Sv. Michelsen
Season-ready Google Ads met category-driven SEO: how we helped Sv. Michelsen Chokolade achieve +59% revenue year-on-year and a ROAS above 6.
Tech stack in this case study
Case studies
400+
Trustpilot
4.8
Years of experience
10+
The results
A stable foundation all year round — with extra power when the season peaks
Sv. Michelsen is a handmade chocolate producer with roots dating back to 1933, Fairtrade-certified, with both an online store and physical shops. The partnership with acend covers two channels: a traditional e-commerce SEO programme focused on category content, and a Google Ads setup that maintains a consistent ROAS above 6 — while also preparing the account to scale during the periods when chocolate sells the most.
The biggest SEO results have come from targeted work on category pages, both existing ones and entirely new categories built around keyword research. Several of the season’s most important keywords have moved up significantly: “Easter eggs” has gone from position 70 to 2, “Christmas chocolate” and “send chocolate” both rank first, “Easter chocolate” is also number 1, and “chocolate advent calendar” has gone from 12 to 3.
At the same time, organic traffic has become more targeted: clicks have increased from 3,670 to 5,080 year-on-year, the click-through rate has almost doubled from 1.2% to 2.1%, and the average position has improved from 25.2 to 13. That is what drives the result: a 59% increase in revenue year-on-year. On the Ads side, the focus has been on maintaining a high, stable return without compromising the brand’s voice in its advertising.
Revenue year-on-year
ROAS > 6
Stable ROAS all year round
Avg. organic position — lower is better
The problem
The seasons shifted — the structure stood still
A seasonal business in a static account structure
Chocolate is a seasonal product, with a large share of revenue generated around Christmas and Easter. For a Google Ads account to scale effectively during those periods, it needs a different setup from a business with evenly distributed sales — otherwise ROAS drops precisely when volume matters most.
Untapped category potential in SEO
Although Sv. Michelsen has a strong online store, there was untapped potential in its category pages — both existing ones and categories that did not yet exist, but which keyword data identified as real opportunities.
Demand changes — the structure does not
The demand exists — the destination is missing
The solution
Two engines, each built for its own task
Google Ads: season-ready scaling
We prepared the account for peak seasons by filtering and segmenting products, particularly for Christmas and Easter sales, so the budget can automatically scale up when demand rises. Ongoing maintenance ensures a healthy level of spend with consistently high ROAS, and all advertising is written and structured to reflect the spirit of Sv. Michelsen — traditional craftsmanship, not just a sale.
SEO: category content as the driving force
We carried out in-depth keyword research that uncovered a wide range of new opportunities. Based on this, we built new categories and optimised content on both new and existing category pages — this is where the best results across the entire SEO programme have come from. We also added FAQs to several categories, directly answering the questions visitors actually search for, and built a blog section that establishes authority and links back to the most important category pages. Alongside this, page titles, meta descriptions, internal and external link building, and schema markup have been optimised across the site.
Existing category optimised
Easter eggs · 70 → 2
Chokolade julekalender · 12 → 3
Julechokolade · #1
Easter chocolate · #1
The partnership
Two channels, one shared priority
SEO and Google Ads are managed together at acend, meaning that seasonal planning in Ads and SEO content work can be coordinated directly — the categories and products that perform best in advertising leading up to Christmas and Easter are also those given the highest priority in organic content work, so the two channels pull in the same direction rather than working separately.
↓
↓
Easter · Easter eggs 70 → 2
Christmas · Christmas chocolate #1
Team acend
The team behind this case study
Frederik Krøl Larsen
CCO & Partner
frederik@acend.dk
Steffen Andersen
COO & Partner
steffen@acend.dk
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