The Client
Jack and Beyond is a UK-based online cake shop selling celebration cakes and edible gifts for delivery. Their category is fiercely occasion-driven: customers search with a date in mind, compare fast, and buy from whoever answers the query best. All figures in this case study are in British pounds (GBP).
Why Is Google Ads Hard for Online Cake Shops?
- Cake queries are dominated by supermarkets, marketplaces, and recipe content — an independent shop has to buy its way into the moment of purchase.
- Demand is occasion-shaped: birthdays, office celebrations, and holidays spike and vanish, punishing rigid budgets.
- Average order values are modest, so the economics only work when clicks stay cheap and the funnel converts.
- Recipe, DIY, and "near me" walk-in queries can quietly eat the budget of a delivery-first business.
What Did We Do Differently?
- Built Search campaigns around delivery- and occasion-intent queries where a purchase, not a recipe, was the goal.
- Kept clicks cheap — a £0.37 average CPC — through disciplined match types and continuous negative keyword pruning of recipe and DIY searches.
- Tracked purchases with order values flowing back into the account, so bidding optimized toward revenue instead of raw orders.
- Shifted budget aggressively into proven occasion peaks rather than spending flat across the calendar.
What Results Did Jack and Beyond Get From Google Ads?
| Metric | Verified Result |
|---|---|
| Tracked ad revenue | £396,355 |
| Ad spend | £121,765 |
| Return on ad spend | 3.26x |
| Orders tracked | 18,747 |
| Clicks | 326,788 |
| Impressions | 22.5M |
| Average CPC | £0.37 |
Every pound this account put into Google Ads returned £3.26 in tracked revenue.
Key Takeaways
- 18,747 tracked orders is repeat-scale volume — this account bought customers, not one-off clicks.
- At a £6.49 cost per conversion against cake-order economics, the margin math works on every sale.
- In a category ruled by supermarkets, an independent shop wins by owning purchase intent, not by outspending.
How Much Should an Online Cake Shop Spend on Google Ads?
This shop invested £121,765 over the life of the account and tracked £396,355 in return. The lever wasn't a big budget — it was a £0.37 average click and relentless focus on buyers rather than browsers. For a food e-commerce brand, the right spend is whatever the account can convert at a positive return; this one proves 3.26x is achievable in the category.
About This Campaign
All figures are lifetime totals pulled directly from the Google Ads account and are stated in British pounds (GBP). Revenue reflects conversion value tracked in-platform.