How LOCOMOTIVE Transformed VOYA’s
Paid Ads and Unlocked Growth Across
Three Markets
VOYA was born from the Atlantic. The Irish luxury organic skincare brand built its reputation on the power of seaweed, harvested sustainably from the west coast of Ireland and transformed into certified organic, cruelty-free products that put wellness and nature at the centre of everyday ritual.
With a loyal following in Ireland and the UK, VOYA had earned its place as a premium brand in the domestic market. But its ambitions had always been bigger. The question wasn’t whether VOYA could compete internationally, it was how to make the leap without losing what made it distinctive.
That question brought VOYA to LOCOMOTIVE, through Enterprise Ireland’s Digital Marketing Capability grant.
At the time of publishing, this case study has been shortlisted for:
- Best PPC Campaign at the US Agency Awards
- Best Use of Meta Ads and Paid Social Campaign of the Year at the European Paid Media Awards.
- Best Global PPC Campaign and Best Use of Social Media in a Search Campaign at the Global Search Awards.
- Best Social Media Campaign and Best PPC Campaign at the European Agency Awards.
Client:
VOYA
Solutions
Strategy, Paid Media, Market Entry
The Challenge
VOYA came to LOCOMOTIVE with a paid media account that was technically active but strategically broken. Despite ongoing Meta Ads spend, the account was generating misleading performance data, 45% of Meta-attributed sales were view-through conversions, inflating reported return on ad spend (ROAS) and masking a deeper underperformance problem.
Traffic campaigns were generating thousands of clicks but virtually no revenue.
In Ireland and the UK, campaigns were over-indexed on retargeting and failing to reach new audiences efficiently. In the US, the situation was more acute: with no brand equity, no US-specific creative, and no structured funnel to build from.
To succeed, we would need to:
Our Approach
LOCOMOTIVE’s first instinct wasn’t to start spending, it was to start listening. We held a discovery workshop, bringing together VOYA’s commercial, creative, and e-commerce teams to establish a shared understanding of where the brand was, where it wanted to go, and what had been getting in the way.
That conversation, alongside a comprehensive audit of VOYA’s entire digital presence, became the foundation for everything that followed. Rather than making assumptions, LOCOMOTIVE mapped what was actually happening, across paid channels, website behaviour, SEO, and analytics, before committing to a direction.
An Honest Look At Performance
The most important early decision was switching attribution from the platform default to 7-Day Click only. This meant that only users who genuinely clicked and then purchased would be credited to a campaign, stripping out the view-through conversions that had been padding the numbers. Reported ROAS dropped. That was expected. The point wasn’t to make the numbers look good, it was to make them mean something.
Rebuilding the Account from the Ground Up
The existing account structure was fragmented, with misaligned objectives and significant spend being directed to placements that were generating almost no conversion value. LOCOMOTIVE consolidated campaigns, corrected the objectives from Traffic to Sales, and reallocated budget to the placements where VOYA’s audience was most likely to act.
A Funnel Built Around the Customer Journey
LOCOMOTIVE built a three-tier audience strategy across all three markets: cold prospecting to reach new luxury skincare and wellness consumers who had never encountered VOYA, a mid-funnel layer for people who had engaged with the brand but hadn’t yet converted, and retargeting for existing customers. For the US, this funnel was constructed entirely from scratch, with messaging deliberately crafted around what made VOYA different in an American context.
Creative as the Engine of Growth
New briefs were developed around four pillars: hero ingredient storytelling, social proof through real customer reviews, gifting and discovery sets tied to seasonal moments, and video and GIF formats built for feed. Crucially, LOCOMOTIVE provided the VOYA design team with everything they needed to produce assets efficiently; copy direction, colour palettes, image references, A/B test variants, so the brand’s high creative standards didn’t become a bottleneck.
The Outcome
In markets where VOYA already had presence, total sales grew meaningfully, Meta-attributed purchases nearly doubled, and ROAS improved significantly. The US became one of VOYA’s fastest-growing markets. In under nine months, purchases multiplied several times over, revenue grew 2.5x, and return on ad spend improved dramatically.
Break into new markets
LOCOMOTIVE partners with ambitious brands to deliver real, measurable revenue growth across international markets. If you’re an Enterprise Ireland client exploring grant funding, we’d love to talk.
