Peak Performance

During the peak sales period, THG significantly increased Google Ads investment to support new campaign launches. With higher paid search media investment, changing promotions and fluctuating product availability, maintaining performance required constant monitoring and optimisation.

Squared.io supported THG by automating critical checks, surfacing performance risks, and reducing manual workload - allowing the team to stay in control during peak while focusing on proactive optimisation.

The challenge

Peak trading periods such as Black Friday create intense operational pressure on paid search teams. Budgets increase rapidly, campaigns are launched at pace with offers and availability changing frequently - all within a short, high-stakes window. For THG, this meant:

• An increased risk of inefficiency as spend ramped up, particularly within Performance Max where weaker channels, low quality placements and less relevant queries could absorb budget
• Additional complexity from website and product changes requiring constant validation to ensure ads were driving to live, relevant pages
• A greater likelihood of operational risk with new campaigns, ads and keywords going live daily. Missed settings, incorrect messaging, or blocked traffic could quickly lead to wasted spend or lost revenue
• Significant time demands on teams to cover essential checks and maintenance, limiting the ability to focus on strategic, performance-driving optimisations during peak

The solution

To support THG through the peak season, Squared.io was deployed to automate essential safeguards and surface critical performance insights at scale. Campaign setup was streamlined through automation which corrected settings and applied key negatives. Squared.io ran 60 daily health checks, alerting the team to issues impacting performance or delivery. Additional support included:

• URL monitoring with every active landing page reviewed daily and broken links flagged to reduce wasted spend and poor user journeys
• Performance Max channel monitoring for budget allocation (e.g., over-prioritisation of video) likely to negatively impact results
• Ad copy validation with daily checks identifying outdated messaging still in rotation so it could be removed quickly
• Brand safety automation excluding low-quality and high-risk placements to protect performance and brand integrity as reach expanded
• Query intelligence using Squared.io’s n-gram analysis to rapidly identify emerging query trends as well as underperforming themes to exclude

The results

By automating time-critical checks and highlighting risks in real time, Squared.io helped THG maintain control during their peak sales period - reducing wasted spend, minimising errors and freeing the team to focus on proactive optimisation when it mattered most. Throughout November:

• 40% of time spent on tasks was reallocated to other optimisations
• 984 automation options were enabled and running daily across THG accounts
• 140,000 exclusions were automatically applied against high-risk and low-quality placements
• 580 email alerts were sent covering account insights, URL issues, ad flags, and channel spend anomalies