Growing Online Conversions 103% While Launching a Retail App From Zero
A multi-channel paid media strategy that increased online conversions, store visits, and app installs across two markets.
PROJECT AT A GLANCE
Industry
Natural Health & Wellness Retail
Location
Two Alberta Markets
Platforms
Google Ads, Meta Ads
Engagement
Multi-month
Focus
Ecommerce, Store Visits & App Growth
Goal
Grow customer acquisition efficiently across online and offline channels
Connecting Online Sales, Store Visits, and App Growth
A Canadian natural health and wellness retailer needed paid media to support several business objectives at the same time: drive online conversions, increase visits to physical stores, and launch a brand-new mobile app. With stores across two Alberta markets and strong competition in categories such as vitamins, supplements, and organic foods, the strategy needed to do more than generate traffic.
The objective was to build a connected paid media system that could support online sales, offline behaviour, and app adoption while continuously shifting budget toward the strongest opportunities.
Balancing Multiple Growth Goals Across Two Markets
Paid media had to accomplish three very different goals simultaneously.
The campaigns needed to:
- Generate online conversions across competitive wellness categories
- Drive measurable traffic to physical retail locations
- Launch an app with no historical install data or existing optimization baseline
- Manage performance independently across two markets with very different acquisition costs
- Balance evergreen product demand with seasonal promotions and changing customer behaviour
The challenge wasn’t simply generating more conversions. It was determining which channel, message, market, and objective deserved more investment at any given time.
Aligning Every Channel Around Customer Growth
Aligned Google Ads and Meta Ads around three priorities: online conversions, in-store traffic, and app adoption, while optimizing each market based on performance.
Connecting Online and In-Store Growth
Rather than treating ecommerce and retail traffic as separate strategies, Google Ads and Meta Ads were used together to support both.
Search and Performance Max captured high-intent demand while campaigns were optimized around online conversions, store visits, and other valuable customer actions.
This allowed paid media to contribute beyond website sales alone and support the retailer’s broader omnichannel goals.
Launching the App From Zero
The mobile app launched without an existing install base or historical performance data.
Google App campaigns and Meta were used to build awareness, generate initial engagement, and gradually optimize toward installs as more data became available.
Performance was monitored separately by market, with cost per install reaching $1.61 in Calgary vs. $4.93 in Edmonton. That difference helped guide budget allocation and market-specific optimization.
Following Customer Demand
Campaign performance showed that some product categories consistently generated stronger intent than others.
Health supplements and organic foods became important conversion drivers, while vitamins and supplements saw approximately 87% growth in conversions and organic-food conversions increased around 96% during the analyzed period.
Budget and optimization decisions followed those signals rather than spreading spend evenly across every category.
Using Creative and Market Data to Guide Spend
Seasonal, product-specific, and locally relevant creative often outperformed generic advertising, particularly around holiday periods and support-local messaging.
At the same time, performance was analyzed separately by market so differences in acquisition cost, app adoption, and customer behaviour could influence investment decisions.
This helped direct more budget toward stronger opportunities while giving weaker markets a different optimization plan.
Performance Highlights
+103% Online Conversions
Online conversion volume more than doubled month over month during a key growth period.
+104% Store Visits
Paid media contributed to significant growth in measurable visits to physical locations.
32% Lower Cost per Acquisition
Conversion growth was achieved while improving acquisition efficiency.
830 App Installs
The new app generated 830 installs at a $3.76 blended cost per install, falling to $1.61 in the stronger market.
Growth came from treating every channel as part of the same customer journey.
For an omnichannel retailer, online sales are only part of the picture. Paid media also needed to drive store traffic and build adoption for a brand-new app.
In this project:
Google captured high-intent demand.
Meta supported discovery and seasonal promotions.
Market-level data guided budget decisions.
App campaigns created a new customer acquisition channel from zero.
The result was growth across online conversions, store visits, and app installs rather than optimizing for a single platform metric.
Looking to Connect Paid Media With Real Business Growth?
Help businesses build paid media strategies around the outcomes that matter most, whether that is online sales, qualified leads, store visits, or customer acquisition.