Google Ads for COD in Europe: branded search + Shopping, no PMax at the start

Guilherme Rocha · 2026-10-07

PMax on a new account with a new product = money burned on Display. What worked for us in IT/ES:

1. Search campaign with just the product name and variations (exact and phrase match). Low CPC, high intent, catches people who saw the ad on Facebook and went to search for it.
2. Standard Shopping with a clean feed (title = product + benefit + country).
3. Only after 30 conversions: PMax with signals from the audience that converted.

Negatives from day 1: 'opinioni', 'truffa', 'recensioni negative', 'amazon', 'farmacia' (or the equivalent in that country).