How our paid ads strategy grew Birds Barbershop's holiday gift card sales 73% year over year
Client: Birds Barbershop, an Austin barbershop and salon with 9 locations
Services: Paid Search and Social Ads, Conversion Rate Optimization, Marketing Strategy
Partnership: 3+ years; campaigns shown ran in 2025
The results at a glance
73% more holiday gift card sales than the year before
9.7x return on Google Ads spend
$16 per online booking at the William Cannon shop
The challenge
Birds Barbershop is an Austin original, known for great cuts and good vibes. Its holiday gift card sale is the biggest of the year, and the only time Birds discounts gift cards. Birds wanted to beat the last two years' sales and see exactly which ads were paying off. At the same time, the William Cannon shop, one of its newer locations, was running below the company's 70% chair-utilization standard.
What we did: holiday gift cards
Tracked every purchase. We set up gift card purchase tracking in Google Analytics 4 from Birds' Zenoti booking system, so every campaign was judged on sales, not clicks.
Made fresh ad creative. We coordinated a photoshoot across several shops and captured video for TikTok.
Spoke to two different buyers. Because this sale is the only gift card discount of the year, many regulars stock up to save on cuts all year. We targeted "Stock Up and Savers" and "Holiday Gifters" separately, each with its own copy and creative.
Ran and optimized weekly across Google Performance Max, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
What we did: the William Cannon shop
Built a booking conversion just for William Cannon, so we could see exactly which ads filled that shop's chairs.
Ran Google and Facebook ads with a $5-off promo code to give new clients a reason to try the shop.
Shifted budget to what worked. Google Performance Max booked appointments for about $15 each, far below standard Search and Facebook, so it got the budget.
The results
Holiday gift cards (Nov 17, 2025 to Jan 17, 2026)
Gift card sales up 73% year over year, beating both 2024 and 2023
$4,020 in Google Ads spend drove 332 tracked purchases worth $39K, a 9.7x return
12.9% click-through rate
William Cannon shop (May 13 to Aug 31, 2025)
Chair utilization rose from 60% to 77% a week, above the company's 70% standard
130+ appointment bookings from ads and 82 promo code redemptions on $2,450 in ad spend
$29 per promo code redemption and $16 per tracked online booking
What Birds says
"Birds Barbershop partnered with Maranta Marketing for over three years and saw consistently strong performance from our Google Ads, including meaningful growth in gift card sales and appointment bookings. Kimberly brought a high level of care, organization, and a clear focus on measurable results."
Michelle Messick, Birds Barbershop
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Ad figures come from Google Ads and Google Analytics 4. Promo code redemptions come from Zenoti.