What ~490 Google Ads clicks taught a tiny eSIM shop

GoSIM.ch — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 06:31:57 +0000

We run gosim.ch, a small shop that sells travel eSIM data plans. In June we turned on Google Ads for the first time. About 490 clicks later we had one paid order, a $7.99 plan. Here's what our analytics showed when we went back through it, and what we changed.

Where the clicks actually came from

We sell to people travelling to Turkey, Japan, Thailand and Switzerland. Our ad traffic in June and July looked like this (Umami, by visitor country):

India: 2,662 visits
Indonesia: 270
Cambodia: 244
Vietnam: 203
Laos: 124
United States: 30
Switzerland: 13

So roughly 9 out of 10 visits came from countries where almost nobody is buying a travel eSIM for a trip abroad from a Swiss shop. 94% were on mobile. That pattern most likely means the campaign was showing on cheap display and app placements, not search results. We hadn't turned those off, and the automated campaign type happily spent there.

The funnel

Across about 3,900 visits in that period:

3,475 landed on the homepage
407 picked a destination
41 clicked through to checkout
1 paid

The homepage was the landing page for almost every ad. Someone searching "esim italy" got a generic page and had to search again. The few ads that pointed to a destination page (Italy got 68 entries) at least landed people on a plan list.

What we changed

We stopped the ads. With one order, there was nothing to tune.
We put the effort into pages that answer one trip each: "best eSIM for Turkey", "best eSIM for China" and so on, with real prices next to Airalo, Nomad and Saily, and a short section on what actually works there (for China, which apps load without a VPN).
We added funnel events (destination picked, plan clicked, checkout started) so the next test can be judged in days, not months.

Those guide pages are now our top landing pages, with no ad spend. Over the last three days the China guide was number one, and China plans were our best seller.

If we run ads again

Search campaigns only, no display or partner network placements.
Location targeting set to "people in" the countries we sell to, not "people interested in".
Every ad goes to the matching destination page, never the homepage.
A kill rule written down before starting: a fixed number of clicks with zero orders and it stops.

None of this is new advice. We just had to watch 490 clicks go to the wrong people to take it seriously.

GoSIM team

What a 10GB travel eSIM actually costs: Turkey, Japan and Switzerland compared

GoSIM.ch — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:26:17 +0000

I work at GoSIM.ch, a small Swiss shop selling travel eSIMs, so keep that in mind as you read. I priced the same plan (10GB, valid 30 days) across a few of the big brands on 29 September 2026, using each brand's public website.

Destination	GoSIM	Airalo	Nomad	Saily	Ubigi
Turkey	$5.99	$15.50	$13.00	$15.99	$13.00
Japan	$7.99	$18.00	$16.00	–	–
Switzerland	$7.99	$23.00	$20.50	–	$11.00

Prices were taken from each brand's own site for the closest 10GB/30-day plan. A dash means I didn't find a matching plan. They change often, so check before you buy.

Why the gap is so big

Most travel eSIM brands buy data from the same few wholesalers that sit on top of local carriers. On Turkey 10GB, for example, our plan runs on Vodafone Turkey. The wholesale cost of that data is a few dollars. The rest of a $15 retail price goes to app development, support, ads and affiliate commissions, which commonly run around 10% or more of every sale in this market.

We keep the markup small and don't run an app. That's most of the difference. It also means you get fewer extras: no in-app usage meter, and support is email.

What to check besides price

Which network. The same country can be served by different local carriers. Coverage outside the cities differs a lot.
Where your data exits. Many eSIMs route traffic through another country, so your IP may show as the UK or Singapore. Travel eSIMs for China usually exit in Hong Kong or Singapore. Because your traffic leaves the network outside mainland China, apps like Google, WhatsApp and Instagram stay reachable without a VPN.
APN settings. A few destinations, Turkey among them, sometimes need the APN set by hand. If the eSIM installs but there's no data, check this first.
Refunds. Most providers refund an eSIM that was never installed. Once it's activated, refunds are usually case by case.

If you're comparing beyond these three countries, the aggregator eSIMDB lists most providers side by side.

DEV Community: GoSIM.ch