THE CHALLENGE
Pure Hockey, a leading hockey equipment retailer, aimed to grow acquisition and reactivation revenue by more than 80% without sacrificing return on ad spend (ROAS).
Its paid search campaigns effectively captured existing demand, but a product-focused campaign structure limited new customer growth. Meanwhile, Performance Max increasingly concentrated spend on lower-funnel Shopping placements, reducing investment in building awareness and reaching new shoppers.
Pure Hockey needed a more balanced PPC strategy that prioritized customer growth, maintained efficiency, and measured results beyond Google’s evolving lifecycle reporting.
STRATEGY
Eight Oh Two restructured Google Ads campaigns around three customer segments: new, existing, and lapsed. Each received dedicated budgets, bidding strategies, and performance targets to better prioritize growth.
For acquisition, we launched non-brand Search and Performance Max campaigns focused exclusively on new shoppers. Value-based bidding helped prioritize customer value, while multilingual campaigns expanded reach beyond existing audiences.
For reactivation, we used first-party CRM data to identify recently inactive customers and reach them through targeted campaigns. Customized conversion value boosts gave bidding strategies a stronger incentive to bring these shoppers back.
To strengthen awareness, we increased Demand Gen and YouTube investment by 38%. Creative highlighted local stores, influencers, promotions and products, complementing lower-funnel campaigns with broader brand exposure.
Measurement combined Google Ads reporting with first-party customer insights. We evaluated the relationship between campaign investment and acquisition and reactivation growth, using those findings to guide optimization rather than relying on platform-reported results alone.
