The account
A Peruvian ecommerce selling mattresses, beds and bedroom furniture, online and in physical stores. Average ticket around US$350. Spend managed: US$210,224 over eight months, January to August 2026.
The problem
Efficiency had been eroding for six months. Platform ROAS fell from 85× to 28× and cost per acquisition rose from US$4 to US$13. Two causes: competitive pressure on the brand term and Performance Max cannibalizing Search.
What I did
- April: restructured Performance Max into themed campaigns by product line and added high-intent Search. Adjusted the brand campaign’s target ROAS from 35 to 25.
- June: separated Search and Performance Max with brand negatives to stop the cannibalization.
The result
From May to August, Google Ads spend equaled 1.8% of real closed sales. Channel ROAS came to about 36×, validated against the payment gateway. July was the best month in the account’s history.
How to read this case
- Spend over sales is Google Ads spend divided by real closed sales in the client’s payment gateway. It’s not platform attribution; it’s what the client actually billed. GA4 attributes 65% of those sales to the channels I managed.
- Which ROAS. This is ecommerce with measurable revenue, so ROAS is valid. But I discard the 60× Google reports: it over-attributes about 33% of purchases compared with the client’s analytics. I use GA4’s ~40×, adjusted to ~36× against real sales.
- Gross vs. net. GA4 records the purchase at checkout; the gateway records the settled sale. The 2–15% gap each month is cancellations and returns. The case reports net.
- Brand included. Brand defense is 31% of spend and stays in. Excluding it would push apparent ROAS to about 50×, and that would be a convenience cut.
Breakdown by channel, Jan–Aug 2026 (platform data)
See the full table
| Channel | Spend | Purchases (platform) | Platform ROAS | Share of spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search (brand + non-brand) | US$82,423 | 15,845 | 74× | 39% |
| Performance Max | US$69,618 | 10,346 | 54× | 33% |
| Shopping | US$50,577 | 7,051 | 52× | 24% |
| Display (remarketing) | US$7,606 | 91 | 5× | 4% |
| Total | US$210,224 | 33,333 | 60× | 100% |
Spend over real sales, May–Aug 2026 (payment gateway)
See the full table
| Month | Google Ads spend | Real sales | Spend / sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| May | US$26,885 | US$1,346,920 | 2.00% |
| June | US$29,694 | US$1,205,135 | 2.46% |
| July | US$40,583 | US$3,092,398 | 1.31% |
| August | US$28,514 | US$1,304,886 | 2.19% |
| Total | US$125,676 | US$6,949,340 | 1.81% |
Source and scope
Spend from Google Ads (USD), one account, Peru market. Revenue from GA4 and the client’s payment gateway. Real sales are available for May–August only; January–April is reported at platform and GA4 level. Meta ran in parallel; Google drove 96% of paid-channel revenue in GA4. Exchange rate S/3.60 per USD. Client and keywords anonymized.