Pre Taking Over The Account
Client Overview
An artisanal boutique liquor store that recently pivoted into an e-commerce business with a national footprint. Competing with major online retailers like Takealot, Norman Goodfellows, Woolworths, Solly Kramers, and Makro meant entering a market dominated by established brands and large advertising budgets.
To stay competitive, the bespoke liquor and wine merchant needed a smarter, leaner Google Ads strategy that would drive profitable revenue growth without inflating spend.
The Challenge
Before partnering with The Digital Marketing Dean, the company had been running Google Ads campaigns in house with limited success.
Their setup suffered from:
Incorrect conversion tracking (page views were being counted as sales)
A cluttered campaign structure that spread their small budget too thin
No clear KPI targets or performance benchmarks
Missing Free Listings in Google Merchant Center
Age-verification issues blocking ad eligibility
The brand needed a specialist who could rebuild their Google Ads from the ground up and create a data-driven system that translated ad spend into measurable online sales.
The Approach
Our process focused on four key stages:
1. Audit & Diagnostics
We started by performing a complete conversion tracking audit. It quickly became clear that tracking was misconfigured—Google Ads was reporting page views as conversions. Without accurate data, every optimization decision was a guess.
We rebuilt tracking from scratch to ensure every purchase was correctly attributed and measurable.
2. Laying the Foundations
We:
Fixed all conversion tracking and attribution
Cleaned and optimized the Google Merchant Center feed, removing product errors
Enabled Free Listings for additional visibility at zero media cost
Implemented website compliance updates such as age verification
3. Strategic Rebuild
With reliable data in place, we developed a leaner, performance-oriented campaign structure based on:
Product margins
Location performance
Best-selling items
Budget pacing and optimization routines
This allowed us to focus ad spend where it would have the greatest impact.
4. Ongoing Optimization
We introduced:
Regular budget and bid pacing
Negative keyword expansion to cut wasted clicks
Monitoring of product disapprovals and feed accuracy
Weekly optimization sessions for maximum ROAS stability
The Results
Pre-Takeover Performance
Spend: R38 000
Conversion Value: R26 762.70
ROAS: 0.70
Post-Takeover Performance (Apr–Sep 2025)
Spend: R19 842.97
Conversion Value: R57 668.03
ROAS: 2.91
Result: 2.2× improvement in ROAS while spending 48% less
Key Outcomes
✅ Accurate and reliable e-commerce conversion tracking
✅ Clear KPIs and measurable business outcomes
✅ Streamlined campaign structure focused on best-selling products
✅ Google Merchant Center fully optimized with Free Listings live
✅ Consistent, transparent budget tracking
✅ 2.2× improvement in ROAS within six months
Client Impact
The brand can now trust that their Google Ads conversion data is accurate while also making the account profitable in a crowded market place with bigger commercial players.
This transformation wasn’t driven by bigger ad spend, it was achieved through smarter structure, sharper tracking, and consistent optimization.
