How I Use AI to Work Smarter, Not Harder in Ecommerce Advertising

I’ve been using AI to streamline my agency’s work, create better content, and make smarter decisions. In 2025, if you’re not leveraging AI in your ecommerce business, you’re making life harder than it needs to be.

Here’s exactly how I use AI daily to get better results for our ecommerce clients.

1. Learning & Strategy at Warp Speed

Instead of wading through endless YouTube tutorials or blog posts, I use AI to rapidly learn new ad strategies and decode complex industry changes.

• Need to understand a new Google Ads or Meta Ads feature? I fire questions at ChatGPT and get instant, digestible insights.

• Want to reverse-engineer a competitor’s strategy? AI helps me break it down step by step.

• Testing new approaches for clients? AI helps me validate ideas before we even spend a penny on ads.

The result? My learning curve is cut in half, and we move fast.

2. AI-Powered Content Creation

What used to take hours now takes minutes.

AI helps me repurpose content across all platforms with minimal effort:

• Raw client call transcripts → Case studies.

• Weekly YouTube videos → Email newsletters, blog posts, and social media content.

• Client success stories → Multi-platform posts.

This has completely transformed how we approach content marketing — keeping our audience engaged without eating up my entire workweek.

3. Smarter Decision Making with AI as a Sounding Board

Running an agency means making strategic decisions daily. I use AI as a brainstorming partner, not for final decisions, but to explore angles I might have missed.

Some examples:

• Evaluating new ad platforms for clients

• Spotting campaign performance patterns

• Testing assumptions before making big strategic shifts

It’s like having a 24/7 intelligent brainstorming partner that never gets tired.

4. Instant Data Visualisation & Reporting

Clients love clean, actionable insights, but data analysis can be time-consuming.

Enter AI:

• Feed raw campaign data into AI, and it spits out beautiful, clear charts.

• Quick ROI analysis without spending hours in spreadsheets.

• Faster reporting, leading to better client communication.

It’s a game-changer for performance tracking and decision-making.

5. AI for Personal Productivity & Leadership

Here’s an underrated AI use case: daily journaling.

I use Rosebud for agency-related journaling — documenting campaign results, client wins, and business challenges. It helps me:

• Process decisions more effectively.

• Spot patterns in agency performance.

• Improve clarity, which translates into better leadership.

Better clarity = better business decisions. Simple as that.

AI Isn’t Replacing Marketers — It’s Amplifying Them

None of this is theoretical. These are real tools I’m using right now to deliver better results for ecommerce clients while scaling my agency. AI isn’t replacing marketers—it’s making us exponentially more effective.

If you’re running an ecommerce business and not using AI tools daily, you’re playing with one hand tied behind your back. Start small, but start now.

Conclusion

AI is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s an essential part of how I operate my agency efficiently. From speeding up learning to automating content creation, optimising decision-making, streamlining reporting, and even improving personal productivity, AI has become my ultimate business tool.

The takeaway? AI won’t replace expert marketers, but it will make them unstoppable.

How to Set Up a Google Ads Campaign That Actually Makes Money

Running Google Ads for the first time? If you get it right, it’s one of the best ways to drive leads and sales. If you get it wrong… well, you’ll probably burn through your budget faster than you can say "conversion tracking."

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how to set up your first Google Ads campaign the right way, from choosing the best campaign structure to avoiding common mistakes that waste your money.

Let’s get into it.

Why Google Ads Outperforms Social Media Ads

Most businesses lump Google Ads in with Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, but there’s a fundamental difference. With social media, you’re interrupting people with ads while they’re busy watching cat videos or stalking their exes.

With Google Ads, you’re showing up at the exact moment someone searches for what you offer.

That’s why Google Ads tends to convert better. You’re not convincing people they need your product. You’re just making sure they buy from you instead of your competitors.

How to Set Up Your First Google Ads Campaign

Step 1: Choose the Right Campaign Type

1. Log in to Google Ads and click New Campaign.

2. Select Sales (for ecommerce) or Leads (for service businesses).

3. Choose Search as your campaign type.

4. Enter your business website.

Make sure your conversion tracking is set up before you launch! Google needs to know whether your ads are generating real results, not just clicks.

