Ecommerce & Shopify
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Three months ago, I got a panicked call from a Shopify client. Their Google Shopping ads were burning money faster than a Formula 1 car burns fuel. The culprit? Half their product feed was showing out-of-stock items to potential customers.
"We're paying for clicks on products we can't even sell," they told me. Sound familiar? You're not alone. Most e-commerce stores are unknowingly bleeding money through poorly managed product feeds.
Here's what nobody talks about: removing out-of-stock products from your feed isn't just about clean data—it's about protecting your ad spend, maintaining customer trust, and keeping your Google Shopping performance strong.
After working with dozens of e-commerce clients, I've learned that product feed management can make or break your advertising ROI. The difference between a well-optimized feed and a messy one? Often thousands of dollars per month.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
The hidden costs of showing out-of-stock products in your feeds
My 3-step automation system that handles inventory changes in real-time
Platform-specific strategies for Shopify, WooCommerce, and custom solutions
Advanced filtering techniques that go beyond basic inventory levels
The metrics that actually matter when optimizing your product feeds
Let's turn your product feed from a money drain into a revenue driver.
Feed Management
The advice everyone gives (and why it's incomplete)
Ask any e-commerce expert about managing out-of-stock products in feeds, and you'll get the same generic advice:
"Set up automatic inventory sync" - Usually means installing a plugin and hoping it works
"Use availability status in your feed" - Basic yes/no inventory flags
"Update your feed daily" - Manual exports and uploads
"Exclude zero inventory items" - Simple quantity-based filtering
"Monitor your Google Merchant Center" - Check for disapproved items occasionally
This conventional wisdom exists because it's technically correct. Most platforms do offer basic inventory sync, and excluding zero-quantity items is better than nothing.
But here's where this approach falls short in practice: inventory management isn't binary. Real businesses have complex scenarios that basic "in stock" or "out of stock" flags can't handle.
What about products with 1-2 units left that you want to keep advertising but manage differently? What about seasonal items you're temporarily not promoting? What about variants where only some sizes are out of stock?
The biggest problem with generic advice? It treats all out-of-stock situations the same way. In reality, smart feed management requires nuanced decisions based on your business model, profit margins, and customer expectations.
Most importantly, the standard approach is reactive—you're always playing catch-up with inventory changes instead of getting ahead of them. This reactive approach costs money every single day.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The call came on a Tuesday morning. My Shopify client, running a 1000+ product fashion store, was frustrated. Their Google Ads account was burning through budget on products that had been out of stock for weeks.
"Look at this," they said, sharing their screen. "We're paying $3 per click for a dress that's been sold out since Black Friday. Google keeps showing our ads because our feed says it's available."
The problem wasn't unique to them. They had tried the standard solutions—installed a popular feed management app, set up basic inventory sync, even hired a freelancer to "fix" their Google Shopping feed. But the issues kept coming back.
Here's what I discovered during my audit: their definition of "out of stock" was too simple. The basic app was only looking at quantity levels, but their business was more complex:
Products with 1-2 units left (keep advertising but reduce bids)
Seasonal items they temporarily wanted to stop promoting
Variants where only certain sizes were unavailable
High-return items they wanted to phase out gradually
The first "solution" I tried was typical consultant thinking: let's use a more sophisticated feed management tool. I recommended a premium app that promised advanced inventory rules and real-time sync.
Three weeks later, we were still having problems. The app was technically working—it was removing zero-inventory items—but we were missing nuanced business decisions. Products that should have been promoted differently weren't being handled correctly.
