Cut ad spend by a third. Profit grew almost 6x.

Situation

During its two biggest months of the year, the account was posting real losses — negative net profit in both October and November, despite nearly $850K in combined ad spend across the quarter. Big sales numbers were masking a business that was losing money to get them.

Task

Rebuild the account's bid and budget strategy ahead of the next peak season so Q4 sales became profitable, without waiting for the next quarter to find out it hadn't worked.

Action

1. 1Rebuilt the account's bid and budget strategy ahead of the next peak season, rather than adjusting mid-quarter once the damage was already done.
2. 2Cut spend on campaigns that were burning budget without returning profit, even where they were still contributing to top-line sales.
3. 3Reallocated that budget toward what was actually converting profitably, prioritizing sales worth having over sales alone.
4. 4Measured the plan against the same quarter one year later, rather than sequential months, to control for the account's own seasonality.