Every case study starts with a diagnosis — not a campaign tweak. Here's what happens when commercial thinking meets Google Ads expertise across 7 eCommerce brands.
ABI Interiors came from a large international agency where a junior account manager was running the account. The strategy was all wrong — approaching Google Ads like Meta, making too many changes too fast, overspending on branded terms, and running zero non-brand structure. There was no cold traffic, no new customer acquisition, and no commercial logic behind where the budget was going.
What we foundThe account had been cannibalising branded search — spending heavily to capture people who were already going to buy. Campaigns weren't segmented. Budget was spread across low-profit areas with no product prioritisation. The things that were working weren't being scaled. The structure that was in place simply didn't work for how Google's algorithm operates.
"Big agencies win the sale, then hand the account to someone junior who doesn't know what they're doing. The work being done here wasn't wrong in isolation — it was wrong for Google. Strategies that work on Meta simply don't transfer. Google needs a completely different approach."
Rebuilt the campaign structure from scratch. Fixed brand vs non-brand segmentation. Cut what wasn't working. Reduced spend in low-margin areas and pushed budget toward best-selling products. Built a must-win list — the specific products and competitors we needed to beat. Doubled down on what was working and opened up cold traffic targeting to bring in genuinely new customers.
Ampd Bros were at the very beginning — operating from a mechanic's workshop with a single Smart Shopping campaign (a campaign type that no longer exists). No eCommerce marketing strategy, no scaling framework, no multi-channel presence. They had a strong product and ambition. They needed the right Google strategy to grow with them.
What we changedBuilt a full Google eCommerce strategy from the ground up and implemented a proper scaling process. As new product lines were added, we grew the campaign architecture to match — adding campaign types, expanding into YouTube for brand building and demand generation, and systematically scaling what the data showed was working. Five years of compounding improvement.
"When you start with a brand early and build the right foundation, everything compounds. The $1,000 first month is irrelevant — what matters is whether the structure you build can scale. This one could, and did."
The owner had been burned by multiple agencies. Google Ads had delivered poor results and the ROAS was sitting at 1.78 — barely above break-even. There was no proper tracking in place, no brand vs non-brand separation, and no structured approach to scaling. The account had been set up reactively, not strategically.
What we changedFixed conversion tracking first — nothing else was possible without reliable data. Split out branded search. Added standard shopping campaigns. Implemented a systematic, profitable scaling approach using Google as the primary sales engine. Outranked all competitors in Google Shopping auctions. Expanded the strategy to support their US market entry. Also provided broader eCommerce consulting that helped build a customer LTV of over $4,000.
"The tracking was wrong. The structure was wrong. The strategy was reactive. Every agency before us had changed tactics without fixing the foundation. We fixed the foundation first — and everything else followed from that."
Their Meta ad account had been banned after strong sales performance. They'd never run Google Ads but knew their competitors were on there. They needed to rebuild their paid acquisition from scratch on an unfamiliar channel — fast, and profitably.
What we changedUsed the data from Meta — specifically their best-selling products — as the starting point for Google. Implemented the scaling system targeting best sellers first, then added standard shopping and search campaigns targeting the highest-converting search terms identified through Shopping data. Scaled methodically each month as the data confirmed what was working.
"Most brands approach Google cold. This one had real product data from Meta — we just needed to translate that into a Google strategy. Best sellers on Meta are usually best sellers on Google too. Start there, validate, then scale."
Roogenic Tea were relying entirely on Performance Max with no non-brand structure. All their Google spend was cannibalising branded search — people who were already going to buy. There was no cold traffic, no new customer acquisition, and spend wasn't incremental. Lifting the budget just meant spending more on the same existing demand.
What we changedSplit out branded search into dedicated campaigns. Added standard shopping with proper structure. Fixed and properly implemented Performance Max alongside Shopping rather than relying on it alone. Fixed conversion tracking. Expanded to broader parts of Google to capture cold demand. Consolidated duplicate campaigns and fixed mislabelled campaign structures.
"PMax-only is a common trap for eCommerce brands. It looks like it's performing because it captures branded search efficiently. But it's not generating new customers — it's harvesting existing demand. The moment you build proper non-brand structure, you start seeing what Google can actually do."
Silly George — a US-based beauty brand — had all the same structural problems seen across PMax-only accounts: no non-brand structure, overspending on branded terms, no cold traffic, and an overall account that wasn't built to generate incremental sales. Their branded ROAS was poor despite being an established brand, which is a clear signal that the account structure was working against them.
What we changedFixed the account structure — separated brand from non-brand, added standard shopping, properly restructured Performance Max. Fixed conversion tracking. Consolidated duplicate campaigns and corrected mislabelled campaign names that were obscuring performance. Expanded into broader Google inventory to generate cold sales.
"A poor branded ROAS on an established brand almost always means the account is set up wrong — not that the brand is weak. Brand campaigns should be cheap, efficient, and defensive. When they're not, it means PMax or Shopping is competing with them internally and driving up CPCs on your own brand terms."
Fashion is one of the harder eCommerce verticals on Google. Capturing bottom-of-funnel demand is more competitive, and bringing in genuinely cold traffic at a reasonable ROAS is harder than in categories with higher purchase intent. Secret Sneaker Store had all the common structural problems — PMax-only, overspending on brand, no non-brand structure — compounded by the natural difficulty of the category.
What we foundThe tracking was severely overreporting. Sales looked incremental on paper but the data wasn't reliable enough to make confident decisions from. The branded ROAS of 2.95 was far below what it should have been — a clear sign that brand campaigns weren't properly separated and internal competition was inflating brand CPCs.
"Bad tracking is the silent killer. When the data is wrong, every decision downstream is wrong. Fixing overreporting isn't just a technical task — it changes everything about how you read performance and where you allocate budget."
Fixed conversion tracking and overreporting first. Separated branded search. Added standard shopping. Properly restructured Performance Max. Expanded to broader parts of Google. Consolidated duplicate campaigns. The tracking fix alone transformed how we could read the account — and confirmed that the new structure was driving genuinely incremental sales.
Campaign optimisation only works when it's pointed at the right problem. Here's how we make sure it is.
Before touching campaigns, we learn what actually drives the business — margins, product mix, acquisition economics, growth constraints. The account needs to serve the business, not the other way around.
Most underperformance has a cause that isn't visible in the campaign metrics. Broken tracking, wrong product mix, cannibalised brand traffic — we look for the real problem before optimising anything.
Not everything needs fixing at once. We prioritise by commercial impact — what change produces the most meaningful improvement to the business, not just the most activity in the account.
It starts with an honest look at what's actually going on in your account. No pitch, no pressure.