Why (and when) you shouldn’t pause a low-performing product

There’s a classic rule in Google Ads that is also one of the most misunderstood:

“Pause the products that aren’t selling.”

In theory, it’s good advice.

Why keep spending on something that doesn’t bring money in?

But the nuance is where many brands get tripped up.

Because here’s the catch...

What if your so-called “poor performers” never had a real shot to perform in the first place?

Let me explain…

In one of our best-performing campaigns for an apparel brand, there was a clear top seller.

One product was driving most of the revenue.

But here’s the issue:

It shared the same campaign with the rest of the catalog.

And Google’s algorithm does what it’s supposed to do:

It pushed budget to what was already working.

So that one product got the spotlight.

Meanwhile, everything else got buried.

High-margin items got overlooked. Newer products didn’t get enough exposure.

On paper, they were “underperforming.”

But in reality, they didn’t even have a chance.

That overperformer was quietly stealing attention from the rest of the catalog.

So here's what we did:

We pulled the top seller out and gave it its own campaign.

Now we could scale it independently—control the budget, tailor the bidding, and push it harder.

But more importantly:

We trained Google to find buyers for all the other products.

Once Google stopped leaning on the golden child, it started learning how to sell the others.

It was one of the key moves that helped us hit A$1.5M in revenue last month with a 7.52X ROAS.

This is why you should be careful when judging what’s working and what’s not.

Products don’t just fail because they’re bad.

They also fail because of poor execution.

It might be your campaign structure. Your targeting.

Your bidding strategy. Or your feed setup.

And this doesn’t just apply to products.

It also applies to your ad groups, creatives, campaigns, etc.

After working with 500+ brands, here’s what we’ve seen:

Too many brands pull the plug too fast.

They see weak performance and shut it down.

But in reality, those assets could’ve worked if they were just given a fair chance.

The goal isn’t to kill the underperformers.

It’s to give them the conditions they need to succeed—and then decide.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

How we can help:

• Get a free Google ads audit: For brands spending more than $20k/mo. or making over 1 million annually, we’ll identify the key bottlenecks in your account, and turn it into a free 90-day scaling plan. Click here.

• Get our E-commerce Growth Toolkit: Get access to our free resources and tools including the Product Feed & GMC Optimization Checklist, YouTube Shorts Ads Playbook, and 12 Plug-and-Play Dashboards. Click here.

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