Ecommerce PPC case study
From rising ad costs to a 5.5x return
A UK personalised gifting brand came to us with climbing costs, flat sales and a Google Ads account built for clicks instead of profit. Twelve months later, return on ad spend had grown from 2.1x to 5.5x. Here is exactly how the Number Cruncher did it.
✓ Real account, real numbers ✓ Client named in meetings, not on the page
2.1x → 5.5x
Return on ad spend
−51%
Cost per sale
+53%
Average order value
1.8% → 3.4%
Conversion rate
The client
Who this is about
The client is a UK ecommerce store selling personalised gifts, with most revenue coming from Google Ads across Search and Shopping. Seasonal peaks like Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day drive a large share of annual sales, which makes every wasted click in peak season an expensive one.
Under our agreement we cannot publish the client's name. We name the brand and walk through the live account and reports in meetings, so you can verify every number on this page before working with us.
The challenge
Good traffic, poor profit
The account was built to win ad position rather than sales. Broad campaigns pushed bids up, cost per click kept climbing, and revenue stayed flat. The store was paying more every month for the same result.
The deeper issue was relevance. Google no longer treats exact match as exact, so loosely themed campaigns were matching searches they had no business appearing for. The search, the ad and the landing page told three different stories, and Quality Scores paid the price.
What we did
The rebuild, step by step
Four changes did most of the heavy lifting.
Restructured around buyer intent
We rebuilt every campaign around what buyers actually type, from Father's Day gifts to personalised anniversary presents, and set bids to chase profit rather than ad position.
Tight search themes
Recipients and occasions became tightly grouped themes, each with its own ads and budget. No more one campaign trying to sell everything to everyone.
Quality Scores that cut costs
When the search, the ad and the landing page finally told the same story, Quality Scores climbed and Google charged less for better positions. That is where the 51% drop in cost per sale came from.
Landing pages that finish the job
Each theme sends shoppers to a page that continues the story the ad started. That alignment nearly doubled the conversion rate, from 1.8% to 3.4%.
Results
What changed in 12 months
Return on ad spend grew from 2.1x to 5.5x while spend went up, not down. The store now scales its budget with confidence, because every extra pound has a predictable return. And the reporting is clean enough that the owner can see exactly which theme earned what.
"We finally understand where every pound goes. The account went from a black box to our most predictable sales channel." Store founder, name shared in meetings.
90-day money-back guarantee
If we do not find measurable improvements in your PPC performance within 90 days, you get every penny back and the Cruncher goes hungry.
FAQs
Questions we hear about this case
How long until results show?
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Most accounts show early improvements in 30 to 45 days, with the full effect landing over three to six months depending on budget and season.
Will this work outside gifting?
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Yes. The method is about matching campaigns to buyer intent, which works in any ecommerce niche and in any of our four languages: English, Arabic, French and Spanish.
Can you prove this case is real?
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Yes. We cannot publish the client's name, but in a call we share the brand, the live account and the reports behind every number on this page.
Do we have to pause current campaigns?
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No. We restructure gradually alongside your existing campaigns, so performance never falls off a cliff during the transition.
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