Amsive

The goal: Drive online sales without burning through budget

As the legendary purveyor of applewood smoked bacon, Nueske's has built its reputation in the restaurant and wholesale worlds. In response to the pandemic, the company placed greater emphasis on its direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel to build a robust e-commerce business in parallel with its traditional sales.

With the decision to accelerate its DTC growth, Nueske’s partnered with its digital agency team. Their mission? Reach high-intent shoppers and boost online revenue across multiple ad placements—without overspending. That’s where Microsoft Advertising stepped in, offering the tools and strategic support Amsive needed to make it happen.

The solution: Expanding reach with Performance Max

To take things up a notch, Amsive rolled out a Microsoft Performance Max campaign featuring Nueske’s entire product catalog.

Instead of starting from scratch, they smartly imported their existing Google setup, adapted it for Microsoft Advertising Platform, and added signals to guide the platform toward the right mix of search and audience placements.

Here’s how they did it...

• One campaign for all products: Amsive built a single Performance Max campaign, allowing the platform to test placements across all categories instead of limiting it to a small set.
• Smart targeting through keyword themes and customer signals: Layering in search themes and audience signals helped the system connect with the right shoppers while still leaving room for discovery.
• Managing bid strategies for conversions: From day one, Amsive enabled maximize conversions bidding to drive sales efficiently and support campaign learning during the early weeks.
• Crystal-clear tracking: Conversion tracking was in place from launch using Universal Event Tracking (UET), ensuring that insights were accurate and actionable across performance metrics.

With the groundwork in place, the campaign began delivering value in weeks, not months.

The results: Breakthrough performance, twice as fast

Right out of the gate, Performance Max proved itself as a powerhouse for Nueske’s DTC growth and early wins made it clear that Performance Max was quickly becoming one of their most effective channels...

• Return on ad spend rivaled branded campaigns. Performance Max delivered 1,042% ROAS, performing at the same level as branded search, while also expanding reach to customers beyond Nueske’s existing base.
• Faster profitability. The campaign became profitable in three weeks instead of the usual six, delivering results in half the time and freeing up budget to reinvest in additional campaigns.
• Share of budget and revenue grew. With nearly 20% of Microsoft Advertising budget now flowing into Performance Max, the campaign Amsive set up established DTC as a reliable driver of sales alongside wholesale.
• Higher conversion rates. Based on reporting in Magento and GA4, the campaign outperformed benchmarks with a 12% lift in conversion rates, reinforcing confidence in the DTC model.

Performance Max not only met Amsive’s client goal of scaling DTC revenue, but also became one of the highest-performing placements across all platforms, second only to branded search.

How you can achieve similar success

Want to see stronger results from your own campaigns? Follow Amsive’s lead:

• Use search themes to guide intent: Adding search themes helps campaigns better align with shopper queries while still capturing new opportunities.
• Strengthen campaigns with audience signals: Incorporating audience signals helps the system quickly identify interested buyers and improves relevance across placements.
• Let bidding strategies drive efficiency: Start with maximize conversions bidding to help campaigns ramp up quickly and deliver profitable results.