“Returning customer revenue is where all the profit is made.”

Can every DTC brand sell new products to existing customers, or does the category decide?

MacCoy Merkley (CMO, Portland Leather Goods), Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) unpack why new products sold to existing customers drive ecommerce profit, and why some categories can’t lean on repeat buyers.

Portland Leather Goods launches new SKUs every Tuesday and Thursday, and its list buys them up. Ridge works harder for a second sale, since its wallet is guaranteed for life. So each launch leans on ads. One bad order can leave 22K units on the shelf.

Powered By

Motion

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth

Proppel

https://9ops.co/weareproppel

Aftersell

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

Haus

https://9ops.co/haus

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Richpanel

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

Operators Portal

https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/

“It looks bad in Meta and you’re freaking out, but blended is good.”

How far ahead of pace should you be before adding budget on Black Friday?

Austin Harrison (CEO, Northbeam) and Andrew Kaszuba (Head of Insights, Northbeam) join Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) to break down how ecommerce brands track Black Friday hourly and decide when to push or pull budget.

Northbeam’s median brand pulls 42% of Black Friday revenue from earlier touchpoints. When Meta fell short during BFCM 2024, Ridge’s numbers justified pushing AppLovin to about 40% of spend. A strong midday read tempts brands to pour in more, and the extra money can wreck efficiency.

Powered By

Motion

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth

Richpanel

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

Proppel

https://9ops.co/weareproppel

Aftersell

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

Haus

https://9ops.co/haus

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Operators Portal

https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/

“With Andromeda, we can look at the entire universe.”

What should marketers focus on now that Meta’s ad algorithm handles targeting?

Sukhesh Miryala (Director of Product Management, Meta) sits down with Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) to open up how Meta picks a winner for every impression.

Rising CPMs don’t always mean your last change backfired. Meta’s ad prices reflect supply and demand, while Andromeda lets its delivery system consider more ads for each impression. As automation improves, the marketer’s job shifts toward defining what a valuable outcome looks like, supplying reliable data, and building diverse creative that helps Meta find the right match.

Powered By

Motion

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

Richpanel

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

Aftersell

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

Proppel

https://www.weareproppel.com/operators

Operators Portal

https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/

“All of these products eventually are going to come together.”

Who calls the shots once Meta’s AI takes over?

Nik Ketkar (Director of Product Management, Meta) sits down with Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) to map Meta’s plan for AI-run media buying.

Half of a buyer’s job is still setup, structure, and budget tweaks. Meta wants that half gone, folded into Advantage+ and Ads Creative Studio. Once the AI proposes every move, buyers have to decide how much control to keep. The richer the inputs they feed it, the easier that control is to hand over.

Interested in trying Meta's Ads Creative Studio or the other automation products Nik discusses in this episode? Fill out this form: https://9ops.co/meta-adscreativestudio

Powered By

Motion

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Richpanel

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

Proppel

https://www.weareproppel.com/operators

Aftersell

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

Operators Portal

https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/

“Two of our winners have entered for free. They never purchased anything from us.”

How did Ridge turn a 6-week Tony Hawk partnership into an 8-figure sweepstakes lift?

Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) break down how sweepstakes campaigns became eight-figure growth engines for their brands. They cover celebrity deal structures, creative production, and revenue lift across every category.

Tony Hawk’s deal doubled Ridge’s TV response rates and pushed partner-page ads to 40% of Meta spend. HexClad gets the same proof differently, running year-over-year holdouts and entry tiers that reward bigger purchases. Both track how sweepstakes shoppers scatter into unexpected categories, forcing a rethink of acquisition strategy.

Powered By

Motion

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth

Proppel

https://www.weareproppel.com/operators

Aftersell

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

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Richpanel

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

Operators Portal

https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/

“There’s so much that I took for granted. It’s such a different playbook.”

What happens when two operators who’ve helped build nine-figure brands start again at zero? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (advisor and former CEO, Jones Road) compare notes on two new launches: Ridge’s Gut Culture and Cody’s Winks.

They get into six hard lessons from the early days.

(1) Building with a lean team. (2) Earning credibility when nobody knows the brand. (3) Finding a message that gets clicks. (4) Testing offers before the data is conclusive. (5) Making subscription economics work. (6) Dealing with high ad costs. Cody shares what’s happening at Winks just weeks after launch; Connor explains what Ridge learned from six months of building Gut Culture.

Powered By

Motion

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth

Richpanel

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

Proppel

https://www.weareproppel.com/operators

Aftersell

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

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators

NeonPixel

https://9ops.co/neonpixel

Operators Portal

https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/