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AdventurAdsA high Google ROAS is often your own brand name.
I judge Google on new customers, in your store’s numbers. That shows whether Google is finding new buyers or charging you for ones you already had.
A free 30-minute review of your Google Ads, with me. The 3 things I’d fix first are yours to keep. I reply within an hour.
On a sports-nutrition brand I run, Google’s cost per first-time buyer is $13.38 with every campaign counted, and $41.23 once brand search and bottom-of-funnel Shopping come out. Northbeam, Jan–Aug 2026.
I’m Usama Khan. I run Google Ads for Shopify brands, myself. · LinkedInWhere a high Google ROAS comes from.
None of this is a Google bug. Google does what its goals and settings tell it to. Three things push the number up without adding a new customer.
Brand search books sales that were already coming.
A shopper sees your Meta ad, searches your brand name and buys. Meta claims the sale. Google claims it too. Your store recorded one order. If no competitor bids on your name, many of those shoppers would have clicked your organic listing, which costs nothing.
Google chases the easiest sale to win.
If Google bids for total sales value, a repeat order counts the same as a first one. Returning customers already trust you, so they cost less to bring back. Raise the ROAS target and it usually finds more of them, not more new ones.
Brand leaks into the campaigns meant to find new customers.
Performance Max and Shopping show on searches for your brand name unless brand exclusions or negatives wall it off. Shopping priority settings don’t stop it.
On one streetwear account, brand search and bottom-of-funnel Shopping (the Shopping campaign that covers searches for your brand and product names) took 76% of Google spend before I started. On $30,000 a month, that share would be $22,800. The Read finds yours.
Brands your size.
Two brands I run now. Both are judged on new customers, with brand search taken out.
per first-time buyer, without brand search and bottom-of-funnel Shopping. I judge the account on this one.
- Google spendAbout $49,000 a month on average, Jan–Aug 2026.
- With brand search and bottom-of-funnel Shopping left in$13.38.
How this was measured
Northbeam, clicks-only model, Jan–Aug 2026. This cost rises through the year on this account. It was $34.42 in January 2026 and $52.17 in August, about the same shape as 2025.
new customers over Jun–Aug 2026 from campaigns other than brand search and bottom-of-funnel Shopping. $44.25 each.
- Google spendAbout $1,600 a month before I started. About $12,700 a month over Jun–Aug 2026.
- Brand search and bottom-of-funnel Shopping76% of Google spend before I started. 39% over Jun–Aug 2026.
How this was measured
Purchases Google flagged as new customers, by conversion date. Not a Shopify count. A 20%-off sitewide sale ran from early July to at least mid-August 2026. Brand search spend still grew, from about $1,200 to about $2,550 a month.
How I run the account.
Google only: Search, Shopping, Performance Max, YouTube and Demand Gen.
Tracking first.
Google bids on purchases, counted once and checked against your store. If it learns from the wrong event, every budget move after that is wrong. So nothing else moves until that’s right.
Brand walled off.
On Search, I only pay for your brand name when a competitor bids on it, and I keep checking. On Shopping, brand gets its own campaign, with negatives both ways.
Bids aimed at new customers.
I turn on Google’s new-customer goal where the account has the volume to use it, and feed it your customer list. Targets come from what a first order is worth to you.
Judged in your numbers.
I read new-customer CAC, and MER across all channels, in Shopify, Triple Whale or Northbeam. Recent days don’t get judged until their conversions come in.
Scale in steps.
Every test gets a fair run against your target. It beats the target or it dies. Winners get budget in steps, each with a date to read it.
From $94K to $360K a month on Google.
Sixteen months, from the month I took over. At the peak, monthly spend was almost four times where it started.
spent on Google
in Google-tracked sales
Jul 2023 to Oct 2024
Spend
$94,449 a month before I started. $360,148 at the January 2024 peak. $270,724 a month over Aug–Oct 2024.
Sales
Up $513,309 a month (+63%), Aug–Oct 2024 against the three months before I started.
