Solved: Google Ads Not Working, Meta Catalog Ads Suck

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out about Google Ads and the trouble you're having with Meta catalog ads. It's a really common frustration, so you're definitely not alone. A lot of people see ads as a switch you just flick on, and when one platform doesn't work, they assume the platform is broken and jump to the next one.

The truth is a bit different, and tbh, it's rarely the platform's fault. It’s almost always a problem with the underlying strategy. I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts on how I'd approach this. It’s less about picking Google vs. Meta and more about building a proper system that makes people *want* to buy from you, regardless of where they see your ad.

We'll need to look at why 'platform-first' thinking is a trap...

Right, let's get straight to it. Asking "is Google Ads working?" is like asking a mechanic "is a spanner working?". It's the wrong question. A spanner is a great tool for tightening a bolt, but it’s useless for hammering a nail. The tool is only as good as the person using it and the job it's being used for.

Google Ads and Meta Ads are just tools. They do different jobs.

Google Ads is for capturing intent. People go to Google when they have a problem and are actively looking for a solution. They are typing things like "handcrafted leather wallet UK" or "emergency plumber near me". They have their credit card metaphorically in hand. This is 'pull' marketing. You are pulling in people who are already looking for you.

Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) is for creating demand. People are scrolling through pictures of their friends' holidays and dogs. They are not there to shop. You have to interrupt them with something so compelling, so relevant to a problem they have, that they stop scrolling and pay attention. This is 'push' marketing. You are pushing a message in front of people who *might* be interested, if you get the message right.

Your Meta catalog ads are failing for a simple reason: you're trying to do a 'pull' marketing job with a 'push' marketing tool. You're showing your products to a cold audience who have never heard of you, don't trust you, and weren't looking to buy anything in the first place. It's the digital equivalent of being a street vendor shouting "buy my stuff!" at random passersby. It's low-percentage stuff and it rarely works unless you have a ridiculously cheap, impulsive product.

So, the fix isn't just to jump over to Google. The fix is to build a proper strategy first, and *then* decide which tool (or combination of tools) is right for the job.

I'd say you need to define your customer's nightmare...

Before you spend another quid on ads, you need to forget everything you think you know about your target audience. I'm talking about binning those useless demographic profiles like "women, aged 25-40, interested in fashion". It tells you absolutely nothing of value and leads to the kind of generic ads that everyone ignores.

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is not a person; it's a problem state. You need to become an obsessive expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening, or life-ruining nightmare. What is the deep frustration that keeps them up at night that your product just happens to solve?

Let's make this real.
-> If you sell handcrafted jewellery, the demographic is "women who like jewellery". Useless. The nightmare might be "I'm going to a big event and I'm terrified of wearing the same high-street tat as everyone else. I want something unique that makes me feel special and confident."
-> If you sell specialist running shoes, the demographic is "runners". Useless. The nightmare is "My knee pain is getting worse with every run. I'm terrified I'll have to give up the one thing that keeps me sane, and I won't be able to run that marathon I've trained months for."

See the difference? One is a bland description, the other is a raw emotion. You sell to the emotion. Once you understand the nightmare, your ad copy writes itself and your targeting becomes incredibly sharp. You stop targeting "fashion" and start thinking about what events they're going to, what confidence-boosting influencers they follow, what anxieties they have.

This process is the absolute foundation of any successful ad campaign. Here's a rough flowchart of how to think about it:

Do this work first. Interview your past customers. Find out the exact words they use to describe their problem *before* they found you. This intelligence is the blueprint for your entire advertising strategy. Without it, you're just burning money.

You probably should rebuild your offer...

Once you know the nightmare, your next job is to frame your product not as a 'thing', but as the 'cure'. This is your offer. And right now, your offer is just a product in a catalog. It’s weak. It has no story, no emotion, no urgency.

We need to build a message they can't ignore using proven copywriting frameworks. For an eCommerce business, the best one is often Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS).

Problem: You state the nightmare you just identified, using their exact language.
"Tired of your skin breaking out every time you try a new moisturiser?"

Agitate: You pour salt in the wound. You remind them of all the frustration and pain this problem causes.
"You've spent a fortune on products that promise the world but leave you with red, irritated skin, forcing you to hide behind layers of makeup just to face the day."

Solve: You introduce your product as the specific, perfect solution to that exact agitated problem.
"Our Calm & Clear moisturiser is made with just three natural ingredients, clinically proven to soothe sensitive skin. Get the clear, confident skin you deserve, without the harsh chemicals."

This simple structure transforms a boring product ad into a compelling mini-story that connects on an emotional level. You're no longer selling moisturiser; you're selling the feeling of confidence and relief from frustration. This is what you need to be doing in your Meta ads, especially at the top of the funnel.

And this message needs to be supported by your website. When they click, the landing page can't just be a standard product page. It needs to continue that story. It needs massive amounts of social proof: customer reviews (with photos!), testimonials, any press mentions, trust badges (secure checkout, free returns). Your store has to scream "I am a trustworthy, legitimate business that understands your problem". Without that trust, even the best ad in the world will fail because people will get scared and leave before buying.

You'll need a solid Google Ads strategy...

Okay, so now that we have the foundations—a pain-based ICP and a compelling offer—we can talk about tools. Let's talk about Google Ads, because you asked about it and for many eCommerce brands, it's a goldmine.

