Returns and Broken Sizing: The Two Things Killing Your Fashion PPC Profit
If you're a fashion brand spending £10k-£200k/month on Google Ads, this is the reality.
Two Things. That's All It Takes.
There are two things that kill performance in fashion PPC.
Returns
Don't show up in Google. Ever.
Broken Sizing
Doesn't get flagged. By anyone.
Both destroy profit. And most accounts aren't built to handle either.
Returns: The Invisible Margin Drain
Google sees a sale and celebrates. Smart Bidding logs a conversion. Your ROAS looks strong.
Then three weeks later, the customer sends it back. Wrong fit. Didn't match the photos. Ordered three sizes and kept one.
Google never finds out.
That "conversion" is still sitting in your data. Smart Bidding is still learning from it. Still treating that product as a winner. Still spending more on it.
The Fashion Return Reality
Fashion return rates are significantly higher than other ecommerce categories. Some product types - dresses, fitted items, online-only styles - see return rates that turn apparently profitable campaigns into loss-makers once the returns come back.
So you're scaling on numbers that were never real to begin with.
Your "best performing" product might actually be your most returned. Your "highest ROAS" campaign might be net negative once returns are factored in.
You don't know. Because Google doesn't tell you. And most agencies don't ask.
Broken Sizing: Paying for Disappointment
You've got a product down to one size. XS.
Google treats it like a full product and keeps spending.
A Medium clicks. A Large clicks. An XL clicks.
They land. They leave. You pay.
Google's Shopping algorithm has no concept of a size curve. It doesn't know that your core sizes drive the vast majority of demand. It sees a product marked "in stock" and spends against it.
Every click from someone whose size isn't available is pure waste. And it compounds - the resulting bounces teach Google your product "doesn't convert," which raises your CPCs on everything.
Products with broken size runs aren't full-price products any more. They're outlet stock. Clearance inventory. They belong in a completely different part of your account - with penny bids or aggressive ROAS targets designed to clear remaining stock, not compete for full-price budget.
The Compound Effect
Returns and broken sizing don't just cost money individually. They compound.
Smart Bidding is optimising for a version of reality that doesn't exist. It's chasing conversions that get returned and spending on products that can't sell.
You're not optimising. You're guessing with expensive data.
What We Build Around
We build accounts that account for both. Not as an afterthought. As the foundation.
Returns Factored into Performance
We integrate return data so bidding reflects what you actually keep, not what Google thinks you sold. Products with high return rates get adjusted targets. Categories with systematic return patterns get managed accordingly.
Broken Size Runs Separated
Products with broken sizing get moved out of full-price campaigns. They're treated as clearance - with bidding that reflects their actual commercial role. Penny bids or aggressive ROAS targets to clear stock without burning budget.
Profit That's Actually Profit
When returns are factored in and broken sizing is contained, what looks profitable actually is. Your POAS reflects reality, not hope.
So what looks profitable… actually is.
The Test
Ask your agency two questions:
"How do you factor returns into our bidding targets?"
"What happens to products in our account when the size run breaks?"
If the answer to the first is "Google handles attribution" - they're not doing it.
If the answer to the second is "we pause out-of-stock products" - they don't understand the difference between a product being out of stock and a product having a broken size run while still technically being "in stock."
If you're not doing this, you're not optimising. You're guessing with expensive data.