Ecommerce PPC Agency: What Founders Should Actually Look For (From Someone Who’s in the Trenches)

When you type “ecommerce PPC agency” into Google, you’ll see a hundred agencies promising the same thing: more traffic, more ROAS, more sales.

Here’s the truth:
Most of them are running the same playbook.
The difference between a winning ecommerce PPC partner and everyone else has nothing to do with “secret” hacks.

I’ll break down how to choose an ecommerce PPC agency that won’t waste your money, and give you a takeaway checklist you can use today.

Why Most Ecommerce PPC Agencies Get It Wrong

1. They confuse complexity with results.
You don’t need 17 campaigns, 200 ad groups, and dashboards that look like airplane cockpits.
You need clean data, an offer that converts, and a simple structure the algorithm can learn from.

I’ve seen multiple PPC influencers on Twitter (or X if you call it that…) boast on the INSANE level of depth they get into. Custom scripts, custom rules, etc. etc. What’s the point of this if your foundation totally sucks? 

Complexity quite literally doesn’t mean sh*t if your foundations are not set up. 

2. They skip the unglamorous work.
90% of ecommerce ad accounts I audit have broken product feeds. Bad titles, missing GTINs, half-completed attributes.

No one wants to fix this because it’s “boring,” but this one step alone can make Google Ads 30–50% more efficient.

And trust me. I totally get it. Yes it’s boring, yes it’s tedious, and yes it can take a while. But this can make or break your ads and whether you show on top 10 or bottom 50 in the Google Ads Shopping auction.

3. They hide from hard conversations.
Sometimes, the ads aren’t the problem.
– If your site takes 8 seconds to load on mobile, no ad can save you.
– If your margins are 10%, no ad strategy will turn that into profit at scale.
– A good agency will tell you to pause ads, fix these things, and come back stronger.

This is another thing that screams ‘fundamentals’. Most people focus on those shiny objects they see on Reddit or X and completely neglect the basics like a proper website. 

Test this with people who aren’t just your friends…

What to Look For in a True Ecommerce PPC Partner

• Experience with your revenue stage.
  – A store doing $20k/month needs a very different approach than one doing $500k/month.
  – Ask them: What changes when an account is ready to scale?
  
  Contrary to popular belief, I think that an account spending $100k per month needs less focus and technical PPC media buying than an account that is spending less than $50k per month.

• An obsession with data quality, not just ad spend.
  – Do they audit your tracking, your feed, your creative library before touching campaigns?

  Lots of agencies and founders don’t know that Google is heading towards full automation. Actually I think if you have even the smallest level of situational awareness you would know that (only joking).

  Data is everything. Data is what can make or break your account. Make sure everything is properly set up. In fact, go the extra mile. Set up things like custom data layer variables to send to your Google Ads. These can help whether you see the ROI in it right now or not.

• Clear reporting in plain English.
  – If you can’t understand their reporting without a translator, that’s a problem.

  Crappy agencies will blind you with technical know how. Word salads that you probably have been given in the past. Charts that make little to no sense. A true partner will make sure that everything is reported to you on a 5th grade level.

  Yeah, a 5th grade level. Sounds a little belittling to ecommerce founders, but why the hell would you want to waste your brain power on indirect and hard to understand reports? Go focus on your products, website, and other important stuff. You just need the cliff notes.

• Willingness to say “pause.”
  – The best agencies know when ads aren’t the next best step. You want a partner, not a vendor.

  A good agency knows when something is bleeding money and wasting your ad spend. A bad one will let you spend to death because hey, they get 10% on ad spend right?!

  I’m in the ecommerce PPC agency space personally, and I can say first hand that a good agency that CARES about your account is the one that knows when to pull the plug (and also stays awake at night worrying about your account).

The 90-Day Roadmap That Actually Works

Here’s the roadmap I use when a founder asks me to help scale their ecommerce ads. Use it even if you never hire an agency.

Month 1: Fix Foundations

• Clean product feeds

• Fix conversion tracking

• Review site speed and checkout flow

Month 2: Simplify Campaigns

• Consolidate messy campaigns

• Focus on one acquisition campaign and one retargeting campaign

• Stop spending on “just in case” keywords

Month 3: Scale With Data

• Once profitable at small budgets, increase spend gradually

• Layer in creative testing

• Keep feeding the system high-quality product data

This structure is boring.
It’s also the same process that has taken stores from 2x to 4–5x ROAS consistently.

Takeaway Checklist (Save This Before You Choose an Agency)

• Can they explain their process without jargon?

• Will they fix your feed and tracking first?

• Are they willing to work small before going big?

• Do they talk more about your store and offer than ad hacks?

If you don’t hear “yes” to all four, you’re likely buying traffic instead of growth.

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