What Liverpool and adidas’ Kit Launch Teaches Sports Businesses About Launch-Day Google Ads

1. Expect a spike in people searching your name

When you announce something new, people go to Google and search your brand name plus the product: “[your club] new kit”, “[your event] 2027 tickets”, “[your gym] opening offer”. That’s demand you didn’t pay to create, and it’s the cheapest traffic you’ll ever get.

The mistake is letting it slip away. Before launch day:

• Raise your brand campaign budget so it doesn’t run out by lunchtime.
• Add keywords for the new product or event name, not just your brand.
• Check who else is bidding on your name. Resellers, ticket sites and competitors will happily take those clicks if you’re not there.

2. Get your products approved before the reveal

If you sell physical products, such as kit, equipment or merchandise, your Shopping ads come from your product feed in Google Merchant Center. New products have to be reviewed and approved before they can show, and that doesn’t always happen instantly.

So don’t upload on launch morning. Add new products in advance, check they’re approved, and make sure the prices, sizes and stock levels are right. If a product is disapproved at the moment everyone’s searching for it, you’re relying on people finding you some other way.

3. Be careful about changing your website at the same time

Liverpool launched a new online store alongside the kit, with faster pages, personalised recommendations and a simpler checkout. A club that size has the team to manage it. For a smaller business, a new website on your busiest day is a risk.

When a site changes, things break quietly: conversion tracking stops firing, old links stop working, and ads send people to pages that no longer exist. You might not notice until you see a week of spend with no recorded sales.

If you must launch a new site at the same time, check these before going live:

• Conversion tracking fires on the new checkout or booking confirmation page.
• Old URLs redirect to the right new pages.
• Ad final URLs point to live pages.
• Your product feed uses the new links.

4. Sell the feeling, not the fabric

The campaign doesn’t really talk about the shirt’s material. It’s about the atmosphere of a European night at Anfield. That’s what fans buy into.

Most sports and leisure ads do the opposite. They list features: “Breathable fabric”, “Fully equipped gym”, “Tickets available now”. Try writing at least one headline about the experience instead:

• A gym: “Train Where You Actually Want to Show Up” rather than “50+ Machines Available”.
• A 10k race: “Cross the Finish Line With 5,000 Others” rather than “Entries Now Open”.
• A sports retailer: “Wear It on Matchday” rather than “New Season Stock In”.

Then let Google’s testing show you which works better for your audience.

5. Make the launch last longer than launch week

adidas didn’t stop at the kit. It followed up with Originals Teamgeist 26, a lifestyle range inspired by the same design, giving fans who’d seen the launch something else to buy.

You can do a smaller version of this with remarketing. Plenty of people will visit your launch page and leave without buying. Build an audience of those visitors in Google Ads, then show them a follow-up:

• People who viewed the new kit see the matching training wear.
• People who looked at event tickets see an early-bird reminder before prices go up.
• People who checked a new class see a free first-session offer.

The launch creates the interest; remarketing turns more of it into sales.

Got a launch coming up? I’ll check your account for free

If you’ve got a new season, product, event or opening on the way, I’ll do a free pre-launch check of your Google Ads account. I’ll look at brand campaign budgets, competitors bidding on your name, your product feed, conversion tracking and remarketing audiences, then send you a short list of what to fix before the big day.

No obligation and no jargon. Email mabz@pursuit-media.com or use the contact form, and mention “launch check”.