Client programmes, with the method attached
Three engagements we can describe in detail with the client's permission. Each one includes the situation we inherited, what we changed, what it produced and what we would do differently.
All figures are taken from the client's own Google Ads, GA4, Shopify or CRM accounts for the period stated and compared against the equivalent preceding period. Marketing results depend on offer, margin, budget, competition and season. Nothing here is a projection for another business, and we do not offer guaranteed outcomes.
Case 01 · Home & living e-commerce · Singapore and Malaysia
Habitat & Clay
A 24-person homeware retailer with two Singapore stores and a Shopify site serving both SG and MY. Annual revenue in the low eight figures, gross margin varying from 22% on furniture to 68% on ceramics and textiles.
The situation
A single Performance Max campaign carried 80% of spend with the full catalogue in one asset group. Because the feed contained no margin data, the algorithm optimised toward the cheapest conversions — flat-pack furniture with 22% margin and a 14% return rate. Branded search was mixed into the same campaign, so the account looked profitable while new customer acquisition was flat for three quarters.
What we changed
- Feed rebuilt with margin tiers. Custom labels split the catalogue into three contribution bands, then Performance Max was split to match, with separate targets per band.
- Branded search isolated. Moved into its own exact-match campaign with a low budget cap so reported performance stopped flattering the rest of the account.
- Return rate priced in. Conversion values in Google Ads were adjusted for historical returns by category, so a sofa was no longer worth the same as its sticker price.
- Landing experience. Collection pages rebuilt for the six best-margin categories, with delivery lead times and assembly information moved above the fold after support tickets showed those were the two blocking questions.
- Malaysia separated. A dedicated MY campaign set with local pricing and shipping messaging rather than one regional catch-all.
Result and honest caveats
Over seven months blended ROAS moved from 2.1 to 4.3 while total media spend fell 19%. Two of the three ceramics campaigns hit their target within six weeks; the furniture band took four months and never exceeded a 2.6 ROAS, which the client accepted as a loss-leader for store visits. A June price rise across the ceramics range also helped, and we cannot fully separate that effect from the media changes.
Case 02 · B2B payments software · Southeast Asia
Sentinel Pay
A Series A payments platform selling reconciliation software to finance teams in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Six-person sales team, average contract value around S$28,000 per year, sales cycle of two to four months.
The situation
The account was optimising to a "Contact us" form event, and roughly two-thirds of submissions were students, job applicants or vendors. Sales trusted the pipeline less each month. Nothing from HubSpot flowed back into Google Ads, so the bidding algorithm had no idea which clicks became opportunities.
What we changed
- CRM connected to the ad platforms. Offline conversion import from HubSpot pushed two stages back into Google Ads: "qualified" and "demo booked", each with a value reflecting close rate.
- Bidding moved to the qualified stage. Volume dropped immediately and cost per raw lead rose, which we forecast and agreed with the CFO in writing before switching.
- Query hygiene. Job-seeker, tutorial and free-tool queries excluded through a negative list rebuilt weekly for eight weeks.
- Demo page rewritten. Structured around the two objections that most often stalled deals — bank connectivity coverage and audit trail requirements — with a shorter form and an option to skip straight to a technical call.
- LinkedIn used for one job only. Warming finance titles at named accounts, measured on demo bookings rather than lead volume.
Result and honest caveats
Nine months in, total form fills were down 41% while sales-qualified leads rose 76% and cost per qualified lead more than halved. The first two months looked worse on every dashboard the CEO had been watching, which is why the change was documented up front. Sentinel Pay also hired two SDRs in month four, so faster follow-up contributed to the improvement in qualification rate.
Case 03 · Coffee and brunch group · Six Singapore outlets
Kopi Lane
A six-outlet cafe group with locations in Tiong Bahru, Bugis, Tanjong Pagar, Jurong East, Serangoon and Katong. No paid media budget, a small team, and a strong dependence on delivery platform commissions.
The situation
Four of six profiles listed the wrong closing time, two shared duplicate listings created by former staff, and the group's website had a single "Locations" page listing all six addresses in one block. In map results the outlets competed against each other for generic queries, and the Jurong East outlet did not appear at all for its own mall name.
What we changed
- Profile hygiene first. Duplicates removed, hours corrected including public holidays, service attributes and menu links added, and 40 photographs per outlet uploaded on a monthly schedule.
- One page per outlet. Individual pages with unique copy, embedded map, transit directions, outlet-specific menu differences and local schema markup.
- Review operations. A QR prompt on receipts, plus a rota so every review is answered within 48 hours by a manager, not a template.
- Direct ordering promoted. A first-order incentive on the group's own ordering page, advertised only through the profiles and in-store, to shift volume off commission-heavy platforms.
Result and honest caveats
Over five months profile calls rose 64% and direction requests 81%, with the largest gains at Jurong East and Serangoon where the fixes were the most basic. Direct delivery orders grew 29% against an 11% fall in aggregator orders, which was the point. The Katong outlet saw almost no change — it sits on a street with three better-established cafes, and local search alone was not enough to move it.
References
What clients say when we are not in the room
"They were the first agency that told us to spend less in a channel. That is when we started trusting the reporting."
Rachel Ng — Marketing Director, Habitat & Clay
"Two months of worse-looking numbers took some nerve. They wrote down what would happen before it happened, so we held the line."
Daniel Koh — CFO, Sentinel Pay
Client references are available on request during a scope review, including two engagements that ended early — we will tell you why.