Marketer, analyst, ex-CMO focused on the Google ecosystem (Ads, Merchant Center, GA4, GTM). Google Partner. 150+ projects, 100+ positive reviews on Freelancehunt, 12+ countries.
- I work directly, with no account managers or subcontractors
- I measure results in sales, not in-platform conversions
- Maximum expertise in the Google ecosystem — instead of “PPC, social ads and SEO, all in one”
This article is about a test launch of PPC advertising and why nothing came of it. Let’s look at the reasons.
Contents
A bit of context
A client I’d worked with before reached out. Back then I did a one-time launch for him: Merchant Center review, ads, basic tracking. He was extremely happy.
Then this client went to work at a company as a marketer.
The company is a Ukrainian manufacturer of automotive fluids: engine and transmission oils, antifreeze, power steering fluids, various WD-type lubricants. He says: we’ve built a new site, I want to launch ads.
I tell him: dude, that’s not how it works.
Why there was no chance even before launch
Nobody knows the brand. It’s not on retail chain shelves: a new production, the site just launched. Apart from the official site, there’s nothing about the company online. Branded searches in Keyword Planner — zero.
And the gearbox and engine are the two most expensive components in a car. Any driver who knows even a little about cars won’t pour a no-name brand they don’t trust in there.
The market is insanely competitive. Everyone sells oils: auto parts stores, Epicentr (a big Ukrainian home-improvement chain), gas stations, service centers during maintenance, and a huge number of online resellers who buy from a few big warehouse hubs and resell. Lately they’re all rushing online, and only a handful make money.
The price isn’t lower than the leaders’. Thanks to in-house production the margin is very sweet — around 50%. But when I googled it, it turned out they weren’t even cheaper than Total Quartz or Mobil, just somewhere at the same level. Plus there are a few dozen more brands on the market like Liqui Moly or Yuko.
I’ve run more than one project in auto parts and consumables, so I knew what I was talking about. I didn’t even do a forecast here. There was no point: I understood both the target audience’s pain points and the market they were getting into.
Key point: “Why should people buy from you and not from any other manufacturer?” is one of the main questions I always ask. That’s where the work should start in the first place.
For a new manufacturer, I think you can plan for break-even for the entire first year. And that would be a great result.
“We’ll advertise everything”
I ask what we’re going to advertise. He says: everything. I ask: why? He says: we need presence.
Key point: impressions and ad visibility don’t equal sales. Visibility is visibility, sales are sales. They’re two different dimensions, two different strategies and two completely different tools for reaching different goals.
Antifreeze with an order value of 285 UAH ($6.3) for concentrate, or even 783 UAH ($17) for a 5-liter canister, will never pay off. I’ve covered working with a small order value in two separate pieces: on a 300 UAH ($6.7) order value and a case with orders under 1,000 UAH ($22).
So for the test we kept engine oils, transmission oils and power steering fluids. Advertising car cosmetics and service “lubricants” makes no sense. That’s just burning money.
Search or Shopping
Next, the client wants both Search and Shopping. I ask: why do you need Search? It’s more expensive and usually converts worse.
Key point: the advantage of Shopping ads over Search is that the person sees the price, what the product looks like and some of its specs before clicking. In a search ad they don’t see the page content and don’t always understand which product and what price it’s about.
That’s why Shopping usually works better for mass-market niches. But the client says: we must. Well, if the party says we must — we launch.
Jumping ahead: we turned Search off exactly a week later. Half of the total spend over that time brought zero sales.
We didn’t even connect CRM and call tracking: it’s important, but at this stage the result was obvious, and spending time on it made no sense.
Launch and results
Test budget — 30,000 UAH ($667) including VAT, about 700 UAH ($16) a day net.
Why do I focus on cost per click? Because it’s the derivative that final profitability depends on. In Search a click cost 26 UAH ($0.58), in Shopping — 8 UAH ($0.18). And even 8 UAH is already a very high cost per click for this niche.
If we remove the Search campaigns, which shouldn’t have been launched at all:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Test budget | 30,000 UAH ($667) incl. VAT (~700 UAH ($16)/day) |
| Cost per click, Shopping | 8.37 ₴ |
| Cost per click, Search | 26 ₴ |
| Site conversion rate | 0.73% |
| Sales in the ad account | 21 |
| Phone sales | 4 |
| Untracked sales | 1 (the developer clicked something and removed the Google Tag Manager tag) |
| Average order value in the account | ~1 400 ₴ |
Conversion rate 0.73% — under 1%. And that’s a direct consequence of all the factors I listed above.
Oddly enough, the phone orders were small: a couple at 230 UAH ($5.1), someone needed half a liter of brake fluid. So the average order value including calls comes out at about 1,000 UAH ($22).
Let’s do the math even with a stretch, at a 1% conversion rate:
| Scenario | Cost per click | Cost per purchase | Margin on a ~1,000 UAH ($22) order (50%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1% conversion rate | 8.37 ₴ | ~837 ₴ | ~500 ₴ |
| 0.73% conversion rate (actual) | 8.37 ₴ | ~1 147 ₴ | ~500 ₴ |
In other words, every sale costs more than we earn from it. The ads run at a loss.
Even at a 1% conversion rate, there’s little chance right now that the ads would be profitable. That’s why it’s crucial to also work on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). I offer that service too.
Because without it, in 2026, in a super-competitive environment where everyone is rushing online knowing how hard it is to work offline right now, you don’t stand a chance.
If you just show up and say “I want PPC ads, I’m not going to do anything else”, you’ll join the list. First you’ll go through various contractors. Maybe after 3–6 contractors you’ll realize the problem isn’t them. Or maybe you never will, and decide that nobody understands how to work with your unique and incredible business.
Test result
We recorded a loss. The ads didn’t pay off even without counting my fees, and with them — even less so.
And that makes sense. You can’t just throw anything into advertising. However talented the contractor, nobody who does advertising can pull your marketing out of the hole.
Key point: advertising can’t make up for marketing. Marketing is the broader concept, and advertising is just one part of it.
I’ve talked about the difference between advertising and marketing many times already.
For me there was no surprise here. The client essentially didn’t expect anything either: I want to launch ads and see if anything comes of it. It won’t. I say so right at the start.
Of course, I can be wrong. But about 90% of the time I’m not. There’s no magic here: there are averages and a forecast. I recently built an online ad profitability calculator. Even without me, you can plug in your metrics, expected result and margin and see that the ads won’t pay off.
So think, do the math, listen to what smart people tell you, and don’t forget about marketing. Because if in 2026 you’ve come to sell head-on anything at all without any strategy, I have bad news for you: you won’t be advertising for long.
Where to find me
Message me on Telegram or by email — I respond quickly. Telegram channel and YouTube are for those who want to see real cases before reaching out and understand my approach.