Price tier
A price tier is a band of prices within one product category, such as entry-level, mid-range or premium, used to group products by what they cost.
How it works
Tiers work inside one category, because prices only compare within it: a premium mug can cost less than an entry-level pan. The store picks the boundaries itself, for example by splitting a category’s price range into thirds. Several tiers in one category are part of its assortment depth.
Google Ads has no price-tier setting, so the store writes the tier into a custom label in the feed. It can then split Shopping campaigns and Performance Max listing groups by that label, giving each tier its own campaign, target or report line. Our guide to price-band custom labels covers when that is worth doing.
In GetProfit data on 95 stores (June 2025 – June 2026), those that doubled their ad revenue over the year also raised their average order value by 72.7%, against 12.3% for those that stayed flat. That is a link, not proof that a higher tier causes growth. Expand up, not sideways compares adding pricier products with adding more at the same price.
Example
Example store, not client data.
The tableware shop splits each category into three tiers and puts the tier in custom label 1. Over a month:
| Tier | Spend | Revenue | Orders | ROAS | Revenue per order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | 18,000 | 54,000 | 180 | 3.0 | 300 |
| Mid-range | 14,000 | 70,000 | 80 | 5.0 | 875 |
| Premium | 8,000 | 56,000 | 40 | 7.0 | 1,400 |
| Total | 40,000 | 180,000 | 300 | 4.5 | 600 |
Not to be confused with
- Price competitiveness — how your price for a product compares with what other sellers charge for the same product. A tier compares products within your own range.
- Average order value — revenue per order across the store. A tier sorts products; one order can hold products from several tiers.
Right and wrong readings
- Wrong: “Premium brings the fewest orders, so it is the weakest tier.” Right: in the example, it brings 40 of 300 orders, but 56,000 of revenue on 8,000 of spend: a ROAS of 7.0, the highest of the three.
Sources
- Listing Groups for Retail (Google Ads API) — Performance Max listing groups can be split by custom attribute, the Google Ads equivalent of a Merchant Center custom label. Checked 2 October 2026.
- products_common.proto (Merchant API, googleapis on GitHub) — custom labels 0–4 are for custom grouping of items in a Shopping campaign. Checked 2 October 2026.
- GetProfit data: 95 online stores, June 2025 – June 2026 — change in average order value over the year by growth group.