Google Ads boosts growth for eCommerce client

In this case study, we will explore how our client Handle Hardware, an ironmongery eCommerce business leveraged Google Ads to boost their online traffic and achieve exceptional growth across key KPI’s. By implementing a strategic Google Ads strategy utilising Search Ads & Performance Max campaigns, the client not only experienced a significant increase in sales and revenue but also established a stronger brand presence in the competitive ironmongery market.

Project Type

eCommerce

Client

Handle Hardware

The Challenge...

The Google Ads account was consistently losing money by averaging a 76% Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) over the 9 months prior to us taking over the account in February 2020. The pandemic and resulting lockdowns initially presented unforeseen challenges to Handle Hardware’s Google Ads strategy, leading to a further reduction in ROI. Our challenge was to bring ROAS up to 400%, something the account had never previously achieved.

Limited Online Visibility: Despite offering competitively priced products, the client struggled to gain adequate online visibility and compete with other established brands.

Increasing Competition: The ironmongery market in the UK is highly competitive, with a handful of well-established players vying for customer attention. This has led to a large increase in average cost-per-click (CPC) and a higher average cost-per-conversion for the industry.

High Product Number: Due to the number of products on sale, advertising them all in an optimal way was a big influence in the Google Ads strategy launched.

We reorganised campaign structure by introducing themed ad groups and implemented a switch from Manual Shopping to Smart Shopping campaigns. The Smart Shopping campaigns were later split and categorised by level of priority due to the vast number of products on sale. This ensured we could be more fluid with budget allocation and spend the budget on the products that delivered the strongest ROAS, whilst no longer wasting budget unnecessarily.

To address the client’s challenges, a complete overhaul was needed within the account due to outdated practices and previous mismanagement. Our paid media team devised a comprehensive Google Ads campaign strategy, focused on increasing brand and product visibility, driving higher quality and relevant traffic, and improving the current revenue and return on ad spend figures. The key components of the strategy included…

Campaign Strategy...

Campaign Reorganisation: Due to outdated campaign formats and the large number of products on sale, we decided to split the original Manuel Shopping campaigns originally into Smart Shopping (Feb, 2020) and later into 4 Performance Max campaigns. This was split by product category, with a separate campaign advertising our higher value items to ensure these products had focused support to deliver value to the account and client.

Ad Creation and Optimisation: For our Search Ads & Performance Max, compelling ad copy and visually appealing ad creatives were utilised to capture user attention and promote the client’s products more effectively on Google’s other channels.

Targeted Audience Segmentation: By leveraging Google Ads’ audience targeting capabilities, the campaign focused on reaching potential customers interested in homeware products. Demographic, interest-based and behaviour-based targeting were employed to refine and improve the targeting strategy.

Conversion Tracking and Measurement: Upon taking over Handle Hardware’s account, conversion tracking within the account wasn’t set up to a high standard, meaning we had little accurate historical data to take advantage of. Straight away, we fixed their Universal Analytics (UA) & Google Tag measurement, later implementing GA4 eCommerce tracking allowing for ongoing optimisation and accurate reporting to the client.