Industry 05
E-commerce marketing built on contribution profit.
Online stores from $500k to $20M a year that want growth with margin left over.
The playbook
- Step 01Feed and shopping structureRewritten titles, clean attributes and campaigns grouped by margin tier and price point.
- Step 02Lifecycle email and textWelcome, browse and cart recovery, post-purchase, replenishment and win-back.
- Step 03Product page and checkout testingPhotos, reviews, bundles, shipping thresholds and express pay, tested in priority order.
Evidence
Sample figures from a fictional client, laid out the way a real report would be.
- 4.3xSample ROAS, from 2.1xFernhouse Goods · sample
- 27%Revenue from emailFernhouse Goods · sample
- -45%Cost per orderFernhouse Goods · sample
Fernhouse Goods · 10 monthsROAS from 2.1× to 4.3× while doubling ordersReturn on ad spend · sample caseServices we usually combine
What gets in the way
We connect ad platforms to your store's order data, set targets by margin, and report on contribution profit after ad spend. If a campaign looks good in the ad platform and bad in the bank account, we say so.
- 01
One ROAS target for every product
Thin-margin best sellers absorb budget. Margin tiers send spend to the products that pay for it.
- 02
Checkout surprises
Shipping costs shown at the last step are the top reason carts are abandoned. Showing an estimate early is usually the first fix.
- 03
Email as an afterthought
Seven core flows can move email from under 10% of revenue to a quarter or more, measured against holdout groups.
Plan a budget
Work back from a revenue goal to an ad budget with e-commerce benchmarks.
Open the Ad Budget Planner
Revenue is easy to buy. Profit takes knowing the break-even ROAS for each product tier and bidding to it, fixing the checkout before scaling traffic, and letting email carry a real share of repeat revenue.
Benchmarks · sample
Typical ranges we plan against for e-commerce accounts. Your numbers depend on market, offer and how fast leads are answered.
Cost per order by channel
Midpoint of each sample range
| Channel | Cost per order | Conversion rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopping and search ads | $18 to $40 | 2% to 4% | Cost per order; varies with price point |
| Paid social prospecting | $25 to $48 | 1% to 2.5% | Creative volume matters most |
| Retargeting | $10 to $20 | 3% to 7% | Watch incrementality with holdouts |
| Email and text flows | $1 to $4 | 4% to 9% | Cart and browse recovery lead |
Sample ranges for illustration, not published industry data.
E-commerce questions
Not covered here?
Bring it to the free audit.
A strategist goes through your tracking, ads and search visibility, and the fix list is yours whatever you decide.
Book the auditOr email [email protected]
We reply within one business day
It depends on your margin. Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by gross margin, so a store with 50% margins breaks even at 2.0x before overhead. We set targets per product tier and report on profit after ad spend.
All the major hosted store platforms and most open-source carts. What matters is that we can read order and margin data and place server-side purchase tracking.
Yes. Retainers at Growth level and above include a monthly batch of static and short video creative, built from your product photos, customer reviews and footage you or we shoot.
(11) Free audit
A senior strategist reviews your tracking, ads, search visibility and landing pages. The ranked fix list is yours to keep, with or without us.
One reply from a strategist within a business day. No mailing list.