Results

Results, and what audits find.

Each piece of evidence here is labelled for what it is, so you can judge it properly: measured results, audit findings from before any work, and full case studies.

Results: Measured outcomes for a stated period.
Audit findings: What an audit surfaced before any work. Findings only, with no targets or forecasts.
Case studies: One account, end to end, in Resources.

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Results

Measured outcomes, channel by channel.

One UAE account, March–May against June–August 2026.

01 / Amazon UAE

March–May vs June–August 2026 · Judged on total revenue and TACoS

Less paid dependence, without slowing sales.

The problem

We took on an account that was heavily invested in the brand’s own keywords. About 62% of tracked ad sales came from brand searches, and the spend was not built around finding new demand.

What we did

The job was to remove inefficient spend systematically. Brand-search spend came down 47% from July to August, with cost per click falling from AED 6.44 to AED 3.67 and most clicks retained. Selected non-brand searches were supported instead.

The outcome

Advertising spend: −15.8%; Less spent overall, including cheaper brand clicks.
Total revenue: +9.1%; Sales still grew: units sold rose 23% from 21% fewer sessions.
TACoS, from 12.8%: 9.9%; Each AED of sales now costs less to advertise.

Advertising spend · AED

Mar–May

24,727

Jun–Aug

20,816

Next: grow beyond branded demand with category and competitor searches.

02 / Noon Core · UAE

March–May vs June–August 2026 · Judged on ad revenue, ROAS and cost per order

One catch-all campaign became a structured portfolio.

The problem

One catch-all automatic campaign was carrying the whole account. Weak search terms and winning ones shared a single budget, so nothing could be cut or backed on its merits.

What we did

The campaign became a portfolio of separate brand, generic, competitor, category and product campaigns. Daily spend on 17 low-return terms was cut 85% (their prior ROAS was 0.65×), and daily ad sales on the winning query rose 81%.

The outcome

Revenue from ads: +17.3%; More sales attributed to ads, on far less spend.
Advertising spend: −49.3%; Cost per click fell from AED 5.00 to AED 2.67.
Advertising ROAS, from 1.53×: 3.54×; Cost per ad order fell from AED 53 to AED 24.

Revenue from ads · AED

Mar–May

40,822

Jun–Aug

47,890

The new campaigns supplied 56.6% of ad sales on 41.1% of spend, including some migrated demand. Explore Marketplace Advertising

03 / Noon Minutes · UAE

March–May vs June–August 2026 · Judged on trial packs sold and ad conversion

Quick commerce that turns trial into volume.

The problem

Noon Minutes is where shoppers try a product quickly, so the goal was trial volume. Ad clicks were converting at 19.6%, and new customers needed an easy first pack.

What we did

The work focused on trial packs and on turning clicks into orders, at an unchanged cost per ad order of about AED 22. Noon Minutes management also looks at keeping larger packs in reach through store availability and category visibility.

The outcome

Trial packs sold: +32%; Up from 3,045 to 4,014, now 62% of volume.
Ad conversion, from 19.6%: 23.4%; More ad clicks became orders, with new-to-brand orders holding steady.

Trial packs sold

Mar–May

3,045

Jun–Aug

4,014

Audit findings

What audits keep finding.

Amazon audits tend to show the same pattern: healthy headline numbers with something broken underneath. Each theme shows what the numbers were hiding before any work started.

A 12.5× ROAS fell to 3.5–4.6× once external ad spend was counted.

The brand sent social traffic to its Amazon listing, and the reported return counted only the Amazon ad spend. Amazon can’t see where a session came from, so more sessions with fewer orders reads as a listing losing relevance. The lower range applies at AED 2,000 to 3,000 a month of external spend.

Why it matters A headline efficiency number can be true and still mislead. The audit counts every source of spend.

12.5×Reported ROAS
3.5–4.6×With external spend counted
+33%Sessions in 30 days, while revenue fell 6.5%
−34%Conversion rate in 30 days

Clean-traffic days convert at 8–14%.Days with a burst of external traffic convert at about 2–3.5%.
About 12% of sessions produced about 40% of orders.Paid search converted at 18.9%; the rest of the traffic at 3.9%.

