Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Hosted by Common Thread Collective

Business

Website RSS feed

Episodes

451

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

2020 transformed the world of ecommerce forever. For the modern DTC brand, the rewards have never been greater. But the waters have also never been choppier, and the way forward has never been more uncertain. So how do you navigate this dangerous new reality? No matter how you do it, you’d better not do it alone. That’s where the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast comes in — join Common Thread Collective’s Taylor Holiday & Richard Gaffin as they bring you guiding insights from across CTC’s portfolio of growing DTC businesses. Whether you need a clear view on the macro issues affecting the world of ecommerce, or want to reorient your business around groundbreaking new big-picture strategies, Taylor & Richard are here to help answer the tough questions about what it takes to scale — and sustain — an ecommerce business.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 27, 202626 min

Diversify Now: The 6-Week Q4 Window Closing Fast

Richard and Luke (newly promoted President at CTC) break down why channel diversification is no longer optional for 8-figure ecommerce brands heading into Q4 and what creative diversification actually means when you need 1,000-plus ads per month from 100-plus creators. This episode covers the exact tools, platforms, and testing frameworks that changed CTC's position on scaling beyond Meta and Google. What we cover: Why CTC reversed its position on channel diversification How Statlas automation now pushes thousands of ads per month Why geo holdout incrementality testing is now in-house at CTC Creative diversification as production source diversity, not format diversity The 3-4 production source minimum before Q4 Why 3% of ads drive 80-plus percent of spend Finding your top 20-30 creators before the September window closes AppLovin, TikTok GMV Max, and YouTube Demand Gen entering Q4 CTC's Mountain partnership for Connected TV geo holdout testing Key stat: 3% of ads drive more than 80% of spend. Find your outliers before Q4 locks in. Show Notes: Go to http://outersignal.com/thread to get 50% off your first two months Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

August 25, 202629 min

We Analyzed $1.5 Billion in Meta Spend. Here's What We Found.

We connected Claude to our Statlas database and analyzed $1.5 billion in Meta spend across 320 accounts and $100 million in Google spend across 134 stores. The question: do platform bid controls actually deliver what they promise? Tony Chopp, CTC's VP of Media Investment, walks through what we found — and what it means for how you build your paid media foundation. Min ROAS hits its target. Cost per result does not. On Meta, cost per result goal achieved its target less than half the time. On Google, tROAS ran above target at 1.3x. tCPA ran below at 0.8x. ROAS-based bidding gives the algorithm more flexibility to find high-value buyers. TikTok's GMV Max budget scaling solves the liquidity vs. predictability tension. The brands willing to spend the most to acquire a customer win the auction. The takeaway: build your paid media foundation on ROAS-based bidding. Not because it's a rule — because the data says it gives you the best chance to thread the needle between maximum investment and margin protection. Show Notes: Go to https://bit.ly/4cbihFx to Claim $25,000 in Lutiq platform credits Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

August 20, 202630 min

Ecommerce Growth With a Money-Back Guarantee

Our newest ecommerce growth offer comes with a money-back guarantee and a data advantage built in: visibility into what competitors in the same industry are actually bidding and converting at. In this episode, Taylor Holiday and Joy Sharma, who runs this offer for CTC's seven-figure clients, break down what's included: unlimited landing pages and creative tested until they beat CTC's own conversion-rate benchmark data, exclusive access to a top-tier creator network at no added cost, and a guarantee that ties CTC's own accountability directly to the outcome. Tune in if you've ever wondered what your competitors are actually paying to acquire a customer, or wanted an agency willing to put its own money on the line. In this episode, we cover: Why CTC ties this offer to a money-back guarantee instead of just a strategy handoff How CTC's data shows exactly what competitors are bidding and converting at What's included in CTC's newest offer for seven-figure ecommerce brands How unlimited landing page testing works against real conversion-rate benchmarks Why the exclusive Refunnel creator network comes at no added cost Why CTC believes strategy and production can't stay separate anymore Want CTC to guarantee your growth the same way? Visit www.commonthreadco.com Show Notes: Axon is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to https://axon.ai/en/ctc to set up your first campaign. Get 20% more Meta Growth https://commonthreadco-global.com/yt The 7-Figure Growth Workshop https://commonthreadco.com/pages/sept-26-event Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

