Collingwood Skincare D2C — SEO
A skincare brand was 100% dependent on paid ads — organic SEO now drives 340% more revenue without ad spend.
TL;DR
- Challenge:
- A skincare brand 94% dependent on paid ads with rising CPMs and evaporating margins during peak season.
- Approach:
- Product page SEO rewrite, ingredient education content hub, technical fixes, faceted navigation cleanup.
- Result:
- +340% organic revenue, ad dependency dropped from 94% to 52%, organic traffic up 489%.
Key Results at a Glance
+340%
Organic revenue
+489%
Organic traffic
-42pts
Ad dependency
Client Context
Business Type
D2C skincare (vegan, cruelty-free)
Founded
2019
Team Size
12 employees
Market
Australia (78%), NZ (12%), UK (10%)
Revenue Tier
$2.8M annual revenue
Stack Before
Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Klaviyo
The Challenge
Every sale came through Meta or Google Ads. When ad costs spiked during Black Friday and Christmas, margins evaporated. The website had no blog, thin product descriptions, and zero organic rankings.
Goals & KPIs
North-Star Metric
Reduce paid ad dependency below 60% and grow organic revenue to $15K+/month
Supporting KPIs
Organic revenue/month
Target: $15K+
Ad dependency
Target: Below 60%
Organic traffic
Target: 10K+ sessions/month
Product page rankings
Target: Top 5 for 30 SKUs
Organic conversion rate
Target: 2.5%+
Discovery & Research
Audit Findings
- •Thin product descriptions (avg 45 words)
- •Shopify faceted nav creating 8,400 duplicate URLs
- •Zero blog / ingredient content
- •Missing product schema on 60% of pages
- •Weak internal linking category → product
Baseline Issues
- •$4.2K organic revenue/month
- •94% paid dependency
- •1,900 organic sessions/month
- •8,400 junk URLs indexed
Competitor Insight
Top D2C skincare brands averaged 800+ words per product page, 40+ ingredient articles, and full schema markup — driving 45% of revenue organically.
Audience Insight
Australian skincare buyers research ingredients ("niacinamide for oily skin", "retinol side effects") before buying — informational queries convert 4x higher than product searches when linked correctly.
Strategy
Core Hypothesis
“If we rewrite product pages with ingredient-focused SEO copy plus build a content hub, organic revenue will 3x+ because skincare buyers research ingredients before brands.”
Positioning Shift
Repositioned from "clean skincare" to "the ingredient-first Australian skincare brand" — content authority play.
Channel Mix
Product page rewrite · 40%
Direct conversion impact
Ingredient content hub · 35%
Top-funnel discovery
Technical SEO cleanup · 15%
Faceted nav + schema
Category page optimisation · 10%
Long-tail capture
Our Approach
Product page SEO
Rewrote all 35 product pages with ingredient-focused copy targeting searches like "niacinamide serum Australia" and "vitamin C moisturiser for dry skin".
Ingredient education content
Created a content hub around popular ingredients — retinol, hyaluronic acid, AHAs — targeting informational queries that lead to product discovery.
Technical & category SEO
Fixed duplicate content from Shopify filters, added product schema with ratings, and optimised category pages for "vegan skincare Australia", "cruelty-free moisturiser".
Phased Roadmap
Months 1–2
Technical Foundation
- →Fixed faceted nav (8,400 → 2,200 canonical URLs)
- →Product schema on all SKUs
- →Sitemap rebuild
- →Internal linking audit
Months 3–5
Product Page Rewrite
- →Rewrote 35 product pages (avg 800 words)
- →Ingredient callouts + benefit blocks
- →FAQ schema per product
- →A/B tested layouts
Months 6–9
Content Hub + Scale
- →Published 24 ingredient guides
- →Category page optimisation
- →Backlinks from beauty publications
- →Internal linking hub → product
What We Built
The Results
Monthly Organic Revenue (AUD)
Before vs After — 9 Months
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic revenue | $4,200/month | $18,500/month | +340% |
| Organic traffic | 1,900/month | 11,200/month | +489% |
| Ad dependency | 94% paid | 52% paid | -42pts |
“We finally have revenue that does not disappear when we pause ads. Organic is now our most profitable channel.”
Tara N.
Founder, Skincare Brand
Key Insights
- →Ingredient content was the highest-ROI SEO play — buyers search chemistry before brands
- →Faceted nav cleanup alone lifted organic traffic 40% within 60 days
- →Product schema drove rich snippet visibility → +28% CTR on category pages
- →Organic revenue compounds — every article added produces cumulative return
What's Next
Building a skin type diagnostic quiz, launching a "routine builder" tool, and expanding to UK content with market-specific ingredient content.
Ready to see similar results?
Book a free strategy call — we'll audit your current setup and map out what growth looks like for your business.
Services Used
Representative case study. Figures illustrate the type of outcomes achievable through these strategies for Australian businesses; individual results vary based on market, budget and starting position.