---
name: ecommerce-dtc
description: Use when growing an ecommerce/DTC brand selling physical products — Meta ads media buying (testing engine, scaling rules, 80/20 budget split, creative fatigue), creative economics (median ad loses money, cost per ad, commission-only creator programs), ad creative metrics, UGC creators and contracts, Black Friday/Cyber Monday prep (offer, homepage, email cadence, how many BF ads), marketing moments and promo calendars, evergreen discount collection pages, pre-sale giveaways, TikTok Shop and demand creation vs capture across Amazon/retail, validating a new offer fast, operating targets (contribution margin, source of truth), scaling past a plateau, brand vs media arbitrage, and founder bottlenecks. Triggers on "scale my Shopify store", "Black Friday plan", "how many ads should I make", "my ROAS dropped", "creative is too expensive", "should we launch TikTok Shop", "should we go into Target", "marketing calendar", "stuck at $X million".
---

# Ecommerce / DTC growth (physical products)

Synthesised from Smart Marketer (Molly Pittman's agency, 2025–2026: SOPs and client cases), Common
Thread Collective (Taylor Holiday, Joy Sharma, Luke Austin, 2026: cross-client data and cases) and
Alex Hormozi's ecommerce Q&A (Mar 2026). These are agency case studies with no failed tests shown,
plus live advice from short business descriptions. Treat numbers as "worked for them" and test.
Notes live in `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/`.

## Core playbook

1. **Run three always-on campaign types:** creative testing, targeting testing, scaling (winners only, most budget). Discovery at ~$15–20/day per variation, 10–15 angles, ≥3 days, aim for 20–30% winners; 10–20 new creatives/week. → meta-ads-creative-testing-engine
2. **Mine old data before making new ads** — forgotten winners, high-CTR hooks, segment breakdowns (age/gender/region/placement), ad comments. → meta-ads-creative-testing-engine
3. **Fight fatigue by iterating, not inventing:** format → context → perspective changes on proven hooks. → meta-ads-creative-testing-engine
4. **Scale at CPA ≥50% below target for 7 days, +20% every 3 days; watch weekly frequency >2.** → meta-ads-scaling-rules-and-budget-split
5. **~80% prospecting / 20% retargeting, with new-vs-existing exclusions** — Advantage+ "prospecting" often retargets customers. Goals from back-end customer value, not in-platform ROAS. → meta-ads-scaling-rules-and-budget-split
6. **Judge creative with three numbers:** thumb-stop (3-s plays ÷ impressions; >30% great, <15% rework), unique link CTR (~1.5%), conversion rate; high CTR + low CVR = broken ad scent. → ecommerce-ad-creative-metrics
7. **Product page first, then an evergreen discount collection page** — no top nav (+22% once), ~10% off, UGC, hero products, bundle, reviews, VIP offer. → evergreen-discount-collection-page
8. **Before big sales, run a 2-week giveaway on a conversion objective** with an offer on the thank-you page; draw the winner live. → giveaway-campaign-before-sale
9. **UGC for ads = talent-only raw footage:** portfolio-style roster, creative menu of formats, nano creators, email outreach with a stated $150–400 rate. → ugc-creator-sourcing-for-ecommerce-ads
10. **Always contract:** "paid advertising" usage, 4-year license, raw files, product value + fee, 5-day turnaround with a revision day. → ugc-creator-contracts-and-usage-rights
11. **TikTok Shop only after Meta/Google work;** commit 6+ months, expect a ~3-month cold start, budget samples and commissions, judge on ROI. → tiktok-shop-launch-expectations
12. **Spend plateau = media-buying problem:** fund keyword/creative discovery from profit; climb awareness levels with advertorial bridge pages. → scaling-ad-spend-into-colder-markets
13. **Performance-only multi-SKU stores stall near ~$10M** — cut to the winning product and build a brand; don't diversify into new businesses for the same audience. → ecommerce-brand-vs-media-arbitrage
14. **Unblock the founder:** contractor bench, outsource commoditized logistics, forecast inventory cash, train sellers with behavior-level instructions. → ecommerce-founder-bottlenecks
15. **Creative is a hits business:** the median ad loses money (−$3.20 over 60 days, 1.3M ads), and the top 5% make 73% of value. Cut cost per ad (commission-only creator programs) and raise volume. → creative-cost-per-ad-economics
16. **Your best ROAS day is never evergreen.** Run dated marketing moments in their own campaigns (CTC's 4-campaign structure) and plan every email, SMS and post a month ahead. Spiral Bible: 4.4x spend at higher ROAS. → marketing-moments-calendar
17. **BFCM offer and site:** ≥20% off, simple, AOV/gift bundles if BFCM cohorts have weak LTV, a whale bundle, ads to the homepage (timer, sticky bar, 3 buy blocks), pop-ups off, email through the shipping cutoff. → bfcm-offer-site-and-email-plan
18. **BFCM creative:** evergreen carries ~70% of holiday spend, so keep October production. Still make ≥2x last year's BF ads (one brand: 1,500 ads, $5K→$55K/day). Order: frames → catalogs → statics → remixes → new creators. → bfcm-ad-creative-volume
19. **Low LTV? Build demand creation, not just capture:** ecommerce is ~17% of sales and Amazon ~40% of online. TikTok Shop and impression channels spill into Amazon and retail. Don't take store-wide retail without a demand engine. → demand-creation-vs-demand-capture-channels
20. **Validate offers fast:** market research → many landers until CVR beats the benchmark for your AOV → static "branded" ads → creator video to scale. → offer-validation-sprint-landers-statics-creators
21. **Run on one truth and one target:** unified data, contribution margin with daily targets for every metric, then disciplined execution (calendar, ad/email plans, MMM, geo holdouts). → ecommerce-growth-three-pillars

