How long does onboarding take?

Thirty days to stabilise, sixty days to fully rebuild, ninety days to see the P&L move. Change is frozen by 1 November regardless.

Will performance drop during the switch?

Not if it is done properly. We do not delete what works. We fix what does not. Most accounts see spend efficiency improve inside the first month because tracking is fixed and margin bidding kicks in.

Do you rebuild everything?

No. Rebuilding everything is what bad agencies do to look busy. We protect what performs and rebuild only what is structurally broken.

Can you work with Shopify?

Yes. Most of the accounts we run sit on Shopify or Shopify Plus. Feed, tracking and Merchant Center are all handled in-house.

Can you work with Magento, WooCommerce or BigCommerce?

Yes. Feed and tracking layers are platform-agnostic. We have run accounts on all three.

Do you manage the Shopping feed?

Yes. Feed is not a separate service. It is part of the account. Nobody who is serious about Shopping outsources the feed.

Can you use our existing tracking?

If it is clean, yes. If it is not, we fix it before we touch bidding. The algorithm cannot optimise to a broken signal.

Do I need to cancel my current agency first?

No. Have the conversation with us first. We will tell you honestly whether switching now is the right call, or whether you should stay put until January.

How quickly can we start?

Kick-off within seven days of signed engagement. Access requests go out the same day.

Q4 Readiness Guide / July 2026

Should you switch PPC agencies before Q4?

If your Google Ads account is not commercially ready in July, it will not magically be ready in November.

An honest read for ecommerce founders deciding whether changing agency before peak is the smartest move they will make this year, or the most expensive.

Book strategy call Download switching guide

European Search Awards Winner · Google Partner · CSS Partner

Trusted by ecommerce brands scaling profit, not just revenue

Trusted by leading brands

01 / Timing

Why July matters more than October

Every commercial job that lands in Q4 was set up in Q3. Feed. Tracking. Bidding calibration. SKU strategy. None of it can be built in the six weeks before Black Friday without breaking something. If you are going to switch, switch when there is still runway.

Month 1July
Fix tracking, margins in, feed audit
Everything downstream depends on this month.
Month 2August
Feed optimisation, PMax segmentation
You cannot fix a feed in November. Ask anyone who has tried.
Month 3September
Campaign testing, bid strategy calibration
The last month you can afford to be wrong.
Month 4October
Scale winners, kill losers, lock structure
Change freezes the moment BFCM traffic starts warming up.
Month 5November
Execute. Do not restructure. Do not experiment.
If you are rebuilding in November, you already lost.
Month 6December
Protect margin, manage stock, harvest profit
This is the month the P&L is written.

02 / Diagnostic

Score your account in two minutes

Readiness Calculator

Is your account ready for Q4?

Ten questions. Yes or no. No email required.

01Do you know your true product margins by SKU?
02Do your campaigns optimise for profit, not revenue?
03Do you separate high and low margin products in bidding?
04Have you already tested your Q4 promotional mechanics?
05Do you trust your conversion tracking end to end?
06Do you know which SKUs lose money at current CPCs?
07Can your agency explain, in one sentence, what every campaign is for?
08Have your Performance Max asset groups been segmented by margin?
09Is your Shopping feed commercially optimised, not just complete?
10Do you know your break-even POAS by product group?

Score

0/10

Answer all ten to see your readiness band.

Book strategy call

03 / Mistakes

The seven ways Q4 usually goes wrong

Waiting until January

You skip the highest-margin quarter with the wrong operator.

How we fix itWe take the account in July so August compounds.

Waiting until October

No time to fix tracking, feed or structure before peak.

How we fix itWe run a 30-day stabilisation and freeze changes by 1 Nov.

Optimising to ROAS

Revenue up, profit flat, cash tight in January.

How we fix itBidding, budgets and reporting move to contribution margin.

Ignoring margins

You scale the SKUs that lose you money fastest.

How we fix itSKU-level margin file goes in before campaigns change.

Poor feed

Every impression is priced against a weaker listing.

How we fix itTitles, attributes, GTINs and custom labels rebuilt to commercial rules.

Broken tracking

The algorithm optimises to a number that is not real.

How we fix itEnhanced conversions, offline uploads, dedup, server-side where useful.

No SKU strategy

Hero, Profit, Gateway and Recovery SKUs treated identically.

How we fix itEvery SKU has a job. Every campaign has a job. Nothing is generic.

04 / Comparison

Current agency vs commercial PPC

Current agency

Commercial PPC

Reports weekly revenue and ROAS

Reports weekly contribution margin and net POAS

Does not know your product margins

Requires SKU-level cost file before bidding changes

Talks about clicks, CTR, CPC

Talks about payback, break-even POAS, cash cycle

Treats every SKU the same

Every SKU has a role: Scale, Profit, Gateway, Recovery

Feed left to Shopify defaults

Feed rebuilt to commercial rules, refreshed weekly

Ignores returns, shipping, LTV

Returns, shipping and LTV feed the bidding model

Bidding is Target ROAS everywhere

Bidding calibrated per campaign against profit

Reports look great, profit is flat

Reports match the P&L. The CFO stops asking questions.

05 / Process

How we switch agencies without breaking peak

Change is frozen by 1 November regardless of where we are. If it is not in the account by then, it does not go in.

Day 1
Full commercial audit. Tracking, feed, structure, margins. Nothing changes yet.
Day 3
Tracking rebuilt. Enhanced conversions, offline uploads, deduplication.
Week 1
Feed rebuilt against commercial rules. Custom labels, margin buckets.
Week 2
Campaign structure aligned to SKU roles. Nothing deleted that works.
Week 3
Bid strategy calibration. Testing plan for peak locked in.
Week 4
Scale winners. Change freeze goes on the calendar for November.

06 / Risk reversal

Switching does not mean starting again

Most agencies do one of two things when they take over an account. They delete everything, so they can claim the growth. Or they touch nothing, so they cannot be blamed if it drops.

We do neither. We protect the campaigns that are working. We fix the ones that are quietly bleeding. And we tell you which is which before we change a bid.

The account you already paid to build is an asset. We treat it like one.

07 / Proof

What Q4 looks like when it is set up in July

Wilsons Pet Food

Net POAS moved from 2.1 to 3.4 across peak

Feed rebuilt in August. Structure locked in September. No changes made in November.

Read the full account rebuild

Thermos

Contribution margin up 34% year on year in Q4

Margin bidding replaced Target ROAS. Loss-making SKUs excluded before BFCM.

Read the full account rebuild

UK Soccer Shop

27% more profit on 8% less spend at peak

PMax segmented by margin band. Brand campaigns ring-fenced from Shopping cannibalisation.

Read the full account rebuild

08 / Lead magnet

The Agency Switching Guide

The document we send to founders who ask us how to switch agencies without losing the quarter. No pitch. Print it and use it.

Migration checklist (access, ownership, data)
The 12 questions to ask every agency before you sign
Tracking checklist for enhanced conversions and offline uploads
Feed checklist for Shopping and Performance Max
Commercial KPI framework: net POAS, contribution, payback

Free · No email gate on the call

Get the guide. Then decide whether you want to talk.

Download switching guide

PDF · 24 pages · Updated July 2026

09 / FAQ

Straight answers to the questions founders actually ask

Switching in July or August is standard. Switching in October is risky. Switching in November is reckless. If the pain is real, the earlier move always wins.

Your competitors are preparing for Q4. Are you?

Book a 30-minute call. We will tell you honestly whether switching agency in July is the right move, or whether you should stay put until January.

Book strategy call

Q4 slots limited. Kick-off within 7 days.Book call