PPC Commentary
A3 Desk Pads & Weekly Planners · August 2026 (first month advertising)
The first month of advertising came at a good time. Total sales grew for a third month in a row, advertising stayed a small share of sales, the plain desk pads led on back-to-school demand, and we have already trimmed the spend where it was not working.
A steady first month, with the season already helping sales.
August, +3.7% MoM
ad cost of total sales
34.9% ACOS
where the ads work
August was the first month with Sponsored Products live, and a good one to start in. Total sales were £8,310, up 3.7% on July's £8,014 and the third month of growth in a row after the May low of £7,034. Advertising cost 7.5% of total sales, which keeps the account about 78% organic. It is a small, proportionate lever on the business, well short of carrying it.
The plain desk-pad range led the growth on back-to-school demand. The plain single (CSM203) grew 49% month on month, and its two multipacks rose with it. Advertising supported that demand at an efficient 24% ACOS on the plain range, capturing shoppers the season was already sending. The blended 34.9% ACOS reads higher because it also carries the rainbow planner and three weeks of Auto-campaign learning. Both are covered below, and we have acted on both going into September.
The plain desk pads led the month, and every listing stayed in stock.
| August 2026 | Revenue | MoM | Conv. rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSM203, A3 Plain Pad (single) | £3,078 | 49% up | 29% |
| CSM203B, A3 Plain Pad (pack of 3) | £1,729 | 1% up | 61% |
| CSM103, A3 Planner, purple | £1,379 | 4% up | 17% |
| CSM203A, A3 Plain Pad (pack of 2) | £893 | 108% up | 37% |
| CSM123, A3 Rainbow Planner (single) | £670 | 13% up | 9% |
| CSM123A, A3 Rainbow Planner (pack of 2) | £399 | 3% up | 33% |
| CSM111, A3 Planner, purple (pack of 2) | £150 | 100% up | 24% |
| Total account | £8,310 | 3.7% up |
Every hero line grew month on month. The plain range did most of the work. The single (CSM203) reached £3,078, and its packs of two and three together added £2,622, all rising as the back-to-school desk-pad season opened. The purple planner (CSM103) and the rainbow lines held or edged up. The account total rose more modestly than the individual SKUs because a few low-value tail lines that sold in July did not sell again in August. The hero range we manage grew well into double digits.
One point works firmly in the account's favour. As sole seller, the featured offer (Buy Box) held at essentially 100% across every SKU all month, so nothing leaked at the buy button. That is a common drag on other accounts and it is not a problem here. It leaves two things that matter for this range: keeping stock in, and lifting how well the rainbow single converts the traffic it gets.
The advertising paid off on the plain pad, less so on the rainbow one.
August
This is a pure-acquisition account. There is no brand name for shoppers to search, so every pound of ad spend works to win a new customer. That makes the split between the two advertised heroes the most useful thing to look at, because the blended 34.9% ACOS hides two very different stories.
Plain single (CSM203): the ads doing their job
£359 of spend returned £1,482 in ad sales. That is a 24% ACOS, or £4.13 back for every £1. The core of the account is working as intended. The "a3 pad" family of search terms converts at 12% to 24% ACOS, and the tightest exact-match terms return £7 to £14 per £1. This is the part to fund in September, as stock allows.
Rainbow single (CSM123): spend that did not pay back
£263 of spend, which is 42% of the budget, returned just £302, an 87% ACOS. Nearly half the month's spend went to the rainbow single and came back below cost. The bid is not the problem. On the searches where it shows, its click-through is in line with the market, and yet it converts landed shoppers at only 9%, against the plain single's 29%. The gap is in the listing and the fit of a niche colourway, and more ad spend will not close it, so we have cut the paid support here right back (see Actions).
