The Client
Outhouse Coffee is a specialty coffee roaster in Southern California that sells online nationwide, and our Google Ads for coffee brands grew their online orders from 3 to 34 a month.
Outhouse Coffee sells "Real Coffee for Real People": whole-bean and ground coffee in 12oz and 5lb bags, Keurig-compatible pods, instant coffee tubes and branded merchandise, direct to consumer through its Shopify store. The brand speaks to the outdoor, off-road and job-site crowd, and ships across the US.
We launched their Google Ads in July 2025. In the first month the account produced 3 orders.
3 orders in July 2025. 34 in December 2025.
The Challenge
Coffee is one of the most crowded categories on Google:
- Giant competitors. Amazon, big-box retailers and national DTC coffee brands bid on every coffee search.
- A commodity in the shopper's mind. "Coffee" feels interchangeable, so a small roaster has to win on product, price and brand in a single ad.
- Low order values. A 12oz bag sells for $14.50, so every click has to count.
- Different buyers for different products. Bag buyers, pod buyers and instant-coffee buyers search differently and buy differently.
What We Built
1. Performance Max on the Product Feed
The core of the account is a Performance Max campaign running on the Shopify product feed, reaching coffee shoppers across Shopping, Search, YouTube and Display. It carried about 61% of the budget and produced about 85% of the tracked orders. More than 270 competitor brand names are excluded, so the budget goes to shoppers looking for coffee, not for another roaster.
2. Exact-Match Search for Bags and Pods
A conversion-focused Search campaign splits coffee bags and coffee pods into their own ad groups, every keyword on exact match, so each search lands on the product it asked for.
3. Controlled Bidding Tests
Two A/B tests ran beside the main Search campaign, comparing bidding strategies. The winner stayed and the tests were switched off.
4. Purchases Only
Bidding runs on completed purchases. Page views, add-to-carts and checkouts are tracked but not counted, and a second purchase tag that recorded the same orders twice is excluded from every number on this page.
5. Daily Optimization via Ad Campaign Concierge™
Every campaign was reviewed daily through our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ system: search-term cleanup, product and budget shifts toward what was selling, and new tests whenever a winner was clear.
The Results
- Orders a month: from 3 in July 2025 to 16 in August, 24 in October and 34 in December 2025
- Holiday quarter: 73 orders from October to December 2025
- Spring 2026: 62 orders from March to May, more than twice the first three months
What Improved
| Metric | First 3 months | Mar to May 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online orders | 30 | 62 | +107% |
| Clicks that became orders | 0.25% | 1.26% | 5x higher |
| Orders in a single month | 3 (Jul 2025) | 34 (Dec 2025) | 11x |
The biggest gain was in quality, not volume. The account stopped paying for cheap, broad clicks and started buying the searches that end in a checkout, so five times as many visitors bought.
Every Order Since Launch
192 online orders and 32,939 clicks from July 2025 to June 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Buy the checkout, not the click. Moving bidding onto real purchases took the conversion rate from 0.25% to 1.26%.
- Performance Max needs a clean feed and a fence. The product feed drives reach, and competitor exclusions keep the budget on coffee shoppers.
- Split products that sell differently. Bags and pods in separate exact-match ad groups send every shopper to the right product.
- Count every order once. Two purchase tags recording the same order can make an account look twice as good as it is. We report one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take Google Ads to bring orders for a coffee brand?
Outhouse Coffee's account produced 3 orders in its first month, July 2025, and 16 in the second. Orders reached 24 in October 2025 and 34 in December 2025, and the account averaged about 21 orders a month from March to May 2026.
Should a coffee roaster use Performance Max or Search?
Both, with different jobs. Performance Max, fed by the Shopify product feed, took about 61% of the budget and produced about 85% of the tracked orders. Exact-match Search campaigns for coffee bags and coffee pods caught shoppers who already knew what they wanted.
How much traffic can Google Ads bring an online coffee store?
Over 12 months the ads brought Outhouse Coffee 32,939 clicks to its product and collection pages, and 192 online orders.
How do you get more coffee shoppers to buy after the click?
Send each search to the right product and optimize for purchases, not clicks. In Outhouse Coffee's first three months 0.25% of clicks turned into orders. From March to May 2026 it was 1.26%, five times higher, and orders a quarter doubled from 30 to 62.
About This Campaign
This account was managed daily through Ad Campaign Concierge™, our proprietary optimization system for e-commerce.
Industry: E-commerce: Specialty Coffee Roaster Platforms: Google Ads (Performance Max, Search) Location: Southern California (shipping nationwide) Account Duration: July 2025 to June 2026
Orders are completed purchases from the GA4 purchase event as tracked in Google Ads. A parallel Shopping App purchase tag that records the same orders is excluded, as are page views, add-to-carts and checkouts. Amounts in US dollars.