Shopee ads on exact match: same clicks, three times the ad sales
One store moved its Shopee ads off shop wide campaigns and onto single products, each on one exact match keyword at a low bid. Eight months later it had the same clicks and three times the ad sales. Here is the change, worked through on its own figures, and how to check your ads.
Shopee ads on exact match show only when a buyer types the keyword you chose, so the budget reaches people already searching for that product. Give each product its own ad, on the keyword buyers use for it, at a low bid. In a store where we made this change, clicks stayed level, 61.1 thousand in March 2025 and 60.7 thousand in November 2025, while ad sales went from IDR 901.6 million to IDR 2.8 billion.
Four terms. An impression is one showing of your ad, and the click rate is clicks divided by impressions. Ad spend is what the clicks cost, and ad sales are the sales Shopee credits to your ads.
Where the budget started: shop wide campaigns
In June 2024, the month we started on the account, the store sold IDR 1.37 billion. Its ad budget sat on shop wide campaigns: one budget for every product, and one total in the report. Nobody could see which products the ads sold and which only spent.
Such a total can hide products whose ads lose money on every order, as our earlier post on splitting the ad budget product by product shows.
Shopee ads on exact match: one product, one keyword, a low bid
Each advertised product got its own product search ad. Each ad bid on the words buyers type for that product, on exact match, at a low bid. For a 19 inch monitor, the keyword was monitor 19 inch, at IDR 300 a click.
Exact match, called Spesifik in the Indonesian Seller Centre, shows the ad only when the search is that keyword. Broad match, Luas, also shows it for related searches: more reach, but spend on searches that were never going to buy. The bid, Per Klik, is what you offer for one click.
The keyword is the product name as buyers type it, the same words that belong in the title: see our post on keywords in a Shopee product title.
Two rules came with it. Spend on the best sellers was held steady. Budget moved to products with a high margin, which keep a large share of each sale after the product cost and the Shopee fees, or with low visibility, which few buyers saw.
Same clicks, three times the ad sales
The ads page for all pay per click ads in the store, in three months:
| On the ads page | March 2025 | April 2025 | November 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | IDR 15.2 million | IDR 17.6 million | IDR 18.4 million |
| Ad sales | IDR 901.6 million | IDR 1.7 billion | IDR 2.8 billion |
| Clicks | 61.1 thousand | 91.6 thousand | 60.7 thousand |
As the page shows them, rounded by Shopee.
Work it through. In April, a month after the move, spend rose from IDR 15.2 million to IDR 17.6 million, about a sixth more, while ad sales nearly doubled, from IDR 901.6 million to IDR 1.7 billion. Orders from ads went from 1.6 thousand to 2.4 thousand.
November, eight months on, is the clearer test. Clicks were back at the March level. The ads were shown less, 1.1 million times against 1.3 million, but more viewers tapped: the click rate rose from 4.61% to 5.47%. Spend was up IDR 3.2 million; ad sales were about three times as high.
To compare months, divide ad sales by ad spend: the return on ad spend, or ad sales for each IDR 1 of spend. March: IDR 901.6 million divided by IDR 15.2 million, about 59. November: IDR 2.8 billion divided by IDR 18.4 million, about 152. The gain came from fewer wasted clicks, not more clicks.
One keyword at IDR 300 a click
On one product ad, the 19 inch monitor, open its keywords in Shopee Ads: Kata Pencarian is the keyword, Tipe Pencocokan the match type, Per Klik the bid and Konversi the conversions, purchases Shopee counts from those clicks.
| Month | Clicks | Ad spend | Ad sales | Conversions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2025 | 1,803 | IDR 373.015 | IDR 53.694.173 | 70 |
| December 2025 | 1,620 | IDR 364.500 | IDR 64.669.939 | 92 |
From the keyword report of the product ad.
A click cost the spend divided by the clicks: IDR 373.015 divided by 1,803 is about IDR 207 in November, and IDR 364.500 divided by 1,620 is IDR 225 in December, both under the bid. In December the keyword had fewer clicks and more conversions, 92 against 70.
The product ad as a whole: ad sales up 40.5%, from IDR 96.2 million to IDR 135.2 million, while spend fell 2.8%, from IDR 554.5 thousand to IDR 539 thousand. Same keyword, same bid.
The whole story of this store is our case study of a consumer electronics retailer on Shopee. The same setup is part of our Marketplace Marketing and Margin Control package, with the margin of every promo checked before it runs. The ad spend stays yours, paid to the platform, never part of our fee.
What to check in your Shopee ads this week
Start with the ads that spend the most. For a view of the whole store first, take our free store check of ten questions.
- In Shopee Ads, choose the last 7 days and sort your ads by spend (Biaya Iklan), highest first.
- For the top five, divide spend by orders from ads: the cost per order.
- Beside each, write what the product keeps from an order after the product cost and Shopee fees. Fees differ by category; yours are on the income statement in Seller Centre.
- If an ad costs more per order than the product keeps, lower the bid, fix the listing or pause it. If it costs well under, add budget.
- Keep on exact match the keywords that bring orders; lower the bid on those that bring only clicks.
Here is that sum on five products and a week of their ads, in the layout of our ads report.
| Product | Spend | Orders | Cost per order | This week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charger 20W USB C | IDR 975.000 | 74 | IDR 13.176 | Hold |
| Powerbank 10,000 mAh | IDR 870.000 | 39 | IDR 22.308 | Hold |
| Data cable USB C 1m | IDR 630.000 | 118 | IDR 5.339 | Budget up |
| TWS Earbuds Pro | IDR 540.000 | 12 | IDR 45.000 | Bid down |
| Tempered Glass 9H | IDR 270.000 | 64 | IDR 4.219 | Budget up |
Cost per order is spend divided by orders from ads.
The earbuds spent IDR 540.000 for 12 orders: IDR 45.000 an order, about twice the next highest. Unless they keep more than that from an order, their ads lose money on every sale: bid down. The data cable and the tempered glass, at IDR 5.339 and IDR 4.219 an order, get more budget. Run it again next week.
Questions sellers ask
What is exact match in Shopee ads?
Exact match is a setting on each keyword of a Shopee product ad: the ad shows only when a buyer searches for that keyword, not for related searches. In the Indonesian Seller Centre it is Spesifik, under Tipe Pencocokan. It suits keywords that name the product plainly, such as monitor 19 inch.
Should I use exact match or broad match on Shopee?
Both, for different jobs. Broad match finds searches you had not thought of, but also spends on searches that will not buy. Exact match keeps the budget on buyers who typed what you sell. Keep broad match small, check each week what it spent on, and move searches that brought orders to exact match.
How much should I bid per click on Shopee ads?
There is no single right bid: it depends on the keyword, the category and the sellers bidding against you. Start low and raise the bid only on keywords that bring orders. Then check what a click really cost: spend divided by clicks. monitor 19 inch ran at IDR 300 and cost about IDR 207 a click.
How do I work out return on ad spend for a Shopee ad?
Divide ad sales by ad spend, for the same ad and dates, then set it against your margin. If a product keeps 20% of its price after the product cost and fees, its ads need at least IDR 5 of ad sales for each IDR 1 of spend. Below that, the ad costs more than its sales keep.