I recently sat down with Valerio Bernabo, the owner of Trade Hero Australia, an ecommerce business that sells high-ticket B2B tools and machinery to construction businesses. Valerio came to me back in October 2025, and within six months, he had 5x'd his Shopify revenue using Google Ads. In fact, sales increased so dramatically that he ran out of stock.
I wanted to share Valerio's story because the mistakes he was making before we worked together are ones I see constantly, and the fixes are straightforward enough that you could apply most of them to your own account this week.
Where Valerio Started
Trade Hero Australia has been operating for eight years. They started on marketplaces, primarily eBay (which in Australia has historically been much bigger than Amazon, since Amazon launched decades later there). They eventually moved to their own Shopify store but never really invested in it properly. Paid ads were running, but largely through luck rather than strategy.
Before reaching out to me, Valerio was managing his own Performance Max campaign. He thought things were going reasonably well, but suspected there was untapped potential. That instinct was right, because when I audited his account, I found a stack of issues that were quietly strangling his growth.
The Mistakes That Were Holding Him Back
Double-Counting Conversions
The first major issue was his conversion tracking setup. Valerio had two primary conversion sources firing at the same time: one from Google Analytics and one directly from Shopify. Both were set as primary goals, which meant Google Ads was double-counting every single conversion.
This is a problem I see more often than you'd think. When your conversion data is inflated, Google's bidding algorithm thinks the campaign is performing twice as well as it actually is. Every optimisation decision the algorithm makes from that point is based on flawed data.
The fix is simple: pick one primary conversion source and set the other to secondary. But the impact of leaving it wrong is enormous.
Budget Too Low, ROAS Target Too High
This was the big one. Valerio had his budget capped tightly and was running a very high target ROAS. He thought this was protecting his margins, and honestly, I understand the logic. It feels safe. You feel like you're in control.
But here's what actually happens. A restrictive budget combined with an aggressive ROAS target tells Google's algorithm to only chase the absolute safest, most guaranteed conversions. The campaign can't explore. It can't find new audiences. It can't scale. You end up with a tiny trickle of high-ROAS sales while leaving tens of thousands of dollars in profitable revenue on the table.
My recommendation was to remove the budget limitation, increase spend significantly, and lower the ROAS target. I gave Valerio two options: an incremental approach where he could scale up gradually, and an aggressive approach where he would implement everything at once. To his credit, he went with the aggressive option straight away.
Everything Crammed Into One Asset Group
Valerio's entire product catalogue was sitting inside a single Performance Max asset group. No segmentation. No differentiation. And the asset group itself was thin on creative, with very few images and minimal descriptions.
This is one of the most common PMax mistakes I encounter. When all your products are in one asset group, Google's algorithm has no way to tailor messaging to different product categories. A construction-grade concrete mixer and a set of hand tools require completely different ad copy, images, and landing page experiences. Lumping them together forces the algorithm to compromise on everything.
The Changes That Drove 5x Revenue
Phase One: Asset Group Restructure
The first phase of optimisation was splitting that single asset group into multiple asset groups, organised by product category. Valerio then went into each individual asset group and created dedicated images and descriptions tailored to those specific products.
This alone gives Google's algorithm dramatically better signals. Each asset group now has creative that matches the products inside it, which improves ad relevance, click-through rates, and ultimately conversion rates across every surface PMax serves ads on.
Phase Two: Splitting PMax by Profit Margin
A few months later, Valerio moved into phase two: dividing his single Performance Max campaign into three separate PMax campaigns, segmented by profit margin brackets.
With roughly 90 to 100 SKUs, Valerio now runs three tiers. High-margin products can afford a lower ROAS target and more aggressive spend, because even at a lower return ratio, the profit per sale justifies the investment. Lower-margin products need tighter targets to remain profitable.
This is an approach I recommend frequently for ecommerce stores with varied product margins. A blanket ROAS target across your entire catalogue almost always means you're either leaving money on the table with high-margin products or spending unprofitably on low-margin ones. Splitting by profit margin lets you set the right level of aggression for each tier.