Because Google is intent-based, it's all about matching what the user is searching for. The main tools you'll use are:

1. Google Shopping Ads: These are the product listings with images and prices that appear at the top of the search results. For eCommerce, this is your bread and butter. It's powered by your product catalog (the same one you're using for Meta). The key here is optimising your product feed. Your product titles and descriptions need to be packed with the keywords people are actually searching for. Not "Artisan Blue Pot", but "Handmade Blue Ceramic Plant Pot 15cm - Perfect for Succulents".

2. Google Search Ads: These are the text-based ads. They're brilliant for targeting broader keywords or "problem-aware" searches where a specific product might not be the answer. For example, someone searching "gift for mum who has everything". You could run a search ad with the headline "Unique Handcrafted Gifts She'll Treasure" and direct them to a curated category page.

3. Performance Max (PMax): This is Google's newer, all-in-one campaign type. You give it your assets (text, images, videos, product feed) and it automatically runs ads across Shopping, Search, YouTube, Display, and more. It can work brilliantly, but it's a bit of a 'black box'. I'd usually start with standard Shopping and Search campaigns to get more control and data, and then test PMax once you have a baseline of what works.

The key to success on Google is ruthless relevance. The keyword someone searches for, the ad copy they see, and the landing page they arrive on must all be perfectly aligned. If someone searches for a "red leather jacket", your ad must mention a "red leather jacket", and the link must go directly to a page showing red leather jackets. Any break in that chain and you lose the sale.

Here's a rough idea of how you could structure your first Google Ads campaigns:

And you can fix your Meta ads too...

Now, let's not give up on Meta completely. Once you have your ICP and offer sorted, it can be an incredibly powerful tool for finding *new* customers who didn't even know they needed you. The trick is to stop thinking about it as a direct sales machine and start thinking of it as a relationship-building funnel.

I usually structure Meta accounts into three stages: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu).

ToFu (Prospecting): This is where you talk to a completely cold audience. Your only job here is to get their attention and introduce them to the problem you solve. You'd use your PAS-style ads here. Video ads work brilliantly. Your goal isn't necessarily to make a sale right away, but to get them to click to your website or watch a significant portion of your video. The audiences you'd test here are: -> Detailed Targeting: Interests and behaviours related to your ICP's nightmare. -> Lookalike Audiences: Once you have enough data, you can create audiences of people who 'look like' your past purchasers or website visitors. A 1% lookalike of your customer list is often the most powerful prospecting audience you can build.

MoFu (Retargeting - Warm): This audience is made up of people who have engaged with you but haven't taken a key action yet. They've visited your website, watched your video, or engaged with your Instagram page, but they haven't added anything to their cart. Here, you can show them different ads. Maybe testimonials, reviews, or an ad that handles a common objection.

BoFu (Retargeting - Hot): This is your money audience. These are people who have added a product to their cart or started the checkout process but didn't finish. Here you can get very direct. You can show them the exact product they abandoned (this is where Dynamic Product Ads, a type of catalog ad, actually work!) and maybe even offer a small incentive like free shipping to get them over the line. I remember one campaign we worked on for an eCom client selling women's apparel where we saw a 691% return by getting this funnel structure right.

By splitting your campaigns like this, you're showing the right message to the right person at the right time. You're warming them up before you ask for the sale. This is how you make Meta ads work consistently and profitably.

You'll need to understand the numbers that matter...

So, how do you know if any of this is actually working? You have to track the right numbers. Most people get obsessed with metrics like Cost Per Click (CPC) or Click-Through Rate (CTR). They're okay to look at, but they don't pay the bills.

The real question isn't "how cheap can I get a click?" but "how much can I afford to spend to acquire a customer and still make a healthy profit?". To answer that, you need to know two things: your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This one's easy. It's your total ad spend divided by the number of new customers you got from that spend. If you spend £1,000 and get 50 new customers, your CAC is £20.

Lifetime Value (LTV): This is a bit more involved, but it's the most important number in your business. It's the total profit you can expect to make from a single customer over the entire time they buy from you. For a simple eCommerce store, you can calculate a basic version like this:

LTV = (Average Order Value) x (Purchase Frequency) x (Customer Lifetime)

So if your average customer spends £50 per order, buys from you 3 times a year, and stays a customer for 2 years, their LTV is £50 * 3 * 2 = £300.

Once you know these two numbers, you can make intelligent decisions. A healthy business model for an eCommerce brand typically aims for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This means for every £1 you spend acquiring a customer, you get at least £3 back in lifetime profit. In our example, with an LTV of £300, you could afford to spend up to £100 to acquire a new customer.

Suddenly, that £20 CAC looks pretty damn good, doesn't it? This math frees you from the tyranny of cheap clicks and allows you to scale your ad spend aggressively and intelligently. It's the difference between gambling and investing.

Here's a calculator to help you figure out your own numbers.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in, especially coming from a simple question about Google Ads. But I wouldn't be doing my job if I just said "yeah, try Google". The platform is the last piece of the puzzle. Getting the strategy right is everything. Here are the main, actionable steps I'd recommend you take.

As you can probably tell, this is a lot more involved than just setting up a campaign and hoping for the best. It requires a deep understanding of marketing psychology, data analysis, copywriting, and the technical nuances of each ad platform. It's a full-time job, and doing it properly is what separates the brands that struggle from the brands that scale.

This is where expert help can make a huge difference. Instead of spending months and thousands of pounds on trial and error (mostly error), an experienced hand can implement a proven system like this for you, getting you to profitability much faster.

If you'd like to go over this in more detail and have a look at your specific ad account and website together, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session. We can pinpoint the exact reasons your Meta ads are failing and lay out a clear plan to get things on track.

Hope this has been helpful either way!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh