Tiles & Stone To You is an online tile and stone retailer based in north London. They had struggled to make Google Ads profitable before we took over the account in March 2026.
The challenge
Low average order values left little margin to cover the cost of each sale, so every pound of ad spend had to earn its place.
The account was running a Standard Shopping campaign and a Performance Max campaign at the same time. Both draw on the same product feed and compete for the same shopping placements, so the two were splitting a limited daily budget between them. The account history also showed several bid strategy changes during January and February 2026, each of which reset Google's learning period before results could settle.
What we did
We set the account up to measure sales, tested the two campaign types against each other, then put the budget behind the one that converted:
- Tracking and reporting (March 2026): We gained access to Google Ads, GA4 and Search Console and built a live Looker Studio dashboard, so every decision could be checked against real sales data.
- Tighter targeting (March to June 2026): We applied account-level negative keywords to filter out irrelevant trade and DIY-intent searches, built a custom audience of people who had visited competitor websites, and layered in interest-based audience segments. We then uploaded a Customer Match list of qualified past customers, removed irrelevant paid keywords and turned on final URL expansion, so Performance Max could send shoppers to the most relevant page on the site.
- Shopping vs Performance Max test (May to August 2026): Standard Shopping was paused on 22 May 2026 to test whether it was cannibalising Performance Max. We extended the test by a month after the July reporting call, so the result rested on enough data.
- Search kept on Google (July 2026): We switched off Google Search Partners on the brand Search campaign to keep it on Google Search only, and turned off AI Max after its broader queries proved irrelevant and produced no conversions.
- Full account audit (August 2026): Our 12-month audit confirmed the test result. Before it was paused, Standard Shopping converted 0.03% of clicks at £849.16 per conversion. Performance Max returned £4.02 in conversion value for every £1 spent, at £80.67 per conversion, and Google flagged it as limited by budget. The brand Search campaign checked out well too, with Quality Scores of 9 and 10, so it stayed live.
- Budget behind the winner (August 2026): We modelled three budget scenarios from the account's own data and, with the client's sign-off, raised Performance Max from £54 to £80 a day on 28 August. We recommended against reintroducing a Target ROAS at the same time, so the algorithm would spend the new budget rather than hold back during a fresh learning period.
- Cleaner placements (August 2026): We reviewed where Performance Max ads were appearing across Google's partner sites and apps. Most were reputable but only loosely relevant, so on 26 August we applied content suitability exclusions to keep spend on placements more likely to convert.
- Revenue-focused reporting (September 2026): We added a potential revenue estimate, built from PPC conversions, to the client's dashboard, so results are visible in pounds as well as clicks.
The results
Comparing Q3 2026 (July to September) with Q2 2026 (April to June):
- +55% conversions
- -7% cost per conversion
The takeaway
Two campaigns chasing the same shoppers on a tight budget meant neither had room to perform. Working with Googolplex's expert PPC strategists, Tiles & Stone To You found what was holding performance back, tested the fix before committing to it, and put its budget behind the campaign that converts. The result: 55% more conversions at 7% lower cost per conversion.
