We paid all 50 states. The buyers live in about six.
Seven paused campaigns spent $45,742 over the last 12 months targeting the entire United States and produced 15 conversions. This page crosses our own spend-by-state data with market research on where each vertical's buyers actually concentrate, so each campaign relaunches with a tight geo footprint instead of a national spray.
Companion reports: Search gap review · Full ads audit
TLDR
The waste was not the keywords alone, it was the map. Every campaign targeted the whole country. Spend smeared across 45+ states per campaign and the few conversions landed in scattered, non-repeating states, which is what statistical noise looks like, not a market.
The fix per vertical: commercial printing becomes a South Florida regional campaign (the research is blunt: collateral printing is bought locally, and national bids lose to VistaPrint and 4over). Cosmetics fulfillment tightens to the five beauty-brand clusters. 3PL targets the five states holding 53% of US Amazon sellers, plus a Southeast shipping-zone story. Promo products goes Florida-first. Health & Beauty merges into cosmetics. And six new Fort Lauderdale-specific segments (FBA prep, LATAM brands, subscription boxes, trade shows, franchise programs, relocated Northeast brands) are ready as tightly-geofenced test campaigns.
365 days of paused-campaign evidence
Where the dollars went, and where the rare conversions actually came from.
| Campaign | Spend | Clicks | Conv | Top spend states | States that converted | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Printing | $22,006 | 1,304 | 7 | TX $2.6k, FL $2.4k, CA $1.8k, PA $1.3k | TX 2, PA, IL, MN, OR, RI | Scatter = noise |
| Cosmetic Fulfillment | $6,917 | 338 | 6 | FL $1.3k, NY $807, CA $590, NJ $438 | FL, CA, VA, OK +2 | FL/CA match research |
| Print Marketing Fulfillment | $6,306 | 294 | 1 | TX $583, FL $563, NY $523, PA $467 | MI | Scatter = noise |
| 3PL Fulfillment | $4,615 | 429 | 0 | TX $556, FL $301, IL $299, GA $294 | none | Zero in 45 states |
| Health & Beauty Products | $2,869 | 128 | 1 | FL $333, CA $271, NY $242, TX $199 | TX | Merge into cosmetics |
| Marketing Fulfillment | $1,776 | 96 | 0 | FL $209, NY $192, IL $120, NC $107 | none | Fold into print fulfillment |
| Branded Merchandise | $1,254 | 218 | 0 | FL $191, TX $101, NY $88, GA $83 | none | Go Florida-first |
Commercial Printing: spend by state (top 8)
$22k spread over 46 states. Even Florida, our home market, converted zero on a national one-size-fits-all message. Six conversions in six different states is noise.
Cosmetic Fulfillment: spend by state (top 8)
The one campaign whose spend already leans toward the right map: its top 6 spend states are 5 of the 6 research-confirmed beauty clusters. This one needed a tighter version of itself, not a different map. Green bars mark converting states.
Market concentration by vertical
Three independent research lanes (web-grounded, industry data, model synthesis), cross-checked against our own conversion history. Google's suggestion of NY, CA, NJ, FL, TX for cosmetics checks out, with one addition it missed: Georgia.
