Case Study
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Hobbies Direct
How Firewire Cut Ad Spend by 20% and Grew Revenue by 77% for Hobbies Direct
Hobbies Direct is one of Australia’s leading online RC and hobby retailers, stocking thousands of RC cars, trucks, boats, planes, parts and model kits.
Industry: E-commerce / RC & Hobby
Location: Geelong, Victoria (servicing Australia-wide)
Services provided: Google Ads Management (Shopping & PMAX), SEO
Turn Search Into Your Most Profitable Channel
Data-driven search marketing strategies that deliver profitable traffic
OUR CHALLENGE
Hobbies Direct approached Firewire at a point when they realised they needed a more strategic, capable search marketing partner. They were looking for an agency that could take full ownership of both SEO and Google Ads, provide clear strategic direction, and deliver measurable growth — not just activity.
Their Google Ads account had grown messy and inefficient over time:
- Too many campaigns with limited budgets, spreading spend thin and slowing optimisation
- Poor-performing campaigns that were still spending, with no clear prioritisation or profitability analysis
- One-size-fits-all national targeting, which prevented higher-performing regions from being scaled effectively
- Brand traffic inflating results, due to no exclusions in campaigns intended to be non-brand
- Little attention to ICP targeting, allowing low-value demographics to chew through spend
At the same time, Hobbies Direct needed SEO improvements to ensure their organic traffic and category visibility would support long-term growth.
They weren’t just looking for another set of hands — they needed a search partner who could:
- Clean up the ad account
- Improve efficiency and profitability
- Build a scalable structure
- Support sustainable organic growth
- And become an extension of their internal team
Firewire’s job was to move them from scattered activity to focused, well-engineered search performance across both paid and organic channels.
Results
Growth Summary
Firewire’s approach focused on simplifying, tightening and aligning the account around intent and profit.
1. Restructuring the account for clarity and control
We rebuilt the account into a focused, tiered structure:
- Low-priority catch-all Standard Shopping campaign
- Captured broad and long-tail queries at a controlled cost
- Prevented generic traffic from competing with high-intent campaigns
- Targeted Performance Max campaign
- Focused on top performing products and categories
- Built with optimised feeds and high-quality creative assets
- Brand – Standard Shopping campaign
- Ring-fenced brand traffic into a dedicated brand shopping structure
- Ensured clean measurement of non-brand performance
- Brand Search campaign (modest, controlled spend)
- Protected the brand from competitor bidding
- Maintained strong visibility when customers searched “Hobbies Direct” by name
This structure gave us granular control over where the budget flowed and how each intent layer performed.
2. Cutting wasted spend and tightening targeting
To improve efficiency, we:
- Consolidated campaigns so budgets were meaningful and could generate statistically useful data
- Paused or restructured poor-performing campaigns that were spending without driving revenue
- Split geo targeting to prioritise top-performing regions and adjust bids where demand and margins were strongest
- Implemented brand exclusions so non-brand campaigns were measured on true non-brand performance
- Refined audience and demographic targeting to remove segments that consistently spent but didn’t convert
This shifted a large portion of the budget away from low-value clicks and into proven, high-intent segments.
3. Supporting paid success with organic growth
In parallel, Firewire supported the account with SEO and on-site improvements, helping to:
- Improve organic discoverability for key categories
- Strengthen non-paid visibility for high-intent RC and hobby terms
Over the engagement period, this contributed to a 38% increase in organic traffic, giving Hobbies Direct more revenue opportunities outside paid channels.
4. The impact on the numbers
The combination of structural changes and targeting refinements delivered a step-change in performance:
- Google Ads spend decreased by 20.36%, reducing wasted budget
- Revenue from Google Ads increased by 77.37%
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) more than doubled, as the account shifted from “busy” to “efficient and profitable”
- Organic traffic increased by 38%, strengthening overall visibility and reducing reliance on paid alone
Outcome
Hobbies Direct’s Google Ads account is now engineered for profitable scale rather than complexity for its own sake. We have done this by:
- Simplifying campaign structure
- Separating brand from non-brand
- Prioritising the best-performing regions and audiences
- And backing it all with steady SEO improvements
Firewire helped Hobbies Direct spend less, earn more and grow faster, solidifying their position as one of Australia’s go-to destinations for RC and hobby enthusiasts.
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