Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Common Thread Collective

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.

  1. 2d ago

    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

  2. 6d ago

    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

  3. Aug 4

    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

  4. Jul 30

    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

  5. Jul 28

    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

  6. Jul 23

    We're Opening Our Doors to 7-Figure Founders This September

    Richard breaks down what's holding most 7-figure brands back from crossing into 8-figure territory, and announces CTC's first in-person workshop designed to close that gap. On September 2nd, 2026, CTC is hosting the Seven-Figure Growth Workshop at our Costa Mesa office. Taylor Holiday will deliver the keynote, and founders will rotate through five hands-on workshops covering forecasting, team building, creative operating systems, paid media, and AI tooling, led by the CTC leaders who run these disciplines every day. Tickets are on sale now. Link in show notes. What you'll get at the workshop: Accurate revenue forecasting that drives confident paid investment How to build the right team and keep them (led by Dane, VP of Employee Development) A creative operating system that scales volume without chaos (led by Ally, Dir. of Growth Strategy) Paid social fundamentals and how to build a performing ad account (led by Tony Chopp, VP of Paid Media) How to build scalable AI tools that actually move the needle (led by Anmar, Dir. of Profit Engineering) Direct access to Taylor Holiday + CTC strategy staff throughout the day Networking with other 7-figure founders in the same building moment. 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. 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

  7. Jul 21

    Google Ads: CTC's Complete Playbook

    Tony Chopp, VP of Paid Media at Common Thread Collective, breaks down CTC's Google Ads Canon, the complete framework we use to turn Google into a true demand-harvesting machine for 7-9 figure ecommerce brands. Learn how to expand your search frontier beyond product queries, set incrementality-adjusted ROAS targets, and structure campaigns for maximum profitable growth. In this episode: Why Google is demand harvesting, not demand creation — and why that distinction changes everything The four-quadrant search term framework: mapping competition vs. volume to find untapped intent Expanding your search frontier into problem and use-case queries (the silicone ring example) Landing page strategy: matching page intent to query intent, not defaulting to generic PDPs The trifecta: smart bidding + broad match + responsive search ads Incrementality-adjusted bidding: Google brand benchmark = 0.27 iROAS, non-brand = 0.6 iROAS Six-campaign structure: Brand Search, Non-Brand Search, and PMax/Shopping split by acquisition vs. retention Brand search defense strategy: when to bid aggressively and when to pull back Feed optimization: complete attributes, optimized titles, daily updates, less than 10% disapproval rate How Statlas normalizes iROAS across all channels for true apples-to-apples budget allocation Key Stat: Google brand search has an average incrementality benchmark of 0.27 — meaning most of that attributed revenue would have happened anyway. Are you bidding against platform numbers or real incremental numbers? 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

  8. Jul 16

    Your Unsold Inventory Is Costing You More Than You Think

    Most ecommerce brands head into Q4 carrying too much inventory and not enough cash, and those two problems are directly connected. In this episode, Richard Gaffin sits down with Anmar Anmar Abdul Jawad, Director of Profit Engineering at CTC, to walk through the Cashmas in July framework, a four-step process for liquidating slow-moving inventory in Q3 so your brand has the capital and focus it needs to win in Q4. What we cover: Why brands fall into either an execution gap or a strategy gap with inventory The real cost of holding inventory, including storage fees and opportunity cost on cash How cash constraints force brands to pull back spend and miss cohort value The four-step liquidation process: SKU identification, financial modeling, operating plan, and asset execution Why sequencing discounts correctly depends on your brand's historical discount behavior How CTC's portfolio-wide data gives brands an edge on ad angles and creative strategy Why adding a third party for liquidation adds capacity instead of displacing your evergreen business Key insight: Brands that are cash-constrained in Q3 have to reduce new customer acquisition spend precisely when efficient CAC opportunities are available. Liquidating inventory early funds the cohorts that drive your Q4 contribution margin. Ready to run Cashmas in July for your brand? https://commonthreadco.com/pages/cashmas-in-july Show Notes: Go to http://outersignal.com/thread to get 50% off your first two monthsExplore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engineThe Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have

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About

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.

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