Are you making decisions based on data that proves causality or just correlation?

Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad), Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) dig into what it means to build a truly incrementality-first marketing organization.

They break down how to string together consecutive channel tests — using each result to build the next hypothesis rather than testing in isolation. They share real examples from their own accounts, including how a 20% budget shift to brand video drove a 40% lift in incremental results, why TikTok Shop is proving to reach a new audience for HexClad, and how Jones Road diagnosed and rebuilt a struggling Meta account from first principles.

The conversation also tackles the nuance of measuring upper-funnel channels like CTV and YouTube, when directional reads are enough, and how to build a culture where your team learns to think incrementally without being told to.

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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026

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Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

Prescient AI

https://www.prescientai.com/operators

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel

Aftersell

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Operators Newsletter

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Is media buying dead or just evolving?

Cody Plofker, Connor MacDonald, and Connor Rolain unpack Meta’s integration of Manus AI into Ads Manager and explore what it signals for the future of paid growth. The hosts discuss whether AI-driven automation is making traditional media buying obsolete and what this shift could mean for ecommerce teams navigating an increasingly agent-led landscape.

The squad also covers how they’re already applying AI inside their brands, from campaign execution to CRO workflows + internal tooling — evolving growth roles, cross-channel decision-making, and how teams are rethinking structure in response to more capable AI systems.

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Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp

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Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel

Aftersell

https://9ops.co/4i3bb5

Rivo

https://www.rivo.io/operators

Prescient AI

https://www.prescientai.com/operators

Operators Newsletter

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Mina Zandbar (VP of Global eCommerce & Digital Growth at Mattel) and Avi Moskowitz (Co-Founder & CEO) of PrettyDamnQuick, join hosts Connor MacDonald + Cody Plofker to explore ecommerce growth from two very different vantage points — one inside an 80-year-old, multi-billion dollar toy company; the other, building the infrastructure that helps brands stop leaking revenue at checkout.

Together, they reveal how your business can better use first-party data, AI, and smarter checkout experiences to improve customer trust and sell more.

Avi explains how optimizing logistics and personalization inside checkout unlocks profit revenue, while Mina shares how Mattel builds agile, data-driven teams and connects directly with its global community of customers and collectors.

The end result? A top-to-bottom analysis of your entire customer journey … to scale faster.

PrettyDamnQuick

https://prettydamnquick.com/?utm_source=partnerships&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=theoperators&utm_term=podnotes

Try Checkout Index

https://checkoutindex.prettydamnquick.com/?utm_source=partnerships&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=theoperators&utm_term=podnotes

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Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp

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Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

Prescient AI

https://www.prescientai.com/operators

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel

Aftersell

https://9ops.co/4i3bb5

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/