Everyone knows that when you launch new creative in your Meta Ads account, you need to launch it into a creative testing campaign to see how it performs, then, if it's a winner and has accumulated some spend and social proof, move it into your scaling campaign to run against your other winners. Right? Not only do I think this is wrong; I think it's downright foolish and expensive for the vast majority of advertisers. So today I'm telling you exactly how I test new creative and scale winners. Hin...
Dec 08, 2023•24 min
You had questions about Bid Caps. I answered them. Questions ranged from why your Bid Caps are underspending, why they're overspending, and whether or not they just target lower funnel traffic you were already going to get. Hopefully this episode helps you manage your Meta Ads smarter. And if you have suggestions for my next AMA, email me or DM me on X and maybe I'll do it. SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@andrewf...
Dec 07, 2023•54 min
Lots of people have strong opinions about how best to price an ad agencies, and I'm one of them. I've seen this from all sides: brand, agency employee, aggregator CEO, and now agency owner. After all that, I'm convinced that charging a percentage of spend is the best model for agency pricing, at least to a certain stage of DTC businesses. In this episode, I make the case for why, then tell you exactly how I price AJF Growth. SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on ...
Oct 31, 2023•33 min
Wayne Borromeo didn't set out to build a water bottle brand. And he still mostly isn't. But what do you do when TikToks of your product go not just viral, but as viral as something can possibly go? Well, you build your seize the opportunity and get as much inventory as you can as fast as you can. On this bonus episode, Andrew & Wayne talk through how Wondery's water bottle rocketed their business to unexpected heights. EPISODE SPONSOR This bonus episode was sponsored by More Staffing, whom b...
Oct 26, 2023•37 min
I absolutely loved this conversation. When you "get" ecommerce the way that Dan McCormick does, it only makes sense to start a brand yourself and see how far you can take it. Dan's creatine gummy brand, Create, is growing rapidly and turning the corner to profitability, which isn't surprising given his understanding of the space. What IS surprising is just how transparent he's being about the journey, all the way down to a monthly tweet showing his exact revenue. The combo of that knowledge and ...
Oct 26, 2023•50 min
I've come to think of scaling a Meta Ads account as happening in two stages: Stage 1: finding the creative messaging that resonates with your customers. This is primarily a truly "creative" problem. But stage 2 is very different: it's about scaling up that messaging into a never-ending stream of highly diverse creative assets. And this is fundamentally an operational challenge. On today's episode, I'm talking about 8 different kinds of creative assets and helping you with the beginnings of build...
Oct 17, 2023•30 min
I've never done an episode like this ever before. Nate Lagos's tweet outlining his exact 10 keys to growing Original Grain was so good that I immediately DMed him and said, "Let's talk more about all of these." So that's what we did: from 1-10, we went piece by piece through each of the points on the list and kicked them around. This episode is good because Nate is right about so much. Calls to stop touching your ad account, spend money no matter what, and, of course, make sure you've got that d...
Oct 10, 2023•51 min
AOV is either the most overrated or underrated metric in ecommerce, depending on who you ask. So I'm here to answer the question once and for all: does AOV even really matter? It depends. Let me explain. SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@andrewfarispodcast. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [00:02:11] AOV is not necessarily as good as you think. [00:03:58] Increasing AOV and conversion rate. [00:08:00] Low AOV + large market. [00:11:39] ...
Oct 03, 2023•24 min
It's arguably the wildest ride I've ever been on in ecommerce: since beginning to work with Sarah Moret and Curie in January of this year (2023), we've seen massive, rapid growth–and it's been profitable from the start. Oh also: part of that included selling into every Walmart in the US. Just nuts. Sarah is a killer operator and entrepreneur. With a background in both Accounting & VC, she brings a serious financial skillset to the table that has made her quick to turn her rapid growth int...
Sep 26, 2023•1 hr 1 min
As straightforward as it sounds: 4 steps that go into generating creative that actually performs. This is the foundation of my approach with my clients, and I've seen it produce results over and over again. Hopefully it can help do the same for you. SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@andrewfarispodcast. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [00:01:22] The message is the main thing. [00:05:26] Step 1: The Hooks [00:14:02] Step 2: The Body [00:20...
