2.49× ROAS on a Lean Paid Budget

BACKGROUND

Paid advertising for a premium hardware product is unforgiving. Cost-per-click is high, the buying journey is long, and without precise tracking, every dollar spent is a guess. When I took over the paid accounts, there was no conversion tracking infrastructure. Campaigns had been running blind with no ability to optimise toward actual purchases.

THE CHALLENGE

The core problem was not creative or targeting. It was data. Without knowing which clicks turned into purchases, the ad platforms could not optimise, and neither could I. Before a single campaign could be improved, the measurement layer had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

WHAT I DID

• Built the tracking infrastructure first: implemented GA4, GTM, and full e-commerce event tracking (View Item, Add to Cart, Begin Checkout, Add Payment Info, Purchase) across Google Ads and Meta
• Restructured Google Ads campaigns around high-intent keywords, segmented by market (US vs. other regions)
• Scaled Meta campaigns progressively: starting with brand awareness and page growth, then layering in retargeting audiences built from purchase data
• Managed budget allocation dynamically across the year, scaling during peak boating season and key campaign windows, pulling back efficiently in low-demand periods
• Monitored CPA and ROAS weekly, shifting budget between channels based on real-time performance

RESULTS (FULL YEAR)

Takeaway

ROAS is not a creative problem. It is a data problem first. Once the measurement foundation was in place, every subsequent optimisation had real signal to work with. The result was a paid engine that consistently outperformed benchmarks for a high-ticket, low-volume product category.