The 2026 Google Shopping Playbook: 10 Expert Strategies to Win in the Age of AI
December 16, 2025
Google Shopping is no longer just a channel; it’s the backbone of modern e-commerce. But as Google shifts from an "engine of information" to an "agent of intelligence," the old playbook of manual bid adjustments and granular segmentation is becoming obsolete.
We sat down with two leading experts, Jacob, a Google Ads specialist, and the performance marketing team at Tinuiti, to understand how they are navigating this shift. Their insights reveal a clear consensus: winning in 2026 isn't about fighting the AI, but about "briefing" it with better inputs.
Here are the 10 key strategies they’re using to build a durable moat in an AI-first world.
The biggest debate in paid search today is how to balance the raw power of Performance Max (PMax) with the precision of Standard Shopping.
For Tinuiti, the answer lies in a hybrid approach. They use PMax for "maximum reach on Shopping inventory plus other inventory," leveraging its ability to find new audiences across Google's entire ecosystem. However, they still rely on Standard Shopping as a "catch-all" and for scenarios where "more unique audience targeting is required that we can’t specify as granularly in PMax."
Jacob takes a more cautious stance, emphasizing the importance of control. "I usually lean towards keeping things broken out more so that you have more control," he explains. His concern? When PMax works, it’s great, but "when performance starts to tank, then you don’t have as many levers to pull."
The Takeaway: Don't go all-in on automation blindly. Use PMax for scale and acquisition, but keep Standard Shopping in your arsenal for testing, specific targeting, and diagnostic control.
If there’s one thing both experts agree on, it’s that your product feed is no longer just a spreadsheet, it’s the primary way you communicate with Google’s AI.
"Prioritizing feed health is going to become more critical than ever," Tinuiti advises, especially as "agentic shopping" takes off. They emphasize that a clean, error-free feed is the foundation for both paid and organic visibility.
Jacob gets specific on how to optimize. He focuses heavily on "Google product category and product type," noting that Google ranks them as "high impact attributes." By refining these fields, you’re essentially training the AI to understand exactly what you’re selling and who should buy it.
The Takeaway: Treat your feed as a strategic asset. Audit your attributes, fix disapprovals immediately, and use custom labels to layer business intelligence (like margin or stock status) into your campaigns.
PMax is notorious for its lack of transparency. When performance dips, it can be hard to know why.
Jacob warns against knee-jerk reactions. "The biggest issue is judging PMax performance without looking at the individual channels," he says. A drop in ROAS might not mean your products are failing; it could simply mean "YouTube spend has increased this week." His advice? "Make sure to look at placements before making big strategy changes."
Tinuiti points to another common failure mode: asset starvation. "Missing video assets limits visibility and stifles ad strength," they note. Without a full suite of images, videos, and headlines, PMax can’t effectively serve ads across all of Google’s inventory, forcing it to rely on lower-performing placements.
The Takeaway: Dig deeper than the top-line metrics. Check your placement reports and ensure every asset group is fully stocked with high-quality creative to give the algorithm the fuel it needs.
In a world of automated bidding, how do you ensure you're not just harvesting existing demand but actually growing the pie?
Tinuiti adopts a "fully fund" mentality for the lower funnel. "We generally try to fully fund the lower funnel Search/Shopping campaigns as long as they are delivering strong performance," they explain. Once that core is secure, they "allocate leftover awareness budget to the mid/upper funnel to create the demand."
Jacob is also shifting focus upstream. "We are definitely focusing more on the YouTube/Demand Gen side to create the demand," he notes. This shift acknowledges that as auction dynamics get more competitive, simply fighting for the last click isn't enough, you need to be present where the intent is formed.
The Takeaway: Secure your bottom-of-funnel efficiency first, then aggressively reinvest excess budget into upper-funnel formats like YouTube and Demand Gen to feed the machine.
As Google introduces more generative AI tools to build ads on the fly, maintaining brand integrity becomes a challenge.
