Solved: Should I Use 'Pet Brush' as a Keyword?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out.

It's always a tough slog getting that first product off the ground, and it’s completely normal to feel a bit lost when the first week of ads doesn't bring in the sales you hoped for. I've looked at what you've described, and I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts. Honestly, your instinct is right—the keyword "pet brush" is almost certainly the source of the problem, but it's likely a symptom of a much bigger issue. It's not just about swapping one keyword for another; it's about fundamentally rethinking who you're talking to and what you're actually selling.

Let's get into it.

We'll need to look at your customer's 'nightmare', not their keywords...

Right now, you're thinking like a product owner. You have a "pet shampoo brush." So you think you should target keywords related to pet brushes. It's logical, but it's also why it's failing. The most common mistake I see is focusing on demographics or broad product categories. "Pet owners in Italy" is useless. "People searching for pet brushes" is also, as you've discovered, pretty useless.

You need to stop defining your customer by who they are and start defining them by their pain. Their specific, urgent, frustrating nightmare. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a demographic; it's a problem state.

So, what's the nightmare you solve? It's not "my pet needs brushing." It's one of these:

• The Bathroom Warzone: The owner of a Golden Retriever that just rolled in mud. They're dreading the next hour. Water everywhere, shampoo suds on the ceiling, a dog trying to escape, and a towel that looks like a crime scene. Their back hurts from leaning over the tub.
• The Reluctant Bather: The owner of a nervous rescue dog who absolutely hates baths. It's a traumatic event for both of them, full of shaking, whining, and stress. The owner feels guilty and just wants it to be over as quickly and calmly as possible.
• The Ineffective Wash: The owner of a thick-coated breed like a Husky or a Bernese Mountain Dog. They can never seem to get the shampoo all the way down to the skin. They use half a bottle of expensive shampoo, and the dog still comes out smelling a bit... doggy.

See the difference? You're not selling a brush. You're selling a peaceful, clean bathroom. You're selling a calm dog. You're selling a truly deep clean with less wasted shampoo. This isn't just fluffy marketing talk; this is the absolute foundation of your entire advertising strategy. Once you know which nightmare you're solving, you know exactly who to talk to and what to say. Your keywords, your ad copy, your website images—everything changes.

Forget the 900 impressions for a moment. Who is the one person, with one of these specific nightmares, that you want to find? Picture them. That's your customer. All your effort should be focused on finding more people just like them. Don't chase volume; chase pain. High search volume for a generic term is a vanity metric that will bankrupt you. Targeted traffic from people with a real, urgent problem is where the money is.

I'd say your offer needs to solve their pain...

Once you've identified the nightmare, you can frame your product as the specific solution. Right now, your offer is "a pet shampoo brush." It's weak and uninspired. It forces the customer to do all the work to figure out why they should care. You need to connect the dots for them.

The number one reason ad campaigns fail, even with the right traffic, is a weak offer. An offer that doesn't provide enough value, or doesn't clearly communicate the value it *does* provide, will never convert. We need to turn your product into a high-value, irresistible offer.

Let's use the classic Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) framework to build a better offer narrative:

• Problem: Washing your dog is a chaotic, messy chore.
• Agitate: You end up soaked, your bathroom is a disaster zone, your dog is stressed, and you've wasted expensive shampoo that didn't even get them properly clean. You dread having to do it all over again next week.
• Solve: Introducing the [Your Brand Name] AquaBrush. The 5-minute, mess-free solution to bath time. Its unique silicone bristles massage shampoo deep into the coat while the built-in reservoir dispenses the perfect amount, saving you money. Turn a dreaded chore into a quick, easy, and calm bonding experience.

Now, your offer isn't a "brush." It's the "5-Minute Mess-Free Dog Wash." It's a tangible outcome. It has a name, it promises a clear benefit, and it feels less risky for a buyer. This is what you should be selling on your product page and in your ads. A productised service, almost. People don't buy drills; they buy holes in the wall. People don't buy pet shampoo brushes; they buy clean dogs and a stress-free life.

