Fixing Product Conflicts in Performance Max: A Hardware Case Study

Short version: A USA hardware brand had multiple Performance Max campaigns fighting over the same products. We re-segmented so every product had one clear home, rebuilt weak non-branded campaigns, and grew revenue 40% to $85K/month even as CPCs rose 31% year over year. Here is how.

One of the most common and most invisible problems in scaled accounts is internal competition: two of your own campaigns bidding on the same products, driving up your costs against yourself. This hardware brand had exactly that, plus historically weak non-branded campaigns dragging on results.

The situation

A USA hardware company selling screws and construction products had internal product conflicts across multiple Performance Max campaigns, historically weak non-branded campaigns, and low visibility on certain products. They were effectively competing with themselves.

What we actually did

• Re-segmented so each product had one home. We restructured campaigns so every product was uniquely positioned in its own campaign, removing the internal conflicts that were inflating costs.
• Rebuilt non-branded from the data. Using past-data analysis, we rebuilt the historically weak non-branded campaigns to reach a 2.8x ROAS.
• Exposed hidden products and added DSA. We launched new campaigns for under-exposed products plus a Dynamic Search Ads campaign that delivered over 2x ROAS, capturing demand the account had been missing.

The results

• Started Apr 2023 at ~$60K/month revenue, growing to over $85K/month by May 2024 (+40%).
• Jan to Jun 2024: +14% revenue vs. prior year despite a 31% YoY average CPC increase from rising competition.
• $128K spend at a 3.34x conversion value/cost ratio.

How to find and fix internal campaign conflicts

Internal competition is one of the most expensive problems hiding in scaled accounts, precisely because it is invisible on the surface. Here is how to detect and resolve it.

How to spot the conflict

If the same product can be served by more than one Performance Max or Shopping campaign, those campaigns are bidding against each other in the same auctions. Symptoms include rising CPCs with flat conversions, budgets that do not produce more sales when increased, and inconsistent impression share across campaigns that should not overlap. Audit your feed against your campaigns and confirm every product has exactly one campaign that can show it.

Give every product one clear home

Re-segment so each product or product group is uniquely positioned in a single campaign. This removes the auction overlap immediately and gives you clean, attributable performance per product group. It is unglamorous structural work, but it is often the highest-ROI change you can make in a mature account.

Rebuild weak non-branded campaigns from data

Non-branded campaigns are where real growth lives, but they are also where most accounts are weakest. Rather than guessing, rebuild them from your own historical data: which queries and products have actually converted, at what cost. A non-branded campaign grounded in past performance can reach a healthy ROAS where a generic one bleeds money.

Surface hidden demand with DSA and new campaigns

Products with low visibility often have demand you are simply not capturing. A Dynamic Search Ads campaign can catch relevant queries your keyword campaigns miss, and dedicated campaigns for under-exposed products give them a fair chance to perform. This is how an account can grow even when competition pushes CPCs up, as happened here with costs rising 31% year over year.

What this means for your store

If you run several Performance Max campaigns, check whether they overlap on the same products. Internal competition is a silent budget drain. Giving each product one clear campaign home, rebuilding tired non-branded campaigns from data, and adding a DSA campaign to catch missed demand can grow revenue even when the market gets more expensive, as it did here with CPCs up 31%.

Suspect your campaigns are competing with each other? Book a free audit call and we will untangle it. You may also like our post on the product feed.