“Borrow cultural equity executed with real partnership compounds faster than anything built in-house.”

What happens when a legacy brand like Lexus stops buying reach and starts buying culture?

Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) trace how Lexus is using Colin and Samir to reach an audience Lexus already has.

One idea drives the partnership: reach your audience better. Cody argues AI generated UGC misses the point entirely. Connor Rolain reveals the four and a half percent lift from a recent cart upsell holdout test. Retention marketing gets the final word on why so few brands measure it properly.

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Aftersell

https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops

Proppel

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Operators Newsletter

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“The new infomercial is TikTok shop.”

Why did Ridge see 88% of its GMV Max lift happen outside of TikTok?

Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad), and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) sit down to unpack how their brands are building profitable TikTok shop affiliate programs. The conversation opens with Cody’s decision to step down as CEO of Jones Road.

Connor MacDonald breaks down how Ridge structures affiliate incentives, generating 7,000 videos in a single month. He also shares a geolift study showing 88% of GMV Max lift landed off TikTok on Amazon and Ridge.com. The trio close by reverse engineering a TikTok shop brand, from price point to visual appeal.

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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026

https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026

Proppel

https://9ops.co/weareproppel

Aftersell

https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/

“I don’t think our ads are any better.”

Why are Meta click-through rates rising while conversion rates keep falling?

Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) unpack why Meta ad performance has quietly shifted across ecommerce accounts. They break down Ridge’s new chains launch and the merchandising lessons behind it, and debate whether TikTok Shop’s affiliate program matters more than its storefront.

Meta CPMs and click-through rates keep climbing across DTC accounts, even as conversion rates fall. The hosts respond with the exclusion settings and bid multipliers they are testing to fight back. From there, the conversation turns to Ridge’s chains launch and the pricing lessons behind it.

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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026

https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops

Aftersell

https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/