Enterprise · Automotive Lubricants // 5 markets · 2024–2025

Zero to £1M+.
Five markets.
15x ROAS.

How a global automotive lubricants brand built an Amazon Ads presence from scratch, scaled to £500k in the UK, and expanded across five European markets in under 18 months.

Automotive lubricants
Category
Automotive Lubricants
Platform
Amazon Ads · DSP
Peak spend
£1M+ annually
Markets
UK · FR · DE · ES · SE
Period
2024 – June 2025
// The brief

A global brand.
A new channel. Build it right.

This global automotive lubricants brand had the product, the brand equity and the market position. What it didn't have was a functioning Amazon Ads presence. The brief was to build one from scratch in the UK and scale it.

The starting point was a clean slate — no historical data, no established campaign structure, no negative keyword lists. Everything had to be built methodically. Getting it right in one market before expanding to others wasn't just sensible strategy. It was the only strategy that would hold at scale.

"At enterprise scale, the cost of a bad foundation isn't a few wasted pounds. It's compounded across every market you roll into. Getting the UK right first was the most important decision we made."

The starting point
New account. No history. High expectations.
+
Starting from zero on Amazon Ads means no conversion data, no search term history and no audience signals. The platform has nothing to optimise against. The first phase isn't about performance — it's about building the data foundation the platform needs to learn from.
The scale requirement
Enterprise budget. Enterprise scrutiny.
+
A £1M+ annual budget means every structural decision gets amplified. A poorly structured campaign at £500/month is fixable. At £50,000/month it bleeds significant waste before you catch it. The methodology had to be airtight before spend scaled.
// The approach

Foundation first.
Scale second.

Every phase was deliberate. No spend increased until the previous phase was proven. The goal wasn't to look busy — it was to build something that would hold under the weight of a £1M+ budget across multiple markets.

// 01
Account structure
Built the campaign architecture from scratch
Set up a clean, scalable campaign structure with clear separation between brand, category and competitor targeting. No legacy campaigns, no inherited bad habits. Every campaign built with future expansion in mind so the same structure could be replicated across new markets without rebuilding from scratch.
// 02
Active monitoring
Daily account monitoring from day one
Amazon Ads requires active management, not set-and-forget. Search term reports reviewed daily, irrelevant terms added to negative keyword lists continuously. At enterprise spend levels, an unmanaged search term can consume significant budget in hours. Active monitoring was non-negotiable from the start.
// 03
Sponsored Products first
Concentrated spend where intent was highest
Sponsored Products captures shoppers with active purchase intent. In a new account with no audience data, this was the most efficient place to build initial signals and drive early revenue. Sponsored Display was used in limited capacity — retargeting and category defence — rather than as a primary driver, keeping costs controlled while the account matured.
// 04
Promotional strategy
Phased approach for peak periods
Promotional periods on Amazon — Prime Day, Black Friday, seasonal peaks — require a different budget and bidding approach. A phased strategy was built for each: a ramp-up period to build momentum and gather data, a peak period with elevated bids and budget, and a wind-down phase to capitalise on residual demand without overspending.
// 05
DSP for defence
Programmatic used strategically, not speculatively
DSP was deployed primarily for brand defence — retargeting existing customers, protecting market share from competitors targeting the brand's audience, and maintaining visibility in high-value segments. Not used as a broad awareness tool until the Sponsored Products performance was proven and the budget justified it.
// 06
Market expansion
UK blueprint replicated across Europe
Once the UK account hit 15x ROAS and the structural foundations were proven, the same framework was deployed across France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. Each market launched with the UK structure as the template — adapted for local search behaviour, language and competitive landscape — rather than building from scratch again.
// Market expansion

One market proved.
Five markets scaled.

The UK was the anchor. Once the methodology was proven at £500k annual spend with a 15x ROAS, the expansion case was straightforward.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom Anchor market · £500k
🇫🇷 France Market 2
🇩🇪 Germany Market 3
🇪🇸 Spain Market 4
🇸🇪 Sweden Market 5

"Scaling to new markets is only straightforward if the foundation is solid. The UK work wasn't just about UK performance — it was building the playbook that made five-market expansion possible."

// The results

15x ROAS. £1M+ spend.
Five European markets.

Built from a standing start, scaled methodically, and expanded internationally — all within 18 months.

15x
ROAS achieved
In the UK anchor market at £500k annual spend. The number that unlocked the expansion budget.
£1M+
Annual spend managed
Across five European markets. Built from zero in 2024 to full multi-market operation by mid-2025.
5
Markets activated
UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden. Each launched on the same proven structural framework.
18
Months zero to full scale
From new account setup to £1M+ multi-market operation. Methodical but fast.
3
Ad formats deployed
Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display and DSP — each used strategically at the right stage of account maturity.
Zero
Markets rebuilt from scratch
Every expansion market used the UK blueprint. Consistent structure, consistent methodology, consistent results.
// The takeaway

Enterprise Amazon Ads
is a foundation problem, not a budget problem.

Most brands that struggle to scale on Amazon don't have a budget problem. They have a structural problem — campaigns built for quick results rather than long-term growth, no negative keyword discipline, and ad formats deployed before the account has the data to support them.

Methodology applied
Structure → Monitor → Prioritise → Phase → Defend → Scale
The same six-phase framework that built the UK to 15x ROAS was replicated across every expansion market. Scalability by design, not by accident.
// Work with us

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that holds at scale?

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