I remember one campaign we worked on for a client in the cleaning products space. By shifting their messaging to focus on the outcome—the feeling of a sparkling clean kitchen achieved quickly and safely—rather than just the product features, they saw a 633% return and a 190% increase in revenue. Selling the result, not just the product, makes all the difference. The same principle applies here.

You probably should rethink your ad messaging...

Now that we have a clear ICP (someone in a "bath time nightmare") and a strong offer ("the 5-minute mess-free solution"), writing the ads becomes ten times easier. Your current low CTR of 0.67% (6 clicks from 900 impressions) is a massive red flag. It means your message isn't resonating at all with the people seeing it. Either the audience is wrong (which it is), the message is wrong, or both.

Let's fix the message using the Before-After-Bridge framework. This is incredibly powerful for ads.

The Before State: This is their current nightmare. You need to describe their reality so accurately that they nod their head and think, "how did they know?"

The After State: This is their dream outcome. The perfect world your product creates for them.

The Bridge: This is your product, positioned as the simple, easy way to get from Before to After.

Here’s how it looks in practice for a social media ad or a search ad description:

Ad Example 1 (Focus on Mess):

Headline: Stop The Bathroom Splash Zone.

Body: Before: More water on you than the dog? Suds everywhere? Another bath time battle lost. After: A calm, happy dog, a sparkling clean coat, and a dry bathroom, all in under 5 minutes. Our AquaBrush is the bridge. Get yours and make bath time easy.

Ad Example 2 (Focus on Efficiency):

Headline: That "Wet Dog" Smell? You Missed A Spot.

Body: Struggling to get shampoo through that thick double coat? You're not alone. Imagine a brush that not only cleans but massages shampoo right down to the skin, for a perfect clean every time. That's our shampoo-dispensing brush. The end of wasted shampoo and halfway-clean dogs.

These messages speak directly to the pain points we identified. They don't just say "buy my brush." They show an understanding of the customer's struggle and present a clear, compelling solution. This is how you stop scrollers in their tracks and get them to click. This is how you get your CTR above 1%, then 2%, and beyond.

You'll need to target intent, not just volume...

Okay, let's finally address your specific keyword question head-on. As we've established, you should absolutely stop bidding on "pet brush." You're paying to show up for the wrong conversation.

Think of it like this: someone searching "pet brush" is probably standing in their living room, looking at a pile of fur on the carpet, and thinking about daily grooming. Someone searching "how to wash a matted dog" is in the middle of a crisis. Their intent is completely different. They have an urgent, expensive problem. That's who you want.

Your job on Google Ads is to find keywords that express a specific user intent that your product satisfies. You need to pre-qualify your audience with your keyword choices. Here's a breakdown of good vs. bad keyword thinking for your product:

Start by building your campaigns around the "Solution-Aware" keywords. These will have lower search volume, but the quality of the clicks will be infinitely higher. A person searching for a "pet shampoo dispenser brush" is practically begging you to take their money. You might only get 10 clicks a day instead of 100, but if 2 of them buy, you're already more profitable than you are now.

Then, create a separate campaign for "Problem-Aware" keywords. Here, your ads and landing page need to do a bit more work, educating them that your product is the solution they didn't know they were looking for.

Let's talk about campaign structure and diagnostics...

Your current situation (900 impressions, 6 clicks, 0 orders) gives us two clear data points to diagnose the problem. This isn't just a guessing game; it's a funnel. And your funnel is broken at two specific points.

Break Point #1: The Ad (Impression to Click)

Your Click-Through Rate (CTR) is 6 / 900 = 0.67%. For search ads, that's very low. It tells us that even when your ad is shown, people aren't compelled to click it. This is due to a mismatch between what they searched for ("pet brush") and what your ad offered (a shampoo brush). It's irrelevant to them. By fixing your keywords as we just discussed, your CTR should naturally increase because you'll be showing a relevant ad to a relevant search. Combined with the better ad copy we workshopped, you should see a significant improvement here.

