From Inherited Waste to Profitable Engine: How We Rebuilt Bully Sticks Direct's Paid Search

Same story, more of the right people, far less cost to win each one.

Client

Bully Sticks Direct

Duration

Ongoing

Date

Jun 4, 2026

From Inherited Waste to Profitable Engine: How We Rebuilt Bully Sticks Direct's Paid Search

Same story, more of the right people, far less cost to win each one.

Client

Bully Sticks Direct

Duration

Ongoing

Date

Jun 4, 2026

Profile portrait of a man in a white shirt against a light background

Michael McBride

Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce

Profile portrait of a man in a white shirt against a light background

Michael McBride

Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce

We did not just keep the lights on after the handover. We rebuilt the account around how people actually shop for dog chews, cut the spend that was not earning, and roughly doubled the return on the same kind of budget

We did not just keep the lights on after the handover. We rebuilt the account around how people actually shop for dog chews, cut the spend that was not earning, and roughly doubled the return on the same kind of budget

The Challenge

Bully Sticks Direct came to Atelier Commerce mid-flight: a live, spending paid search account inherited from a previous agency, in a category that punishes any inefficiency.

A brutal, high-competition category. Bully sticks is not a quiet niche. The head term draws tens of thousands of searches a month, carries the maximum competition index, and commands click costs that routinely run several dollars and spike higher at the brand and bulk end. Big-box marketplaces and a dozen direct competitors bid against the same queries, and demand is sharply seasonal, peaking hard in the Q4 gifting window. There is no room for a sloppy account here. An inherited structure built for spend, not efficiency. The account we took over relied on broad Performance Max campaigns segmented only by order value, with brand and acquisition demand blended together. Cost per conversion was high and surface metrics were moving in the wrong direction even as spend grew. The structure was capturing demand, but it was not concentrating on the budget where it earned the most. An underdeveloped second channel. Microsoft Ads (Bing) was live but thin, returning well below its potential on a lower-competition surface where the same buyers shop. The brief: take over the account cleanly, find and stop the waste, rebuild the architecture around real product lines and buyer intent, and lift both channels to a return that reflects the brand's strong economics, all without blowing up the budget.

The Challenge

Bully Sticks Direct came to Atelier Commerce mid-flight: a live, spending paid search account inherited from a previous agency, in a category that punishes any inefficiency.

A brutal, high-competition category. Bully sticks is not a quiet niche. The head term draws tens of thousands of searches a month, carries the maximum competition index, and commands click costs that routinely run several dollars and spike higher at the brand and bulk end. Big-box marketplaces and a dozen direct competitors bid against the same queries, and demand is sharply seasonal, peaking hard in the Q4 gifting window. There is no room for a sloppy account here. An inherited structure built for spend, not efficiency. The account we took over relied on broad Performance Max campaigns segmented only by order value, with brand and acquisition demand blended together. Cost per conversion was high and surface metrics were moving in the wrong direction even as spend grew. The structure was capturing demand, but it was not concentrating on the budget where it earned the most. An underdeveloped second channel. Microsoft Ads (Bing) was live but thin, returning well below its potential on a lower-competition surface where the same buyers shop. The brief: take over the account cleanly, find and stop the waste, rebuild the architecture around real product lines and buyer intent, and lift both channels to a return that reflects the brand's strong economics, all without blowing up the budget.

The System

A paid search takeover and rebuild, structured around the catalog.

Clean takeover and audit. We assumed control of the Google Ads and Microsoft Ads accounts, mapped exactly where spend was going, and identified the generic, order-value-only Performance Max structure and the blended brand and acquisition demand as the core efficiency leaks. Themed Performance Max, built around the catalog. Instead of one broad high-value and one low-value campaign, we rebuilt Performance Max around the actual product lines that matter to buyers. This let budget, creative, and signals concentrate by product type, so each line could be read and optimized on its own merits rather than averaged into a generic pool. Brand separated and protected. We pulled Brand Search into its own lean campaign so we could defend the brand term cheaply against competitors bidding on it, and so acquisition performance was no longer flattered by brand conversions. Brand Search became the single most efficient line in the account. Demand Gen for the top of funnel. We added Demand Gen to reach cold, in-market dog owners at scale and feed the lower-funnel campaigns, a far better fit than the inherited display remarketing that had been doing little. Tightened acquisition and competitor layers. Dynamic Search and a disciplined competitor campaign rounded out coverage, kept efficient and capped so they supported rather than drained the account. Microsoft Ads rebuilt in parallel. We applied the same structural logic to Bing, treating it as a real channel rather than an afterthought. Return on ad spend there more than doubled on a lower-competition surface where acquisition costs are friendlier. Connected to the full ecosystem. Paid search does not work alone here. It feeds a BigCommerce store wired into a mature Klaviyo email and SMS program, a Smile loyalty engine, and a branded app. New paid customers enter a system designed to bring them back, which is what makes aggressive acquisition economically rational.

The System

A paid search takeover and rebuild, structured around the catalog.

Clean takeover and audit. We assumed control of the Google Ads and Microsoft Ads accounts, mapped exactly where spend was going, and identified the generic, order-value-only Performance Max structure and the blended brand and acquisition demand as the core efficiency leaks. Themed Performance Max, built around the catalog. Instead of one broad high-value and one low-value campaign, we rebuilt Performance Max around the actual product lines that matter to buyers. This let budget, creative, and signals concentrate by product type, so each line could be read and optimized on its own merits rather than averaged into a generic pool. Brand separated and protected. We pulled Brand Search into its own lean campaign so we could defend the brand term cheaply against competitors bidding on it, and so acquisition performance was no longer flattered by brand conversions. Brand Search became the single most efficient line in the account. Demand Gen for the top of funnel. We added Demand Gen to reach cold, in-market dog owners at scale and feed the lower-funnel campaigns, a far better fit than the inherited display remarketing that had been doing little. Tightened acquisition and competitor layers. Dynamic Search and a disciplined competitor campaign rounded out coverage, kept efficient and capped so they supported rather than drained the account. Microsoft Ads rebuilt in parallel. We applied the same structural logic to Bing, treating it as a real channel rather than an afterthought. Return on ad spend there more than doubled on a lower-competition surface where acquisition costs are friendlier. Connected to the full ecosystem. Paid search does not work alone here. It feeds a BigCommerce store wired into a mature Klaviyo email and SMS program, a Smile loyalty engine, and a branded app. New paid customers enter a system designed to bring them back, which is what makes aggressive acquisition economically rational.

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Let’s bring your vision to life

Our approach brings marketing, experience, and retention into alignment so each stage of the journey performs with greater precision. Reach out and begin your journey with us.

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Contact us

Let’s bring your vision to life

Our approach brings marketing, experience, and retention into alignment so each stage of the journey performs with greater precision. Reach out and begin your journey with us.

Extreme close-up black and white photograph of a human eye

Contact us

Let’s bring your vision to life

Our approach brings marketing, experience, and retention into alignment so each stage of the journey performs with greater precision. Reach out and begin your journey with us.

Extreme close-up black and white photograph of a human eye

Contact us