Cryosize.
Weight Management · Search Intent
A Ukrainian weight-loss campaign through Google Performance Max. Limited budget, narrow geo. The interesting result isn’t the headline ROI — it’s the platform-control discipline that kept a small budget profitable in a vertical where most campaigns lose money.
Geo
Ukraine
Source
Google · Performance Max
Period
7 weeks · Aug–Sep 2024
Tier
Pharmaceutical · Weight Management
The Setup
What we were working with.
The Problem
PMax campaigns default to app inventory and broad lookalikes. For nutra in a smaller market, that burns budget instantly. Most agencies leave defaults on and lose money.
The Audience
Women 45+ across regional Ukraine. Higher purchase intent than urban centers, lower competition for the same keywords.
Our Solution
Soft lifestyle copy. App placements disabled. Region-by-region segmentation so we could pause underperforming geos before they ate the budget.
The Mechanics
What drove the numbers.
What We Learned
The takeaways that repeat.
Soft hooks beat aggressive direct response
"Flat stomach" and "Say goodbye to belly" consistently outperformed urgency-based copy. Lifestyle framing reads as content; direct response reads as an ad.
Disabling app placements is non-optional in PMax
App inventory accounts for ~70% of PMax impressions by default and converts at a fraction of search. Disabling it cut CPL by ~40% on this run alone.
Region segmentation protected the budget
PMax usually spends evenly across geos. Region-by-region split let us pause expensive regions (Kyiv, Odesa) and re-allocate to cheaper-CPL regional cities.
Men also converted — counterintuitive
Audience was scoped to women 45+ but lookalikes pulled in men 40+ who converted at similar rates. Worth testing as a separate audience for the next run.
