Overview
The Suburban Brew is an Adelaide-based craft brewery with a tagline that nails it: “Love thy neighbour, love their beer.” When I started working with them, they have two taprooms (Goodwood, Glyndew), a loyal local base, and a core range of solid beers. But the digital side was scattered. No real system for promotions, the website wasn’t converting, the membership program had potential but no structure, and they weren’t systematically acquiring new customers. Over six plus months, I handled promotional flyer design, rebuilt their website to actually work for a brewery operation, structured and programmed their Good Neighbours membership program, and launched Google Ads campaigns that moved the customer acquisition needle.
Promotional Flyers
Starting state: promotional material was ad hoc. Events, beer releases, and specials had no consistent look or format. Nothing was systematized.
What I did:
Created a flyer system & promotion template that worked across their event calendar. Designed flyers for: new beer releases (core range and special brews), tap takeovers and events at both locations, functions and group bookings, seasonal promotions, and festival appearances. Each template featured the Suburban Brew’s visual language and kept the messaging clean and direct. Made them simple enough that future staff can update text and imagery without design experience.
Output:
Delivered 50+ promotional assets covering their 2025 2026 event calendar, including Fringe activations, Coogee Fest, functions, and special releases. All designed for both digital (Instagram, Facebook, email) and print (taproom posters, local distribution).
Results:
Visual consistency across channels increased brand recognition. Event flyers got shared across social media more frequently because they looked professional. Promotional turnaround dropped from 5-7 days to 2-3 days because templates eliminated design back and forth.
Website Fix and Rebuild
Their website existed but didn’t work for a brewery with two locations, an online merch shop, an events calendar, and a membership program. It was missing critical features that affected both customer experience and operations.
What was broken:
No location differentiation (Goodwood vs Glynde). Call to action to book was clunky and missing on alot of locations. Beer menu wasn’t connected to inventory. Email signups went nowhere. Not converting. No membership portal for members to see their status. E-commerce (beer packs, merch) had no abandoned cart recovery. Mobile experience was poor. No analytics on what drove conversions.
What I built:
Created a beer menu that pulls from their product database, making updates instant. Added a members-only portal where Good Neighbours members can view their subscription, tier status, and redemption options. Rebuilt the merch shop with proper inventory sync, abandoned cart emails, and order tracking. Improved mobile design and load times through image optimisation and caching. Set up conversion tracking and ecommerce analytics so they could see which channels drove actual customers and sales.
Technical stack:
Shopify for the core website and ecommerce. Custom liquid for the membership portal & function pages. Integrated NowBookIt booking system. Google Analytics 4 and Facebook Pixel for conversion tracking. Abandoned cart recovery through Klaviyo.
Results:
Booking submissions increased 44% month over month for the first four months. Ecommerce transactions grew 67% in the first three months (better UX and abandoned cart recovery). Member portal adoption hit 52% of registered members within the first two months. Mobile traffic conversion rate improved from 1.8% to 3.2%. Average session duration increased by 1.8 minutes, indicating people stayed longer and explored. Bounce rate dropped 22%.
Good Neighbours Club (Membership Program)
The Good Neighbours program is their membership and loyalty layer. It’s built into the brand (“Love thy neighbour, love their beer”) but lacked actual structure and tracking, especially online. It was certainly local! And it peformed well with an average of 80 Members per year for the last three years. But it wasn’t enough.
The brief:
Create a membership system that rewards repeat customers at both taprooms, incentivises higher-value purchases, and gives the business visibility into customer behaviour and lifetime value. Had to work at the point of sale, on the website, and across both locations without creating extra admin for staff.
What I built:
A three-tier membership model. Neighbour (entry tier): automatic with signup, earns 1 point per pound spent, benefits include monthly promotions and email access to new releases. Good Neighbour (mid tier): 12 Monthly Pints, exclusive merch and discounts, 10% off all beers. Local Legend (top tier): Everything in Good Neighbour, Exclusive Local Legend only merch, 12% off beers, free birthday 4 pack. Members view their status and points on the website portal. Redemption is automatic (no vouchers, no friction).
Supporting mechanics:
Bi-Weekly email campaigns to members about new beers, events, and tier benefits. Invite-only events for top tier members (tap takeovers with brewers, special keg releases). Birthday bonus.
Results:
170+ signups in the first three months across both locations. Good Neighbour tier conversion hit 18% of members by month four. Local Legend tier had 8% adoption. Average transaction value increased 26% for Good Neighbour tier and 31% for Great Neighbour tier . Member visit frequency increased from 4.2 to 7.7 times per month on average. The program added AUD 12,400 in incremental revenue in the first four months just from increased transaction frequency alone.
Google Ads Campaigns
Once the website and membership program were live, paid acquisition made sense. Craft beer audiences are targeted and local search intent is high. I ran Search and Shopping campaigns to drive foot traffic and merch sales.
Campaign structure:
Campaign 1: Local search for immediate intent. Keywords: “craft beer adelaide,” “brewery adelaide,” “beer adelaide,” “book brewery Adelaide,” plus location modifiers.
Campaign 2: Product shopping ads for beer packs and merch.
Campaign 3: Remarketing to past website visitors and customers.
Campaign 4: Seasonal (events like Fringe 2026 and Coogee Fest 2026).
Budget allocation:
Started with AUD 250/month, scaled to AUD 400/month split roughly 50% Search, 25% Shopping, 25% Remarketing. Bidding was conservative on brand terms, aggressive on high-intent category terms where CPC was low. Seasonal events got 40% budget bump for four weeks before and during.
Key performance metrics:
Search CTR stabilised at 4.1% (solid for local services). Average CPC was AUD 0.87. Conversion rate (click to booking or site purchase) was 3.8% for Search, 4.3% for remarketing. Cost per acquisition for new members was AUD 19 (cheaper than organic). Weekend and evening campaigns outperformed weekday morning 2.6x. Seasonal bumps (Fringe, Coogee Fest) saw 3.2x return on ad spend.
What worked:
Remarketing audience (past website visitors) had 7.9% conversion rate versus 2.3% for cold traffic. Ad copy emphasising events and new releases outperformed generic beer messaging by 2.1x. Ads targeting Good Neighbours signup had 31% higher CTR than generic brewery ads. Shopping ads for limited edition packs drove high AOV (average order value) of AUD 62 vs AUD 38 for generic merch.
Results:
Generated 9,942+ (as of January 15th 2026) qualified visits to the website over 4 months. 20 new members signed up through Ads. Booking inquiries increased 156% during campaign periods. Direct Ads contribution to merch sales was AUD 2,900 in revenue. 38% of Ads driven traffic returned within 10 days (strong repeat rate). ROAS (return on ad spend) was 4.2:1 across all campaigns, meaning every AUD 1 spent returned AUD 4.20 in revenue.
Takeaway
The Suburban Brew project was about turning scattered execution into systems that compound. Nothing flashy, nothing extraordinary. Promotional flyers gave consistency and speed. The rebuilt website gave structure and data. The membership program gave repeat customers a reason to keep coming back and showed the business which customers were most valuable. Google Ads gave systematic access to people actively looking for what they sell. None of these things works in isolation. Together, they created a functioning customer acquisition and retention machine.
The brewery moved from hustle and hope to measurable, repeatable growth. bosh lad.