Break Point #2: The Product Page (Click to Conversion)

You had 6 people who were interested enough to click, but none of them bought. This tells us your product page isn't doing its job. This is where many businesses fail. They spend all their time on the ads and neglect the most important part of the sale. Once someone clicks, your page has one job: convince them to buy. Here are some likely reasons it's failing:

• Poor Photography/Videography: Are you using generic stock photos? Or blurry phone pictures? You need high-quality images and, crucially, a video showing the brush in action. Show how easy it is. Show the lather. Show a happy, clean dog afterwards. A simple video of you using it could make a world of difference.
• Weak Product Description: Does it just list features ("silicone bristles, 100ml capacity")? Or does it sell the benefits we talked about ("Cuts bath time in half, saves shampoo, calms anxious pets")? Use the PAS framework right there on the page.
• Lack of Trust: As a new store, people are hesitant. Do you have reviews or testimonials (even from friends and family to start)? Clear shipping and return policies? A professional-looking design? Any trust badges or secure payment logos? People need to feel safe giving you their money.
• Unclear Call to Action (CTA): Is the "Add to Cart" button big, bold, and obvious? Is the price clear? Don't make people think. Guide them to the purchase.

I've created a simple flowchart to help you diagnose where your funnel is breaking, both now and in the future as you get more data.

You'll need a way to calculate what you can afford to pay...

This is where we move from basic fixes to professional strategy. The question isn't "how cheap can I get a click?" but "how much can I afford to pay to acquire a customer?" To answer that, you need to know your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). This single metric will change your entire perspective on ad spending.

LTV tells you the total profit you can expect to make from an average customer over the entire time they buy from you. For your business, a customer might buy the brush once, and then maybe they'll buy shampoo refills from you, or another pet product you launch later. Let's build a hypothetical model.

Let's make some assumptions (you'll need to replace these with your actual numbers):

• Average Order Value (AOV): The brush sells for €20.
• Gross Margin %: After the cost of the brush, packaging, etc., you make 60% profit.
• Repeat Purchase Rate: Let's say 1 in 4 customers (25%) comes back within a year to buy something else, like a shampoo refill, with an average value of €10.
• Customer Lifetime: Let's assume an average customer stays with you for 2 years.

With these numbers, we can calculate a basic LTV. A truly accurate model involves churn rate, but for a simple eCommerce start, this is a good starting point. Use the calculator below to play with your own numbers and see how it changes.

So in our initial example, your LTV is €36. This means that, on average, each customer you acquire will generate €36 in profit for your business over their lifetime.

A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to €36 / 3 = €12 to acquire a single customer and still have a very healthy, profitable business.

Suddenly, paying €1 or €2 for a click doesn't seem so scary, does it? If your website converts at 2% (a standard eCommerce rate), you'd need 50 clicks to get one sale. At €0.24 per click, you'd hit your €12 CAC. This math gives you permission to spend intelligently. It frees you from the trap of chasing cheap, low-quality traffic and allows you to focus on finding high-quality customers, even if their clicks cost a bit more.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

This might seem like a lot to take in, but breaking it down into actionable steps makes it manageable. You've got the product; now it's time to build the strategy around it. Don't be discouraged by the first week—it gave you valuable data on what *not* to do. That's a win.

As you can probably tell, effective paid advertising is much more than just picking a few keywords and setting a budget. It's a complex process of understanding psychology, market positioning, data analysis, and continuous optimisation. It takes expertise to navigate properly and avoid costly mistakes, especially when you're just starting out.

Getting these foundational elements right from the beginning will save you a huge amount of time, money, and frustration. While you can certainly implement these changes yourself, working with an expert can accelerate the process significantly. We do this day in and day out, and we've seen what works across hundreds of campaigns.

If you'd like to have a more in-depth chat about your specific situation and see how we could help you build a truly profitable advertising system, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We could walk through your website and campaigns together and build a concrete plan of action.

Either way, I hope this detailed breakdown has been genuinely helpful and gives you a clear path forward.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh