POD margins are 15-25%. At $1.50 CPC with 2% conversion, your CAC is $75. Your $30 shirt profit? Gone. Most POD stores can't afford Google Ads at all.
Example: $35 shirt with $10 profit, $1.50 CPC, 2% CVR = -$65 per sale
POD products compete against identical items from thousands of sellers. 'Funny Cat T-Shirt' returns 50,000 competitors. You're invisible.
Example: Bidding on 'funny t-shirt' against 10,000 identical products
Designs have lifecycles—hot for 2 months, then dead. Your ads keep running on stale designs while new winners get no budget.
Example: 60% of budget on designs past their peak, new winners getting $5/day
Google Ads attracts impulse buyers expecting 2-day shipping. POD takes 7-14 days. High cancellation rates and negative reviews tank long-term viability.
Example: 25% order cancellations due to shipping time expectations
POD wins on hyper-niche audiences ('gifts for X profession/hobby'). Stores running broad campaigns compete against giants and lose.
Example: Targeting 'gifts for mom' instead of 'gifts for nurse mom who loves wine'
With a single asset group, Google optimizes for aggregate ROAS by heavily favoring your top 5-10 products. The rest of your catalog gets almost no impressions. Worse, low-margin products drag down profitability while appearing successful in aggregate.
Fix: Segment products by performance tier: Winners (scale), Potentials (test), Underperformers (cut or fix). Create separate asset groups for each.
PMax claims credit for brand searches that would've cost $0.30 through a dedicated brand campaign. Without exclusions, you're paying 3-5x more for customers already looking for you.
Fix: Add brand exclusions to PMax and run a separate Brand Search campaign with exact match keywords.
Missing GTINs, generic titles, no custom labels, and missing sale prices hurt your Shopping ad performance. Generic product titles
Fix: Front-load niche keywords in product titles
Your 5x ROAS might look great until you realize 70% of sales are repeat customers who would've bought anyway. You're paying to acquire customers you already have.
Fix: Segment reporting by new vs returning customers. Set up customer match lists and analyze true CAC.
Not all campaign types work for print on demand stores. Here's what to skip:
Zero margins for exploratory spend
Can't afford the learning period or brand cannibalization
POD needs high-intent traffic only
Follow these best practices to maximize your Print on Demand Google Ads performance:
Budget: 50-60% • Target ROAS: 2-3x
Budget: 25-35% • Target ROAS: 2-3.5x
Budget: 10-15% • Target ROAS: 3-4x