How Medical Apparel Brand FIGS Spends Over $1M/mo on Google Ads (Case Study)

Today we’re diving into the world of medical apparel and taking a closer look at FIGS, a company that’s been making waves in the industry. 

With their stylish and functional scrubs and dedication to sustainability, FIGS has quickly become a go-to brand for healthcare professionals. 

But how did they get there? 

Well, it turns out that their smart marketing strategies, including killer Google Ads campaigns, have played a huge role in their success. 

In this case study, we’ll break down how FIGS uses paid search advertising to drive traffic and boost revenue. Let’s get started.

Business Overview: What Does FIGS Do?

Before we dive into the specifics of FIGS’ Google Ads campaigns, let’s take a moment to understand what FIGS is all about.

FIGS is an apparel company that specializes in creating stylish and functional scrubs for healthcare professionals. They’re on a mission to revolutionize the medical industry by offering healthcare workers clothing that’s both comfortable and fashionable. 

FIGS prides itself on being a sustainable and ethical company, using eco-friendly materials and supporting various charitable causes.

Their target audience is clear: healthcare professionals who are looking for comfortable, stylish, and high-quality scrubs. FIGS has become a beloved brand in the medical community, and their products are widely recognized for their quality and design.

FIGS has experienced impressive growth over the years and has become a major player in the apparel industry. They have a significant market share in the medical scrubs space and are continuing to expand their product line to other areas of healthcare apparel.

In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at FIGS website performance, main market, demographics, and traffic source.

FIGS Website Analysis: Performance and Traffic

Let’s start with the big picture. The website had around 3.4 million visitors in the month of March. That’s a pretty impressive number.

Now, let’s dive a bit deeper into how people are finding the website. About 29% of visitors arrived through organic search, which means they found the website through a search engine like Google. 

Another 21% of visitors came from paid search, which means they clicked on an ad in those same search results.

But here’s something interesting – a whopping 43% of visitors came directly to the website. This suggests that the brand has a strong presence and people are familiar with it.

Also, the majority of visitors are females around 26 years old on average. That’s a pretty specific demographic

How Much Does FIGS Spend on Google Ads?

FIGS invests heavily in Google Ads to drive traffic to their website and increase their online presence. 

In March 2023, their estimated ad spend on Google Ads was $1,148,000. This amount was divided between different types of ads, including Search Ads, Shopping Ads, YouTube Ads, and Display Ads.

	Ad Spend	Clicks	CPC
Search Ads	$97,000	103,000	$0.94
Shopping Ads	$356,000	475,000	$0.75
YouTube Ads	$654,000	1,335,000	$0.49
Display Ads	$41,000	92,000	$0.45
TOTAL	$1,148,000	2,005,000	$0.57

Sources: Semrush, Similarweb, VidTao, benchmarks, and other research

FIGS Google Ads Account Structure

Here’s are the campaigns that are running inside of the FIGS Google Ads account:

Branded Search:

• [US] | [SEM] | [B] | FIGS | Head Terms | V2 | Exact
• [US] | [SEM] | [B] | FIGS | Tier 2 | V2 | Exact
• [US] | [SEM] | [B] | FIGS | Tier 2 | V2 | Phrase

Generic Search

• [US] [SEM] | [NB] | Main | V2 | Exact Broad
• [US] [SEM] | [NB] | [COMP] | V2 | Exact Broad
• [US] | [SEM] | [NB] | DSA | [Women] | V2

Google Shopping

• [US] | [Performance Max] | [Best Sellers] | [NCA]
• [US] | [Performance Max] | [The Set] | [NCA]
• [US] | [Performance Max] | [Men] | [Scrubs] | [NCA]
• [US] | [Performance Max] | [Color Launch]
• [US] | [Performance Max] | [Unisex] | [Non-Scrubs] | [NCA]
• [US] | [Performance Max] | [Women] | [Scrubs] | [NCA]
• [US] | [Performance Max] | [Men] | [Scrubs] | [NCA]

FIGS’ Google Ads account structure is well-organized and focused on targeting both branded and generic search terms, as well as promoting their products on Google Shopping. 

By using a combination of different campaign types and ad groups, FIGS is able to reach their target audience effectively and efficiently.

Let’s take a closer look at each part separately.

