Michael McBride
Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce
Michael McBride
Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce
In a category full of look-alikes, the brand that wins is the one that tells the truest story to the right people, efficiently. Alicia Adams had the truest story in alpaca. Our job was to build the paid engine that could carry it, so the farm, the founder, and the craft did the selling, and the numbers proved it.
In a category full of look-alikes, the brand that wins is the one that tells the truest story to the right people, efficiently. Alicia Adams had the truest story in alpaca. Our job was to build the paid engine that could carry it, so the farm, the founder, and the craft did the selling, and the numbers proved it.
The Challenge
Alicia Adams Alpaca came to Atelier Commerce as a genuinely premium, high-AOV brand in a category crowded with look-alikes, and with paid media that was not yet built to scale its real advantage.
A crowded category of importers and resellers. Alpaca home and apparel is a busy field where many brands compete largely on price and on imported goods. Alicia Adams Alpaca is different in a way that matters, family-owned, farm-to-finished, a herd of 200 Suri alpacas in the Hudson Valley, ethical and sustainable, but that difference was not doing enough work inside the advertising. A Google Ads account working against itself. The account had grown into roughly two dozen overlapping campaigns: duplicate and legacy Performance Max builds, broad dynamic-search catch-alls, and unclear separation between brand demand and new acquisition. Budget was being spread thin across redundant structures rather than concentrated where intent and return were highest. A paid social program without a full-funnel spine. Meta activity existed, but without a clean prospecting, mid-funnel, and remarketing architecture, and without a disciplined creative-testing engine to keep finding what actually resonated for a high consideration, high-AOV purchase. A high-AOV purchase that needs trust, not discounts. When a throw or a coat carries a luxury price, the buyer needs to believe in the craft and the source. Leaning on promo-led creative would have cheapened the brand and trained the audience to wait for sales. The work had to sell the story, not the discount. The brief: rebuild Google Ads into a clean, intent-led system; build a true full-funnel paid social program; let the farm, founder, and craft lead the creative; and scale profitably in a crowded category without buying growth with brute-force spend.
The Challenge
Alicia Adams Alpaca came to Atelier Commerce as a genuinely premium, high-AOV brand in a category crowded with look-alikes, and with paid media that was not yet built to scale its real advantage.
A crowded category of importers and resellers. Alpaca home and apparel is a busy field where many brands compete largely on price and on imported goods. Alicia Adams Alpaca is different in a way that matters, family-owned, farm-to-finished, a herd of 200 Suri alpacas in the Hudson Valley, ethical and sustainable, but that difference was not doing enough work inside the advertising. A Google Ads account working against itself. The account had grown into roughly two dozen overlapping campaigns: duplicate and legacy Performance Max builds, broad dynamic-search catch-alls, and unclear separation between brand demand and new acquisition. Budget was being spread thin across redundant structures rather than concentrated where intent and return were highest. A paid social program without a full-funnel spine. Meta activity existed, but without a clean prospecting, mid-funnel, and remarketing architecture, and without a disciplined creative-testing engine to keep finding what actually resonated for a high consideration, high-AOV purchase. A high-AOV purchase that needs trust, not discounts. When a throw or a coat carries a luxury price, the buyer needs to believe in the craft and the source. Leaning on promo-led creative would have cheapened the brand and trained the audience to wait for sales. The work had to sell the story, not the discount. The brief: rebuild Google Ads into a clean, intent-led system; build a true full-funnel paid social program; let the farm, founder, and craft lead the creative; and scale profitably in a crowded category without buying growth with brute-force spend.
The System
A paid media rebuild across two engines, anchored on one authentic brand story.