Sep 19, 2023•25 min
About a year ago, I released the first interview I ever recorded for The Andrew Faris Podcast: an interview with Patrick Coddou after he'd officially sold Supply. Selling Supply was a big moment, not just because every exit is a big movement, but because Patrick had become a core member of the ecommerce community, regularly offering up both help and questions as he built along the way. So a year later, we caught up: what's Patrick been doing since selling? What's life really like after the exit?...
Sep 12, 2023•48 min
A few months ago I started making a series of changes in my business. I cut work that I was good at, but not great at. I began building processes to outsource tasks that others good do just as competently as I could. And I eliminated almost the entirety of my "hourly consulting" business. The result? I'm wrapping up Q3 and heading into Q4 with the most profitable, most energizing, least anxiety-producing version of my business I've had yet. The whole thing has served as yet another reminder to m...
Sep 05, 2023•27 min
What even IS a "creative strategy?" Very often, it's nothing. That phrase is a nebulous synonym for "ads that someone hopes will sell products" at least as applied to Meta Ads. But that's not Fire Team's Jess Bachman. As Jess says in this episode: he's a creative strategist, which means its incumbent on him to have an actual creative strategy. So on this episode, inspired by a tweet of his about how his process for ad iterations regularly creates tangible results for him and his client, I asked ...
Aug 29, 2023•50 min
It's one thing to have the right idea. It's a whole other thing to actually implement it into your business. In fact, sometimes listening to another podcast or reading another blog post or tweet (mine or anyone else's) can make things worse, not better, if it fills your head with more ideas to chase down that you don't REALLY know how to implement. So today I took three key ideas that I talk about regularly and explained to you exactly how you can embed them into your business's actual operation...
Aug 23, 2023•22 min
"Serve the world unselfishly and profit." That's the tagline that Ezra Firestone appends to his work, and he's dead serious about it. As the CEO of Boom! By Cindy Joseph and of Overtone, plus the Founder of Zipify and SmartMarketer, he's one of the most seasoned and trustworthy voices in ecommerce. That is reason enough to have him on my podcast, but I am particularly interested in Ezra's approach to the word "unselfishly." So we spent most of this episode exploring the deeper questions of life ...
Aug 15, 2023•44 min
In a straightforward, tactical advice episode, I make the argument that more ecom stores should consider using quizzes as a core part of their customer acquisition funnels. Quizzes are fun, engaging, yield loads of customer data, capture email & SMS info at massive rates, and maybe most crucially, are highly effective at guiding customers to the exact right product for them. What's not to love? SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube at www.youtube.com...
Aug 08, 2023•22 min
Nasrin Jafari is the founder, designer and CEO of Mixed By Nasrin, a Brooklyn-based fashion company that's recently hit a 7-figure run rate and continues to grow rapidly–and profitably. In my first ever "Opening The Books" episode, Nasrin and I essentially recorded a coaching call. That is: she gave me access to all of the platforms & numbers in her business, and then we spent 2 hours talking through where she should go from here. My hope is that Nasrin's willingness to be this vulnerable an...
Aug 03, 2023•1 hr 56 min
I might be more bullish on Jack Rubin's Purdy & Figg than any other brand on which I've personally worked. That's because not only does the UK-based natural cleaning product brand have the core financial markers of a successful subscription brand (ridiculous repeat rate, low churn, good margins), but it's co-founder and co-CEO, Jack Rubin, has all the markers of a successful ecommerce operator (smart, humble, relentlessly focused on the drivers of his shareholder value–especially contributio...
Aug 01, 2023•53 min
If you think forecasting is primarily about inventory planning, think again. Taken seriously, forecasting forces you to stare your business's financials in the face so you can design your PNL for profit. That makes it a fundamental skill in operating an ecommerce brand. In today's episode I make the case for forecasting as a key step in designing your PNL for profit, then planning, executing, and tracking towards that profit design. SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available ...
Jul 25, 2023•22 min
Dave Rekuc is the current President & COO at Bambu Earth, the skincare brand that 4x400 contracted to focus on. He's one of the smartest guys in ecommerce, especially when it comes to thinking through the financial mechanics of running an ecom brand. In this wide-ranging episode, Dave and I talk about his recent bout with testicular cancer, why he was taking work calls during chemo sessions, what makes Bambu Earth such a good business, and how he and his team have engineered their supply cha...
