Case Study

QBD Books

In national retail, search visibility is revenue. Every search where your brand does not appear is a sale going to a competitor, and every wasted advertising dollar is margin walking out the door. QBD Books is Australia's largest locally owned book retailer, and their online presence needed to match the scale of their stores.
GOOGLE ADS
SEO
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Before Ranknv

A recognised retailer competing with much larger online players

QBD Books partnered with ranknv to bring their search visibility up to the scale of their national retail presence. With customers searching for books, authors, and categories every day across Australia, the goal was to capture more of that demand organically, make every advertising dollar return more, and turn online searches into both website sales and in-store visits.
What was holding them back

A large catalogue without enough search visibility

QBD’s online visibility did not reflect the size of their brand. The account was leaning almost entirely on branded searches, running the same ads it had been running for years, while high-value category searches were being won by smaller competitors.

The problems included:

  • Heavily reliant on branded searches instead of capturing new demand
  • Running the same ads and structure from years prior with no meaningful updates
  • High-value book categories ranking below smaller competitors
8x

Return on ad spend under the previous setup

People who already knew QBD were finding QBD. Everyone else was finding a competitor. The account was busy but not growing.
What we changed

Connected SEO and Google Ads around the books people were ready to buy

We rebuilt the Google Ads account around revenue, not conversion volume, and paired it with a targeted SEO strategy focused on the categories that drive real sales.

The solution included:

  • Campaign restructure to prioritise high-value sales over cheap conversions
  • Category-level SEO targeting the searches with genuine buying intent
  • Data-driven budget allocation so spend went where revenue follows
Every decision was based on visibility, cost efficiency, and long-term search traction. No wasted spend. No vanity metrics.
The Impact

300% revenue growth in the first month

Revenue more than tripled while spend only doubled. We stopped the account chasing cheap conversions and rebuilt it around the sales that actually matter: fewer, higher-value transactions at a much stronger return.

The results were immediate and measurable:

110%+

Increase in Google Ads purchases

30%

+

increase in organic traffic

 

QBD’s search presence now matches the scale of their brand. Every dollar spent is tracked, justified, and returning more than it ever did under the previous setup.

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