The Budget Unlock
The single most impactful change was the budget increase combined with the lower ROAS target. When Valerio removed the budget constraint and gave the campaign room to breathe, Performance Max did what it does best: it found scale.
Valerio described this as the best advice he had received in the eight years he's been in business. And the results back that up. Within the first two to three months after implementing the changes, starting in October and running through the end-of-year peak (November and December), his Shopify revenue 3x'd from that single sales channel alone. By the six-month mark, he had 5x'd total Shopify revenue.
The growth was so aggressive that his usual restocking forecasts, which were based on the previous three months of sales velocity, were completely inadequate. He ran out of stock. That's a problem, sure, but it's the kind of problem every ecommerce business owner would rather have.
Why Performance Max Worked So Well
Valerio made an interesting observation during our conversation that I think is worth highlighting. He admitted that he originally underestimated the power of PMax, calling it single-handedly one of his biggest mistakes in business.
His perspective now is that PMax is uniquely suited for business owners who want strong results without needing to be hands-on every day. Once the campaign structure is right, the product feed is solid, and the creative assets are in place, PMax handles the heavy lifting. The key is giving it the right inputs: clean data, proper structure, adequate budget, and realistic targets.
The Marketplace-to-Shopify Shift
One broader business benefit Valerio highlighted was the shift from being reliant on marketplaces to driving direct sales through Shopify. Marketplaces like eBay and Amazon constantly change their rules and fee structures, and you have limited control over the customer experience. Moving sales volume to his own website gave Valerio control over pricing, branding, customer relationships, and margins.
Marketplaces are valuable sales channels, but building your own direct-to-consumer presence through paid ads gives you something marketplaces never will: ownership of the customer relationship.
What You Can Apply Today
If Valerio's story sounds familiar, here are the actionable takeaways you can apply to your own account:
Audit your conversion tracking. Make sure you have one primary conversion source, not multiple primary goals double-counting the same sale. Check whether Google Analytics and your platform's native tracking are both set as primary.
Review your budget and ROAS targets honestly. If your campaign is limited by budget and you're running a high ROAS target, you're almost certainly leaving profitable revenue on the table. Consider lowering the target and increasing the budget to give the algorithm room to find scale.
Segment your asset groups. If all your products are in a single PMax asset group, break them out by product category. Create dedicated images and descriptions for each group.
Consider splitting PMax by profit margin. If your catalogue has varied margins, separate campaigns by margin tier so you can set appropriate ROAS targets for each.
Invest in your creative assets. Thin asset groups with minimal images and generic descriptions are holding your PMax back. Treat your asset group creative the same way you'd treat a product page: it needs to sell.
Valerio's parting words were that engaging a specialist for his Google Ads was, looking back, the best money he could have spent to grow his business, and his only regret was not doing it sooner. Whether you work with someone or go it alone, the principles above are the same. Clean tracking, proper structure, realistic targets, and enough budget for the algorithm to do its job.
Conclusion
Valerio Bernabo, owner of Trade Hero Australia, 5x'd his Shopify revenue in under six months by fixing a handful of common Google Ads mistakes and implementing a structured approach to Performance Max:
Fix conversion tracking first. Double-counting conversions from multiple primary sources feeds flawed data to Google's bidding algorithm. Set one source as primary, the other as secondary.
Remove budget constraints and lower ROAS targets. A tight budget paired with an aggressive ROAS target prevents the algorithm from finding scale. Giving the campaign room to breathe was the single most impactful change.
Restructure asset groups by product category. A single asset group for your entire catalogue forces the algorithm to compromise on creative and targeting. Dedicated asset groups with tailored images and copy dramatically improve performance.
Split PMax campaigns by profit margin. Different margin tiers deserve different ROAS targets. High-margin products can afford more aggressive spend; low-margin products need tighter controls.
Invest in creative assets. Thin asset groups with minimal images and generic descriptions cap your PMax performance. Treat each asset group's creative as a selling tool.
The result: revenue scaled so rapidly that Valerio ran out of stock within three months, and hit 5x Shopify revenue by the six-month mark.