The client in this case is an Istanbul-based custom manufacturing group: it produces diaries, notebooks and planners, manufactures for companies under their own brands, and works with a minimum order quantity of 1,000. The group owns five separate brands, all of them sharing the same production line.
Smartkid took over the e-commerce side and built all five brands as a single system. On the advertising side, 12X ROAS was reached — meaning every 1 TL spent on ads produced 12 TL in revenue.
Manufacturer E-Commerce Is Not Retail E-Commerce
Most agencies build a manufacturer's e-commerce on the same logic as a retail store. That is the wrong design from the very start.
An individual buyer takes one product, decides on the spot, adds it to the cart and pays. A corporate buyer collects quotes for orders starting at 1,000 units, asks for samples, negotiates the price, and goes through a decision process that runs for weeks.
So in this case the job of the campaigns was not to sell directly but to generate qualified demand. The measure of success was not the number of carts but the quality of the incoming quote requests.
Five Brands, Not Five Separate Accounts
The group had five brands, and managing them one by one would have been the easiest route. We did not take it.
The reason is simple: the brands shared the same production line and the same type of buyer. Managed separately:
- The same work would be done five times, and the same problem solved five times.
- A creative or a targeting approach that worked on one brand would never reach the others.
- Worst of all, five brands chasing the same audience would drive up one another's ad costs.
Instead we built a shared structure: the catalog logic, the targeting framework and the measurement setup are identical across all five brands, while brand positioning and creative voice stay distinct for each. What is learned on one brand can be applied to the other four the next day.
The Result: 12X ROAS
Across advertising, 12X ROAS was reached in total. The high average order value in bulk buying is one of the factors that makes such a ratio possible — but on its own it is not enough. The demand had to reach the right buyer, with the right message, through a properly designed structure.
The engagement continues: campaign optimization, catalog structure and the transfer of learnings between brands are all ongoing.
The Lesson from This Case
In groups with more than one brand, the most expensive mistake is running the brands independently of each other. What is shared (production, buyer type, sales process) should be managed jointly; what differs (brand identity, creative voice) should stay separate.
And the point worth underlining for manufacturers is this: companies looking for contract manufacturing now find their supplier in search, not at a trade fair. However strong the production capacity, a manufacturer who is invisible online stays limited to the customer network it already has.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is B2B e-commerce different from regular e-commerce?
The buyer is different, so everything is different. An individual buyer takes one product and decides on the spot; a corporate buyer collects quotes for orders starting at 1,000 units, asks for samples, and takes weeks to decide. That is why in B2B a campaign's job is not to sell directly but to generate qualified demand — and the measure of success is not the cart, it is the quality of the quote requests.
Should several brands in the same group be managed by one team?
If the brands share the same production line and the same type of buyer, yes. Split across separate agencies or separate teams, the same work gets done five times, nothing that is learned gets shared, and the brands drive up each other's ad costs. Building one system lowers the cost and carries whatever works on one brand straight over to the others.
Why does a manufacturer need e-commerce?
Because companies looking for contract manufacturing now find their supplier in search, not at a trade fair. However strong the production capacity, a manufacturer who cannot be found online stays limited to the customer network it already has. Here, e-commerce infrastructure is less a sales channel than a demand gateway that is always working.
Is 12X ROAS possible in every industry?
No. High ROAS shows up in businesses where the average order value is high and demand already exists — in bulk buying, a single order can equal hundreds of orders in consumer e-commerce. In this case the product and the production capacity were already strong; what was missing was a properly designed digital setup.
Is this engagement still running?
Yes. Campaign optimization, catalog structure and the transfer of learnings between brands are all ongoing.