The challenge
EcoTools has been supplying quality tools, accessories and consumables to construction professionals since 2005. From contractors to painters, from plumbers to carpenters.
The challenge: how does EcoTools keep growing in a healthy way, in a period where advertising costs keep rising?
The choice
Steering on revenue says little about what a sale actually delivers. A product with high revenue can be left with almost nothing after purchasing, shipping and returns. That is why we wanted to shift the focus to return.
Together with the EcoTools team, we brought the margin data from the back office into Google Ads. Per product, we could then see which transactions truly made money and which mainly attracted traffic. We did this with POAS: a measurement that, alongside revenue, also returns the actual profit per sale to the account.
The goal was no longer more clicks or more revenue. The goal was more profit from the same budget.
The approach
We split the transition into three phases.
1. Technical preparation
We started with a solid technical basis. Together with EcoTools we determined which data was needed to reliably calculate the profit per transaction: margin per product, shipping and fulfilment costs, return rates and discounts.
Based on that, the POAS pixel was built and set up. Alongside revenue, it also sends the actual profit per transaction back to the advertising platform.
2. Data collection
After the implementation, we let the old and the new measurement run in parallel for a while. This way we validated the reliability of the profit data and let the algorithm get used to the new signals.
The insights were confronting. Campaigns that scored excellently on revenue sometimes barely made a profit in the end. Conversely, campaigns with a lower return on paper turned out to deliver a strong profit contribution. Exactly the blind spot we wanted to remove.
3. The transition
When the profit data was stable, we made the definitive switch. We steered campaigns fully on profit, with a return target per campaign. We shifted budget towards high-margin products and let bids optimise on net return.
The result
- 12% higher return on advertising spend
- 15% lower CPA
- 10% more conversions
Less budget went to loss-making products, more to the products that carry margin. Revenue rose, return rose even faster. By steering on profit, EcoTools can keep scaling without the return suffering for it.