FIGS Google Search Ads

With around $97,000 in March 2023, FIGS has allocated 8% of its entire ad budget to Search Ads.

And yes. Considering the massive total budget, 8% can still make them capture a fair share with Search Ads.

As you can see in the section above, FIGS is running search ads both dedicated Search campaigns, as well as leveraging Performance Max Ads.

Taking a closer look at their Search Ads, FIGS has dedicated almost 71% of its Search Ads budget for branded paid search ($69,000). 

They’ve spent only $28,000 in the same month for generic non-branded paid search.

Branded paid search

Let’s look closer at the dedicated campaigns they’re using for branded search: 

• Head Terms | V2 | Exact: core brand searches in exact match
• Tier 2 | V2 | Exact & Phrase : extensions of the brand like “figs discount code” using both exact and phrase match types.

Top 10 branded keywords

1. Figs
2. Figs scrubs
3. Fig
4. Figs discount code
5. Wearfigs
6. Fig scrubs
7. Wear figs
8. Figs coupon code
9. Figs return
10. Figs uniforms

If we look at the top 10 keywords, nothing really stands out.

People are searching for the brand and category and they want a discount code.

Search ads examples

Let’s take a look at some examples of the branded ads that FIGS is running.

It’s a pretty simple ad, and reflects the brand well.

• 100% Awesome Scrubs
• Unmatched comfort
• Because your scrubs should work as hard as you
• Proprietary FIONx Fabric.

As with most branded campaigns, talking about “Official Site” and using the ® and ™ signs always works well.

Most of the ads are showing sitelink assets.

Small remark if the FIGS team ends up reading this: this search query is being served from the Women’s pMax campaign, so there might be some asset group optimization that needs to happen here. 🤓

The ad isn’t really tailored to men. Probably they can get away with it. The sitelink assets could be more specific though. It lists the same link “Men’s Scrubs” as the ad URLS. There are more opportunities to draw users into the catalog. Pointing them to different colors, use cases, or price points specifically for men.

Landing pages

FIGS is sending all branded traffic their homepage:

There was one interesting thing I noticed.

When I searched for “figs socks mens”, an interesting ad popped up talking aboutMens Compression Socks.

When I clicked the ad, I landed on a search results page on the FIGS website that used that same query as the search term:

As you can see there are 0 results. So it’s strange why they use this landing page. Surely there are better pages.

What’s probably happening is that this search query is being served by a Performance Max campaign that has Final URL expansion turned on.

That can work, but a good practice is to exclude pages on your site that aren’t relevant to be used as a landing page. Things like blog pages, search, privacy policy, etc. That way you make sure only “real” pages are being used.

Non branded paid search 

Let’s take a look at what FIGS is doing to target generic search queries.

Here is what their non branded campaigns look like:

1. [NB] | Main | V2 | Exact Broad: general campaign
2. [NB] | [COMP] | V2 | Exact Broad: campaign focus don competitors
3. [NB] | DSA | [Women] | V2

It looks like this company is only running a few campaigns, and because of that, Performance Max is probably going to pick up most of the other search traffic..

If we take a closer look at their generic Search campaigns, it’s kind of interesting that they’re only using exact or broad match, and no phrase match keywords.

They also have a campaign that specifically targets their competitors, which could be a smart move depending on their strategy.

On top of all that, they’re running a Dynamic Search Ads campaign. The Search Ads component of Performance Max already works almost identical.

But by having dedicated campaigns, they’re able to cover certain keywords, and get a feel for the performance of a dedicated campaign.

Top 10 generic keywords:

1. Scrubs
2. Scrubs for women
3. Mens scrubs
4. Womens scrubs
5. Plus size scrubs
6. Best scrubs
7. Dubs scrubs
8. Where to buy scrubs near me
9. Scrubs shops
10. Scrubs seal blue

No surprises on this top 10 list. Everything is closely related to the category.

Most of these keywords have a lot of volume and there definitely is competition, but still the bids are relatively low. 

Search ads examples

Let’s start with their most important keyword, the category search term “scrubs”.

In the ad, they’re leveraging their biggest strength: Voted Best Scrubs.

The description texts are a bit hypey though:

• Innovation You Can Feel
• Our Ridiculously Soft FIONx Fabric Raises the Bard on Awesome
• Designed For You

These phrases don’t make much sense to me. So not sure if these work and I would test this against customer language instead.

