From situation to result.
The starting point
Groeigoed sells bulk bags of soil products: wood chips, compost, potting soil, sand and tree substrate. An online store with a strong spring and a long, quiet summer. We have run their Google Ads since 2022 and their SEO since 2023.
In the spring of 2026 we put the ad figures next to the organic positions and the margins. Google Ads cost more than it delivered: 17.4% of revenue went straight to ads. The question was simple: can it be done with much less?
What we did
We started with the Foundation: net revenue without VAT and shipping as the base, and a fixed cap on what marketing may cost. Then Google Ads and SEO together:
- Ads only on categories where Groeigoed ranks weakly organically. Where the site already ranks high, nobody needs to pay.
- Shopping focused on whole bulk bags, because those pay off.
- The brand campaign kept separate, so it is visible what Ads really adds.
- Monthly steering on real purchases, not on clicks.
- A steady flow of new blog articles, so visitors also come in without an ad.
The result
Compared with the same months a year earlier, ad spend fell by 89%. Groeigoed held on to 80% of its revenue, and marketing costs dropped from 17.4% to 2.4% of revenue.
At the same time, Google clicks on the blog articles doubled, and the average position on mobile went from 13.6 to 7.0. Less revenue, but far more left over per order.
More ad budget is rarely the answer. First know what an order may cost, then let the channels do what they are good at.All cases →
