Are Your Shopping Ads Showing for the Right Products? Live SERP Checklist

Right, let's be honest here. You've probably spent hours setting up your Google Shopping campaigns, carefully crafting product titles, and obsessing over feed optimisation. But have you actually Googled your own products recently?

Because here's the thing that'll make you want to chuck your laptop out the window: your "perfectly optimised" Shopping ads might be showing up for completely wrong searches, whilst your actual money-making products are nowhere to be seen.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Google's algorithm, where your high-margin designer handbags end up showing for "cheap plastic bags" searches, and your premium skincare line gets buried behind knock-off competitors selling questionable creams from their garage.

The Problem: Your Shopping Ads Are Playing Hide and Seek

Most e-commerce businesses approach Shopping campaign audits backwards. They dive straight into Google Ads reports, drowning in impression data and CTR percentages, without ever checking what's actually happening on the front lines - the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) themselves.

This is like trying to diagnose why your shop isn't getting customers by staring at your till receipts instead of actually looking out the window to see if anyone's walking past.

The Live SERP Audit: Your New Best Friend

Forget fancy audit tools for a moment. Your most powerful diagnostic tool is literally Google Search itself. Here's how to conduct a proper live SERP audit that'll reveal whether your Shopping ads are working harder than a barista during morning rush hour, or slacking off like a teenager on work experience.

Step 1: The Brand Reality Check

Start with the obvious: search for your own brand name. Shocking concept, right?

What to Look For:

• Are your Shopping ads appearing at the top of results?

• Do you see competitors' ads showing for your brand searches?

• Are the products displayed actually your best sellers or high-margin items?

Red Flag Alert: If competitors are bidding on your brand terms and you're nowhere to be seen, you're essentially paying for advertising whilst letting rivals steal customers at the final hurdle. That's like holding the door open for burglars.

Step 2: Product Category Deep Dive

Search for your main product categories using terms your customers would actually use (not the fancy marketing speak you love so much).

The Test:

1. Search for "[product category] + buy/shop/online"

2. Check if your products appear in the Shopping tab

3. Look at the "People also ask" section for intent clues

4. Scroll through image results to see visual competition

Pro Tip: If your luxury leather boots are showing up alongside £15 pleather disasters from questionable sellers, your targeting needs serious work. You're not selling to bargain hunters who think "genuine leather" means "looks a bit like leather if you squint."

Step 3: The Competitor Spy Game

Here's where things get interesting. Search for your main competitors' brand names and see what shows up.

Intelligence Gathering:

• What products are they pushing hardest? (These appear first)

• What's their pricing strategy compared to yours?

• Are they using promotional messaging you're missing?

• Do they have better product images that make yours look like they were taken with a potato?

Reality Check: If their products look more appealing in search results, it doesn't matter how superior your actual products are. Online shopping is visual, and if your images look like evidence photos from a crime scene, you're fighting an uphill battle.

Step 4: Long-Tail Keyword Archaeology

This is where most e-commerce businesses fall flat on their faces. They optimise for broad terms whilst ignoring the goldmine of specific, high-intent searches.

The Process:

1. Search for specific product features + your category

2. Try problem-solving searches ("best [product] for [specific need]")

3. Test seasonal variations and trending terms

4. Check local variations if you're targeting specific regions

Example: Instead of just optimising for "running shoes," check if you appear for searches like "waterproof running shoes for heavy runners" or "minimalist running shoes for concrete." These specific searches often have higher conversion rates because the searcher knows exactly what they want.

Step 5: The Mobile Reality Check

Here's a sobering thought: over 60% of shopping searches happen on mobile devices, but most people audit their ads on desktop computers. That's like testing your car's performance by pushing it downhill.

Mobile Audit Checklist:

• Do your Shopping ads appear above the fold on mobile?

• Are your product images clear and compelling on smaller screens?

• Is your pricing competitive and clearly visible?

• Do your product titles make sense when truncated?

