Thrive Services Used
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Advertising
Paid Social Media Management
Project Overview
This online retailer specializing in environmentally friendly pest control and gardening products partnered with Thrive Internet Marketing Agency with three main goals:
- Achieve a 4X return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Maximize conversions while optimizing cost per acquisition (CPA).
- Expand reach and build brand awareness across paid social media platforms.
Before Thrive, the company’s paid campaigns showed potential but required refined targeting and optimization strategies. Thrive took the responsibility of maximizing conversions and ROAS through comprehensive pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and paid social media management.
Eight months into the partnership, the client achieved and surpassed many of its performance goals. Thrive’s PPC advertising efforts resulted in a remarkable 4.82X ROAS, surpassing the client’s goal of 4.0X ROAS.
Additionally, the average order value (AOV) for prospecting campaigns saw a notable increase post-promotion, with October 2024’s prospecting campaign reaching an AOV of $115.19. This was driven by retargeting efforts that attracted high-value customers
The Results
4.82X
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
+46%
Conversion Rate in Q3
10.41X
ROAS for Paid Social Retargeting Campaigns
+52M
Paid Social Ad Impressions
Prior to engaging with Thrive, the client’s paid ads used generic messaging with few variations in ad copy, limiting appeal to segmented audiences. Thrive advised incorporating A/B testing and refreshed creative assets tailored to specific audience groups.
This strategic paid advertising approach delivered impressive results.
PPC Advertising
Consistent keyword optimizations and negative keyword additions resulted in more efficient ad spend and lowered cost per click (CPC) across multiple campaigns.
(April – June 2024)
- Paid Traffic: +72%
- Conversions: +110%
- Conversion Rate: +143%
- Conversion Value: +104%
(March – October 2024)
- Conversions: +21K
- ROAS: 4.82X
- PMAX Campaign ROAS (July 2024): 7.32X
- Conversion Rate: +46%
- CPC: $1.12
The average CPC remained competitively low, with further reductions in Q3 following budget reallocation to high-performing campaigns.
Paid Social Media
Paid social media advertising accounted for 10% of traffic but only 0.2% of recorded revenue. This discrepancy indicated inefficiencies in audience targeting and conversion tracking.
Thrive recommended a deep dive into data attribution and a tighter focus on high-value audiences, particularly in regions like New York and California, where conversions per dollar were stronger.
This refined approach resulted in noteworthy ad performance:
(April – June 2024)
- Paid Traffic: +118%
- Conversions: +279%
- ROAS: 6X
- Conversion Value: +254%
- Cost Per Acquisition: -22%
- Conversion Rate: +74%
(March – October 2024)
- Ad Reach: +1.097M
- Impressions: +52.3M
- AOV: $115.19
- ROAS (October 2024): 10.41X
Additionally, ROAS improvements were observed in brand awareness and retargeting campaigns due to strategic budget reallocation.
The Execution
Thrive conducted comprehensive audits to determine opportunities for campaign improvement. The initial audit revealed several challenges, including:
Challenges
- Seasonality and Cost Adjustments: Campaigns experienced fluctuating performance due to seasonality, notably in Q3 and Q4.
- Competitor Bidding Pressures: Rising CPC, especially in competitive product categories, impacted visibility.
- Audience Targeting: Limited conversions from certain targeted groups necessitated better segmentation and refinement of audience targeting.
- Limited Utilization of Campaign Types: The client’s heavy reliance on Performance Max (PMAX) campaigns for PPC and underutilization of display campaigns limited its reach to potentially profitable audiences. Expanding into more campaign types, like retargeting, was advised to boost conversion rates
. - Inconsistent Targeting and Ad Schedules: Paid campaigns targeted all devices and ran all day, which reduced budget efficiency. Furthermore, location targeting involved over 3,000 targets, diluting focus and raising conversion costs. Optimizing these settings to prioritize high-performing locations and devices was recommended.
PPC Advertising
To address these challenges, Thrive implemented a tailored approach that leveraged data-driven insights, strategic optimizations and creative overhauls.
This involved:
- Campaign Structure and Targeting
- PMAX Campaign Adjustments: High-ROAS segments were prioritized through custom labels and product exclusions.
- Diversified Campaign Types: Introduced retargeting and segmented Shopping campaigns, which increased engagement and conversions. Location-focused optimizations improved cost efficiency by prioritizing high-performing regions.
- Seasonal Structuring: A quarterly setup with dynamic, season-based adjustments helped maximize engagement during peak periods.
- Budget and Ad Management
- Shopping Campaign Enhancements: Budget reallocation and keyword optimization led to improved click-through rates (CTR) and CPC.
- Enhanced Ad Scheduling and Device Targeting: Optimized ad schedules and device targeting aligned with peak activity hours and user preferences for more efficient budget use.
- Keyword and Audience Refinement:
- Extensive Keyword Research: Added negative keywords and refined targeting to lower CPA and boost ROAS across PPC campaigns.
Paid Social Media Advertising
To enhance brand awareness and boost revenue contribution from paid social channels, Thrive developed a comprehensive strategy focused on audience segmentation, creative optimization and retargeting.
This involved:
- Audience Targeting and Segmentation
- Retargeting and Prospecting: Leveraged AI-driven audience learning in retargeting campaigns to achieve notable ROAS gains during periods of reduced ad spend.
- Enhanced Audience Segmentation: Focused on high-value regions and behavioral insights to increase engagement with key groups (e.g., home gardeners, professional growers).
- Brand Awareness and Engagement
- Brand Awareness Campaigns: New initiatives on Meta achieved high reach and cost-effective impressions, which boosted AOV and customer retention.
- Creative Strategy
- Ad Creative Overhaul: Refreshed ad creatives with diverse calls-to-action (CTAs), seasonal relevance and visually compelling imagery. We also deployed Custom and Lookalike Audiences, leading to a substantial increase in conversions and AOV.
Thrive’s data-driven advertising approach increased conversion rates and reduced CPA over the past two quarters. We continue to sustain 4.82X ROAS and strong AOV improvements in prospecting campaigns post-promotion period, indicating quality lead acquisition and audience engagement.
Our next goal is to reach a 4.4X ROAS by refining the Demand Gen campaign structure and continuing to scale high-value segments.
