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.

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.

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.

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 upliftoverall, despite lowering branded investment

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.