Since 2023 I’ve worked alongside the Royal Armouries’ in-house team to rebuild the online shop’s Google Ads and Meta advertising — fixing tracking, launching Shopping and Performance Max, and training the team — lifting return on ad spend by 246% on Meta and 141% on Google Ads.
The Royal Armouries is the UK’s national collection of arms and armour, with museums in Leeds, at the Tower of London and at Fort Nelson. Its online shop sells everything from books and replica armour to collection-inspired gifts and official film merchandise — and paid advertising is how it reaches buyers far beyond the museum walls.
The shop’s in-house marketing team had the ambition, but not the specialist Google Ads know-how to get the most from their budget. Gaps in conversion tracking made it worse: without reliable data, it was hard to see which ads were actually driving sales, or where spend was being wasted.
They needed more than someone to run campaigns for them. They needed the foundations fixing, campaigns rebuilt properly — and a team who understood how it all worked, so they could keep improving with confidence.
It started with a full audit of the Google Ads account: structure, spend, keywords, ad types and tracking. The first priority was measurement. I fixed the conversion tracking so every online sale was recorded and attributed properly — giving us a clear view of return on ad spend and the data to back every decision since.
From there I rebuilt the account. I set up Shopping and Performance Max campaigns to put the shop’s products in front of people actively searching for them, restructured the search campaigns and wrote new, more effective ad copy.
I work alongside Commercial Marketing Manager Joanna Harrison and her team rather than behind closed doors. I build and optimise campaigns hands-on, and share the knowledge as we go — explaining the different ad types, how they work and why each decision is made — so the team can manage campaigns day to day themselves.
The same approach extends to Meta. I’ve advised on strategy for Facebook and Instagram advertising, introduced new ideas the team hadn’t considered, and supported them in putting those changes into practice.
Year on year, return on ad spend is up 141% on Google Ads and 246% on Meta — the same budgets now working significantly harder for the shop.
Just as importantly, the Royal Armouries team now has the tracking, the campaign structure and the know-how to keep that momentum going. It’s an ongoing partnership that began in 2023: I continue to optimise campaigns, bring new ideas and act as the specialist on hand whenever the team needs it.
I had the pleasure of working with Caroline Allott to enhance the ROI and overall effectiveness of my Google Ad campaigns for the Royal Armouries online shop.
Caroline was fantastic—helpful, knowledgeable, and refreshingly down-to-earth with a friendly, straight-talking approach. She generously shared her knowledge and experience in this area, helping me better understand the different types of ads and how they work. Not only did she guide me in the creation of new, more effective Google Ads she also shared valuable insights on how I could improve my advertising on Meta, introducing ideas I hadn’t considered before. Her expertise and guidance left me with valuable insights and practical strategies. I highly recommend working with Caroline.