Jason Faber

Frustrated with ad spend that doesn’t drive clear results? Many DTC brands hit familiar roadblocks on their way to scaling up. This is the Vulcan way to help Shopify stores grow with intention: Clarity on What’s Working: A lot of brands simply don’t know how ad spend impacts the bottom line. With in-depth dashboards and reports that go beyond the usual metrics, we help you see exactly what’s driving revenue—from product page views to conversion rates. Scaling with Strategy: Growth shouldn’t be a guessing game. We take brands from that $50-100k mark and help them reach new heights with data-backed strategies. Through full-scale ad management across Google, Meta, and more, we ensure your growth is stable, sustainable, and scalable. Creative that Speaks to Your Audience: No more wasted spend on ads that have lost their impact. We’re constantly testing and iterating, keeping your ads fresh and relevant so you’re always connecting with the right audience in the right way. One Team, One Goal: When everything’s managed under one roof, it’s easier to keep your brand voice consistent and performance-driven. With Vulcan, you get a partner who understands the ins and outs of your ad spend and is committed to pushing your growth forward. If your brand is ready to get real about scaling up, let’s talk!

7

Shopify isn't going all in with marketing the SHOP app, instead, they're going slow and figuring out the product-market fit. They don’t need to rush because they have millions of merchants directly connected to the SHOP app through Shopify integration. It would take years for anyone else to build something similar. I think this is going to be massive in a few years. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. . . . . . #Ecommerce #Shopify #SHOPApp #D2C #DigitalMarketing #StartupFounders #ShopifyMerchants #RetailInnovation #DirectToConsumer #IndianStartups #OnlineRetail

14

🚨You’re living in an uninformed bubble if you’re not benchmarking your marketing performance. TL;DR: 1. Growth is good, but context is key 2. Benchmark against industry standards 3. Understand what good performance looks like The Insights: 1. >>Growth Context<< When I worked at Aritzia, we saw a +20-25% growth in our department. But, we asked ourselves: “How much did the industry grow?” 2. >>Benchmarking<< If the industry is growing by +50% and we’re at +20%, we might be trailing behind. Benchmarking helps us understand our standing in the broader market. 3. >>Understanding Performance<< Clients often ask, “Are we doing well? How many views should we be getting?” It’s about understanding what good performance looks like in your industry. The Impact: 1. Growth is important, but context gives it meaning. 2. Benchmarking ensures you’re not just growing but growing at a competitive rate. 3. Knowing your industry standards helps set realistic goals and measure success accurately. How are you benchmarking your marketing performance? 👇 #MarketingInsight #DigitalMarketing #CompetitorAnalysis

16

3 Comments

Two weeks ago, I started the r/CanadianBacon sub on Reddit so Hardbacon expertise can be found on Google. (PS: For those of you that are not aware, Google search result now mostly display Reddit threads for any query, which basically relegates websites like Hardbacon to the second page of search results) There are already 630 Canadians in this sub and I personally answered dozens of personal finance questions from the members. We are also getting better at paid acquisition and running campaigns on Facebook, Bing and Google (yes, the irony is not lost on me). We launched 2 Linkedin newsletters (Canadian Bacon in English and Gras Dur in French) that generated 15,000 articles views so far. We are also running multiple ads campaign to grow our email newsletter and are currently working on a soon to be launched SMS-based newsletter. My point is there are always other ways. Thanks Google for teaching me importance of traffic diversification :)

74

14 Comments

Multiple Shopify stores had a rough Monday-Wednesday this week. After spending thousands $$$'s in team resources, we found out the issue... Crowdstrike patches impacted browsers + Cloudfare (Shopify's distribution network). Users had latency issues and difficulty with checkout. Was I frustrated? Yes. Lose sleep? Yes. Take it out on my team? Yes. Their fault? Yes. My fault? Yes. No one's fault? Yes. The fact is, even when these things happen (and they do happen in the world of digital), it may not be our FAULT, but it is our responsibility. There's always a way we can improve. Processes, communication, management (patience), all get sharpened when there's a "fantom" issue. Doesn't mean they won't happen again, but how we can recognize the pattern faster. Appreciate the diligence and, more importantly, the patience of the Everything Bagel team with me. #cloudstrike #shopify #digitalmarketing #management

7

2 Comments

How do you *really* know if podcast ads are bringing in net new customers? Sure, pixel attribution can capture 70% more podcast-attributed conversions.... But how many of those are truly incremental? Well, Podscale® partnered with Podscribe to find out... "For the large brands we work with, understanding the net-new impact of podcast ads has always been a challenge—especially when they’re spending big on other channels, too." - Natalie Kovac, CEO Podscale® Using Podscribe’s “always-on” incrementality testing, Podscale® was able to finally measure which podcast ad conversions were incremental. Meaning... They wouldn’t have converted without hearing the podcast ad. The Findings? INSANE!  ➡ 58% of conversions driven by podcast ads were incremental, meaning these customers were genuinely net new.  ➡ Up to 2.56x Incremental ROAS, securing over two and a half times return for every dollar spent on ads from net-new customers. ➡ Podcast ads drove a massive +$3.9 million in incremental revenue for some of the fastest-growing DTC brands. Want to see the full story? Check out the case study to learn how Podscale® and Podscribe made it happen → https://lnkd.in/g8_cp4v4 #podcastadvertising #incrementality #dtc #podscribe