That's when I realized the real issue: this wasn't a technical problem, it was a business logic problem. No app could understand their specific business rules without someone translating those rules into actionable feed management strategies.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of fighting with another app, I built a custom system based on business logic first, automation second. Here's exactly what I implemented:
Step 1: Business Rule Mapping
Before touching any technical solutions, I worked with the client to define their actual business rules:
Products with 0 inventory: Remove completely from all feeds
Products with 1-2 units: Keep in feed but add "Limited Stock" to title and reduce bid modifiers
Seasonal paused items: Remove from Google Shopping but keep in Facebook catalog
High-return products: Gradually phase out over 2 weeks instead of immediate removal
Step 2: Smart Tagging System
I created a tagging system in Shopify that went beyond simple inventory levels:
"feed-exclude" tag for items to completely remove
"feed-limited" tag for low-stock items needing special handling
"feed-seasonal-pause" for temporary exclusions
"feed-phase-out" for gradual removal
Step 3: Automated Feed Rules
Using Shopify Flow (their built-in automation), I created workflows that automatically applied tags based on inventory changes and business rules. When inventory hit specific thresholds, the system would:
Auto-tag products for removal or special handling
Update product titles with stock status indicators
Trigger feed regeneration in Google Merchant Center
Send notifications to the team for manual review when needed
Step 4: Multi-Platform Feed Optimization
Rather than using the same feed for all platforms, I created platform-specific rules:
Google Shopping: Strict inventory rules, immediate removal of zero-stock items
Facebook Catalog: More permissive, allowing limited stock with modified messaging
Pinterest: Keep items longer since conversion cycles are typically slower
The key insight was treating each advertising platform differently based on customer behavior and conversion timelines.
Automation Rules
Set up workflows that tag products automatically based on inventory levels and business logic, not just zero quantities.
Feed Segmentation
Create different feeds for different platforms instead of using one generic feed for everything.
Smart Tagging
Use custom tags to handle complex scenarios like limited stock, seasonal pauses, and gradual phase-outs.
Monitoring Dashboard
Track feed performance metrics beyond basic approval status—focus on click-through rates and conversion data.
The results were immediate and measurable. Within the first month of implementing the new system:
Cost Savings: Ad spend on out-of-stock products dropped from $2,100 monthly to under $150. The client was no longer paying for clicks on unavailable items.
Improved Performance: Google Shopping click-through rates increased by 34% because customers were only seeing available products. Conversion rates improved by 28% since traffic was more qualified.
Operational Efficiency: The team went from spending 8 hours weekly on manual feed management to about 30 minutes of monitoring. The automation handled 95% of inventory changes without human intervention.
Revenue Protection: By keeping limited-stock items in feeds with modified messaging, we captured an additional $3,400 in sales that would have been lost with complete removal.
But the most significant result was the peace of mind. The client no longer worried about wasting ad spend on out-of-stock items or disappointing customers with unavailable products.
The system proved its value during their holiday season when inventory was changing multiple times daily. The automated rules handled the complexity without any manual intervention.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this system across multiple e-commerce clients, here are the key lessons I've learned:
Business logic before technology: Define your rules first, then find tools to implement them. Don't let app limitations dictate your strategy.
One size doesn't fit all platforms: Google Shopping, Facebook, and Pinterest have different customer behaviors—your feed strategy should reflect this.
Monitor metrics, not just approval status: A technically approved feed might still be wasting money if the business logic is wrong.
Gradual beats immediate: Sometimes phasing out products over days or weeks performs better than immediate removal.
Tag everything systematically: Consistent tagging systems save hours of manual work and enable better automation.
Test with small changes first: Implement new rules on a subset of products before rolling out store-wide.
Document your decisions: When someone asks why a product is excluded, you should have a clear business reason.
The biggest mistake I see is treating feed management as a "set it and forget it" technical task. It's actually an ongoing business optimization process that requires regular review and refinement.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS tools managing product catalogs or marketplaces:
Build flexible status fields beyond binary available/unavailable
Create automated workflows for different inventory scenarios
Provide API endpoints for real-time inventory updates
Enable custom business rule configuration for different use cases
For your Ecommerce store
For online stores:
Implement smart tagging systems for complex inventory scenarios
Create platform-specific feed rules rather than one-size-fits-all approaches
Set up automated monitoring for feed performance metrics
Document business rules for inventory handling to maintain consistency