Skin Spot (Google Ads)

Skin Spot is a South African e-commerce store in the Cosmetic and Personal Care industry, specialises in clinically backed skincare products. Their product range includes active ingredients and targeted treatments, many of which fall under Google’s restricted or policy-sensitive categories. As a result, marketing through Google Ads presented both compliance and performance challenges.

51%

increase in Purchases

5%

increase in Revenue

31%

improvement in Cost per Conversions

Brief & Objectives

Skin Spot engaged Ruby Digital to restructure and grow their Google Ads campaigns for their e-commerce skincare store. While their previous setup included some Shopping campaigns and branded Search campaigns, the account lacked a comprehensive strategy aligned with Google Ads best practices. There was no active presence in high-intent non-branded Search, limited campaign segmentation, and underutilisation of strategic audience signals.

The primary objective was to rebuild the account with a full-funnel strategy that included non-branded Search, better-structured Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns, each designed to drive incremental revenue, improve ROAS, and create a more scalable paid media system.

Our objectives were to:

Gain consistent campaign delivery while remaining fully compliant
Maintain or improve ROAS despite product restrictions
Build scalable, brand-safe campaign structures
Recover from short-term performance dip and return to profitability

Challenges

When Ruby Digital took over Google Ads management in January 2025, the account faced several immediate obstacles:

Ad Disapprovals from Personal Health Restrictions
Many top-performing products contained ingredients or claims flagged by Google’s ad policies, leading to campaign disapprovals and suppressed impressions.
Limited Visibility on Hero Products
Products like retinols, acids, and clinical SPFs – often core to customer demand – couldn’t be promoted via Search or Shopping due to ingredient restrictions.
Initial Instability During Policy Realignment
In the first month of optimisation (February), campaigns were adjusted for compliance, which led to a temporary performance dip while key terms, landing pages, and ads were revised.
Ad Disapprovals from Personal Health Restrictions
Many top-performing products contained ingredients or claims flagged by Google’s ad policies, leading to campaign disapprovals and suppressed impressions.
Initial Instability During Policy Realignment
In the first month of optimisation (February), campaigns were adjusted for compliance, which led to a temporary performance dip while key terms, landing pages, and ads were revised.

Our Solutions

To stabilise and scale performance under tight policy constraints, we implemented:

Granular Campaign Structuring
Each campaign was grouped by brand, product category, or skin condition. This allowed us to scale safe products without risking entire campaigns being flagged.
Ad Copy Sanitisation + Testing
We removed or replaced health-sensitive keywords and clinical phrases, while testing multiple copy variants that still conveyed product value and trust.
Feed Optimisation & Landing Page Reviews
Product feeds were refined to avoid disapprovals, while landing pages were edited to reduce policy violations (without compromising UX or SEO).
ROAS-Based Budget Reallocation
Once compliant campaigns stabilised, we directed budget toward the highest-performing brands and categories to maximise conversion value.

Results

Since taking over in January 2025, Ruby Digital successfully restructured Skin Spot’s Google Ads campaigns to overcome ongoing policy violations and restore performance. After an initial dip in February caused by strategic adjustments for compliance, the account saw a strong recovery in March with a 120% increase in conversions and a 261.64% jump in ROAS. This momentum was sustained across April and May, with ROAS consistently above the industry standard and stable monthly conversion volumes. Through precise campaign segmentation, compliant ad messaging, and performance-focused optimisations, Skin Spot was able to maintain profitability and growth in a heavily regulated e-commerce category. The account now operates with a scalable structure that delivers predictable performance across approved product lines, making it resilient to ongoing platform policy changes.

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