Step 2: Set Your Budget (The Right Way)

Most beginners get their budget wrong in one of two ways:

• They spend too little and don’t get enough data to make optimisations.

• They spend too much without the right structure in place.

Best starting budgets:

• If you’re testing: $50 - $100/day

• If you want results faster: $200+/day

Don’t panic if results don’t come instantly. Google needs time to optimise, and knee-jerk changes kill performance.

Step 3: Keyword Research for Profitable Ads

Finding the right keywords is everything.

Use Keyword Planner in Google Ads and input some basic ideas related to your business.

Here’s what to look for:

• ✅ Keywords with 100+ searches per month.

• ✅ Keywords directly relevant to your product or service.

• ❌ Ignore columns like "competition" and "CPC bids" – they’re misleading.

Step 4: Use Single-Theme Ad Groups (STAGs)

Once you have a list of keywords, group them into tight themes. Each ad group should focus on one clear topic so your ad copy can be highly relevant.

Example ad group themes for a Google Ads agency:

• "Google Ads Agency"

• "White Label PPC Agency"

• "Local PPC Management"

• "Amazon PPC Services"

Google loves ad relevance, and this structure improves Quality Score, CTR, and cost-efficiency.

Step 5: Writing Ads That Convert (Use ChatGPT to Speed It Up)

Writing ad copy from scratch? Painful. Instead, use this ChatGPT prompt, don’t forget to customise the [url] and [keywords]:

“Check out my product/service here: [URL]

The main keywords I am targeting in my ad group are: 

[keyword], [keyword], [keyword] 

Look at the above URL and give me a 3 sentence summary telling me what this product/service is all about. 

I want you to generate ideas for my headlines and my descriptions for my responsive search ads in google ads. Headlines must be 30 characters or less, never exceed 30 characters for my headlines Descriptions must be 90 characters or less, never exceed 90 characters for my descriptions. 

For my headlines I want you to generate 8 ideas in each of the following themes: 

Keyword Relevance - these headlines should include the keywords people are searching for 

Brand - these headlines should include my company brand name 

USP/Features/Benefits - these headlines should include USPs, features and benefits relevant to my brand and product 

Call To Actions - these headlines should be call to actions 

That is a total of 4 themes and I want 8 suggestions per theme for a total of 32 suggestions. Organise the suggestions by theme. 

For the descriptions I want you to generate 10 total ideas for the descriptions. Make the descriptions more than 60 characters long but remember to stick to the character limit of 90. Descriptions must match the search intent and landing page. Try to focus on benefits whilst incorporating keywords naturally and try to speak to pain points & benefits.”

Once you get the results, select the best suggestions from the list. Then, don’t blindly copy-paste – tweak them so they sound natural and relevant.

Step 6: Set Up Conversion Tracking

No Tracking = Wasted Budget.

Go to Tools & Settings > Goals > Conversions in Google Ads. You should see your main conversion action (purchase, lead form submission, etc.) listed as "Primary."

Not set up yet? Add a new conversion and place the tracking code on your thank you page – NOT your homepage.

Step 7: Bidding Strategy & Scaling

Start with Maximise Conversions (for leads) or Maximise Conversion Value (for ecommerce). Let it run for 1-4 weeks before changing your bid strategy.

When you have 30-50 conversions, switch to:

• Target CPA (for leads), or

• Target ROAS (for ecommerce)

📈 Scaling Tips:

• Increase daily budget by max 20% per week.

• Adjust CPA or ROAS targets by max 10% every 2 weeks.

Avoid These Common Google Ads Mistakes

🚨 Mistake #1: Turning Ads Off Too Soon: Google Ads takes at least 30 days to optimise. If you kill a campaign after a week, you’re quitting before the system even gets a chance to work.

🚨 Mistake #2: Inaccurate Conversion Tracking: If Google doesn’t know what a "good" result looks like, it will optimise for the wrong things (like random clicks instead of actual sales).

