They wanted a Google Ads strategy.
When WonderSkin reached out to us, their team wanted a PPC strategy for Google Ads.
The brand was created by beauty experts and beauticians who have been in the beauty industry for more than 25 years. They are very experienced and knowledgeable, so their products were promising.
We could see the indication of the products selling well and going premium, especially considering that the beauty industry consists of expert enthusiasts, makeup gurus, TikTokers, and influencers. What picked our brain about WonderSkin was the specificity of the beauty products: they weren't regular lipsticks, eyeshadows, and palettes, but unknown, never-before-used products for makeup fame.
A brand-new account, no data to lean on.
We knew that finding the appropriate keywords for such unique products was a challenge, especially since most of our PPC team was male at the time and their makeup knowledge wasn't admirable (laugh).
The biggest challenge with the account was being brand new. It had no historical data, conversion tracking, or product feed set up. Our team had to do extensive research and couldn't afford any mistakes with the structure.
But we saw it as a stroke of luck and made maximum effort to use this to our advantage. We focused on three things to keep our client happy and thriving:
- Conversion tracking
- Search non-brand campaigns
- Shopping campaigns
2021 - Foundation: building from zero
The first year was about building an account that did not exist yet. No history, no tracking, no feed, nothing to lean on. We worked three things in sequence: honest conversion tracking, deep keyword research, and a disciplined search non-brand build.
a Conversion tracking
We wanted to make sure we were accurately measuring the success of our campaigns, so we started the process with conversion tracking. GA4 tracking strategies consistently outperform humans when the pixel is fed with a significant number of relevant conversions.
Tracking micro conversions allowed us to segment our remarketing audiences more deeply and better tailor the message to each target group. We tailored the ad copy based on their engagement on the website. Each audience had its dedicated ad copy, call to action, and landing page.
Micro conversions give us an excellent early performance indicator, even though WonderSkin had no historical data when we started our activities. If your business has no historical data and is just starting with Google Ads, micro conversions are an inevitable item on your checklist.
A full macro and micro event layer, so every later decision ran on real signal.
b Keyword research
Since we had no historical data to analyze and build from, we had to do our absolute best with keyword research. It required a lot of assumptions and creativity, not to mention getting to know the specific beauty products the client sold.
Keyword research is crucial for one more thing: titles in the product feed for Shopping campaigns. We were looking for three types of keywords: relevant, refined long-tail, and indexed.
We made our refined keyword exclusion a regular thing to prevent unnecessary ad spend, which is always the priority in Search campaigns. And poor data is a fantastic source of negative keywords. It is also one of the first optimizations we do when taking over an account or launching a new campaign.
c Search non-brand
The strategy with relevant keywords was to split them based on length and intent. We first launched a few short-tail keywords to test the ads and watched the search terms they brought.
We kept short-tail keywords in Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs), and they never lacked volume. We needed to make ads that explained precisely what our product is, and what it is not. Short-tail keywords bridged to a list of different search terms, which then helped us expand our long-tail converting keywords and build a negative keywords list.
In our initial research, we gathered as many long-tail relevant keywords as possible. The action started taking place when we secured the base with an extensive structure.
As the research campaigns brought more conversions, we kept expanding the list of long-tail keywords that converted, and could move more of the client's budget onto them as the campaigns grew. The client trusting us with this approach counted for a lot.
Long-tail keywords naturally have lower search volume. Grouping them based on their intent successfully resolved the volume challenge and made an optimal setup for Smart bidding strategies.
Grouping by intent also allowed a significant level of ad copy and landing-page relevancy. Long-tail campaigns spend less but have higher click-through rate, conversion rate, and ROAS.
On bidding, we did not have many options. WonderSkin was a new account with freshly set up conversion tracking, so manual bidding was the only way to go. We had enhanced CPC for most campaigns from the start, as Maximize Conversions was not an option.
Our end goal was to build enough conversion volume from search non-brand campaigns before switching to ROAS or CPA smart bidding. This is the kind of disciplined Google Ads management a brand-new account needs.