I think this ad comes from their DSA campaign because it uses some of the copy they use on their homepage title “Premium Medical Uniforms & Apparel”

This ad also features seller ratings, callouts and sitelinks.

Landing pages

The landing pages for generic search are split between the homepage and collection pages.

These are probably more effective for people that aren’t that familiar with the brand.

What’s also interesting to note is that the company is really promoting their sets through the Performance Max campaign. 

Essentially, they’re putting a lot of effort into making these sets stand out. One way they’re doing this is by running a dedicated campaign specifically for these products.

I think the set is a pretty solid way to increase their average order value. 

The product pages also have a few extra customizations which lets visitors shop for a top and pants in all colors and sizes all from the same page.

FIGS Shopping Ads

All Shopping Ads come from Performance Max campaigns, and it doesn’t seem like they’re running any dedicated Standard Shopping campaigns.

FIGS has set up several Performance Max campaigns, each focusing on a particular product or category, allowing the company to concentrate its budget on specific areas:

• Best Sellers: all of their best selling products
• Women – Scrubs: all scrubs for women
• Men – Scrubs: all scrubs for men
• The Set: The bundle is very  important for them. They got 2 variations, men’s and women’s and they’re pushing them hard
• Unisex – Non-Scrubs: all of their non scrubs products. Important but probably not as an acquisition channel.
• Color Launch: it’s interesting that they’re pushing specific (new) products

The biggest reason for running multiple Performance Max campaigns like FIGS is doing is that it allows you to focus your budget on a particular category or product.

So from the list above, it’s also immediately clear where the focus is.

All of these campaigns (from Google Shopping campaign structure we mentioned) have NCA in their names, which stands for New Customer Acquisition. It’s an option within Performance Max that allows bidding more for new customers. 

Given FIGS’ high repeat rates (we’ll get to that later), it’s likely that the Paid Search team has a clear goal to acquire new customers and is willing to pay for it.

Let’s have a closer look at a product that’s part of that bestseller campaign.

In the Shopping results, it’s grabbing the Absolute Top position, which means that it’s the very first product listing that appears at the very top of the Google Shopping results:

Shopping Ads & Product Titles

Let’s take a look at how FIGS is using the product title on their site and product feed. 

Let’s look at a single product in particular.

Here is the title on the product page: “Catarina™ One-Pocket Scrub Top“.

The SEO title of that same products is slightly different and more descriptive: “Women’s Catarina™ One-Pocket Scrub Top – Terracotta · FIGS“. 

And if we take a look at the product title in the feed: “FIGS Women’s Terracotta Catarina One-Pocket Scrub Top“

When it comes to Shopping Ads, the best product title captures all of the product’s details, without keyword stuffing and making it unreadable.

So it seems that FIGS is using the following product title formula:

FIGS (brand) + Womens (Main category) + Terracotta (color) + Product title

FIGS YouTube Ads

FIGS is making a big bet on YouTube Ads, pouring significant resources into this channel. In fact, over 60% of their total Google Ads budget – more than $600k a month – is going towards video ads.

They first started running YouTube Ads in November 2021, and the fact that they’re still investing heavily in this channel suggests that it’s paying off. Clearly, this is a key part of their overall strategy.

It’s worth noting that FIGS’ CMO, Sunil Kaki, has serious direct response experience, having previously worked at Beachbody, a major player in the direct response space. This expertise likely informs the success of their YouTube Ads campaigns.

FIGS is running these ads both as standalone campaigns on YouTube and as part of their Performance Max campaigns. While it’s unclear what the exact breakdown is, it’s safe to assume that a significant portion of that video ad spend is happening through pMax.

Thanks to these YouTube Ads, FIGS is driving over 1 million visitors to their site each month. This influx of new traffic provides ample opportunities for retargeting efforts across all their channels.

YouTube Creative

Taking a closer look at FIGS’ YouTube ads, they seem to be testing six different videos quite aggressively, with around 100k new views per day. 

What’s interesting is that three of these videos are getting over a million views a week! 

You can check out the most popular one, which is in the vertical format and is a YouTube Shorts video:

YouTube is pushing Shorts hard, and FIGS seems to be taking advantage of this trend. 

This ad is simple yet creative, showcasing their product bundle in all the different colors. 

