How a legacy setup became a platform you can plan around

BIKE24 is one of the leading online retailers for bikes, components, apparel, footwear and outdoor and running ranges in the German-speaking region. A demanding, technically savvy audience meets an extremely broad range here, in a competitive environment that forgives little: high click prices, pronounced seasonality, weather dependency and a large number of brands with very different margins and availability.

When our collaboration began in early 2024, the task was clear: the Google Ads performance of the DACH accounts had to be restructured and aligned for greater profitability. This created the strategic foundation for further growth, both in the core market and within the existing international setup.

The brand

BIKE24 has positioned itself as one of the most established destinations for cycling, running and outdoor in the DACH region: a deep range, a curated brand world and strong advisory expertise. What competitors often lose in the “long tail” is the whole point here, from specialist parts to functional apparel with genuine performance credentials.

Vision

BIKE24 aims to be one of the most relevant digital destinations for cycling and an active, sporty lifestyle in Europe. A premium range, data-driven advice and excellent availability work hand in hand. The online shop sees itself as an ecosystem rather than a shop window.

Products

The range extends from bikes (full bikes, e-bikes) and core components (drive train, tyres, brakes, cockpit, wheels, seating) to apparel, footwear, eyewear, cycle protection and a broad outdoor and running section. It is a range so wide that every single management decision affects thousands of products at once.

USP

A curated range with a clear focus on performance products for cycling, outdoor and running.

Strong availability and exclusive partnerships, particularly in apparel.

Deep advisory and service expertise for a technically savvy audience.

An international setup with dedicated storefronts in DACH, Benelux, FRITES (FR, IT, ES), Poland, Finland and further markets.

Increase profitability: a focus on cost of sale (COS), efficiency and economically sound scaling over growth for its own sake.

Realign the account structure: more transparency, better controllability and a clear basis for decisions on budget and range logic.

Build a scalable framework: a structure that serves as the reference for further markets, so new markets do not have to start from zero every time.

Very high competitive pressure in the core market of Germany, with aggressively advertising competitors.

A range so broad that individual campaign decisions affect a very large number of products at once, with very different margins, availability and life cycles.

Pronounced seasonality in the bike and outdoor segment, combined with weather dependency and irregular sale periods.

Historically grown campaign structures that were too coarse for today’s range depth.

A noticeable conversion lag in the accounts, which made steering on Google Ads data alone unreliable.

Several international storefronts that were maintained differently, both structurally and operationally.

Strategy: how we went about it

Standard solutions would quickly have reached their limits with a range of this size. Instead of “administering” the existing setup, we analysed it in depth, formed hypotheses, tested rigorously and rebuilt it step by step. The thinking behind it: not every lever is visible at first glance. The most interesting improvements often lie one level below what the account shows on the surface.

1. A clean restructuring of the DACH accounts

The accounts were thoroughly reviewed and rebuilt. In place of the historically grown logic, the structure now rests on a clear separation:

Brand and non-brand as separate steering tracks, each with its own budget logic. The brand share consistently stays within a clearly defined corridor.

Categories that follow real search behaviour instead of static spreadsheets.

A separate budget logic per category, so high-margin areas can be systematically prioritised.

The result is a cleaner campaign structure and, above all, noticeably more control over performance and budget. Decisions that used to rest on gut feeling are now traceable in the data.

2. Performance Max as a deliberate decision

Instead of switching the account over to Google’s automation blindly, we tested the move rigorously. Performance Max was adopted as a deliberate strategic decision rather than a default: category by category, with a clean data foundation and clearly defined success criteria.

Only once the data consistently showed that Performance Max was the stronger lever for this range depth was the setup fully aligned around it. Today, Performance Max is the main revenue driver, complemented by lean brand campaigns and targeted sale asset groups.

3. The product type switch as the foundation for scaling

Feed management had previously relied on custom labels, which led to blurred clusters at this range size. The new logic builds on a deep “product type” structure instead (drive train, tyres, wearables, e-bikes, apparel subcategories and so on). The switch was not risked in the core market first: it was deliberately pre-tested in smaller accounts and only then rolled out to the largest market. This sequence was more than a precaution; it was a strategic part of the solution. When you make structural changes to a range this deep, you test the new logic first where the risk and the potential damage are low.

4. Granularity as a growth lever in the long tail

An in-depth product analysis revealed a classic problem of large PMax accounts: the algorithm concentrates on a small group of obvious bestsellers, while a considerable part of the range is effectively never served. In a shop of this size, that is a concrete, untapped growth lever as much as a cosmetic issue.

The answer was a consistent move to greater granularity instead of a blanket fix: large, generic campaigns such as “Clothing” or “Full Bikes” were split into sharper clusters. Cycle footwear got its own campaign, as did e-bikes, along with apparel subcategories that have their own targets. In a staggered rollout, around 20 new campaigns went live across all markets, each with its own budget and steering targets. This effectively forces the algorithm to direct budget towards products that had previously been invisible, and that is exactly where new growth paths opened up.

