UNLOCKING NEW GROWTH AFTER 16 YEARS OF GOOGLE ADS OPTIMIZATION
Introduction
The brand has been running Google Ads for 16 years. When we took over the accounts 2 years ago, we were able to increase monthly profits by >40% compared to the same month last year and achieve up to a 13% month-over-month profit.
The Challenge
- Search demand: 10–30% decline in the most valuable, high-intent queries.
- Search competition: +2–3 new competitors annually, along with additional pressure from vendors with direct-to-consumer sales.
- YoY CPC: 10–25% increase on high-value keywords over the past five years.
- YoY CPA: 6–12% increase, with conversion improvements consistently offset by rising traffic costs.
The Approach
We focused on finding new customers beyond traditional search queries while staying within Google's data ecosystem.
We launched Performance Max campaigns using keyword and in-market signals, enabling us to capture more cost-efficient traffic across mobile and desktop display placements.
Over the course of the year, Performance Max grew to 17.5% of total spend and accounted for 33% of total traffic.
YoY CPC Growth — Search Only
In 2025, competition remained stable, but search traffic costs continued to rise.
YoY CPC Growth — Including PMax
The introduction of Performance Max helped attract incremental traffic and slow CPC growth.
Incremental Transactions from PMax (without cannibalizing Search)
Performance Max drove an additional 25% in transactions (based on last non-direct click attribution), while significantly increasing new user acquisition and cross-channel, non-attributed sales.