They came to us spending £10k monthly on agency fees alone. Premium positioning, impressive credentials, beautiful reports.
The problem? After 18 months, they could not point to a single commercial improvement that justified the investment.
The Starting Point
This was not a bad agency. They were technically competent, responsive, and professional. The account was well-structured by conventional standards.
But "well-structured by conventional standards" was precisely the problem.
The account was optimised for ROAS. It looked healthy. The agency hit their targets. Everyone was happy except the finance director, who kept asking why profit was not improving despite "record performance."
Sound familiar?
What We Found
Our initial audit revealed a classic pattern:
ROAS-optimised, profit-blind. The account was driving impressive return on ad spend by systematically favouring low-margin products. High ROAS, compressed profit.
Scaling the wrong things. Budget increases went to what was "working" by platform metrics. What was working commercially was starved of investment.
Defensive structure. The campaign architecture protected agency performance metrics rather than enabling commercial experimentation.
Missing integration. Zero connection between ad performance and actual business outcomes. The agency reported platform metrics; the brand tracked profit separately. Nobody connected the dots.
The 90-Day Approach
Days 1-30: Commercial Foundation
Before touching a single campaign, we rebuilt the measurement framework. Every product mapped to margin data. Every campaign connected to actual profit contribution.
This step alone revealed that 40% of "high-performing" campaigns were actually destroying margin.
Days 31-60: Strategic Restructure
New campaign architecture built around commercial objectives, not platform convenience. Products grouped by margin band, not category. Bidding strategies aligned to profit contribution, not ROAS.
We suppressed approximately 200 products that were technically "performing" but commercially destructive.
Days 61-90: Optimisation and Scale
With the foundation in place, we could finally optimise for what actually mattered. Budget reallocation to genuine profit drivers. Testing frameworks for commercial impact, not vanity metrics.
The Results
At 90 days:
- Contribution margin improved 34% despite similar revenue
- Ad spend reduced 15% while profit increased
- Waste eliminated: approximately £8k monthly in spend that looked good but converted to margin destruction
The ROAS actually went down. By about 20%.
This is the part that matters: lower ROAS, higher profit. The previous agency would have flagged this as a failure. It was the first genuine success the account had seen in years.
What Changed
The difference was not more sophisticated tactics. It was fundamentally different questions:
Old question: How do we improve ROAS? New question: How do we improve profit contribution?
Old question: Which campaigns are performing best? New question: Which campaigns are generating margin?
Old question: How do we scale what is working? New question: Should we scale what is working, or is it already at optimal efficiency?
The Fee Conversation
Their previous agency charged £10k monthly. We charge less.
But here is the interesting part: they would have been better off paying us twice what they paid their previous agency. The ROI on fee is not about the fee itself. It is about what the fee generates.
A £5k monthly fee that generates £50k in additional profit beats a £10k monthly fee that generates zero. This should be obvious, but the market is full of brands paying premium fees for premium reports about mediocre outcomes.
The Uncomfortable Truth
This brand was not with a bad agency. They were with an agency that was good at the wrong things.
Technical competence is table stakes. Platform expertise is expected. What matters is whether that expertise translates to commercial outcomes.
Most agencies cannot answer that question because they do not ask it.
Wondering if your current agency is optimising for the right outcomes? Our Google Ads Audit provides the commercial clarity most audits miss.