Multi 8-figure brand was leaking ad spend (here's why)

A while ago, our team audited a clothing brand and what we found was unexpected.

On the surface, the metrics seemed fine.

They had a decent ROAS and CPA, enough to be profitable.

But we were surprised that it was just decent.

I mean…

They’re an established brand in Europe doing multi 8 figures per year.

They had solid brand awareness and strong search volume for their products.

But their results didn’t reflect that potential.

Well…

When we dug into the account, it all started to make sense.

First, we checked in on their conversion tracking.

This is crucial because Google uses conversion data to learn and optimize your campaign.

But this brand wasn’t just missing a few conversions.

We found one campaign reporting zero conversions, even though other metrics looked fine.

That’s a huge problem.

Bad data feeds the algorithm, leading it to optimize for the wrong signals.

As a result, their ads got pushed to the wrong audience.

Next, we examined their campaign structure.

We saw different audience types lumped together in the same campaign.

The problem is that each audience type requires a unique strategy to get the best results.

Mixing them means both suffer.

Lastly, we went deeper to uncover the inefficiencies inside the account.

They lower their ad rank, cost them potential clicks, and quietly drain their ad spend.

Here’s what we found:

• No custom labels

• Outdated customer lists

• Generic shopping ads product titles

• Lack of focus on prospecting campaigns

• Poor Google Merchant Center quality score

And that’s just scratching the surface.

There were so many other settings that could be further optimized to bring them more profits.

At a small ad spend, leaks like these might not seem like a big deal.

You can have some in your account and still be profitable.

But the more money you spend, the bigger the impact of these leaks.

As you scale, they will eat away at your profits.

Eventually, your margins will take a hit and your ad spend gets stuck there.

Here’s the thing…

When we talked to the brand, they had no idea these problems existed.

Maybe their previous agency missed them—or didn’t care enough to fix them.

Either way, it’s hurting the brand.

And that’s the scary part.

Because it’s the things you don’t know that will crush you.

That’s why our priority with any client is to identify and fix their leaks.

As we scale, we resolve any new issues as soon as they appear.

We treat optimization as a never-ending process.

We’ve built checklists to optimize the account daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.

We’ve set up automation to flag errors or sudden performance drops in real time.

This way, no issue can spiral out of control.

That’s how we set our partners up to scale long-term.

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 a 1-time Google ads buildout: For brands that are new to Google or looking to add another revenue model WITHOUT a retainer. We’ll do a one-time buildout over 30 days for you to profit from day 1. Click here for more info.

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