eCommerce Marketing
Senior eCommerce expertise on the work that compounds
Operating expertise on paid acquisition, lifecycle, and measurement. Advisory, fractional, or running paid acquisition where you supply the creative.
Three patterns we keep seeing in ecommerce accounts we audit
Acquisition costs keep climbing
CAC up across Meta and Google, blended ROAS sliding, every channel says it's the best one. The campaigns that drove growth last year aren't doing it anymore.
Retention is leaving money on the table
Email runs on the basic flows that came with onboarding. No segmentation strategy, no broadcast cadence, no real lifecycle. CAC math only works when retention compounds.
Measurement is fragmented
Platforms disagree on what worked. GA4 misconfigured. iOS-14 broke client-side attribution and nothing replaced it. Decisions get made on platform-by-platform numbers because nothing rolls up.
How we'd handle the platform decisions every account is making
A short version of the calls every ecommerce account is making, whether they realize it or not.
| Decision | When we use it | When we don't | Our move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance Max | Strong creative breadth, clean Merchant Center feed, enough conversion volume for the asset groups to learn | Accounts without conversion volume, broken feeds, or thin creative to give the asset groups | Stay on Standard Shopping and Search until conversion volume justifies PMax. When we run PMax, negative-keyword exclusions and asset-group steering are non-negotiable. |
| Video ads (Reels, Stories, YouTube) | Brand-building, top-of-funnel, accounts with creative production capacity and a real hook | Accounts expecting direct-response performance from video without the production muscle to feed it | Static plus DPA for direct response. Video reserved for awareness and strong-hook test budgets. |
| DPA and catalog ads | Mid- and bottom-funnel retargeting; prospecting from a clean product feed; broad SKU coverage | Broken product feeds, narrow SKU set, or feeds that haven't been touched in months | Fix the feed first. Then run DPA across retargeting and acquisition where it earns its slot. |
| Platform automation (Meta Advantage+, Google auto-recs) | Pixel and Conversions API healthy, real conversion volume, signal not yet hollowed by iOS-14 | Most accounts post-iOS-14, where the algorithm is optimizing on hallucinated signal | CAPI and server-side tagging in place before any automation gets switched on. Manual placements and bidding by default; automation back on per-campaign once we can see what it's doing. |
| Smart Bidding (tROAS, Max Conversions, Manual CPC) | Once a campaign has 30+ clean conversions in the last 30 days and the conversion event is well-defined | New campaigns, accounts with broken or loose conversion tracking, accounts where margin or LTV math hasn't been worked out | Manual CPC until volume justifies a switch. Then tROAS for shopping with reliable margin data; Max Conversions only when the conversion event is tightly defined. |
How we operate at the system level
Two principles that shape the work, whether we're advising or running campaigns.
Retention as a system
One trigger, branched paths, automated work that compounds.
Measurement that connects spend to actual revenue
- Blended ROAS / MER reporting
- Conversions API (Meta, Google)
- Server-side tagging (Stape, sGTM)
- GA4 ecommerce events + custom dimensions
- Default platform reporting
What we layer in plus the default that most ecommerce platforms ship with
What ecommerce work looks like in practice
Skinny Up: a Klaviyo email program rebuilt from $0 to six-figure attributed revenue in year one, now over a quarter of total revenue.
Services we sell into ecommerce engagements
Four paid services. Engaged on retainer when running ongoing, or scoped as defined-deliverable projects. Email and measurement are real services we build, not throw-ins.
Paid acquisition
Google Shopping with feed work as the foundation, Performance Max where the preconditions are in place, Standard Shopping and Search where they aren't. Meta primary across feed, Stories, and Reels with creative-testing discipline. Microsoft Ads, Pinterest where the vertical fits.
Email and lifecycle
Klaviyo focus. Flow architecture (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back, sunset), segmentation strategy, broadcast cadence, deliverability and list health. Brevo or Mailchimp where the brand is already there.
Site and conversion
Shopify or WordPress site work tied to acquisition campaigns. On-site popup strategy with Klaviyo signups. Landing-page rebuilds. Site UX consulting. A/B testing where traffic supports it.
Measurement and attribution
GA4 instrumentation with custom events and dimensions. Server-side tagging through Stape and sGTM. Conversions API for Meta and Google. Blended ROAS / MER dashboards. Email attribution layered in.
Platforms we work in
Where ecommerce work happens.
Common questions
What kind of ecommerce brands do you work with?
Best fit is established brands at the inflection point where junior-resourced agencies stop working but a full-service growth shop is overkill. Real revenue, an in-house creative or content function, and a need for senior judgment on the work that matters. Our deepest work has been across health and wellness, automotive accessories, and other DTC consumer categories.
Do you produce creative or do we?
You do, or you supply it. We don't have an in-house production team for ecommerce creative anymore. We run the operating discipline (testing, optimization, measurement); the creative comes from your team or a partner you trust. We're glad to recommend partners we've worked with.
What platforms do you specialize in?
Shopify primary on the storefront. Klaviyo primary for email; Brevo and Mailchimp where the brand is already there. Google Ads, Meta, and Pinterest for paid. GA4, Tag Manager, and server-side tagging for measurement. Not Magento, not Adobe Commerce, not BigCommerce.
Do you take on small ecommerce brands or new launches?
Honestly no. We're not the right fit for early-stage brands or pre-launch validation work. The work we do compounds over time and pays back over a longer horizon than a new brand can underwrite. Better to stay scrappy and self-serve until you've found product-market fit and are ready to invest in compounding.
What's the engagement model: retainer, project, or hourly?
Retainer for ongoing managed advertising and fractional engagements. Project-based for defined-scope work like email rebuilds or measurement infrastructure. No hourly. Retainers usually start with a short initial term, then run month to month.
Do you handle Amazon, TikTok Shop, and marketplaces?
Not actively. Our focus is the brand's own DTC channels: your store, your email list, your paid acquisition, your data. Marketplaces deserve specialist agencies; happy to recommend ones we've worked with.
What about full-service execution?
Not anymore. We're a smaller team focused on the work that compounds. Full-service execution with embedded creative production isn't what we do; our value is in the strategic and operating layers. We partner well with brands that can supply the production capacity.
How do you measure ecommerce performance?
Blended ROAS / MER as the primary number; channel-level ROAS as inputs. Conversions API plus server-side tagging on every engagement so the platforms run on real signal post-iOS-14. Email attribution layered in. We don't make budget decisions on a single platform's UI.
Who does the work?
A small in-house team, and the person who plans your strategy is the person who runs it. Matthew leads every engagement and works alongside specialists on our own team rather than handing accounts down a chain. We hire internally and only within the United States, and we don't white-label the work out to another agency, so the people you hire are the people doing the work. We also cap how many clients each of us carries, which is what makes senior attention a real thing rather than a claim.
Ready to see what disciplined spend gets you?
Show us where the numbers stand, and walk away with a plan for turning spend into revenue.