🚨 Mistake #3: Using Broad Match Too Soon: Broad match keywords can work eventually, but for beginners, they usually mean wasted spend. Start with Phrase Match and Exact Match instead.

🚨 Mistake #4: Targeting Generic Keywords: There’s a huge difference between someone searching:

❌ "How to get more traffic to my business" (bad – too broad), and

✅ "Google Ads agency" (good – ready to buy).

Conclusion

Setting up Google Ads successfully comes down to:

1. Choosing the right campaign type (Search + Sales/Leads).

2. Setting a budget that allows for proper testing.

3. Doing smart keyword research (100+ searches, relevant terms).

4. Using Single-Themed Ad Groups (STAGs).

5. Writing high-converting ad copy (ChatGPT shortcut).

6. Ensuring conversion tracking is working.

7. Following a structured bidding and scaling process.

Stick to this, and you’ll avoid the common pitfalls that kill most Google Ads campaigns.

How to Exclude Bad Placements in Performance Max and Reduce Wasted Ad Spend

Worried that your Performance Max campaigns are wasting money?

If you’re not keeping an eye on where your ads are appearing, Google could be spending your budget on low-quality placements that don’t convert.

Excluding placements from Performance Max can help reduce wasted spend and improve your campaign’s overall performance.

In this newsletter, I’ll walk you through:

• How to view the placements report in Google Ads.

• How to identify and exclude low-quality placements.

• A quick method to block all mobile apps (which often underperform).

Let’s get started!

1. See Where Your Ad Money Really Goes

The first step is to find out where Google is showing your ads. Google Ads doesn’t make this obvious, but you can pull a placements report to get some insights.

Here’s how:

1. Open Google Ads and go to your Performance Max campaign.

2. Click on Insights and Reports.

3. Scroll down to Report Editor.

4. Find the Performance Max Campaigns Placement report.

This report will show you where your ads have been displayed, ranked by impressions. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t give us detailed metrics like clicks, CTR, or cost per placement for Performance Max, but impressions alone can give you a good idea of where your budget is going.

2. Find & Remove Bad Placements Fast

Now that you have the list of placements, it’s time to find the bad ones.

🔍 What should you look for?

• Mobile apps – These often deliver poor performance unless you’re advertising an app.

• Low-quality or irrelevant sites – Sites with names like “viral news” or “funny memes” are unlikely to convert.

• Suspicious URLs – If a domain looks sketchy, check it by clicking the link in the report.

💡 Pro Tip: If you’re unsure about a site, click on it and visit the page. If it looks spammy or unrelated to your business, add it to your exclusion list.

3. Block These Costly Placements

Once you’ve identified bad placements, copy and paste them into a notes file. You’ll use this list in the next step to exclude them.

🚫 Here’s how to add exclusions:

1. In Google Ads, go to your Performance Max campaign.

2. Click Audiences → Content.

3. Find the Exclusions section.

4. Click Edit Exclusions → Account Level Exclusions.

5. Paste in the domains or app URLs you want to exclude.

6. Click Save.

4. Block All Mobile Apps Instantly

Mobile apps tend to convert poorly in most cases. Instead of blocking them one by one, you can exclude all app categories at once.

Here’s how:

1. In the exclusions section, click on Browse.

2. Select App Categories.

3. Check all 84 categories for Apple’s App Store and all 56 categories for Google Play.

4. Click Exclude and Save.

📱 This method blocks virtually all mobile apps from displaying your Performance Max ads, saving you a ton of money on low-quality placements.

Final Thoughts

Excluding bad placements in Performance Max is an easy but crucial way to reduce wasted spend and improve performance. Here’s a recap of what we covered:

• Check your placements report to see where your ads are showing.

• Identify and exclude bad placements, including spammy sites and irrelevant URLs.

• Use app category exclusions to quickly block mobile apps.

• Repeat this process weekly at first, then reduce frequency as your placements improve.

This one simple optimisation can have a big impact on your Performance Max campaign. And remember — exclusions are just one piece of the puzzle. Your asset group strategy is just as important. Make sure you’re structuring your asset groups correctly for even better results.