cap feature.
  3. 03Google's new customer acquisition goal works most effectively when paired with uploaded Customer Match lists rather than just conversion history.
  4. 04Implementing these structural changes before Black Friday helps prevent rising costs caused by competing for the same existing demand.
The full brief

Ecommerce advertisers must proactively restructure their Google and Meta accounts to ensure full-funnel coverage before the Q4 peak. Automated campaign types like Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+ tend to concentrate spending on bottom-funnel conversions because they are cheaper and more efficient. While this maintains short-term returns, it risks exhausting existing demand without investing in brand awareness or new customer acquisition.

To combat this, advertisers should implement manual controls to protect prospecting budgets. On Meta, the removal of the automated existing customer budget cap means marketers must now manually use custom audience exclusions or ad set spending limits to control the split between new and returning customers. This manual approach also allows for more tailored creative for different audience segments.

On Google, the new customer acquisition goal provides a way to prioritize new buyers, but its effectiveness depends on high-quality data. Marketers are encouraged to move beyond basic conversion history by uploading comprehensive Customer Match lists to ensure the system accurately identifies existing buyers. Preparing these structures now is essential for maintaining scalable growth during the Black Friday period.