August 18, 202631 min

Ecommerce Growth: The 3-Pillar Framework We Use

Our President, Luke Austin, just got back from a 3-day fishing trip in Sitka, Alaska: 90 lbs of salmon, halibut, and black cod, with orcas circling the boat the whole time. But the real story is what it taught him about growing ecommerce brands. In this episode, he breaks down the three things that have to be true for any ecommerce brand to know if it's actually winning: a single reliable source of truth for your data, a shared definition of success across your team, and relentless execution against the plan. It's the same framework CTC uses with every brand we partner with, and the standard we just recommitted to internally for H2. In this episode, we cover: Why most ecommerce brands can't clearly answer if they're winning or losing Building a single source of truth for your financial, marketing, and order data Why a shared definition of success matters more than more dashboards How contribution margin and daily targets keep teams aligned What relentless execution actually looks like: ad plans, email plans, creative testing, MMM, and incrementality Why brands skip straight to execution, and what it costs them Want help building this system for your brand? Visit www.commonthreadco.com Show Notes: Visit eCapital to see how much working capital you may qualify for: https://bit.ly/4xO3VDd The 7-Figure Growth Workshop https://commonthreadco.com/pages/sept-26-event Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

August 13, 202627 min

Do This to Scale Your CPG Brand — Guaranteed

Joy Sharma, CTC's Director of Accelerator, walks through a brand-new CPG growth offer backed by a 20% uplift guarantee — or your money back. The strategy combines hourly API-based budget scaling (via a Meta managed service most brands don't know exists) with industry CAC benchmarking from Statlas, full-stack creative and landing page support, and an exclusive influencer whitelist through Refunnel. In this episode: What "hourly API scaling" actually means and why it drives 20–30% compounding spend growth The Meta managed service that gives CTC budget-scaling access no other agency has How Statlas industry CAC data lets CPG brands "cheat" the auction Real results: $856/day to $20K/day in 90 days at 0.9 ROAS Why "extreme accountability" means CTC puts everything on the line, not just your brand How Refunnel's top-performing influencer community removes the whitelist bottleneck The 3-brand invite-only launch: two slots with 20% guarantee, one with 40% This offer is currently invite-only for 3 CPG brands doing $3M–$5M+ annually who want to reach 9 figures as fast as possible. Apply via the link in the show notes. Show Notes: Get 20% more Meta Growth https://commonthreadco-global.com/yt What Hourly API Scaling is actually worth https://commonthreadco-global.com/case-study The 7-Figure Growth Workshop https://commonthreadco.com/pages/sept-26-event Go to http://outersignal.com/thread to get 50% off your first two months Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

August 10, 202622 min

Why 8-Figure Brands Waste Days Finger-Pointing When Results Miss (And the Fix)

When results miss at an 8-figure or 9-figure ecommerce brand, a familiar pattern kicks in. Someone asks "why did we miss?" There is no clear owner. Every team points somewhere else. Days pass before anyone agrees on what happened, let alone what to fix. Brian Sakansky, Profit Engine Manager at CTC, calls this the finger-pointing problem. It is not a personality issue. It is a structural one. And the structure most agencies use, where performance is measured by channel KPIs like ROAS or CPM, is exactly what creates it. In this episode, Brian walks through how CTC's Prophit Engine eliminates blame cycles entirely by tying the agency contract to business outcomes, specifically contribution margin, not channel metrics. When CTC is accountable to the brand's P&L rather than Meta performance, CTC is no longer defending the ad account. They are solving for the business. Brian also explains how Statlas gives brands a daily green/red view of whether each channel hit its expected target, how Profit Engineers pull the right levers when a channel misses, and what brands can do right now if they are not yet on the Prophit Engine. Show Notes: Your free LTV audit is waiting at smile.io: https://bit.ly/4bKlMCv Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

August 6, 202657 min

Taylor and Andrew Debate Cost Controls (We Ran the Numbers)

