Hat Heaven Partners with HawkSEM to Drive 66% Revenue Growth and Nearly 50% ROAS Lift Across Google Ads

Ecommerce Apparel Retailer | PPC Case Study

About Hat Heaven

Hat Heaven is a premier online destination for licensed and exclusive headwear, specializing in fitted hats, snapbacks, and adjustable caps across MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, and Minor League Baseball. With a deep catalog of New Era 59FIFTY fitted hats, team-specific designs, and exclusive collaborations, Hat Heaven has built a loyal customer base of sports fans, streetwear enthusiasts, and collectors who value authentic, high-quality headwear.

The Goal

Hat Heaven partnered with HawkSEM to scale Google Ads revenue and new customer acquisition while improving return on ad spend (ROAS) across an increasingly competitive paid media landscape in retail headwear and apparel. The brand wanted to expand beyond a Standard Shopping-heavy structure into a fully diversified, season-aware portfolio that could capitalize on the natural sports calendars without sacrificing efficiency.

The Challenge:

Hat Heaven’s Google Ads account was running a relatively narrow campaign mix with limited Performance Max coverage, an underdeveloped Non-Branded Search presence, and minimal upper-funnel awareness investment.

Conversion rate sat below 1%, ROAS hovered around 3.74x, and cost per conversion was climbing. Customer acquisition was concentrated in a small set of evergreen Standard Shopping campaigns, leaving meaningful volume on the table during peak sports moments and holiday shopping windows.

The brand needed an agency that could rebuild the account architecture from the ground up, layer in new campaign types, and align media spend tightly with the sports calendar, all while maintaining profitability through major promotional events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and MLB Opening Day.

The Results

68%

Conversions increased YoY

46%

ROAS improved YoY

148%

Conversion rate jumped YoY

The Solution

After a comprehensive audit of the existing account, our team rebuilt Hat Heaven’s Google Ads architecture around three core pillars: seasonally-aligned campaign structure, tighter audience and bidding controls, and a fully developed upper-funnel layer to feed new customer acquisition.

We launched dedicated Performance Max campaigns for each with their own asset groups, audience signals, and search themes tied to the relevant season. We also conducted a Non-Branded Search overhaul, expanding keyword coverage with high-intent terms across hat styles, team queries, sport categories, and shopping intent modifiers.

From there, we launched Demand Gen and YouTube campaigns for upper-funnel reach, then launched Dynamic Remarketing campaigns and conducted audience refinement. Lastly, we supported the full holiday and seasonal calendar with creative buildouts, Google Merchant Center promotion feeds, branded search copy updates, and budget pacing adjustments.

Seasonally-aligned campaign structure

Tighter audience and bidding controls

Fully developed upper-funnel layer

The Impact

The story behind the numbers is one of structural transformation. Hat Heaven didn’t just spend more efficiently, the account was rebuilt to align with how customers actually shop for sports headwear. Through the efforts laid out above, we were able to put the right product in front of the right fan at the right moment in the season.

The 148% lift in conversion rate is the most telling metric. It reflects a fundamental improvement in traffic quality, audience alignment, and creative relevance, not just spend optimization. Across the full year, our partnership delivered transformational year-over-year gains across every primary KPI, all on a modest 14% increase in media spend.