The dynamic way in which it’s presented works really well in this type of placement, making it a great choice for YouTube Shorts.

Another example is this ad, which is more focused on the brand. It highlights the 10-year anniversary of FIGS and shows their target customers.

Google Display Ads

Even though Display Ads are only 2.7% of the budget, that’s almost 100k visits a month.

I couldn’t find much data, so I think a lot of this comes from the Performance Max campaigns.

Here is one example:

How Much Does FIGS Make?

Now that you know all about what FIGS spends on Google Ads, it’s time to look at the other side of the coin, how much revenue they make.

Normally, we have to do a lot of digging to find these details. But because FIGS is a public company, all their numbers are out in the open.

• Gross margin: 72%
• AOV: $112
• CAC: $39 (2020)

First order economics

First, let me explain what we mean by “first order economics.” Basically, this refers to the direct financial impact of a company’s advertising campaigns. It’s all about how much money they’re making from the initial sale.

Here are all of the metrics together:

What is this table telling us?

FIGS received 2 million clicks when spending $1,148,381 on Google Ads campaigns in March 2023.

Thanks to their overall strategy, their conversion rate is 1.5%. Which means these clicks generate 29,446 sales, and if the average order value (AOV) is $112, the revenue they make is $3.3 million.

But these incredible results have costs, too. every new customer FIGS acquires costs $39 (CAC)

When putting these numbers together, their return on advertising spend (ROAS) would be 2.9, which means that for every dollar they spend on advertising, they’d make $2.90 in revenue. That’s definitely a positive return on investment.

Repeat purchase rate

FIGS are work uniforms. So if they’re good, you’re probably going to come back and buy additional pieces in the future.

This is reflected in their first order retention rate of 50%. That means half of their customers come back to purchase again.

That’s absolutely massive! Most brands make the math work on a repurchase rate of 10-20%. And it doesn’t stop there, out of the 50% of customers that buy again, 63% will purchase again.

If we just take that second purchase into account, here is the extra sales they get:

So, besides the revenue they make from the first purchase (that is $3.3 million), they generate extra $1.6 million in revenue with their additional sales (14,723).

They cover the advertising cost in the first purchase their customer makes, so the profit they earn from these extra sales is way higher: $1.2 million.

So let’s put everything together:

Summing these results, FIGS spends over a million a month on Google Ads and makes 44,169 sales in total (first and second purchases).

With the average order value of $112, they’re making around $5 million in revenue (ROAS 4.3), and a net profit of $2.4 million (POAS 2.1).

FIGS Takeaways

I doubt most of us have $1M lying around to spend on ads, let alone we can do that profitably.

So what are some things we can learn from what FIGS is doing with Google Ads?

Here are 4 takeaways that are applicable for most advertisers:

1. Core branded search

Split your core brand traffic from branded searches that include a category name. This core brand traffic is very cheap and consistent, so with exact match keywords, you make sure you always show up.

2. Generic search match types

If you know which keywords convert, you can run them as exact matches. At the same time, you can use broad match keywords to keep things open and let Google find new customers.

3. Multiple Performance Max campaigns

If you have the necessary conversion volume, it makes sense to consider if it makes sense to have multiple pMax campaigns. That allows you to direct a specific budget to the areas or products that you want to focus on most.

4. YouTube Ads Shorts

YouTube Ads can work for ecommerce brands. 

Shorts are the newest placement which allows you to feature a different type of creative vs regular YouTube Ads. One of the biggest benefits of Shorts is that they’re designed specifically for mobile devices, which is where the majority of YouTube viewership happens.

Summary

So, we just read a case study about FIGS, a scrubs and workwear brand that’s crushing it with Google Ads. 

They’re using some smart tactics, like focusing on branded search campaigns and using exact match keywords. They’re also using Performance Max campaigns to highlight different product categories and experimenting with YouTube Ads Shorts to try out new types of creative.

One of the most impressive things about FIGS is their repeat purchase rate – 50% of their customers come back to buy again, and 63% of those repeat customers will make another purchase. This is a lot higher than what many brands aim for.

Overall, this case study shows us that with the right strategy, Google Ads can be a really effective way for ecommerce brands to make money.

Want to dive deeper into how other DTC brands leverage Google Ads? Check out our other breakdowns:

Away – Purple – MVMT – Judy – Allbirds – Glossier – Ritual – Caraway