Across the account, £351 of the £622, about 56%, sat on search terms that spent and returned nothing. In a settled account that would be a concern. In a launch month it is normal, because Auto campaigns spread widely across new terms before they settle. The converting half did well: £272 of spend returned £1,776, a 6.5 to 1 return. We have negated or switched off the persistent zero-sale terms, such as broad "weekly planner", "office accessories" and "whiteboard", so far less budget will sit on dead terms in September.
Spending built up through the month, then we pulled it back.
Spend built through the month by design. It was near zero for the first fortnight, with the first campaigns going live on 12 August, then rose as the Auto and competitor campaigns were added on 24 to 26 August. That is why the daily chart climbs steeply at the end of the month and why ACOS ran high in the final weeks, since new Auto campaigns spend before they learn. In the last few days spend reached a level ahead of plan, which we reviewed and pulled back on 31 August. September should be flatter and more efficient.
A handful of search terms do most of the selling.
The keepers are the "a3 pad" family. "a3 pad", "a3 paper pad", "a3 pad of paper" and "a3 desk pad" converted between 12% and 24% ACOS, with the best returning above £10 per £1. These are the terms to concentrate budget on, and where the plain single builds its rank.
The discovery tail spent without converting: broad planner, office-accessory, classroom and whiteboard terms, mostly thrown up by the rainbow Auto campaigns. We are negating these as they appear. We keep the relevant planner terms and remove only the ones that are clearly off-product.
The campaigns are set up well, and the plain pad ones perform best.
Sixteen Sponsored Products campaigns were live by the end of the month: seven exact-match "spearhead" campaigns on the hero terms, eight Auto campaigns split one per match type, and one competitor-targeting campaign. Splitting the Auto campaigns by match type is deliberate, so each one can be funded or cut on its own merit instead of hidden inside a blended average.
Best performer
CSM · A3 Plain Pad · Auto · Close Match. £67 of spend returned £278 in sales, 29 orders at a 24% ACOS, converting at 31%. It is the strongest acquisition campaign in the account. The exact-match "A3 Pad Cluster" returned £241 on £29 (8.3 to 1) and "a3 desk pad" £91 on £6 (14 to 1). These plain-pad campaigns are the clear place to add budget once stock is secure.
Weakest with real spend
CSM · Rainbow Planner · Auto · Loose Match. £111 of spend returned £96 in sales, a 116% ACOS. It was the largest single spend line in the account and below break-even, matching into broad planner and stationery terms the rainbow single cannot convert. We paused it on 31 August, along with the rainbow Close Match campaign at 112% ACOS.
The plain pads are limited by stock, the rainbow one by how many shoppers buy.
CSM203, A3 Plain Pad, single (the hero)
The number-one SKU at £3,078, up 49% on July, on 1,071 sessions converting at a strong 29%. It carries most of the profitable ad spend at a 24% ACOS. Its one problem is stock. Back-to-school demand pulled it down to nine days of cover by the end of the month. A reorder is on its way, and holding stock here through the September peak matters more than any bid change, because advertising a SKU that is about to sell out only wastes spend.
CSM103, A3 Planner, purple single
£1,379 on 848 sessions, the second-highest traffic in the range, converting at 17%, below the plain single's 29%. It carries no ads and is holding its sales, so it needs no spend yet. The opportunity is conversion, where better content would turn its healthy traffic into more orders.
CSM123, A3 Rainbow Planner, single
It pulls real traffic, 747 sessions and the third-highest in the catalogue, but converts at just 9%, the lowest of the range. Its click-through on search is fine, so the gap is on the detail page once shoppers land. A rainbow colourway drawn from generic desk-pad searches, where most shoppers want plain, will always convert lower. A content refresh is in hand. Until it converts better, paid support stays light and the SKU is best run organic-led.
The remaining lines come down to stock. CSM111 (purple pack of 2) sold through and is out of stock, and the rainbow pack of 2 (CSM123A) followed at the end of the month. Both need reordering. The plain multipacks (CSM203A and CSM203B) convert very well, at 37% and 61%, on low but high-intent traffic, and they simply need to stay in stock.