The beauty corridor is real
- New Jersey: the densest cosmetics manufacturing corridor in the US (Morristown, New Brunswick, Carteret, Newark)
- New York metro: Estee Lauder, L'Oreal USA, Revlon, Coty HQs plus the indie brand layer around them
- California: LA and Orange County, the West Coast cluster and indie beauty capital
- Florida: Miami, the LATAM beauty gateway, our home turf
- Georgia: Atlanta ranks first in indie wellness brand counts in directory data, Google's list missed it
- Texas: Dallas, a real but secondary cluster
Same buyers, plus the Utah corridor
- Brand HQs overlap heavily with beauty: CA, NY, FL, GA, IL
- Utah is the historical supplement manufacturing capital (add as a test cell)
- Health & Beauty campaign duplicated the cosmetics audience with a thinner budget: merge them
Five states hold 53% of US Amazon sellers
- California 21.1%, New York 10.2%, Florida 10.2%, Texas 6.8%, New Jersey 4.7% of US Amazon sellers (Marketplace Pulse)
- County level: LA County, Brooklyn, Orange County CA, Miami-Dade
- DTC brand HQs cluster in NYC, the Bay Area, LA, and Columbus OH (#4 US metro for retail HQ concentration)
- Shipping-zone reality: a Fort Lauderdale warehouse wins the Southeast (zones 1-2), it does not win a Chicago brand on zone math, so sell the coasts on the LATAM gateway and relocation story instead
A regional purchase we bought nationally
- Collateral and quick-turn printing is bought locally: buyers want press checks, low freight, fast turnaround
- National bids compete with 4over, VistaPrint, and mega-plants on price, a losing fight, and our $22k/46-state result agrees
- Research recommendation: ~70% of budget inside Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, secondary ring 50-120 miles up the I-95/I-75 corridors (Treasure Coast, Fort Myers, Naples)
- Exception: catalog and large-run direct mail is bought nationally, but that is a capacity game we should enter only with a dedicated offer
Corporate swag follows corporate HQs
- Demand states: CA, TX, NY, FL, IL; metros: NYC, LA, Bay Area, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago
- Heavy skew toward tech and trade-show spend (Bay Area, Austin, Dallas)
- But promo is relationship-driven: the winnable fights are companies that can visit the shop. Florida first, national never (our $1,254/0 test agrees)
The buyer is a franchise, not a state
- Collateral fulfillment (store, kit, ship on demand) is bought by multi-location brands and franchise HQs, not local marketing managers
- Franchise HQ concentrations: South Florida, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville
- Relaunch as a franchise-program campaign in those five metros instead of a national "print fulfillment" spray ($6.3k bought 1 conversion)
Six Fort Lauderdale-shaped opportunities
Angles where the location is the pitch: Port Everglades, the LATAM gateway, no state income tax, Southeast shipping zones, and the Northeast relocation wave.
Containers land at Port Everglades and PortMiami; sellers need receiving, inspection, labeling, poly-bagging, palletizing, and forwarding to Southeast Amazon FCs (JAX, MCO, ATL, MIA) within 1-2 days. FL already holds 10.2% of US Amazon sellers.
amazon fba prep center miamifba prep and labeling service floridaport everglades 3pl amazon sellersMiami/Fort Lauderdale is the default US entry point for Latin American beauty and consumer brands: bilingual workforce, MIA air cargo, the Doral-Medley warehouse cluster. Contract cosmetics fulfillment plus localized print and promo is exactly our stack.
us fulfillment for latin american brandsmiami 3pl para marcas latinascross-border fulfillment floridaKitting plus in-house printing of inserts plus promo items in one building is a genuine differentiator against pure 3PLs. Southeast zones reach the snowbird and retiree demographics many boxes target.
subscription box fulfillment floridamonthly box kitting and shippingsoutheast 3pl subscription boxesSouth Florida and Orlando are top-five US convention geographies. Print, store, and ship booth materials, collateral kits, and swag to venues on schedule; a natural bundle of all three JMF service lines.
trade show exhibit fulfillment floridaevent collateral kit printing shippingconference materials warehousingNew-store opening kits, brand-controlled collateral, promo packs shipped to every location. South Florida is itself a franchise HQ cluster, and one franchise contract is worth a year of one-off print orders.
franchise marketing collateral fulfillmentnew store opening kit printingmulti location print fulfillmentThe NY/NJ/CT to South Florida HQ migration keeps delivering companies that just lost their local printer and 3PL. They are here, they still ship north (FL to NY is 2-3 day ground), and nobody is running ads that speak to them.
fulfillment company fort lauderdale3pl for relocated business floridaprinting company boca ratonWatchlist (not a launch): medical device and nutraceutical kitting fits the building and the LATAM medical-distribution corridor, but carries FDA-registration lift; scope it before spending ad dollars on it.
