Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 02.09.2026 
SOUP Agency has been named a finalist at the Global Search Awards 2026 for our work with Bay Gallery Furniture, shortlisted in the Best Use of Search – Retail / Ecommerce (PPC): Small category.
Our nominated campaign, “Turning Google Ads Into a Commercial Growth Engine,” was built around a challenge that many growing retailers face: how do you increase media investment and generate more revenue without sacrificing efficiency?
For us, the answer was not simply to spend more. It was to build a more connected Google Ads strategy around how customers actually research, compare and buy, and to measure success against the commercial impact being created.
The result was a stronger Q4 2025 for Bay Gallery Furniture and recognition from one of the global search industry’s leading awards programs.
The Results at a Glance
Compared with the same quarter in the previous year:
- Media investment increased 33%
- Revenue increased 48%
- ROAS improved 11%
- Average order value increased 12%
Revenue grew faster than media investment while ROAS and average order value also improved. For our team, that combination was particularly important because it showed that scale and efficiency did not have to work against each other.
Who We Are
SOUP is a senior-led independent digital marketing agency helping brands turn digital activity into measurable business growth. Our work spans paid media, SEO, social, email, content and digital strategy, but we do not see those channels as isolated disciplines. Each one needs to have a clear role in the broader customer journey and, ultimately, contribute to the outcomes that matter to the business.
We believe stronger performance usually comes from making better decisions earlier, from understanding what customers are looking for to deciding where budget should go and how success should be measured. That approach shaped our work with Bay Gallery Furniture and became central to the campaign we entered into the Global Search Awards.
The Challenge: Scaling Premium Retail Without Sacrificing Efficiency
Furniture is rarely an impulse purchase, particularly at the premium end of the market. Customers can spend time researching styles, comparing products, revisiting the website and visiting a showroom before they feel ready to buy, which means the final purchase does not always show the full journey that led to it.
That challenge became even more pronounced during Q4, when Black Friday, Christmas and Boxing Day brought heavier promotional activity and increased competition across the retail market. Bay Gallery Furniture needed to capitalise on that demand without simply increasing spend and accepting lower efficiency as the cost of growth.
Our objective was clear but commercially demanding: increase investment and revenue while maintaining or improving efficiency and average order value.
Turning Google Ads Into a Commercial Growth Engine
SOUP developed a Google Ads strategy around the different stages of Bay Gallery Furniture’s customer journey. Rather than expecting every campaign to deliver the same result, each campaign type was given a clearer commercial role:
- Performance Max supported product visibility and conversion value at scale.
- Brand Search helped capture and reinforce existing demand.
- Generic Search reached customers actively researching furniture categories.
- Shopping campaigns supported product-led comparison.
- Demand Gen helped Bay Gallery remain visible earlier in the consideration journey.
The important part was not simply using multiple campaign types. It was understanding how they worked together across discovery, consideration, comparison and purchase rather than judging each campaign in isolation.
Measurement was equally important. Assisted conversion analysis and Triple Whale data helped us look beyond platform reporting and build a broader picture of the purchase journey, particularly where digital activity may have influenced showroom visits or in-store behaviour.
That wider view gave the team greater confidence when deciding where to maintain or increase investment, including campaigns contributing to demand even when they were not receiving credit for the final click.
Growth Without Giving Up Efficiency
A 33% increase in media investment generated 48% revenue growth, meaning revenue increased at a faster rate than spend. At the same time, ROAS improved by 11%, while average order value increased by 12%.
Scaling a PPC account is one thing. Scaling while simultaneously strengthening efficiency is much harder. The results demonstrated that growth could come from improving how different parts of the account worked together rather than simply increasing budget behind the campaigns reporting the strongest last-click return.
What Being a Global Search Awards Finalist Means to SOUP
Being named a Global Search Awards finalist is significant for the entire SOUP team because it recognises the thinking behind the performance as much as the final numbers. Successful campaigns are built through ongoing testing, analysis, collaboration and a willingness to challenge what the data appears to say at first glance.
“Being recognised by the Global Search Awards alongside leading search teams from around the world is incredibly meaningful to us. This nomination reflects not only the results, but the strategy, testing, measurement and collaboration behind them. It is recognition our whole team can be proud of, and it would not have been possible without the trust Bay Gallery Furniture placed in us to keep challenging how performance could be measured and scaled.”Katya Vakulenko – CEO of SOUP Agency
For us, the nomination also reflects the kind of work we want to continue doing as an agency: connecting media performance more closely with commercial outcomes and making decisions based on the wider customer journey rather than a single attribution model.
Most importantly, it is shared recognition. Strong agency work depends on strong client partnerships, and this campaign would not have been possible without the collaboration and trust of the Bay Gallery Furniture team.
What This Campaign Tells Us About the Future of Search
Search is becoming more automated, but that does not make strategy less important. As platforms take on more bidding, targeting and optimisation through automation and machine learning, marketers need to become better at defining the right objectives, interpreting the signals available and connecting platform activity back to wider business performance.
For us, the Bay Gallery Furniture campaign reinforced three things about where search is heading:
- Scale and efficiency do not always need to compete. The right structure, measurement and investment decisions can allow both to improve.
- Last-click performance cannot explain every customer journey. This is especially true for considered purchases involving multiple digital and offline touchpoints.
- Campaign types need commercial roles. The key question is not simply which campaign reported the highest ROAS, but what each campaign contributed to moving the customer towards a purchase.
As search platforms become more automated, that wider commercial thinking will become even more important. The technology may handle more of the optimisation, but marketers still need to understand the customer, interpret performance and decide what growth should actually look like.
Looking Ahead to the Global Search Awards
We are proud to see SOUP and Bay Gallery Furniture recognised alongside search teams and agencies from around the world. The Global Search Awards ceremony takes place in Dublin on 23 September 2026, where the winners will be announced, but making the shortlist is already meaningful recognition for everyone involved.
Whatever the result, the campaign has reinforced the value of looking beyond isolated platform metrics and focusing on the commercial impact search can create across the customer journey. You can learn more about SOUP Agency or follow SOUP Agency on LinkedIn to see more of what our team is working on.