Tinuiti recommends a proactive approach: "We encourage teams to use guardrails such as 'brand guidelines' within PMax to steer the AI-generated assets toward on-brand verbiage, fonts, colors, etc." It’s not about stopping the AI from creating; it’s about giving it a sandbox to play in.
While Jacob admits he doesn't run a ton of PMax creative tests yet, the industry trend is clear: the "set it and forget it" days of creative are over. You need to constantly feed the system with fresh, high-quality inputs while setting strict boundaries on what "on-brand" looks like.
The Takeaway: Don't let the AI define your brand. Use PMax's asset generation tools, but enforce strict brand guidelines to ensure every automated ad still looks and sounds like you.
Driving the click is only half the battle. What happens after the user lands is just as critical, especially as traffic sources diversify.
Jacob highlights a key distinction in his strategy: "We send all of our shopping traffic directly to the lander (since Google requires that), but the rest of our 'TOF' (Top of Funnel) traffic we send to an advertorial page." This tailored approach ensures that high-intent shoppers get to the product fast, while discovery-focused users get the education they need first.
Tinuiti notes that while Product Detail Pages (PDPs) are generally performing well, the "post-click experience" is part of a holistic view. Ensuring that the landing page delivers on the promise of the ad—whether it's a specific price, offer, or product feature, is essential for conversion rate stability.
The Takeaway: Match the destination to the intent. Use PDPs for high-intent Shopping clicks, but consider advertorials or rich landing pages for broader, upper-funnel traffic to bridge the gap between curiosity and conversion.
While ROAS remains the standard, smart advertisers are evolving their targets.
Tinuiti emphasizes that "ensuring we’re bidding to the actual business goals (ie: ROAS or Profit / Margin) is our first priority." They start by benchmarking against similar products and then "adjust the target as needed after a few conversion cycles post-launch." This ensures that bidding strategies are aligned with the bottom line, not just revenue volume.
The Takeaway: Don't just optimize for revenue. If possible, feed profit margin data into Google to bid on true business value, or segment campaigns by margin profile to ensure profitability.
One of the hidden dangers of PMax is low-quality inventory.
Tinuiti explicitly calls out "occasional efficiency issues from the Search Partner Network, and/or Gmail placements." These networks can sometimes absorb budget with low-intent clicks, inflating impressions without driving conversions.
The Takeaway: Monitor your network performance closely. If you see efficiency drags, consider using account-level negatives or script-based solutions to exclude the Search Partner Network or specific low-performing placements.
With AI Overviews (AIOs) taking up more real estate, "being seen" is becoming as important as "being clicked."
Tinuiti advises clients to "adopt proactive AI SEO strategies to improve their ability to be included and viewed as an authority in AI-summaries." They use tools to track "sentiment analyses, citations, inclusion" in AI results. Even if these don't generate a direct click, they build the brand authority that influences the final purchase decision.
The Takeaway: Optimize for the answer, not just the click. Ensure your product data and brand content are structured in a way that AI models can easily parse and cite as authoritative sources.
Finally, how do you keep a pulse on all of this without getting overwhelmed?
Tinuiti shares their daily "health metrics" checklist:
Jacob adds incrementality to this list, using tests to validate the "true impact" of his upper-funnel spend.
The Takeaway: Simplify your daily dashboard. Focus on the metrics that indicate potential (like impression share) and blockers (like feed errors) rather than just staring at yesterday's ROAS.
As we look toward 2026, the advice from our experts is clear. The "zero-click" future and AI-assembled search results aren't a threat to be feared, but a reality to prepare for.
The winning formula? Impeccable feed quality, diverse creative assets, and a rigorous approach to measurement.
"Strong feed health is where it starts," Tinuiti concludes. By mastering these inputs today, you’re not just optimizing for the current algorithm, you’re future-proofing your brand for the next era of commerce.