How to fix an unscalable Google Ads structure (fast)

This brand came to us a few months ago for help with their Google Ads.

Unlike most brands, they weren’t looking for a fix.

They were already crushing it with a 13.6x ROAS.

But they wanted more…

"How can we push this even further?"

For brands performing at this level, we have to carefully consider whether to take them on.

Because if an account is fully optimized, there’s not much we can do to help them.

And we don’t want to charge our partners just to make a few tweaks per week.

If we’re going to step in, there needs to be a clear opportunity to scale.

And after auditing their account, we found exactly that.

The biggest bottleneck?

Their campaign structure wasn’t built for scale.

pMax campaigns were driving most of their revenue.

But the way they set them up was holding them back.

Branded and prospecting traffic were mixed together.

That’s a common mistake—and a costly one.

Google’s algorithm favors easy wins. Since branded traffic converts faster, it hogs the budget.

That leaves prospecting traffic starved for budget and attention.

But if you want to grow, you need those new customers.

So immediately, we worked to rebuild their campaign structure.

But it’s not an easy task…

We couldn’t just rip everything apart and start over.

Since this brand’s doing well, one wrong move could wreck their results overnight.

So instead of a drastic overhaul, we used data from their current campaigns to guide our changes.

Here’s what it looks like in practice…

Before, they had 4 pMax campaigns with mixed traffic.

To gain more control, we split things up.

First, we turned their two best-performing campaigns into prospecting. We excluded branded traffic and let them focus on finding new customers.

The other two became branded campaigns.

Then we layered in Branded Standard Shopping with one goal:

Shift branded traffic out of pMax—and into Standard Shopping where we had more control.

And it worked.

Before, branded shopping revenue came mostly from pMax.

Now, it’s shifted to Standard Shopping—just like we planned.

Their new Shopping structure runs on 3 pillars:

• Branded pMax

• Prospecting pMax 

• Branded Standard Shopping

This setup gave us what we needed to scale:

1. Full control over branded campaigns.

2. A reliable path to scaling through prospecting.

With this structure, we delivered exactly what the brand was looking for...

In just 1 month, we increased their revenue from €217K to €317K.

Their ROAS jumped from 13.65x to 15.3x.

After auditing 300+ brands doing $1M+/year, we keep seeing the same pattern:

Great performance can hide big inefficiencies.

You might have a structure that works, but it’s quietly capping your growth.

To break through, you need to transition to a setup designed for scale.

One that extracts every ounce of profit from your spend while opening the door for more.

When done right, that transition doesn’t need to take long.

By leveraging the data you already have, you can scale fast while staying efficient.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

How we can help:

• Get a free Google ads audit: For brands spending more than $20k/mo. or making over 1 million annually, we’ll identify the key bottlenecks in your account, and turn it into a free 90-day scaling plan. Click here.

• Get our E-commerce Growth Toolkit: Get access to our free resources and tools including the Product Feed & GMC Optimization Checklist, YouTube Shorts Ads Playbook, and 12 Plug-and-Play Dashboards. Click here.

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