turning a nation’s cheers toward every athlete.

Brand: forever21
Agency: merkle sokrati

Brand Context

Forever21 is a global fashion retailer known for its trendy and affordable styles.

Situation Context

Post-COVID, as consumer shopping behavior shifted to online platforms, the brand was looking to scale its online presence and boost e-commerce revenue. Competing in the fast-paced fashion industry where everyone was pivoting to digital, the brand needed to adopt innovative digital strategies to reach new customers and drive revenue growth.

The Challenge

Maximise RoAS and scale revenue efficiently from its performance campaigns. The main issues were:

  • Optimizing ad campaigns to ensure they delivered both immediate sales and long-term brand visibility.

  • Managing ad budgets across multiple campaign types while transitioning to Google’s newer ad formats.

  • Ensuring Performance Max campaigns were delivering value by targeting the right audience without over-relying on automated decisions that could diminish control over ad placements.

The Strategy & Execution

To meet these challenges, the following strategies were implemented:

  1. Gradual Transition to Performance Max
    Instead of an abrupt shift, a measured approach was taken to transition from Smart Shopping to Performance Max. Existing campaigns were paused, and data from the best-performing Smart Shopping campaigns were fed into newly created PMax campaigns. This allowed for a smoother transition while giving time to optimize key metrics like revenue and RoAS.

  2. Campaign Consolidation
    Forever21's existing Shopping campaigns were evaluated and consolidated into fewer, more impactful campaigns. This helped focus the ad spend on high-performing segments and provided Google’s machine learning system with more comprehensive data to optimize results.

  3. Targeted Testing and Optimization
    The campaigns were continuously tested and optimized, starting with those that had historically shown the best performance. For example, bidding strategies were adjusted in real-time (e.g., using “Maximize Conversion Value” with and without a target RoAS setting), and underperforming campaigns were either tweaked or paused until enough data was gathered. Seasonal campaigns were also leveraged to take advantage of tactical sales, which produced unexpected boosts in RoAS.

  4. Leveraging Full-Funnel Search Campaigns
    In addition to Performance Max, I optimized Search campaigns to also focus on brand visibility for trending and seasonal products. Search keywords were also supported by P-Max ads with assets from Google Merchant Center, improving ad placements for high-intent keywords and maximizing return on ad spend.

The Results

  • Revenue increased by 42%.

  • RoAS improved by 5-10% month on month, helping the brand achieve more value from its performance budget.