How did we decrease CAC by over 50% while driving growth for a leading pet tech company with Google Ads?

Our client is an innovative brand in the pet products industry. It offers a modern GPS collar that helps dog owners look after their pets’ safety—with it, you can track your pet in real time, set up safe zones, and react when the dog moves away from them. The brand combines modern technology, artificial intelligence, and functional design, offering a premium solution for conscientious dog owners.

To address the client’s challenges, we began with a thorough restructuring of the marketing strategy—both at the level of campaign structure and in terms of the analytics tools used, the choice of communication, and the approach to budgeting. The foundation of all our activities was a focus on precisely defined performance indicators, such as CAC (customer acquisition cost) and bROAS—a metric that takes into account not only revenue but also operating costs, allowing for an accurate assessment of the profitability of advertising activities.

Campaign restructuring

A key step was reorganizing the ad account—we divided the campaigns according to the stages of the sales funnel, separating top-funnel (awareness) activities, campaigns acquiring new customers, remarketing, and brand activities. Until then, all of these elements had been combined into a single Performance Max campaign, which led to budget being wasted—too large a share of it went to brand searches, while too little was invested in acquiring new users. After separating the objectives and structure, each campaign could fulfill a clearly defined function, which allowed us to better control results and optimize spending.

The optimization of the Performance Max campaign itself was particularly important—it had originally been configured as a single, multi-purpose source of traffic. After the changes, one campaign handled only brand queries, while the other focused on new users and growing market share. This significantly improved the effectiveness of both efforts—we reduced excessive spending on users who already knew the brand anyway, while at the same time making better use of the budget to acquire new customers.

Data analysis and advanced attribution

In response to the problem of unclear attribution—especially in the context of awareness-building campaigns—we implemented the external analytics tool Northbeam. It made it possible to accurately track both ad clicks and impressions, which in turn allowed us to attribute conversions to campaigns whose effects had previously been difficult to measure (e.g. YouTube or Google Display).

Thanks to the integration of data from Northbeam and the Haus tool, which enabled analysis of the incremental impact of campaigns on sales results, we gained a fuller picture of which activities were actually driving conversions and which merely accompanied the purchase process. This, in turn, made it possible to optimize budgets—we invested more in channels with a real impact on sales, while cutting back on those that generated only apparent traffic.

Keyword strategy and message personalization

One important improvement was a change in the approach to keyword selection and the personalization of ad messaging. Until then, a single, generic marketing message had been used, regardless of user intent. This meant that some audiences did not understand the product’s unique advantages, especially since it was not a classic electric collar but rather a modern alternative to one.

In the new strategy, we divided the keywords into three distinct categories:

1. Product phrases, such as “GPS wireless dog fence”—here we highlighted the technological sophistication, precise GPS, and the fact that no physical fences needed to be installed.

2. General category phrases, e.g. “electric dog shock collars”—in this case, we emphasized safety, the absence of impulses, and the advantage of our solution over shock collars.

3. Competitor keywords, referring to other brands—thanks to which we appeared in search results among people who already knew other products but were looking for a better alternative.

In addition, we refined the ad message, tailoring it to user intent: people looking for GPS devices received messages focused on location, while those interested in classic electric collars received a message showing a safer, more modern alternative.

Awareness and remarketing campaigns

We launched dedicated brand awareness campaigns on platforms such as YouTube, Google Display, and Demand Gen (formerly Discover). Their goal was to reach a broad audience and educate the market about modern solutions that do not require physical fences or electric impulses. These campaigns supported later remarketing activities—we re-reached people who had already had contact with the brand but had not yet decided to make a purchase.

Earlier activities had treated all stages of the funnel as a single whole—the result was low effectiveness at every level. By separating objectives, tailoring messages, and budgeting appropriately, we managed to create campaigns that complemented one another and genuinely increased the chance of conversion.

Budgeting in line with seasonality

Based on data from the ad account, the CRM system, and sales from previous years, we analyzed the product’s seasonality. The greatest interest fell in the period from the end of February to June, while in winter purchasing activity was considerably lower. These observations also matched search trends in Google.

Until then, the campaigns had not taken this dynamic into account—budgets were spread evenly throughout the year, which resulted in funds being wasted during periods of low demand and too little visibility when the product enjoyed the greatest interest. We optimized spending, increasing it during periods of high conversion and reducing it in months with low effectiveness. This improved campaign effectiveness and maximized return on investment.

Identifying the product ratings problem

Although review management did not fall directly on our side, we identified the product’s low average rating (around 3 stars) as a significant barrier to conversion. Upon analysis, it turned out that many negative reviews came from people who had not made a purchase, which distorted the credibility of the rating and negatively affected the purchasing decisions of potential customers. We recommended specific actions, which the client implemented before the high-demand season—which helped improve the perception of the product and increase the effectiveness of the sales campaigns.

The strategic change in approach delivered impressive results for the client. A year-over-year (YoY) comparison of the data shows:

• Cost reduction: Digital media spend fell by 33.96%, and the company’s marketing costs decreased by 39.60%. At the same time, revenue grew by 18.97%, and the number of products sold—by 22.66%. Return on ad spend (ROAS) improved from 1.95 to 3.84, and the cost of acquiring a customer (CAC) fell from USD 332 to USD 163.

• The company’s total revenue grew by 18.97%, and the revenue generated by Google ads—by as much as 117%, which significantly improved effectiveness (ROAS: 1.95 → 3.84).
• Lower CAC: The cost of acquiring a customer fell by more than half—from USD 332 to USD 163—which significantly increased the profitability of the marketing activities.

• Growth in category share: The client’s share of its target market category increased by as much as 60%

These results exceeded the goals originally set and enabled the client to achieve sustainable growth and strengthen its position in the highly competitive pet safety segment.

Thanks to a well-thought-out, data-driven strategy, campaign optimization, and drawing conclusions from the client’s real challenges, we managed to significantly increase sales while lowering costs at the same time. This shows that even a premium product—with the right approach—can scale effectively in a demanding, seasonal, and competitive market.