Toolstation Performance Max Strategy
As the Senior Performance Marketing Lead at Toolstation, I oversaw Paid Search, Affiliates, and Paid Social channels. These channels played a key role in driving online sales and profitability. Toolstation, a leading hardware provider with over 30,000 products across more than 20 categories, relied heavily on Google Shopping through Performance Max (PMax) campaigns as the primary mechanism for generating sales through paid media.
Challenge and Initiative:
While the existing campaign structure was well-organised—with individual campaigns for each category—we identified that many products were not gaining sufficient visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs), which limited their performance potential. Recognising this gap, I collaborated with our agency partner, Found, to devise a new, bespoke campaign structure that not only adhered to best practices but also aligned closely with Toolstation's specific business needs.
Developing a Bespoke Campaign Structure:
We restructured the campaigns by setting up eight distinct campaigns per category, each with a specific definition, role, and bidding strategy. This granular approach provided us with a comprehensive set of levers to optimise performance effectively. The campaigns were segmented as follows:
Boost Specific Products: Targeted specific SKUs that category managers wanted to promote or items requiring stock clearance.
Improve Efficiency of Low Performing Products: Focused on products with over 200 clicks but a ROAS below 4, aiming to enhance efficiency for items with reasonable traffic but poor returns.
Push High Margin Products: Aggressively promoted products with higher margins, allowing for a lower ROAS while still delivering strong profitability.
Promote Discounted Products: Targeted products on sale, leveraging competitive pricing to drive increased sales.
Isolate High-Value Products: Focused on higher-priced items, allowing bid strategies to push these products more aggressively due to their higher revenue per sale.
Increase Traffic to Low Performers with Low Traffic: Aimed at products with fewer than 200 clicks and a ROAS below 4, giving underexposed items a chance to perform.
Push High Performing Sub-Categories: Aggressively promoted sub-categories with ROAS significantly above the category average to drive additional sales.
Core Campaign: Included all remaining products not captured in the other segments, ensuring comprehensive coverage.
Implementation and Optimisation:
We utilised custom labels and automated rules to dynamically assign SKUs to the appropriate campaigns based on real-time performance data and product attributes. This automation ensured that products moved between campaigns as their performance metrics changed, allowing for continuous optimisation without manual intervention.
Key actions included:
Dynamic Labelling: Set up automated systems to label products according to their performance, margin, discount status, and other attributes.
Tailored Bid Strategies: Adjusted ROAS targets and bidding strategies for each campaign segment to align with their specific objectives.
Regular Reviews: We conducted ongoing analysis to refine thresholds (e.g., high-value price points) and to reassess product assignments within campaigns.
Key Achievements
After an optimisation period of approximately two weeks, the new campaign structure began yielding significant benefits:
Increased Product Visibility: More products gained prominence on SERPs, leading to higher impressions and click-through rates.
Enhanced Data for Optimisation: The granular segmentation provided richer performance data, enabling more precise and effective optimisation strategies.
Cost Efficiency and Profitability: The advanced structure supported more cost-effective advertising, reducing wasted spend and increasing return on investment.
Improved Performance Metrics: Saw measurable improvements in key metrics such as ROAS, CPC, and conversion rates across various product segments.
