Technical applications of plasmonic nanostructures require a careful structural optimization with respect to the desired functionality. The success of such optimizations strongly depends on the applied method. We extend the generalized multiparticle Mie (GMM) computational electromagnetic method and use it to excite a system of plasmonic nanoparticles with an electron beam. This method is applied to EELS calculations of a gold dimer and compared to other methods. It is demonstrated that the GMM method is so efficient, that it can be used in the context of structural optimization by the application of genetic algorithms combined with a simplex algorithm. The scheme is applied to the design of plasmonic filters.