Taylor and Andrew Faris sit down to debate something every performance marketer has an opinion about but almost nobody has actually tested: do Meta cost controls deliver to the bid you set?CTC reviewed $1.5 billion in Meta spend and ran a formal study on $200 million across 253 accounts from March 2025 through July 2026. The results were surprising enough to change CTC's default bidding strategy. This is the first public breakdown of the full findings.KEY TAKEAWAYS:-Min ROAS (highest value optimization) delivered 96.5% of target across the full dataset. It is the most accurate cost control CTC has tested, and the AOV is baked into the signal so you do not have to manually work through SKU-level bid math.-Cost per result goal (cost cap) consistently overshoots by roughly 40%. An average bid of $78 delivered $108 in outcome. SKU complexity makes it very hard to set the right bid, and the algorithm does not compensate for it.-Bid cap delivered 123% of target on a $3M sample and is now CTC's default cost control, replacing cost per result goal.-Stop loss rules for turning off individual ads have no discernible impact on account performance. The time most performance teams spend on that workflow is not moving the needle.-The aggregate accuracy of min ROAS is real — but individual accounts can deviate significantly. 67% of min ROAS accounts were more than 5% below target on an individual basis. The aggregate and the individual account are two different things.This research covers $1.5B reviewed and $200M analyzed across 253 accounts. Read the full study in the show notes.The Common Thread Collective 7-Figure Growth Workshop: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/sept-26-eventhttps://hermod.statlas.io/mcp/report/shared?user=anmar.commonthreadco.com&ts=1785286905https://hermod.statlas.io/mcp/report/shared?user=anmar.commonthreadco.com&ts=1785513697Show Notes:-Axon is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to https://axon.ai/en/ctc to set up your first campaign.-Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine-The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

August 4, 202624 min

The Agency Model Is Broken. We Fixed It.

Taylor Holiday and Richard Gaffin break down the Prophit Engine, CTC's system that combines a head of growth, Meta media buyer, and creative strategist into a single profit-engineered role powered by AI, Statlas, and a decade of operational methodology. They cover what you actually get, why it works, what you stop hiring for, and the kind of brand that gets the most out of it. In this episode: Why forecasting within 3% across $3B in GMV is now one person's job How the Prophit Engineer role collapses three positions into one What "Push to Build" means for Meta media buying efficiency The Creative Demand Plan and how it eliminates creative guesswork The total technology stack value (and why the price undercuts it by half a million) What the ideal PE8 client actually looks like Why the best brands let go of day-to-day and hold CTC accountable to outcomes Key stat: CTC brands that worked with us for all of 2025 grew top-line revenue 35% and contribution margin 41.5%. The Common Thread Collective 7-Figure Growth Workshop: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/sept-26-event Show Notes: Your free LTV audit is waiting at smile.io: https://bit.ly/4bKlMCv Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

July 30, 202625 min

The Math Behind Creative Hits (With Real Spend Data)

Adrianne, VP of Performance Creative at CTC, breaks down the CTC Creative Strategy Canon, the codified methodology behind how 7-figure to 9-figure ecommerce brands structure their creative programs to consistently produce winning ads. This is not a theory session. It is a data-backed framework built from 504 stores, $3.35 billion in Meta ad spend, and years of iterating what actually works. In this episode: Why ad creative is a hits business and what the data proves Hit rate benchmarks from Statlas: from creation to whale, 1 in 100 The Creative Demand Formula and how to calculate exactly how many ads you need Carry rate explained: what survives, what decays, and what you control The 5 Creative Score Metrics that determine your creative efficiency Three levers to move performance: mine, make, and catalog The Unified Workflow: a 5-step monthly creative planning process Key stat: Only 0.9% of ads become whales. Top advertisers ship 12-19+ new evergreen creatives per week — and their hit rates are more than double those of smaller accounts. Show Notes: Go to http://outersignal.com/thread to get 50% off your first two months Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

July 28, 202622 min

D2C Brands Grew 15% in H1 (But At What Cost)

In this episode Richard and Steve break down H1 2026 performance data from across the CTC client portfolio, covering brand revenue growth, ad spend efficiency, incrementality testing results by platform, and the latest signals from the D2C Consumer Confidence Index. Topics covered in this episode: Median brand revenue growth of 15.2% in H1 2026 Why spend grew 28% while revenue efficiency declined AppLovin incrementality results across 18 tests (average: 171%) Meta incrementality: average 113.4%, with a wide spread across brands Why AOV is a key driver of Meta incrementality outcomes Consumer confidence data: what all-time highs in June mean for H2 TikTok Shops, ChatGPT advertising, and Google ROAS trends How 7-figure brands can access the sophistication of 9-figure advertisers Key stat: Out of 18 AppLovin incrementality tests, only one came back below 100%. Five returned 225%+ incrementality. The average was 171%. The Common Thread Collective 7-Figure Growth Workshop: http://commonthreadco.com/earlybird26 Show Notes: Go to http://outersignal.com/thread to get 50% off your first two months Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have