Per-campaign geo settings, ready to apply
Nothing below is executed. This is the map for when each campaign gets turned back on.
| Campaign (relaunched as) | Tier 1 (~70% budget) | Tier 2 (test, ~30%) | Explicitly excluded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Printing regional reset |
Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach counties | Treasure Coast + Fort Myers/Naples (50-120 mi ring) | Everything outside Florida |
| Cosmetic Fulfillment absorbs Health & Beauty |
FL, NY metro + North NJ, LA/Orange County | Atlanta, Dallas, Salt Lake City (supplements) | The other 43 states |
| 3PL / Pick-Pack two-story split |
FL, GA, NC, SC, TN (zone story: "your Southeast warehouse") | NYC metro, LA/OC (gateway story: LATAM + relocation) | Midwest/Mountain/Pacific NW, zone math loses there |
| Promo / Branded Merch Florida-first |
Tri-county + Orlando, Tampa | Atlanta | National |
| Print Marketing Fulfillment franchise angle |
South FL, Atlanta | Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville | National spray |
| 3PF - 3PL Search (LIVE) apply now, not a relaunch |
Already right: 9 Southeast states (FL GA NC SC TN AL AR KY MS), Presence-only. Keep. | Add Texas (6.8% of US Amazon sellers); add FBA-prep and LATAM ad groups from Part 3 inside South FL | Keep national off; revisit NYC/LA gateway story only after Southeast converts |
| New segment tests from Part 3 |
FBA prep + LATAM (South FL only, small budgets) | Subscription box, trade show, franchise, relocated-NE | Anything beyond the listed metros |
Settings that apply to every relaunch
1. Location option = Presence only, never "presence or interest" (interest is how a national campaign leaks into all 50 states again).
2. City/radius targeting inside Tier 1 states where the cluster is a metro, not the state (target the NYC metro and North Jersey, not all of New York state).
3. Per-state bid adjustments reviewed monthly against the geo report; any Tier 2 geo with 90 days of spend and nothing to show gets cut, the same test this page just ran on the old campaigns.
4. Every campaign keeps its own landing page wired to the conversion tag before it is enabled (the standing devtools rule).
Test the whole map for $2,500 a month
Five lanes, $82.19 a day total, every number below derived from our own 365-day click history, not industry averages. The proof the geo thesis already works: the live 3PF campaign, geofenced to 9 Southeast states, buys clicks at $3.44 while the old national 3PL campaign paid $10.76 for the same vertical. Same service, one third the click price.
Budget split
Most budget goes where clicks are cheapest and the geo already proved itself. Print Marketing Fulfillment (franchise angle) sits out round one: at its $21.45 historical CPC a $200 slice buys 9 clicks a month, too few to learn anything. It enters phase 2 funded by whatever round one kills.
The per-lane math, top to bottom
| Lane | Monthly | Per day | CPC we paid (365d) | CPC planned | Clicks/mo | Leads/mo (2-4%) | 60-day pass bar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3PF Southeast + FBA-prep + LATAM ad groups | $700 | $23.00 | $3.44 (geofenced) | $4.50 blended | ~155 | 3-6 | 8+ leads by day 60 |
| Commercial Printing, tri-county reset | $500 | $16.40 | $16.88 (national) | $12.00 regional | ~42 | 1-2 | 3+ leads by day 60 |
| Cosmetic Fulfillment, 5 clusters, absorbs H&B | $500 | $16.40 | $20.46 | $18.00 | ~28 | 0.5-1 | 1+ qualified lead by day 60 |
| Web Design + Ecommerce (LIVE Web Services campaign, new Shopify/WooCommerce/ecommerce keywords, showcase LP) | $500 | $16.40 | $8.59 (tri-county) | $8.50 | ~58 | 1-2 | 3+ leads by day 60 |
| Promo / Branded Merch, Florida-first | $300 | $9.85 | $5.75 | $5.75 | ~52 | 1-2 | 3+ leads by day 60 |
Planned CPCs are conservative: printing assumes a 29% discount for regional Quality Score gains (dedicated local page, city in the ad); cosmetics assumes a modest 12% gain; 3PF blends the proven $3.44 Southeast clicks with pricier FBA-prep and LATAM terms. Lead ranges use 2-4% landing page conversion, the fleet's observed band on dedicated, form-tested pages. One cosmetics fulfillment client or one franchise print program pays for the entire pilot year.
