What are the options available to me to control google shopping ads?

self managed adwords guy here. Not an adwords pro.

Keywords and negative keyword choices seem absent on google shopping, some old guides refer to them. But it seems like they are managed by adwords. Or I just can't find them any more.

it seems that there is no "cost/conversion startegy" bidding strategy either.

For a long time I've run google shopping ads for a store with 100+ SKUs. The shopping ads have run slightly less profitably than search ads. But still at a good cost/conversion overall.

The ad groups were set to show all products above a certain value, so the cost/conversion average made the google shopping ads profitable.

I just reviewed the shopping ads and looked at the stats on a per-product basis and noticed that there are some products that look interesting to the viewer so it gets clicks but the conversion cost is terrible. I'm talking about £500+ per conversion for a product that costs £30.

So here's my pro tip. Review the cost per conversion on a product basis, and exclude any products that are under performing.

For the longest time I wondered why google shopping CPA was worse than search ads, surely the consumer sees the product image and knows what they're clicking, but now I think perhaps there are some product images that are just peculiar and interesting and people just click out of curioisty.

The £500+ CPA product was wearable item that is quite "loud" and for discerning tastes. I can see why some people searching for more convervative colour choices whill just click the shopping ad to see the photo and then hit the back button.