Case study · Google Ads · 7 min read

From 1.2 to 6.5 million CZK in yearly revenue. Ad cost of revenue cut from 70 % to 14 %.

Klenoty Mahdal came to e-commerce when the owner was already losing faith that online sales could work. Over 2.5 years of cooperation, an almost written-off e-shop became a stable growth channel.

Klenoty Mahdal – jewellery and watches — From an almost written-off e-shop to a stable growth channel.

Client: Klenoty Mahdal
Segment: E-commerce · jewellery & watches
Service: Google Ads · email
Cooperation: 2023–2026

Results at a glance.

2023 vs. 2025. Ad cost of revenue includes cancellations and returns.

Yearly revenueafter

0M CZK

Up from 1.2M CZK.

Ad cost of revenueafter

0 %

Down from 70 %, incl. cancellations and returns.

Average orderafter

0 CZK

Up from 1,800 CZK.

Time to impactwithin

0 mo.

The client could hire 2 full-time employees.

01 · Client

An established retailer whose e-shop was burning budget.

Klenoty Mahdal is an established jewellery and watch retailer with a long-standing physical store. During covid they opened an e-shop to take the business online. Instead of a new growth channel, the e-shop quickly became a project that burned budget without delivering results.

Six months after launch, after a previous agency and with zero sales, the owner seriously considered closing online sales. Many smaller e-shops are in the same place today: they invest in marketing without knowing what actually works and what just costs money.

Tip: how to tell your e-shop is in a similar situation

You spend on ads but don't know what they return — no clear cost of revenue or ROAS.
Campaigns are “running”, but nobody actively evaluates what works and what burns money.
Monthly spend grows while revenue stays flat or grows only a fraction.
Pick one key economic metric (e.g. target cost of revenue) and measure it every month.

02 · Problem

Ads ran without a system.

The main issue wasn't that the client advertised “too little”. Ads ran without a system, without evaluation and without a clear logic for generating profit.

Budget went into performance marketing, but nobody checked whether it came back. Campaigns launched across channels with no structure, prioritisation or active economic control. Over 80,000 CZK a month went into PPC with no real business effect.

“Until measurement, bidding and spend allocation are under control, you can't scale profitably.”

Tip: 3 questions for your Google Ads account

Do I know my cost of revenue for the last 3 months? If not, start there.
Do I know which campaigns make and which lose money? Every campaign needs its own result.
Should target return be raised when cost of revenue exceeds the goal? Yes — Google Ads can do this via rules.

What was really wrong.

At first glance a campaign performance issue. In reality it went deeper.

Measurement wasn't set up correctly, so there was no reliable way to see what worked. Campaigns targeted the whole assortment without segmentation, without treating categories differently and without linking to specific customer types. Creatives weren't tested, return wasn't managed and messaging was too generic.

In other words: the budget was being spent, but not managed. This is the difference between routine campaign management and actively steering performance by the e-shop's economics.

Tip: a 30-minute measurement audit

In Google Ads, check Conversions — do they track real purchases or just visits?
In GA4, verify that Google Ads revenue matches revenue under Monetisation.
Turn on Enhanced Conversions — it improves measurement accuracy by 10–15 % for free.
Never launch Smart or Performance Max without verified conversion tracking.

How we approached it.

Four pillars behind the growth.

Control first, growth second.We didn't start by blindly scaling budget. First we fixed measurement and set a clear economic logic.
Segmentation instead of one big bag.We split the assortment not only by product but by buying motivation. A man buying for himself shops differently from someone choosing a gift.
Google Ads as a managed growth tool.We split the account by product category and set target return. Every part of the account has its own room to optimise.
More value from every order.Alongside acquisition we added email retention automations, so the e-shop doesn't earn only on the first ad click.

Tip: starting with segmentation on a small budget

Split campaigns at least by category — each category in its own campaign.
Define a maximum cost of revenue per category that makes sense for its margin.
Add buying motivation to ad copy (“a gift for her” vs. “for yourself”) and A/B test CTR.
Build audiences in Google Ads from GA4 data: category visitors, abandoned carts, audience signals.

What we did, specifically.

Deployed correct measurement and performance evaluation.
Set target cost of revenue as the main economic frame for campaigns.
Defined more detailed audiences by buying motivation.
Segmented the Google Ads account into separate campaigns by product category.
Set per-campaign optimisation to the required return.
Scaled selected campaigns once target efficiency was reached.
Continuously optimised bidding.
Regularly shipped new assets and tested ad variants.
Launched retention automations: abandoned cart, abandoned product, welcome, name-day wishes and post-purchase.

Tip: retention automations – where to start

Abandoned cart always comes first — typically 5–15 % “free” revenue from people who already wanted to buy.
Email within 48 hours of the first purchase — say thanks, suggest an add-on, ask for a review.
Welcome sequence: at least 3 emails over 7 days.
Test every automation on 10 % of the database first.

Results before and after.

2023 vs. 2025.

Before (2023)

Yearly e-shop revenue: 1.2M CZK
Cost of revenue (incl. cancellations and returns): 70 %
Average order value: 1,800 CZK
Time to impact: —

After (2025)

Yearly e-shop revenue: 6.5M CZK (+5.3M CZK)
Cost of revenue (incl. cancellations and returns): 14 % (−56 percentage points)
Average order value: 2,600 CZK (+800 CZK / +44 %)
Time to impact: within 2 months (fast impact from the start)

These numbers aren't just “better ads”. They reflect far better control over where the budget goes, what actually sells and how to hold performance even with tighter budgets and an ambitious goal of keeping overall cost of revenue under 15 %.

Tip: measuring your own before and after

Compare the same periods year on year, not month to month — that hides seasonality.
Always include cancellations and returns in cost of revenue — otherwise you measure marketing, not business economics.
Track AOV as a separate KPI — doubling AOV has the same effect as doubling orders, but costs less.
Set “compare periods” as the default view in GA4.

07 · Business impact

Healthier, more predictable growth.

The owner no longer had to carry the e-shop alone. The business stabilised enough to hire two full-time employees and focus on other areas. New customers also came to the physical store. During and after covid, the e-shop became a stabilising part of the business rather than another problem.

Just as important is what didn't happen: without a change of approach the client would most likely have closed the e-shop, with a loss of over half a million CZK and no real chance to return.

Tip: how to tell your marketing “works”

You know what happens to revenue if you raise budget by 20 %.
You deal with stock and staff — not whether ads work at all.
Set a “minimum healthy performance” (e.g. cost of revenue never above 20 %) — if it holds without daily supervision, the account is stable.

Client testimonial

„Long-term cooperation with Marketing ASAP brought me not only marketing help but a long-term business partner. I'm never afraid to turn to them with anything, knowing they'll always advise or help me well.“

Klenoty Mahdal · client since 2023

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