Case study · D2C · Specialist retail · Paid Social + PPC + Email Marketing + Design · 2024–2026
Nearly doubling conversion value through smarter PPC segmentation.
Up & Running's PPC was capped by average order value and an outdated stock mix. We split the account by conversion likelihood, scaled spend on the higher-intent segments, and let creative carry the rest.
Where it hurt.
Up & Running is a long-standing specialist retailer with a serious reputation in performance running. The PPC account ran fine, but it couldn't scale. Average order value sat below the marketing budget's break-even line on the lower-AOV product range.
On audit, the campaigns weren't differentiating between intent levels. Spend was distributed evenly across users who would buy and users who would never buy. Outdated stock was being shown to audiences who had already moved on.
What we saw.
The PPC account wasn't broken. The strategy underneath it was outdated. Pure performance tuning wouldn't move the number. The account needed a structural rebuild around buyer intent, and the creative needed to do more than fill space.
What we did, and why.
- 01 · Audit the spend
Map every campaign to its likely conversion class. Identify where the budget was being burned on low-intent traffic.
- 02 · Split by intent
Restructure into intent-banded campaigns. Concentrate budget on the high-intent segments. Protect ROAS by attributing spend to the audiences most likely to return.
- 03 · Let creative compound
Test creative inside the high-intent campaigns. Strong visuals and brand consistency pushed engagement on top of intent targeting. The combination, not either alone, did the heavy lifting.
The numbers, in plain language.
Conversion value rose 93.97% within the optimised period, on disciplined spend. User visibility went up 62.5%; clicks went up 50.3%. The lift came from structure plus creative, not from pouring more money into the existing account.
The Paid Social and Email retainers extended off the back of the result.
For brands like yours.
If your PPC scales by adding budget, you're paying for traffic. If it scales by attributing spend to intent, you're buying outcomes. For brands stuck on the wrong side of that, the move is structural, not tactical.
What we ran.
Other things we shipped.
Selected pieces of work from the Up & Running partnership.
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