## Note map

| Note | Read when |
|---|---|
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/meta-ads-creative-testing-engine.md` | Setting up creative/audience testing; creative fatigue; mining past ads |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/meta-ads-scaling-rules-and-budget-split.md` | Deciding when/how fast to raise budget; TOF/BOF split; Pretty Farm Girl case |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/ecommerce-ad-creative-metrics.md` | Diagnosing an ad: thumb-stop, CTR, conversion, ad scent; custom metric setup |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/evergreen-discount-collection-page.md` | Choosing/building the ad landing page once product pages stop scaling |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/giveaway-campaign-before-sale.md` | Planning list-building before Black Friday or a holiday sale |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/ugc-creator-sourcing-for-ecommerce-ads.md` | Finding creators, outreach email, pay rates, creator tiers, creative menu |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/ugc-creator-contracts-and-usage-rights.md` | Writing a creator contract; usage period; raw footage |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/tiktok-shop-launch-expectations.md` | Deciding whether/when to launch TikTok Shop; live shopping |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/scaling-ad-spend-into-colder-markets.md` | More spend brings worse leads; Google Ads keyword expansion; advertorials |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/ecommerce-brand-vs-media-arbitrage.md` | Multi-SKU/portfolio strategy, margins compressing, dupes, exit plans |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/ecommerce-founder-bottlenecks.md` | Founder overloaded; logistics, cash crunch, hiring/training live sellers |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/creative-cost-per-ad-economics.md` | Creative too expensive; quality vs volume; Tribe/Refunnel creator programs; per-ad value metric |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/marketing-moments-calendar.md` | Building a promo/marketing calendar; Meta account structure for sales; cultural moments |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/bfcm-offer-site-and-email-plan.md` | BFCM housekeeping, discount depth, bundles, whales, homepage setup, email/SMS schedule |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/bfcm-ad-creative-volume.md` | How many Black Friday ads to make and in what order; October vs November production |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/demand-creation-vs-demand-capture-channels.md` | Low-LTV brand strategy; TikTok Shop halo to Amazon/retail; retail distribution offers |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/offer-validation-sprint-landers-statics-creators.md` | Finding a winning offer quickly; landing-page benchmarks by AOV; agency guarantees |
| `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/wiki/marketing/ecommerce-dtc/ecommerce-growth-three-pillars.md` | Setting targets, dashboards and operating cadence; "are we winning?" |

## Gaps

- Landing-page copy and AOV/offer design (bundles, upsells, order bumps) beyond the collection-page format live in the **landing-pages-and-copy** and **funnels-and-offers** skills — load those for page structure and offers.
- Not covered yet: Amazon and retail operations, Google Shopping/Performance Max, automated email/SMS flows (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase) with benchmarks, attribution/MER and post-iOS-14 measurement (see the measurement notes), subscriptions for physical products, contribution-margin benchmarks by category, TikTok Shop mechanics (GMV Max, commission rates). Funnel unit economics and price tests are in **funnels-and-offers** (funnel-economics-dirty-math, price-testing-dtc-offers, paying-above-first-order-cac). Campaign email cadence is in promotional-email-cadence.
- Evidence comes mostly from two agencies (Smart Marketer, CTC) and one Hormozi Q&A. Both agencies sell the services they describe, and CTC's data (Statlas) isn't independently auditable. Platform tactics date from 2025–2026, so check Meta and TikTok's current campaign types. The agencies also disagree on creative quality vs volume.
- App-specific paid UA lives in the app-user-acquisition skill (different metrics: CPI, trial start).