Workflow, approval to verdict
| Phase | When | What happens | Gate to pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 · Approval | Day 0 | Approved 18 Aug at $2,500 (bumped from $2,000; fifth lane added: Web Design) | Go / no-go |
| 1 · Pre-flight | Days 1-5 | Merge Health & Beauty into Cosmetics. Set geo per the Part 4 playbook, Presence-only. Build/verify one dedicated landing page per lane, each manually tested in devtools (form submit + conversion tag fire, the standing rule). Load negative keyword lists including the exact-match traps like bare "3pl". Add FBA-prep + LATAM ad groups (Spanish included) to live 3PF. | Every LP submits + tags fire, screenshots on file |
| 2 · Launch | Day 6 | Budgets set to the split above. Bidding starts on Maximize Clicks with CPC caps at the planned CPC +25%, no smart bidding until a lane has 15+ conversions. | All 4 lanes serving, spend pacing within 15% of plan |
| 3 · Weekly scrub | Every Mon | Search-term report scrub (close-variant leaks negated), geo report check (any spend outside plan = settings bug), pacing check. 30 minutes, scripted pull. | Zero out-of-geo spend |
| 4 · Checkpoint | Day 30 | Written scorecard per lane: spend, CPC vs plan, leads, CPL. Underpacing budget flows to the cheapest converting lane. | Course-correct only, no kills yet |
| 5 · Verdict | Day 60 | Each lane against its pass bar (last column above). Failures pause, their budget funds phase 2: Print Marketing Fulfillment franchise angle, then subscription box and trade-show segments from Part 3. | Kill / keep / scale per lane |
What gets executed on approval (the whole list, nothing else)
1. Pause Health & Beauty permanently, move its 2 best keywords into Cosmetic Fulfillment.
2. Re-geo all four lanes exactly per Part 4, location option Presence, old national targeting deleted.
3. Landing pages: the never-used /ppc/ set on jmfield.com covers every lane already: /ppc/commercial-printing, /ppc/cosmetic-fulfillment, /ppc/3pl-companies, /ppc/promotional-products (and /ppc/print-fulfillment waiting for phase 2). Only two get built new: FBA prep and LATAM/Spanish, and those two get the full design treatment (anchored to real component libraries, motion, proof elements, not template filler) since they carry paid traffic from day one. Every page devtools-tested (form submit + tag fire) before its ads enable.
4. Budgets: $23.00 / $16.40 / $16.40 / $16.40 / $9.85 per day (3PF, printing, cosmetics, web design, promo). CPC caps at planned +25%.
5. Negative lists loaded account-wide (job seekers, DIY, wholesale-buyer traps, bare acronyms).
6. Conversion actions verified per lane, phone calls 60s+ counted, weekly scrub scheduled.
Nothing outside this list changes. Paused campaigns other than these stay paused.
Sources: Google Ads account 642-519-7186 user-location report, 365 days to 18 Aug 2026 · Marketplace Pulse US Amazon seller distribution · Retail Dive DTC HQ mapping · The Index Beauty city directories · Personal Care Products Council member geography · three cross-checked research lanes (Perplexity web-grounded, Gemini, DeepSeek). Research lanes agree on clusters; treat exact percentages as directional except the Marketplace Pulse seller shares, which are published data. Internal page, noindex.