We built a high-ROAS engine for a niche retailer
How we run Unholly's Google Ads as a value-based, high-intent category-search engine — sustaining double-digit return on ad spend across three years in a niche adult-retail vertical, on a flat fee.
The partner
Unholly is a niche Ukrainian adult-retail store. It's a restricted, high-intent category: fewer buyers, but ones who know exactly what they want. The account lives on capturing that intent efficiently and bidding to revenue — turning a tightly-defined audience into a durable, profitable stream of orders rather than chasing raw reach.
Goals
- Capture high-intent category demand efficiently in a restricted vertical.
- Bid to revenue, not raw orders — protecting return on ad spend.
- Keep return on ad spend durable across seasons and years, not just in bursts.
- Measure conversion value, so bidding optimizes to revenue.
- Hold it all on a flat fee, so scaling revenue never scales the cost of managing it.
Strategy
In a restricted, high-intent vertical the win isn't reach — it's efficiency. We built the account around value-based bidding on tightly-controlled category and brand search, feeding Google's bidding real revenue signals so it optimized to orders that actually made money.
- 01
Bid to revenue, not clicks
Conversion value was tracked end-to-end so the account could bid to revenue — a value-based strategy that protects return on ad spend instead of chasing cheap clicks.
- 02
Owned high-intent category search
Tightly-controlled category and brand search captured buyers who already knew what they wanted, at a click-through rate that reflected genuine intent in the niche.
- 03
Covered the long tail with DSA
Dynamic Search filled in the long tail of product terms the core campaign couldn't enumerate — without loosening the intent that kept the account efficient.
- 04
Cut what didn't pay
Test campaigns that couldn't clear the return threshold were paused rather than left to drain spend — keeping the productive engine lean.
- 05
Held it season over season
Weekly optimization kept return on ad spend durable across three years of seasons — not a one-quarter spike, but a system that keeps paying.
Results
Rather than a single growth spike, the account is a durability story: the core category-search campaign has sustained double-digit return on ad spend for three years, blending to roughly nineteen times over its life and clearing forty times in its most efficient quarters.
The team
A senior-run Google Ads pod: strategy & account lead and a PPC specialist on daily optimization — the same people, on a flat monthly fee.
Metrics shown as relative growth. Absolute account figures are kept confidential.
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