Client case study · 10 months

$12,000→$60,000

Monthly revenue, over 10 months.

Elapsed: 10 months
How it was measured: In-store POS revenue matched to first-touch organic sessions.
Running alongside: No paid media — the category is restricted on Google and Meta.
Published with permission: Anonymised at client request

The constraint

Every channel was closed before we started

This client could not buy a single ad. Google Ads and Meta both prohibit the promotion of THC products, and the narrow CBD exception did not apply to them.

They had also been suspended off Google Maps once before we met them, and nobody had ever told them why.

So the brief was unusual: grow revenue using only the channels that remain when paid acquisition is not legally available.

No Google Ads, no Meta, no paraphernalia advertising
Listing at permanent risk of review in a regulated category
State-by-state advertising rules on every piece of copy
Competitors in the same position, so no one had an unfair advantage

What we found

The audit, including the unflattering parts

The audit was not flattering. The site was a single-page template with no service or product pages, so there was almost nothing for Google to rank.

The Business Profile had the wrong primary category, three keywords stuffed into the business name, and hours that had not been updated in a year.

There was no schema of any kind, and the site took over six seconds to become interactive on mobile — in a category where most searches happen on a phone.

4 indexable pages total
Business name in violation of Google's guidelines
Wrong primary category, suppressing map pack eligibility
6.1s time to interactive on mobile
No reviews requested in eight months of trading

The plan

The 90-day roadmap as it was actually written

We wrote a ninety-day plan with three phases and no content in the first one.

Weeks 1-4: fix the listing violations and rebuild the site's technical foundation. Remove the keywords from the business name, correct the category, rebuild on a fast stack.
Weeks 4-8: build the page architecture. Product and category pages, location content, and a review request system tied to point of sale.
Weeks 8-12: authority and depth. Local press, community placements, and the content programme that would carry months four onward.

Month by month

What shipped, and what it moved

The line extends as you scroll. Every step below is a real month, including the one where nothing happened.

Mar

01Month 1

Starting position

Four indexable pages, a listing in violation, and no reviews requested in eight months. Revenue was flat and entirely walk-in.

Baseline: $12,000/mo

02Month 2

Fix the violations first

We removed the keywords from the business name and corrected the primary category. Both were suspension risks and both were suppressing map pack eligibility. No content was published this month.

+12%

03Month 3

Rebuild the foundation

New site on a fast stack, schema implemented, product and category pages live. Time to interactive went from 6.1s to 1.4s.

+19%

04Month 4

The suspension

Three weeks after the category correction the profile was suspended. Eleven days and one appeal to recover. We lost most of a month.

Flat month — no growth

05Month 5

Reviews start compounding

The point-of-sale review request system went live. Volume and recency both move map pack position, and this was the cheapest lever available.

+25%

06Month 6

Map pack, top three

Four head terms reached the top three. In a category with no paid option, those three positions represent most of the available demand.

+29%

07Month 7

Content depth

Product and education content published against the questions customers were actually asking in store.

+24%

08Month 8

Local authority

Community placements and local press. Nothing bought, nothing from a network.

+20%

09Month 9

Indexed at scale

Product pages indexed properly for the first time, which roughly doubled the surface area of the site in search.

+16%

10Month 10

Where it landed

$60,000 a month, from $12,000, on organic search and map pack alone.

+400% total

What went wrong

The part most case studies leave out

The Business Profile was suspended in month four, three weeks after we corrected the categories. It took eleven days and one appeal to recover, and we lost most of a month of momentum.

The suspension is the most useful part of this story, so we publish it.

Correcting a category is the right thing to do, and it also pushes a listing back into review. In a regulated category that review is stricter. We knew the risk and took it anyway, because leaving a keyword-stuffed name in place is a larger risk that a competitor can trigger at any moment.

What we would change is the sequencing, not the decision. Doing the name and the category in the same fortnight compounded the signals. Separating them by a month would probably have avoided the review entirely.

The appeal itself succeeded because we could evidence the underlying cause was already fixed. Appeals that just assert the listing is legitimate tend to fail.

The numbers

Where it landed, and how we know

Monthly revenue: $12,000 → $60,000 over 10 months. In-store POS revenue matched to first-touch organic sessions.

Revenue is in-store point-of-sale, matched to first-touch organic sessions. It is not a modelled figure and it is not self-reported by the client.

No paid media ran at any point, because none was available. There was no email list at the start and the SMS programme began in month seven, so the organic attribution is unusually clean for a case study of this kind.

Monthly revenue: $12,000 to $60,000
Elapsed: 10 months
Map pack top three: 4 head terms
Reviews: 6 to 180+
Suspensions survived: 1

Results reflect this client's market, licence status and starting position. We publish the method alongside the number so you can judge whether it transfers to yours.

In hindsight

What we'd do differently next time

Separate the business name change and the category change by a month. Doing both together almost certainly triggered the review.
Start the review programme in month one rather than month five. It was the cheapest lever we had and we deployed it late.
Build the product page architecture before the education content, not after. The product pages were what actually converted.

Before you ask us to do this for you

Does this actually apply to your situation?

This worked because of specific conditions. If yours don't match, say so on the first call and we'll tell you what would change.

Market: A legal, licensed market with genuine local search demand and competitors in the same regulatory position.
Starting point: An existing storefront with a claimed listing, even a neglected or previously suspended one.
Timeline: At least two quarters. Nothing meaningful had happened by month three.

Start with the audit. It's free and it's specific.

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