Northbeam just dropped their April 2026 numbers and the headline is ugly: median CAC is up 9.7% year over year. Ad spend tracked nearly identically, up 9.6%. So brands are spending more and getting exactly the same volume of customers for it. On paper, efficiency held. In practice, you went …
Scaling Ad Spend and the Law of Diminishing Returns
My job is to fix things. It’s what I’ve been doing in Ecommerce for over 25 years. When I say ‘things’ I mean growing the gap between money out and money in (in a good way). And weekly calls right now are constantly focused on the challenge of scaling with …
If your Google Ads Channel Performance Report looks like this, is there any need to run PMAX?
So we’ve all pretty much defaulted to PMAX as the default choice for our Google Ads campaigns. Google won in the end. I’ve got a question for you, though. When one channel is carrying the entire weight of your paid performance, handing budget control to an algorithm that spreads it …
Does Meta Really Need Massive Creative Volume After Andromeda? (Short Answer: No)
Every ads agency deck since Andromeda has said the same thing: feed Meta more creative. More ads, more variety, more volume. Give the algorithm options and it’ll find your winners. It sounds good. It’s also wrong, and it’s costing brands, maybe yours, serious money. What Meta Performance Constraints Actually Look …
Tired of Just Throwing Money at Ads? Why You Need DIY Growth and Owned Media
All my consulting work circles around ‘next phase ecommerce growth’. It’s the challenge I’m set running this consulting business now for my 16th year. Growth, for most, aligns to spend. You spend more on ads… you ‘grow’ more. So, what you do when paid media starts to run its course …
The Real Reason Your Meta Ads Stop Scaling
The algorithm isn’t the problem. Your pipeline is. When I run my one-day Growth Unlocked session with a client there’s a reason behind why I’m hired – to fix increased CAC. Always a challenge, as we all want lower acquisition costs, but on your route to ad-independence you first of …
Have We Forgotten About Big Picture Marketing Strategy?
Going DTC gives you the opportunity to think big. It’s part of the reason for the shift away from retail reliance in the first place. DTC offered you freedom. Not from a margin viewpoint (although we all dream of better margins) but from a marketing viewpoint. There’s a question I …
“So Ian, you’ve gotten to know our brand, what are you going to do to help us grow sustainably and profitably?
I’m going to share with you the process that I share with any brand I partner with. Think of it as an open letter to you. It’s not my ‘secret sauce’, rather a structure I’ve refined over the many MANY years running this business. Feel free to steal it. Most …
Collaborative Commerce: Why You Might Be Chasing The Wrong Sized Affiliates
Most DTC brands building an affiliate programme start the same way. They chase the big names. The high-traffic review sites, the major comparison platforms, the publishers with the headline numbers. They spend months negotiating, onboarding, and waiting. And then they wonder why the programme never quite delivers what they expected. …
Why Your Affiliate Program Is Your Most Powerful SEO Asset (And You’re Probably Running It Wrong)
When I first start working with a DTC brand, they are treating affiliate marketing as a performance channel. Pay for the sale, measure the click, optimise the commission. It sits in a spreadsheet next to paid social and gets judged on the same terms: cost per acquisition, return on ad …
What’s Holding You Back from Building a Market-Leading Affiliate Program in Your DTC Niche?
Here’s something that bothers me. Affiliate marketing rarely comes up in the conversations I have with ecommerce founders. Not because it isn’t working (they’re not doing it!), but because it’s barely on their radar. Why is that? Well, no big conference keynotes dedicated to it. No VC-backed platform spending millions …
Why Are All Email Marketers Now Retention Experts?
Let’s be honest about what’s happening here. A brand builds something genuinely great. Products that solve real problems, quality that speaks for itself, customers who come back because they actually want to. And somewhere along the way, an email marketer slides into the mix, starts sending weekly flows, and six …