LAB LIVE
SCANNING416 CAMPAIGNS
ANOMALIES15 FLAGGED
AVG LIFT+4.40× ROAS
E-commerce · WooCommerce · Shopify

E-commerce, optimised

on contribution margin.

Shopping feed hygiene first. PMax with brand carve-out. WooCommerce / Shopify REST tied to GA4 MP. Custom labels for tROAS by margin tier. Refund-adjusted reporting. Meta CAPI dedup. TikTok where it earns its keep.

WC · Shopify
StacksREST API native
Refund-adj.
ReportingMargin-aware
Off
RecommendationsDocumented decisions
E-COMMERCE · SAMPLE
EU
ROAS · gross
4.7×
+327%
ROAS · refund-adj
4.1×
+285%
Disapprovals
0
-100%
Channel mixcontribution-margin
Search
PMax
Shopping
Meta
Search
32%
PMax
28%
Shopping
22%
Meta
18%
Customer journey · attribution pathmeasured
01
Generic query
Search · category intent
02
Product visible
Shopping or PMax
03
PDP visit
view_item · GA4 + Meta CAPI
04
Add to cart
add_to_cart · server-side dedup
05
Checkout (any path)
Web · PayPal · manual · sub
06
Purchase confirmed
MP + EOC · backend-fed
Sample dashboard · data anonymized◆ pattern from our practice

Four patterns we audit out of every account.

  • 01

    Shopping feed treated as a CMS export, not a sales surface

    Disapprovals quiet, GTINs missing, custom labels empty, supplemental feeds nowhere. PMax has nothing useful to segment on. tROAS targets meaningless because every product is bidded against blended margin.

  • 02

    PMax cannibalising brand search and existing customers

    Default PMax setup runs on all your traffic — including 'mybrand.com', repeat buyers from email, and post-purchase retargeting. CAC inside PMax looks great. Backend CAC tells a different story.

  • 03

    GA4 ecom events missing or duplicated

    add_to_cart silently failing on mobile. purchase fired both by thank-you page and server-side, double-counting. Revenue in GA4 30% off from WooCommerce / Shopify reality. Bidding learns on lies.

  • 04

    Backend orders never reach Ads

    PayPal flows skip the pixel. Manual orders close in admin. Subscriptions renew without firing purchase. Smart Bidding learns on a subset of revenue, optimises for the wrong cohort.

Feed-first, margin-aware, backend-reconciled.

  • 01Required

    Merchant Center hygiene

    GTIN and brand repair, disapproval clearance, supplemental feeds, custom labels for margin / seasonality / hero products. Feed reviewed weekly until clean.

  • 02

    PMax brand carve-out

    Brand exclusions enforced, asset-group splits by category, existing-customer audience suppression. PMax doing prospecting, Search doing intent capture, no overlap.

  • 03Backend

    WooCommerce / Shopify REST API integration

    Orders, line items, refunds pulled into our pipeline. tROAS targets calibrated per product margin, not blended. Refund-adjusted ROAS reported, not just gross.

  • 04

    GA4 ecom event repair

    Full funnel coverage with transaction_id dedup. Item-level revenue reconciled against backend weekly. Channel group routing Meta correctly to Paid Social.

  • 05

    Measurement Protocol for backend-only orders

    PayPal, manual, subscription renewals fire via MP from the backend. Smart Bidding learns on real revenue, not on web-checkout subset.

  • 06

    Meta CAPI with WooCommerce / Shopify event_id

    Server-side CAPI matched to client Pixel. transaction_id as event_id. Match rate monitored. Cookieless-resilient.

  • 07

    tROAS by margin tier, not by blended average

    Custom labels in the feed expose margin tier to PMax / Shopping. Different tROAS targets per tier. Profitable products bid up; loss leaders capped.

  • 08

    Dashboard reconciled to gross profit, not revenue

    Looker dashboard tracking ROAS, refund-adjusted ROAS, contribution margin per channel. Where you actually make money, not where the platform claims credit.

Data layer before campaigns.

  1. 01

    E-com audit

    Phase 01 · 5 working days

    Ads, GA4, Merchant Center, store backend access. Channel reconciliation, feed health, PMax carve-out gaps, MP needs.

    • Feed health score and disapproval list
    • PMax brand cannibalisation quantified
    • GA4 ↔ backend revenue gap
    • Top-10 leaks ranked by recoverable spend
  2. 02

    Data layer first

    Phase 02 · Weeks 1–3

    Feed cleaned. GA4 events repaired. MP from backend live. Meta CAPI dedup verified. Until this is solid, no campaign changes.

    • Merchant Center cleared, custom labels live
    • GA4 ecom events repaired and reconciled
    • MP firing from backend for PayPal / manual / subs
    • Meta CAPI dedup verified
  3. 03

    Campaign architecture

    Phase 03 · Weeks 2–6

    PMax carve-out, Search architecture by intent, Shopping standard for high-control SKUs, tROAS targets per margin tier.

    • PMax with brand and existing-customer exclusions
    • Search architecture by category × intent
    • Shopping standard for hero SKUs
    • tROAS targets calibrated per margin tier
  4. 04

    Optimise on contribution margin

    Phase 04 · Ongoing

    Weekly feed review, monthly tROAS recalibration, seasonal promotion windows, refund-adjusted reporting.

    • Weekly feed and disapproval review
    • Monthly tROAS by margin recalibration
    • Seasonal calendar and promotion windows
    • Quarterly contribution-margin review

Common questions.

  • Either, as long as the REST API works. WooCommerce gives more flexibility but more places for things to break — we've done extensive work on it (EVA Instruments runs WC 10.7.0 with our setup). Shopify is more predictable; the constraint there is plugin discipline.

  • Often — most ecom audits we run come from accounts that have been through 2–3 agencies. We document the existing setup, migrate without losing learning data, retire the old structure in parallel.

  • Yes for accounts where TikTok is a real channel. EVA Instruments runs pixel D8LT75BC77U21OATN5D0 with catalog 7650406069000259348 and advanced matching ON — we set that up. We treat TikTok with the same discipline as Meta: server-side reinforcement, audience overlap control, creative testing matrix.

  • Build it, own it, transfer it to you with documentation. Refund-adjusted ROAS, contribution margin by channel, cohort retention. We've built versions for both subscription ecom (recurring) and one-shot ecom (transactional) — the maths is different.

  • Off, by policy. We don't apply Google recommendations on managed accounts — including the 'safe' ones. They optimise for Google's metrics, not your contribution margin. Every change goes through a documented decision, even if the AI suggested it.

Open for clients

Send the store. Get the audit.

Read-only Ads + GA4 + Merchant Center + WooCommerce / Shopify access. Five working days. Written diagnostic ranked by recoverable contribution margin.

No long contracts · Free audit before any work