5. Managing seasonality, weather and range as one system

Bike, outdoor and running are extremely seasonal segments. Changes in the weather, sale periods and shifts in the range can turn the picture around within days. Management was therefore tightened considerably. This included daily performance checks, daily budget pacing and clear cost of sale (COS) corridors per market. We also established reporting that explains the causes behind the performance as well as showing it.

A central point here was dealing with the conversion lag, which is structurally large in these accounts. Instead of steering on immediate Google Ads conversions, GA4-based reporting combined with Enhanced Conversions serves as the basis for management. This prevents short-term fluctuations from being overinterpreted and makes long-term trends reliably visible.

6. Close collaboration between Touchpoint and BIKE24

One of the most important factors cannot be seen in the account at all: it lies in how the teams work together. Performance reviews and sparring sessions follow a fixed bi-weekly rhythm, and Touchpoint and the in-house performance marketing team talk directly every day. Range priorities, seasonal decisions and sale periods are prioritised together. In day-to-day work, the line between “agency” and “in-house” is barely noticeable, and that is the precondition for acting fast enough in such a dynamic market.

The strategic controllability of the account has changed fundamentally. In numbers, this shows very clearly in several places:

Google Ads overall, 2025 vs 2024

Revenue via Google Ads: +99.45% year over year.

Advertising costs over the same period: +34.08%. The ratio of revenue growth to cost growth has therefore shifted clearly in favour of efficiency.

Account-level traffic growth of +43.33%, while Auction Insights showed clearly declining competition.

Subcategories as profitability drivers

In the German account (DE), the subcategories developed outstandingly:

Outdoor: ROAS improved by +105.53% from Q1 2024 to Q1 2026.

Running: ROAS improved by +138.16% from Q1 2024 to Q1 2026.

Both categories are at an all-time high in profitability, with considerably higher revenue volume at the same time.

Sale performance: Black Week 2025 vs 2024

DACH: revenue in the core market rose significantly (DE +65.21%, AT +48.87%), with efficiency rising at the same time.

International markets: ROAS improvements across all clusters, from +100.69% (IT) and +46.30% (NL) to +113.40% (BE) and +138.22% (ES) year over year.

A conversion rate uplift in the double-digit to high double-digit range almost everywhere.

Structural effect

High-margin categories, apparel in particular, benefit disproportionately from the new management, because budget is systematically directed to where margin and availability come together.

Seasonal volatility remains visible but is no longer unpredictable. Management reacts fast enough to actively use weather and sale effects instead of simply enduring them.

In the DACH region, Google Ads has grown from an opportunistic channel into a plannable, controllable and profitable growth channel, with clearly divided responsibilities between agency and in-house team.

The logic developed in the core market has travelled beyond DACH. It is being transferred step by step to the international accounts: to Benelux, to FRITES (France, Italy, Spain), to Poland and Finland, and to new markets in preparation (Denmark, Ireland).

In concrete terms, account and campaign structures follow one consistent logic, and the Performance Max framework and steering logic carry over one to one. Local adjustments are deliberately kept small, so the central logic stays robust and new markets do not have to learn from scratch. In this way, DACH becomes the test and innovation market for BIKE24’s international Google Ads strategy, which significantly increases the speed at which new markets become productive.

Success factors

Structure beats activity for its own sake: clean setups are the precondition for sustainable performance to emerge at all.

Profitability comes from data and teamwork working together. Neither the tool nor gut feeling delivers it.

Scale the right things rather than everything. Margins, availability and season belong in the steering logic instead of a footnote.

A strong core market accelerates internationalisation. The real capital lies in the learnings more than in individual campaigns.

Trends & best practices

Cleanly separating brand and generic is the simplest measure with the biggest effect on controllability.

Migrations such as the move to Performance Max need rigorous testing, precisely because they look like a default decision.

For large ranges, granularity is the most important lever against automation’s “bestseller focus”.

When the conversion lag in Google Ads is structurally large, it quickly becomes clear that the data in the interface itself can no longer support reliable steering. That was exactly the point where we looked beyond the obvious instead of settling for unreliable platform conversions. The better foundation came from GA4-based reporting that shows performance without lag distortion. In parallel, we sharpened measurement on the Google Ads side through Enhanced Conversions, so bidding also rests on more robust data. This turned a structural tracking challenge into a solid, honest basis for decisions that reflects performance reliably instead of following short-term fluctuations in the interface.

Transferability

The approach is especially relevant for brands that operate in heavily range-driven e-commerce markets, want to roll out internationally and need to develop a channel from an opportunistic lever into a plannable growth channel. Anyone who wants to scale profitably with a large range and pronounced seasonality benefits in particular from the combination of a clear structural decision, data-based migration and close operational collaboration between in-house team and agency.

Since our collaboration began in early 2024, BIKE24’s Google Ads setup has been consistently rebuilt. The close interplay of data-driven strategy and operational excellence has turned a historically grown account in the DACH region into a plannable, controllable platform, while laying the foundation for the international rollout.

The decisive point: this transformation is an agile, iterative process that is never finished. A highly dynamic market, continuous technological change and a very broad range demand constant recalibration. BIKE24 and Touchpoint show how profitable scaling works in this environment: as an ongoing partnership that questions, tests and develops the system anew every day, well beyond a one-off effect.