The Starting Point
When we took a hard look at OfficeGoods in the fall of 2024, the account was shrinking because we had capped spend to protect a TACoS target while revenue slid. The September 17, 2024 weekly update showed sales down 19.32% month over month, only 82.84% of prior year revenue to date, and TACoS at 18.32% against the 18% target. Our top selling tape dispenser had already fallen 40% over thirty days after Prime Day 2024, so we knew the decline was structural rather than a short seasonal dip. By late October 2024 we were spending around $9K monthly against $22K in the prior October, because holding TACoS at 18% on falling revenue mechanically starved the ads.
What The Work Looked Like
So on October 25, 2024 we pitched moving the client from a TACoS conversation to a budget conversation, and they agreed without balking at a $30K two month figure. We built a November plan of $16K, which was $11K on products already advertising plus $5K on green flagged products with inventory verified to survive a 2.5x lift. Through 2025 the work became inventory aware advertising, because stockouts kept breaking momentum, so we audited stock weekly, paused low stock listings, and shifted budget toward in stock top performers. In May 2025 we set simple rules, raising bids 20% on keywords running under a 20% advertising cost of sale and reworking every campaign that ran above 50%. June 2025 proved the approach, because ad spend fell 27.2% while return on ad spend rose 20.5% to $3.58 and TACoS dropped to 16.2% for the month. We then leaned into seasonal demand, and the August 1 to 10, 2025 back to school promotion at 10% off delivered $20,507 in sales on 1,144 units at 6.75% conversion.
What Moved
The efficiency turnaround was real, because TACoS went from 25.01% in November 2024 to 13.3% by mid August 2025, while July 2025 revenue of $60,398 grew 23.78% month over month. Excess inventory also came down from 20% to 5% across late 2025 because the team ran biweekly inventory meetings and aggressive clearance promotions ahead of the holiday events. By early 2026 the account was finally hitting plan, because January closed at $62,334 against a $65,000 target and February reached $59,416, which was 101.31% of goal. A fifteen day before and after test on the tape dispenser listing showed sessions up 29% and revenue up 22%, so the creative refresh clearly earned its keep. The fight is not finished, because stockouts still cost $4,133 in March 2026 and a gel pen packaging compliance issue froze a former hero product that spring. Still, June 2026 revenue of $48,610 landed only 0.4% below the prior year, so after two years of decline the account has essentially closed the year over year gap.
Every date and figure above comes from our own engagement logs, and the other case studies carry the same discipline with dashboards attached.