How We Turned Free Listings into £12.5 Million in Incremental Revenue

Client: Sports Direct (Frasers Group)

Sports Direct had already secured dominance in traditional organic search, but growth was stalling and media budgets were tight. We uncovered a powerful opportunity hiding in plain sight: Google’s free shopping listings – a space largely ignored by SEO and historically owned by PPC.

By redefining ownership and reframing free listings as a commercial SEO channel, Croud built a strategy that drove tangible business value. Through technical excellence, smart cross-team collaboration and a relentless focus on outcomes, we delivered £12.5 million in incremental revenue and a 78% uplift in clicks. What began as a tactical experiment quickly became a strategic model – transforming how SEO is perceived internally and creating a scalable framework now adopted across the wider Frasers Group.