The Challenge: When the Numbers Just Didn’t Add Up
Imagine pouring your heart and soul into your business, seeing your brand grow, and building a loyal customer base. Yet, despite all that effort, you start to notice a worrying trend: your sales figures are dipping, your website traffic is down, and your marketing budget seems to be vanishing without a trace.
This was the unsettling reality for a thriving e-commerce brand in the lifestyle sector. They knew, deep down, that something wasn’t right. The ‘math wasn’t mathing,’ as they put it, and that gut feeling was keeping them up at night. They were investing heavily in paid advertising, but the return simply wasn’t there, leaving them feeling frustrated and unsure of where to turn.
The Audit: Uncovering the Truth in the Data
When that unsettling feeling takes hold, what you need isn’t more guesswork; it’s clarity.
Our comprehensive audit was designed to cut through the noise and uncover the precise reasons behind their declining performance. We meticulously examined their paid media campaigns, across platforms like Google Ads and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) alongside their email marketing efforts and organic search presence.
Our goal was simple: to understand the true quality of their traffic, their actual conversion rates, and the genuine return on every pound spent. We treated their Shopify data as the ultimate source of truth, their digital till, to reconcile what the ad platforms were claiming versus what was actually landing in their bank account.
The Eye-Opening Discoveries
- The Google Ads Money Pit:
A significant portion of their marketing budget, a whopping 31%, was being funnelled into Google Ads. This was more than double the 10–15% benchmark for their industry. Even more troubling, Google Ads was reporting ten times more conversions than Shopify, a serious budget drain.
- The Untapped Goldmine of Email Marketing:
Email marketing contributed just 5.75% of revenue, compared to an industry benchmark of 20–25%. This represented thousands of pounds in missed monthly revenue.
- The Illusion of Attribution:
Meta was over-reporting nearly 4x the number of actual purchases, while Google Ads inflated by 10x. This attribution inflation made decision-making nearly impossible.
- Paid Ads vs. Organic Growth:
Their Google Ads campaigns were cannibalising branded keyword visibility, directly harming organic traffic and visibility.
The Solution: A Practical Path to Peace of Mind
We didn’t just identify the problems, we delivered a clear, actionable roadmap to halt wasteful spending and realign efforts toward profitable growth.
The Strategic Steps We Took
- Cut Google Ads Spend: Reduced allocation to a max of 15% of total marketing budget.
- Refocused Meta Budget: 70% of Meta ad spend was redirected to high-intent retargeting audiences.
- Scaled Email Strategy: Introduced targeted retention campaigns, automations, and segmentation to move toward the 20–25% revenue benchmark.
- Boosted Organic Visibility: Paused brand keyword bidding in Google Ads to protect and grow organic traffic.
The Impact: Immediate Relief and Sustainable Growth
- Instant Cost Savings:
Audit cost was recovered almost immediately by cutting wasted ad spend.
- 50% Reduction in Paid Media Costs:
Costs were halved while maintaining, and in some areas improving, conversion volume.
- True ROI Visibility:
Attribution inflation was corrected, restoring confidence in performance data.
- Resurgence in Organic Traffic:
A healthier balance between paid and organic traffic was restored, strengthening long-term visibility.
Conclusion: From Gut Feeling to Confident Growth
For brands in fast-growing sectors, transformation begins with trusting your gut, but verifying it with data. By correcting attribution illusions, reallocating budgets, and unlocking underperforming channels like email, they didn’t just save money, they reclaimed confidence, control, and sustainable momentum.
Feeling unsure about your paid media performance? Book a FREE 30-minute strategy call and let’s uncover what’s really going on.