What didn’t go up. Google ROAS came down, from 8.69x to 4.93x, as spend grew. My first three full months (Aug–Oct 2023) went backwards. Spend doubled and Google-tracked sales fell about 14%.
How this was measured
Sales is the purchase value Google reported. Purchases only. Brand searches and returning customers are in it. It’s a before-and-after, not a new-customer count.
Starting and Aug–Oct 2024 figures are three-month averages. The peak is a single month. The 16 months start in July 2023, the month I took over.
Free. 30 minutes. Nothing to sign. I reply within an hour.
Who this is for.
A fit if you
- Run a Shopify brand spending $10K or more a month on Google.
- Get most of your sales from Meta, and Google mostly catches brand searches.
- Sell well on Google, but can’t tell how many of those buyers are new.
- Read Shopify, Triple Whale or Northbeam, and want Google judged on the same numbers.
- Have an agency you like, and want a second opinion on where the Google budget goes.
Not a fit if you
- Spend under $10K a month on Google and want ongoing management. The Read can still show what to fix first.
- Need Meta, TikTok or email run. This is Google only.
- Want a guaranteed ROAS. I don’t give one.
- Want the dashboard number up, whatever it’s made of.
Questions buyers ask.
We’ve hired agencies before. Why is this different?
You work with the person running the account. I judge Google on new customers in your store’s numbers, not on the ROAS Google reports. Whoever you hire, ask one question: what would you tell me if this channel stopped being profitable?
Meta does the real work. Google just picks up brand searches.
On a lot of accounts that’s true. That’s the problem. You pay twice for the same customer. The work is getting non-brand Search, Shopping and YouTube to find people Meta hasn’t reached. The Read starts with how much of your Google spend goes to your brand name today.
Our Google ROAS already looks fine.
It might be. Take brand searches out, then look at what a new customer costs. If that holds up, it’s fine. The Read checks the Google side, starting with what a non-brand order costs. The store side needs your Shopify numbers.
If we stop bidding on our brand, won’t competitors take those sales?
I don’t switch brand off blind. On Search, I pay for your brand name when a competitor bids on it, and I keep checking. The Read shows what you spend on your own name today.
Have you done this at our size?
Yes. A streetwear brand I run spent about $15,000 on Google in August 2026, up from about $1,600 a month before I started. A sports-nutrition brand I run averages about $49,000 a month. The clean-beauty account spent about $94K a month before I started. The method doesn’t change with size: tracking first, brand walled off, bids aimed at new customers. The targets change, because they come from what a first order is worth to you.
What if you’re out sick, or you stop?
You’d be relying on one person. That’s the trade for working with me directly. Everything is built inside your account, which you own, so nothing leaves with me.
How do we talk, and what do I see?
You get a shared Slack channel with me, and reporting on the numbers we wrote down at the start: new-customer cost, in your store’s numbers. We get on a call when there’s a decision to make.
What does working together cost?
I quote at the end of the Read, once I’ve seen the account and we both know it’s a fit. You get the fee and the terms in writing before anything starts. The Read itself is free.
Am I locked in?
Three months, then month to month. Give 30 days’ written notice any time; it takes effect at month three at the earliest. You keep the accounts, conversion actions and data.
Step 1 · The New-Customer Read
What does a new customer cost you on Google?
A 30-minute Google Ads review with me. Free.
- How much of your Google spend goes to your own brand name.
- What each campaign is bidding toward.
- What a non-brand order costs, and what Google says a new customer costs where the account tracks it.
- The 3 things I’d fix first. Yours to keep, whether we work together or not.
Request your New-Customer Read
Free. 30 minutes. Nothing to sign. I reply within an hour. How I handle what you send is in the Privacy Policy.
What happens next
- Fill in the form. It takes about two minutes.
- I reply within an hour to set a time.
- Share read-only access before we talk, if you can. If not, we look at it live on screen.
Read-only access can’t change anything in the account, and you can remove it any time. Usama Khan · AdventurAds Inc. · Toronto.