Step 6: Performance Max Visibility Test

If you're running Performance Max campaigns (and let's be honest, Google's practically forcing everyone into them), you need to check where your ads are actually showing up across the ecosystem.

Multi-Platform Check:

• Google Search Shopping tab

• Google Images (yes, people shop through image search)

• YouTube (for video-heavy products)

• Gmail promotions tab

• Discover feed on mobile

Warning: PMax campaigns can be like that enthusiastic but slightly dim employee who works very hard in completely the wrong direction. They might be generating impressive-looking metrics whilst showing your premium products to completely wrong audiences.

The Technical Stuff (But Make It Simple)

Product Feed Health Check

Your product feed is like the foundation of your house. If it's wonky, everything else will be wonky too.

Quick Feed Audit:

• Are product titles descriptive but not stuffed with keywords like a Christmas turkey?

• Do your categories match Google's taxonomy?

• Are you using custom labels for strategic bidding?

• Is your availability data accurate? (Nothing kills conversion rates faster than "out of stock" surprises)

Negative Keyword Archaeology

Check your search terms reports, but also do manual searches for terms that might be triggering your ads inappropriately.

Common Culprits:

• Cheap/budget variations for premium products

• Wrong demographics (men's products showing for women's searches)

• Incompatible use cases (indoor products for outdoor searches)

Advanced SERP Intelligence

Shopping Actions Integration

Google Shopping Actions (now part of Shopping ads) can significantly impact visibility. Check if your products appear in:

• Shopping tab with "Buy on Google" options

• Local inventory ads if you have physical stores

• Merchant promotions section

Seasonal and Trending Analysis

Use Google Trends to understand seasonal patterns, then audit your SERP presence during peak and off-peak periods. Your strategy for "summer dresses" searches should be completely different in January versus June.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Shopping Ad Relevance

Here's what most agencies won't tell you: Google's algorithm is getting increasingly sophisticated at understanding user intent, but it's also getting pickier about relevance. If your ads consistently show for irrelevant searches, Google will gradually reduce your visibility even for relevant ones.

It's like being the person who always shows up uninvited to parties. Eventually, people stop inviting you to the good ones too.

Red Flags That Scream "Your Shopping Ads Are Broken"

1. The Vanishing Act: Your ads don't appear for your own brand searches

2. The Wrong Crowd: Premium products showing up for budget searches

3. The Ghost Town: No Shopping ads visible for your main product categories

4. The Competitor Takeover: Rivals dominating your branded search results

5. The Mobile Invisibility: Strong desktop presence but mobile search wasteland

Quick Fixes That Actually Work

Immediate Actions:

• Add negative keywords for irrelevant searches you discover

• Adjust product titles based on SERP competitor analysis

• Update product images if yours look outdated compared to competitors

• Review and adjust bid strategies for products that should be showing but aren't

Strategic Improvements:

• Restructure campaigns based on actual search behaviour, not internal product categories

• Implement custom labels for margin-based bidding

• Create separate campaigns for branded versus non-branded searches

• Set up automated rules based on SERP visibility goals

The Bottom Line

Your Shopping ads are only as good as their ability to appear for the right searches at the right time. All the fancy optimisation in the world won't help if you're showing designer products to discount shoppers, or hiding your bestsellers behind obscure search terms nobody uses.

Regular SERP audits should be as routine as checking your bank balance after a weekend shopping spree - frequent enough to catch problems before they become disasters, but not so obsessive that it consumes your entire existence.

The truth is, most e-commerce businesses are leaving money on the table because they're optimising in spreadsheets instead of where customers actually shop: the search results themselves.

Ready to stop playing guessing games with your Shopping campaigns? Start with a simple brand search right now. Open Google, search for your company name, and see what actually shows up. The results might surprise you - and hopefully motivate you to dig deeper into what your customers are really seeing when they're ready to buy.

Because at the end of the day, the best marketing strategy in the world is worthless if your ads are showing up in all the wrong places.