Google Ads restructured around intent and product. We consolidated roughly two dozen overlapping campaigns into a clean, intent-led architecture. Brand Search runs lean and captures existing demand at very high efficiency. A Competitors campaign contests the crowded category directly. Performance Max is segmented by how people actually shop the catalog, throws and blankets, women's apparel, categories, and colour signals, rather than one undifferentiated build. Demand Gen extends reach to new audiences. The result concentrated budget where intent and return were highest. Feed quality with Feedonomics. The product catalog is managed through Feedonomics, so Shopping and Performance Max see a clean, complete, well-attributed feed. In a category where many competitors run thin or messy feeds, feed quality is a direct competitive advantage in the auction. Honest measurement with Littledata. Littledata provides server-side tracking from Shopify Plus into Google Analytics 4 and the ad platforms, reducing the distortion from cookie loss, ad blockers, and bot traffic. Optimization runs on real transactions, so every decision is made on numbers the team can trust. A full-funnel paid social program on Meta. We built the paid social engine the brand was missing: top-of-funnel prospecting (including audience splits such as home-intent and female-skewed segments), mid-funnel, remarketing and dynamic product remarketing, and Advantage+ Shopping. The objective set is dominated by Outcome Sales optimizing for offsite conversions with a Shop Now call to action, running across Facebook and Instagram to a core audience of women 18 to 65. Creative that leads with the farm, the founder, and the craft. This is how the brand gets ahead of the importers. Across the account, the winning creative speaks in the brand's own voice: "from our family farm to your home," "family owned," "crafted with care," "ethical and sustainable," "effortless sophistication," and "artisanal excellence," with baby-alpaca quality shown up close. Formats span video and link creative, carousels, and collections. Promotional creative is used deliberately and seasonally (Black Friday, Valentine's, holiday gifting) rather than as the default, so the brand sells its story first and its sale second. A continuous creative-testing engine. Dedicated creative-testing campaigns run on an ongoing cadence, full-funnel creative testing and Advantage+ test cells, so the program keeps discovering which messages, formats, and hero products resonate for a high-consideration luxury purchase. This is what keeps a premium brand fresh without resorting to discounting. Audiences from GA4 and Klaviyo, used for targeting only. GA4 and Klaviyo segments feed both engines purely for targeting and remarketing, sharper signals on who to reach and who to bring back. Klaviyo's role here is audience targeting, not lifecycle revenue; the email and SMS revenue engine is a separate workstream. One system, connected. A clean Feedonomics feed sharpens Shopping and PMax, Littledata keeps the data honest, Google captures and extends high-intent demand, Meta builds and re-engages the audience full-funnel, and a single authentic creative voice ties it all together, so a high-AOV brand scales profitably in a crowded category.
The System
A paid media rebuild across two engines, anchored on one authentic brand story.
Google Ads restructured around intent and product. We consolidated roughly two dozen overlapping campaigns into a clean, intent-led architecture. Brand Search runs lean and captures existing demand at very high efficiency. A Competitors campaign contests the crowded category directly. Performance Max is segmented by how people actually shop the catalog, throws and blankets, women's apparel, categories, and colour signals, rather than one undifferentiated build. Demand Gen extends reach to new audiences. The result concentrated budget where intent and return were highest. Feed quality with Feedonomics. The product catalog is managed through Feedonomics, so Shopping and Performance Max see a clean, complete, well-attributed feed. In a category where many competitors run thin or messy feeds, feed quality is a direct competitive advantage in the auction. Honest measurement with Littledata. Littledata provides server-side tracking from Shopify Plus into Google Analytics 4 and the ad platforms, reducing the distortion from cookie loss, ad blockers, and bot traffic. Optimization runs on real transactions, so every decision is made on numbers the team can trust. A full-funnel paid social program on Meta. We built the paid social engine the brand was missing: top-of-funnel prospecting (including audience splits such as home-intent and female-skewed segments), mid-funnel, remarketing and dynamic product remarketing, and Advantage+ Shopping. The objective set is dominated by Outcome Sales optimizing for offsite conversions with a Shop Now call to action, running across Facebook and Instagram to a core audience of women 18 to 65. Creative that leads with the farm, the founder, and the craft. This is how the brand gets ahead of the importers. Across the account, the winning creative speaks in the brand's own voice: "from our family farm to your home," "family owned," "crafted with care," "ethical and sustainable," "effortless sophistication," and "artisanal excellence," with baby-alpaca quality shown up close. Formats span video and link creative, carousels, and collections. Promotional creative is used deliberately and seasonally (Black Friday, Valentine's, holiday gifting) rather than as the default, so the brand sells its story first and its sale second. A continuous creative-testing engine. Dedicated creative-testing campaigns run on an ongoing cadence, full-funnel creative testing and Advantage+ test cells, so the program keeps discovering which messages, formats, and hero products resonate for a high-consideration luxury purchase. This is what keeps a premium brand fresh without resorting to discounting. Audiences from GA4 and Klaviyo, used for targeting only. GA4 and Klaviyo segments feed both engines purely for targeting and remarketing, sharper signals on who to reach and who to bring back. Klaviyo's role here is audience targeting, not lifecycle revenue; the email and SMS revenue engine is a separate workstream. One system, connected. A clean Feedonomics feed sharpens Shopping and PMax, Littledata keeps the data honest, Google captures and extends high-intent demand, Meta builds and re-engages the audience full-funnel, and a single authentic creative voice ties it all together, so a high-AOV brand scales profitably in a crowded category.
Latest projects
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
Latest projects
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
