Most new or growing online stores should spend first on paid channels — Google Shopping and Meta ads — because they produce sales immediately and show which products and audiences are profitable. At the same time, fix the SEO foundations (site structure, category and product pages) so organic traffic grows and lowers your blended cost per sale over time.
Key takeaways
- Most new stores should start with Shopping and Meta catalogue ads.
- Calculate break-even ROAS from your gross margin.
- Build SEO foundations in parallel to lower blended cost per order.
- Count returns and cancelled COD orders when judging ROAS.
Start with paid when…
- Your store is new and has little organic traffic
- You’re launching new products or a seasonal collection
- You need cash flow and data quickly
- Your margins can absorb advertising costs
Prioritise organic when…
- Advertising costs are eating most of your margin
- Many shoppers search category terms you could rank for
- You have the capacity to create genuinely helpful category content and guides
The best paid channels for ecommerce
- Google Shopping / Performance Max: shows products with images and prices to people searching for them. Requires a Merchant Center feed.
- Meta Advantage+ shopping and catalogue ads: strong for visual, impulse and fashion products and for retargeting.
- Google Search: for branded searches and high-intent product queries.
- TikTok: works for products that demonstrate well in short video.
The SEO foundations to build alongside
- A logical category structure matching how people search
- Unique product descriptions and category introductions
- Product schema, fast mobile pages, clean URLs
- Buying guides that link to categories
Measure blended performance
Compare return on ad spend for paid channels and revenue from organic search, then calculate your blended cost per order. As organic sales grow, you can reduce paid spend on keywords where you already rank well — or reinvest to grow faster.
Don’t forget marketplaces
Marketplaces such as Daraz can add sales volume, but you compete on price and don’t own the customer relationship. Use them alongside your own store, not instead of it.
See our ecommerce marketing services.
A worked example
A new clothing store sells lawn suits with an average order value of Rs 6,000 and a gross margin of 40% (Rs 2,400 per order). To break even on advertising, it can spend up to Rs 2,400 per order, which means a break-even return on ad spend of 2.5 (6,000 ÷ 2,400). If Meta catalogue ads deliver a ROAS of 3.5 and Google Shopping 2.2, Meta deserves more budget for now while the Shopping feed and product pages are improved. Use your own margins — these numbers only illustrate the calculation.
Meanwhile, the store writes category introductions for “lawn suits”, “unstitched lawn” and “printed lawn 3-piece”, improves product descriptions and builds a few links from fashion bloggers. Six months later, organic search brings a growing share of orders at no click cost, so the blended cost per order falls.
Mistakes to avoid
- Scaling ads before conversion tracking is accurate
- Feed errors in Merchant Center that silently disapprove products
- Ignoring returns and cancelled cash-on-delivery orders when calculating ROAS
Frequently asked questions
What is a good ROAS for ecommerce?
It depends on your margins. Work out the break-even return on ad spend from your gross margin, then aim above it.
Can a small store rank on Google?
Yes, especially for specific product and niche category searches where big retailers have thin content.
Should I advertise all products?
Start with best-sellers and products with healthy margins, then expand based on results.
Sources and further reading
- Google Merchant Center Help: Product data specification
- Baymard Institute: Cart abandonment rate statistics
- Meta for Developers: Conversions API