Advertising was aimed at shoppers already mid-journey, not at people searching the category.

About AED 1,300 a month went to product-page and competitor placements at 3.2×, and AED 0 to category search keywords. Revenue came from brand terms, targeting the brand’s own products and a thin share of category terms, with no structure for finding new buyers.

Why it matters An account can look efficient while it only recaptures demand it already has.

AED 0Category search spend
9Text search terms in 90 days
62%Of sales from brand terms
97%Auto-campaign rows with no conversion

Category terms converted at 27% to 100%.The automatic campaign found them on AED 1 to AED 99 of spend, with no manual campaign behind them.
Only 11 auto rows converted, mostly the brand’s own products finding each other.Nothing external was being discovered.
A second range ranked #4 in its category with 22% conversion on its top variant.It had no dedicated advertising.

Brand terms convert brilliantly because the audience is small.

Brand keywords held a 95% impression share at about AED 0.25 a click, which reflects limited search volume rather than a hard-won position. Brand clicks can also cost more than category clicks (about AED 6.3 against AED 5.9), which is consistent with competitors bidding on the brand name.

Why it matters A very high brand ROAS says little about growth, and a brand click that costs more than a category click says something about competition.

95%Brand impression share
100×+Brand-term ROAS on tiny volume
9.4×Brand ROAS on 62% of sales
+AED 0.35Brand over category cost per click

Money kept leaving through terms and campaigns that never returned it.

Irrelevant search terms in automatic and phrase campaigns, and zero-conversion spend on brand terms, drained budget every month. Individual-product campaigns returned about half the account average while taking about a third of the remaining budget.

Why it matters A healthy blended ROAS can carry bleeders for months. The audit lists each one with what it spent.

~180Irrelevant search terms with no conversions
~AED 280A month spent on those terms
AED 480Zero-conversion spend on brand terms
2.1× to 2.2×Individual-product campaigns, against 4.8× for the account

Structure hid problems that account averages never showed.

One brand keyword was split across 13 or more ad groups, with returns from 0.6× to 36× on the same keyword. The same negatives were repeated dozens of times, and keyword and negative lists conflicted with each other.

Why it matters Blended ROAS can look healthy while parts of the structure work against it.

0.6× to 36×Same keyword, different ad groups
13+Ad groups holding one brand keyword
~2,800Negative-keyword rows, the same terms negated 10 to 50 times
33Keywords with active spend that were also on the negative list

A campaign with a AED 300 daily budget spent nothing in 30 days.It was enabled and unexplained.

More traffic did not bring more revenue.

Revenue rose from about AED 23K in April to AED 29K in May as ad spend rose from about AED 100 to AED 1,200. In June, daily sessions climbed to 250–420 from 77–200, conversion fell from 6–14% to 2–7%, and revenue was tracking lower (June is an estimate from the daily run rate).

Why it matters Organic momentum can be real and still hit a ceiling. The audit separates traffic that converts from traffic that doesn’t.

AprilAbout AED 23KAd spend about AED 100Baseline
MayAbout AED 29KAd spend about AED 1,200Revenue up
June (est.)About AED 27.5KAd spend about AED 1,000Sessions up, revenue down

Most of the margin sat in one pack size.

Beyond the advertising brief, the unit economics showed a 12-pack earning about AED 82 a unit at a 74% contribution margin, against about AED 29 at 65% on the 4-pack that brings in new buyers. Fulfilment fees took 25% of the 4-pack price and 11% of the 12-pack price.

Why it matters Advertising decisions look different once each SKU’s margin is in view.

12-pack481 unitsRepeat-buyer formatAED 82 a unit
4-pack338 unitsNew-buyer formatAED 29 a unit

Identifying details removed and figures rounded for confidentiality. Findings reflect actual account data.

Go deeper.

Saddl OS supports the connected review. Marketplace Management puts agreed operating responsibilities with the Saddl team.

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