Jul 18, 2023•54 min
When Gregg Carey hired Lara Guevara to lead operations and supply chain for his ecommerce brand, Section 119, it changed the trajectories of both of their careers. That's because Lara is not only a killer ecom professional; it's also because she lives in the Philippines, and their partnership at Section 119 was a light bulb moment that led to the founding of More Staffing, a staffing agency that connects Filipino ecom talent like Lara with other ecom operators in the U.S. and elsewhere. In fact,...
Jul 13, 2023•41 min
It's one of the most common questions I get: "I love the idea of Bid Caps, but every time I try to use them, they just don't spend as much as I want them to. How come?" There are a lot of potential answers, and today on the show, I've got 7 of them for you. SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@andrewfarispodcast. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [00:02:40] Bid caps are spending just not as much as you'd want. [00:05:37] Your perfomance isnt good enoug...
Jul 11, 2023•27 min
I'm convinced most ecommerce brands have a massive cost center that they have no idea exists. In fact, they probably think it's a profit-center. In this episode, I explain how deeply understanding the value each dollar your ads are creating saves you from acquiring mass amounts of unprofitable customers–and how Meta Ads has a tool built perfectly to solve this problem without you ever having to think about it again. IMPORTANT NOTE The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube . For episod...
Jul 04, 2023•26 min
Panagiota Hatzis is an HR & team leadership professional, the founder of Kati Kalo consulting, and the former VP of Differentiation (a twist on HR) & partner at Common Thread Collective, where we used to be colleagues. I had Panagiota on a couple months ago to talk through how to scale a team with operational intelligence. Which got me thinking: as I start to add employees, what if I used Panagiota sooner than later to help me build out the operational infrastructure of AJF Growth? Thing...
Jun 27, 2023•57 min
Here's a conversation that everyone in DTC has had too many times: Agency: "What's your ROAS target?" Brand: "Well, what's a good ROAS on Meta?" That conversation is broken on both sides. Great agencies help brands determine that answer; great brands know it isn't as simple as that. In this episode, I'm helping you answer this question the only way you really can: with a hard look at your unit economics and customer lifetime value. IMPORTANT NEWS! The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on You...
Jun 21, 2023•32 min
There once was a time when being a great media buyer was all about the ability to allocate budget, target customers effectively, and analyze & optimize the performance of each ad in the account. Those days are behind us. Which raises a question: what do media buyers even do anymore? Well, they still do a lot, and Andrew maintains that media buying is actually harder now than it has ever been. In this episode, Andrew explains the foundation of great media buying today by highlighting the #1 s...
Jun 13, 2023•23 min
Everything was going great for Bobbie Baby Co: the venture-backed startup disrupted a duopoly in the super-highly regulated category of baby formula and exploded to over $100m in revenue in two years, due in part to the leadership of this episode's super talented guest, Bobbie's VP of Growth (and former Director of Strategy at Common Thread Collective), Cherene Aubert. But then the baby formula shortage happened, and as she likes to joke, Cherene's job pivoted to being the VP of "Slowth." Custom...
Jun 06, 2023•52 min
I tweeted a version of that episode title not long ago. It's nonsense: there is, of course, such a thing as revenue. But in DTC, revenue is also one of the metrics I reference the least often. Instead, I'm constantly breaking it down into two smaller metrics, both of which tell me a lot more: New Customer Revenue and Returning Customer Revenue. In fact, those are the first two things I look at when I analyze a business. In this episode I'll not only explain how I do that, but why I believe devel...
May 30, 2023•25 min
If you aren't a baseball fan, you might not realize that we're living through a revolution. And Driveline Baseball is right at the center of it. The data-driven baseball training company has trained thousands of high school and college baseball players, well over a hundred MLB players (including MVPs, Cy Young winners, and All-Stars), and overhauled the way teams across pro sports think about turning analytical insights into player development plans. It's an extraordinary feat, and as the accept...
May 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min
From his early ecommerce days of enterprise level Google Ads arbitrage to his just-ended run as President of Kuru Footwear (a mid 8-figure DTC shoe brand), Sean McGinnis has seen a lot. And his professional throughline is his ability to build and manage teams. In this wide-ranging conversation, Sean talks through the growth of DTC across his time in the industry, how he hires well and leads effectively, and what's next for him as he leaves Kuru. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [00:00:48] Scaling e-commerce t...
May 16, 2023•53 min