Once we switched to smart bidding the ROAS strategy held great, but spend and conversions ran below target. The first two weeks after the transition were not impressive. From the third week, performance stabilized significantly.
Search non-brand grew strongly, with the converting campaigns running far more efficiently than research.
The founding year proved the model. Every number above came from that first disciplined build, on honest tracking and a brand-new account with no history to lean on.
2022-2023 - Scaling under our management
With the foundation proven, the next two years were about scaling profitably. We built out Shopping, migrated it into Performance Max, and let Search keep compounding, all under active day-to-day management.
a Shopping and the move to Performance Max
A big part of our setup for WonderSkin was a product feed in the Merchant Center. We identified multiple terms people use to describe our product during keyword research.
We first had to understand which keywords would perform best in the title, so we created multiple variations of each product in the feed, changing only the titles. Standard Shopping was our starting point. Having each product in Single Product Ad Groups (SPAGs) let us see the exact search terms each title variation brought.
We used this data to build a list of negative keywords for Shopping and find the best title version for each product. We waited for enough conversion volume from Standard Shopping before switching to Smart Shopping, and moving Standard Shopping to Smart Shopping added 56% more conversions at 47% higher ROAS.
As the catalog matured, we consolidated Shopping into Performance Max, which became the main shopping vehicle, and later reintroduced Standard Shopping as a focused complement alongside it. Performance Max ROAS climbed +153% over the scale-up as it matured.
Shopping conversions +157%. Smart Shopping delivered +56% conversions at +47% ROAS versus Standard.
b Channel maturation
Across these two years the account matured into a balanced machine. Search kept compounding: as we expanded the converting keywords and fed the smart-bidding strategies more signal, Search ROAS actually rose even as Search scaled into the account's biggest channel.
Performance Max needed time to learn, and we gave it disciplined inputs: a clean feed, tight asset groups, and clear value signals from the tracking layer. As it matured its ROAS rose +153%, and it took over the heavy lifting on Shopping.
The throughline was active management. Week after week we pruned negatives, reallocated budget toward what converted, refreshed creative and titles, and pushed each channel a little further without letting profitability slip. That hands-on attention is what kept the account scaling cleanly rather than drifting.
Performance Max ROAS gained +153% across the scale-up, while Search ROAS rose even as it scaled.
Result: Shopping consolidated into Performance Max as the main vehicle, and Performance Max ROAS climbed +153% across the scale-up while spend grew toward nearly nine times its starting point.
Result: moving Standard to Smart Shopping delivered +56% more conversions at +47% higher ROAS.
2024 - In-house, and the account stalls
In 2024 the account was managed in-house by the client rather than by us. It happens often, and it is a fair thing to try: a brand builds confidence in a channel, wants to own it day to day, and brings the work inside.
What followed is the honest part of this story. The progress built across the prior scaling years faded. Growth flattened, the steady compounding we had engineered tailed off, and ROAS slid to the lowest point of the entire relationship.
None of that is a criticism of the client. Day-to-day Google Ads management at this scale is relentless, and most of the work never shows. Bidding targets drift, the product feed needs constant hygiene, search terms have to be mined for negatives every week, budget has to move toward whatever is converting right now, and creative and titles go stale the moment no one is pushing them.
Without that hands-on optimization the account did what accounts do when they are left to coast: it plateaued, then slipped. The structure we had built kept it running, but a structure does not optimize itself, and the efficiency we had won started leaking away month by month.
That year is the most important evidence in this whole case story, because it is the control group. The brand was the same, the market was the same, the account we had built was the same. The one variable that changed was who was managing it, and when the active management stopped, the results stopped with it.
Which is exactly why the client reached back out, and asked us to take the account over again.
With management in-house and no active optimization, the gains plateaued and ROAS fell to its lowest point of the relationship.
2025 - We resume management, and recover
The client came back and asked us to take the account over again, because growth had flattened and the returns were sliding. We resumed management and went to work immediately.
The rebuild was toward value. We migrated bidding away from Maximize Conversions and onto Maximize Conversion Value and Target ROAS, so the account optimized for revenue and profitability rather than raw conversion count.
