Zero to global. Built for international scale.

The Challenge

A product with 2 million users — and no paid acquisition engine to grow it.

This client is a browser-based fantasy map creation tool with a massive organic and community-driven user base. Over 15 million maps created. 2 million registered users. A product that essentially sells itself once someone tries it. The question wasn't product-market fit — that was proven. The question was: can we profitably acquire paying subscribers through paid search?

The brief was to build the account from the ground up across multiple markets — USA first, then Australia/New Zealand, then Germany — with a freemium conversion model and subscription revenue as the north star metric.

The Strategy

Five campaign types. One goal: paid subscriptions at positive unit economics.

We designed a full account architecture around five distinct campaign types — each targeting a different stage of the funnel and a different audience segment. Every ad group was themed tightly (≤5 closely related keywords), with RSA headline 1 pinned to the keyword theme for Quality Score efficiency from day one.

The negative keyword list was as important as the keyword list. Piracy terms, competitor brand names used incorrectly, unrelated map tools (Google Maps, Minecraft), and free-only intent signals were all blocked at the account level from day one — protecting every dollar of spend before the first impression was served.

What We Built

A machine designed to learn fast and scale without waste.

• USA launch — Brand campaign live within 48 hours of brief. Structure built for immediate tCPA graduation once volume thresholds were hit (50+ conversions/month).
• ANZ expansion — Full campaign suite rebuilt for AUD pricing and local search behavior. Budget in local currency, geo-targeted to AU + NZ, with adapted ad copy for market nuance.
• Germany build — Separate account structure for German-language search. Ad copy localized (not just translated), keyword research rebuilt for German search patterns around fantasy mapping and tabletop gaming.
• Quality Score architecture — Every ad group limited to ≤5 closely related keywords. RSA headlines pinned to keyword themes. All URLs pointed to the most relevant page per intent.
• Asset library — Sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets built per campaign with messaging tailored to funnel stage (brand = trust, pricing = value, acquisition = features).

Why It Works

The product does the selling. Paid search just has to put it in front of the right people.

With a freemium model, the conversion funnel is: paid click → free signup → product experience → paid subscription. That means the job of the ad isn't to close the sale — it's to get the right person to try the product. Qualification happens in the product, not in the ad.

That changes the keyword strategy significantly. High-intent acquisition terms ("fantasy map maker", "D&D battle map creator") are worth more than broad worldbuilding terms because they signal tool-shopping behavior. Someone searching for a map maker is much closer to subscribing than someone searching "how to build a fantasy world."

The account was structured to push budget aggressively toward proven high-intent segments while treating lower-intent campaigns as learning opportunities with guarded spend — and to graduate each campaign to tCPA bidding as soon as conversion data allowed.