Brand background

Only Curls is a UK-based haircare brand designed for people with curly, wavy, and textured hair. With clean, sulfate-free formulas and curl-enhancing ingredients, the brand promotes natural curl confidence with an inclusive, cruelty-free ethos.

The challenge

While Only Curls had cultivated strong brand affinity, its Google Ads account was overly reliant on branded traffic. Branded search and shopping campaigns accounted for over 80% of total spend, inflating ROAS and masking the channel’s true potential for attracting new customers.

Non-brand reach was limited, and share of voice across competitive product and informational searches was nearly invisible. The brand needed a shift from bottom-of-funnel efficiency to full-funnel customer acquisition.

Our strategy: flip the funnel & maximize discovery

We rebuilt the Google Ads account from the ground up, shifting from brand-heavy performance to a non-brand growth engine. Our strategy centred around four core pillars:

1. Rebalancing the funnel

We reduced branded spend from 80% to just 17%, restructuring campaigns to tightly control budget allocation:

• Brand was isolated within dedicated Search and Shopping campaigns.
• Performance Max (PMax) and Standard Shopping were re-engineered to focus solely on non-brand prospecting.

This shift allowed us to allocate 83% of spend toward new customer acquisition, targeting users earlier in the funnel.

2. Capturing intent with non-brand search & Shopping

We broadened non-brand coverage and maximized share of voice by:

• Expanding top and mid-funnel non-brand queries aligned with early research and product discovery phases
• Focusing on informational content (e.g. haircare routines, curl maintenance) and high-intent product searches relevant to curly hair
• Enhancing Shopping performance with A/B-tested product titles, hero images, and optimised feed structure

3. YouTube & PMax: fueling full-funnel demand creation

While Search and Shopping helped capture in-market demand, we also needed to generate awareness and interest among new audiences.

• YouTube became our top-of-funnel engine. We launched a mix of Shorts and landscape video ads, targeting users exploring curly hair tutorials, product routines, and natural hair care
• We used PMax to bridge mid- to bottom-funnel, excluding branded terms
• Layered in curly-hair audience signals, refined asset groups, and aligned Shopping, Display, and Search assets
• Tracked impact via post-purchase surveys and third-party attribution

Together, YouTube and PMax worked in sync with non-brand Search, turning curiosity into conversion.

The results

A year of structured experimentation, full-funnel thinking, and relentless optimization led to explosive growth:

• +73.7% total revenue growth from Google Ads
• 5X increase in non-branded revenue
• +108% more non-brand conversions
• +34.8% growth in non-brand revenue share
• 2.32X ROAS from YouTube
• +7.4% ROAS uplift overall, despite lowering branded investment

Why this matters

This transformation wasn’t just about performance; it was about unlocking new audiences, reframing how the brand grows, and turning Google Ads into a true engine for customer acquisition.

By flipping the funnel, investing in discovery, and combining precision with creative storytelling, Only Curls is now reaching and converting more curly-haired consumers than ever before with Google Ads.