We cleaned up the structure, concentrated budget on what actually converted, and tightened the feed and the negative-keyword lists again. None of it is glamorous, but it is exactly the hands-on management the account had been missing.
The response was immediate, and the cause and effect could not be cleaner. The moment our management resumed, the account turned: ROAS recovered 17% year on year while spend kept scaling. Same account, same brand, same market, and the only thing that had changed was that active management was back.
ROAS up 17% year on year as we resumed management and rebuilt toward value-based bidding.
2026 - Profitable at scale
The recovery carried straight through into 2026. ROAS is up 39% year to date against the same window the year before, and the account is now at its most efficient point yet.
Bidding is fully value and ROAS based, the structure is lean, and average order value is holding rather than slipping as we scale. The account is doing exactly what a healthy, actively managed ecommerce account should: growing revenue while staying profitable.
ROAS up 39% year to date, the account at its most efficient.
A note on Demand Gen
WonderSkin is also where we run YouTube and Demand Gen at a scale most accounts never reach, as the brand's cheaper, higher-quality top-of-funnel engine.
One brand, two accounts, many markets.
WonderSkin is a US business, and the US account is the larger, stronger engine. But we also run a European account covering the UK and several EU markets, and comparing the two is part of what makes this account interesting.
Europe grew on the same trajectory as the US, scaling roughly nine times over the same period, and reached about 40% of the US account's size. On efficiency it more than holds its own: the European account ran at comparable-to-better ROAS than the US in the most recent years.
The clearest structural difference is basket size. Average order value is meaningfully lower in Europe than in the US, a real market difference worth designing around rather than fighting. Within Europe the UK leads, with a broad, profitable spread across markets like Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, and the Netherlands and Ireland in particular repeatedly punching above their weight on ROAS.
Even inside the US account, the secondary market tells the same story: Canada runs at a higher ROAS than the US itself, small in spend but very efficient. Treating each market on its own terms, rather than as one blended number, is what keeps the whole thing profitable as it scales.
One continuous arc: built, scaled, recovered.
Read end to end, this account makes one argument. A brand-new launch proved the model in its founding year, with net revenue up 198% and ROAS up 30%.
From there we scaled spend nearly nine times between 2022 and 2025, and revenue grew even faster, while ROAS held in a healthy band rather than eroding under the extra budget.
Then came the natural experiment. In 2024 the account moved in-house and lost its momentum, and ROAS fell to the lowest point of the whole relationship. The moment we resumed management in 2025, profitability recovered 17% year on year, and that strength carried into 2026 with ROAS up 39% year to date against the same window the year before.
That handover and recovery is the real proof. The same account, the same brand, the same market: the variable that changed was hands-on expert management, and the numbers moved with it.
If you have ever run paid search in-house and watched the numbers drift, the 2024 chapter is the one to read twice. The fix was not a clever new tactic. It was active, expert management coming back to the account every single day, and the recovery followed within the year.
The quality of the growth shows elsewhere too. Search ROAS actually rose even as Search scaled into the account's biggest channel, Performance Max ROAS grew +153% as it matured, and average order value climbed about 7% across the scale-up, so we were winning bigger baskets, not cheaper traffic.
Trust your intuition, marketers.
Finding the optimal PPC strategy was fruitful on this account. It wasn't easy, but we sensed it was possible and learned as much. Trust your intuition, marketers!
We love to get our hands dirty. Feel free to compare us to moles, those small animals who drill holes and tunnels in the earth's most nutrient-filled and rich space, and find their nourishment there too.
The same can be said for our PPC skills, as we drill holes and tunnels to bring out the maximum potential of your advertising efforts with intuition, precision, and expertise.
As our agency, we specialize in helping brands like WonderSkin increase profits through PPC, Web Analytics, and CRO. We have years of experience and have seen what works and what does not.
- Keyword-level optimization
- Negative keywords
- Product feed and title testing
- Bidding toward value (Max Conversion Value + Target ROAS)
- Performance Max scaling
- Account recovery after in-house period
- Multi-market structure (US + Europe)
- GA4 setup
