Watches of Switzerland Group drive an 80% revenue lift with AI Max for Search
Watches of Switzerland and Kinase leveraged new AI campaigns from Google to expand digital, finding new customers and revenue growth. The results have become an official Google case study
The Challenge
The Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) is a leading luxury watch and jewellery retailer in the United Kingdom, recognized as an early adopter of new features, formats, and innovations aimed at reaching new customers. The group includes Goldsmiths, Mappin and Webb and Watches of Switzerland. Having successfully maintained high digital maturity across Search and Performance Max campaigns, the WOSG team was keen to find and convert new consumers within the evolving AI advertising landscape.
The Approach
Building on its success with strong AI adoption across Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns, WOSG were eager to test the impact of AI Max for Search on capturing potentially missed search queries. Utilizing an A/B test methodology, WOSG and Kinase were able to precisely measure the uplift provided by AI Max on luxury watch campaigns. Kinase played a key role in testing and shaping the overall WOSG strategy, focusing primarily on asset optimization to create customized and relevant ads.
The Results
The AB test successfully isolated the effectiveness of AI Max, yielding dramatic results: an 80% return on ad spend (ROAS) uplift alongside a 33% lift in revenue. The AI powered ad copy further enhanced engagement, demonstrating a 37% uplift in clickthrough rate (CTR), while brand safety features ensured consistently high quality messaging. Notably, 3% of all search terms in the AI Max enabled campaigns were net new - these were search terms that had never been seen before, compared to zero in the control campaigns. Based on these results, WOSG is now confident in scaling AI Max adoption across its entire account.
“Leveraging AI MAX has been an important next step in our AI journey. Allowing us to scale our activity and cover off a greater range of keywords to drive higher efficiency. The success of the test gives us confidence to roll out AI MAX across our account.”
James Thompson, Digital Marketing Manager, The Watches of Switzerland Group