23

🌟 Black Friday Deal Alert For Shopify 🌟 Take your Shopify store to the next level! I’m offering code editing and website updates starting at just $120/month. Whether it’s fixing layout issues or optimizing your product pages, I’ve got you covered. 📅 Offer ends Cyber Monday, November 30! 👉 Check it out & others deals here: https://lnkd.in/gKFhV9UM To get the deal just DM me! #shopify #marketing #ecommerce #technology

1

I was talking with Will Doeckel (my Feedonomics AM) a few week about how 80% of our clients are on Shopify. It is a Shopify world and we are all just living in it. We have been a Shopify Partner since 2019, which means we know how to use Shopify for marketing and profitable growth better than most. Most Shopify Partners are dev and design agencies who tack on PPC services. Being a pure PPC agency sets us apart. We do one thing and we do better than 99% out there. 2025 is going to see a lot more brands shift over to Shopify. If you are in ecom and especially B2B ecom, let's talk about how we can make 2025 your breakout year. https://lnkd.in/g3XsnpE4

6

Sharing my first case study with Jason Zigelbaum from Zigpoll, who doubled his MRR since working with GTM Social. Zigpoll is a no-code survey whose main market is Shopify brands, who install the platform as an app from the Shopify App store. Staying top of mind with brands and agencies serving those brands is important to drive referrals and word of mouth. As a solo dev building out Zigpoll, he didn't have enough time for marketing because he was handling all the product development and customer support. He wanted to focus as much time on product dev bc it's his strength and Shopify apps are an *extremely competitive market - but he wanted to start firing his marketing engine as his growth was starting to plateau. I've been working with him to support his LI content, and the most important aspect to growth has been the work we've done on social proof. The first thing I noticed: Zigpoll didn't have any case studies on their site - but they had some of the largest Shopify Plus and ecommerce brands driving thousands of survey submissions every month. Common occurrence for many b2b companies - they don't have the time to sit down with their best customers, learn exactly how they're using the product, and turn that into case studies that their other customers can learn from. We've written 14 case studies since February, with a focusing on covering different verticals (beauty vs. conversion optimisation agency vs. sports) and use cases. Case studies and social proof are a strategic asset: 1) They improve conversion on key landing pages and paid campaigns 2) Can be seeded in product to increase adoption in a self-serve model. So when you learn a brand has a novel set of survey questions / flows -> they can be added to Zigpoll's template library 3) They can be posted on social. It's inherently viral (the customers will like / comment on the piece), and you can write dedicated posts for each section of the content to get continual value. 4) You learn what aspects of your product brands really value, allowing you to validate features and figure out roadmap. All Jason had to do for these case studies? Book his customers for a 15 minute chat with my calendar link - I handled the prep work, interviewing, writing, and design. If you're looking to build your inbound marketing engine and create social proof content that moves the needle - let's setup a chat :)

16

7 Comments

The One Metric Most Shopify Brands Are Ignoring (And It’s Costing You Big) Here’s the truth: Most Shopify founders I talk to don’t actually know how much they can afford to pay to acquire a new customer. They’ve scaled their ad spend, hired agencies, and pushed for growth… but when I ask them to break down their Acquisition Marketing Efficiency Ratio (AMER) or their New Customer ROAS (NCROAS)? 👉 Crickets. Why does this matter? Because without these numbers, scaling isn’t strategic—it’s guesswork. Here’s how we’re fixing this for eCommerce brands looking to scale profitably: 1️⃣ Switching from MER to AMER: MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) looks at your total revenue divided by total ad spend. That’s great, but it includes all revenue—retention, upsells, repeat customers—which doesn’t tell you how efficiently your paid ads are driving new customer revenue. AMER, on the other hand, is laser-focused. It isolates new customer revenue divided by total ad spend, giving you the real picture of how effectively your ads are growing your customer base. 2️⃣ Uncovering Your Break-Even Point: Your AMER helps determine your break-even CAC (Cost to Acquire a Customer). Once we know this number, we can work backward to align ad spend, creative testing, and campaign strategy to hit your profitability goals. 3️⃣ Building Campaigns That Scale Smarter: We pair financial clarity with creative strategy. This means isolating angles, targeting specific personas, and focusing on profit-first scaling—not just vanity metrics like ROAS. 🚨 Here’s the hard truth: If you don’t know your AMER or your CAC threshold, you’re blindly throwing ad dollars at the wall. But if you do know these numbers? Scaling becomes systematic, predictable, and—most importantly—profitable. Curious to see how this could work for your brand? Let me know, and I’ll share more insights about the exact process we’re using to scale Shopify brands to 8-figures and beyond.

61

26 Comments

“We almost broke Shopify.” Early on in ecommerce, Jay Myers launched the first app that helped people sell more on Shopify with The Chive… and Shopify wasn’t set up to handle it. Even Tobias Lütke was tempted to get rid of Bold apps at the time. Fast forward a little bit, and Bold Commerce apps has over 780,000 merchants using their apps, won EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Deloitte Fast 50, and is focusing much more attention on subscription ecommerce. In this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast by Elumynt, Jay and I dig into: ✅ How Jay hacked Shopify’s APIs to upsell on the platform (and almost broke Shopify with The Chive) ✅ What is subscription e-commerce? ✅ How subscription e-commerce impacts purchasing behavior with a shoutout to Fabletics, lululemon, and RH for the great work they’ve done in this space ✅ Positioning your products to secure 100% subscription conversion ✅ The importance of comparing CAC to LTV ✅ How to target niche customer segments ✅ The benefits of partnering with other subscription platforms ✅ Why Jay agrees with Harley Finkelstein about hiring entrepreneurs ✅ The brilliance of the Membership Economy by Robbie Kellman Baxter Plus, as always, we get into a little of the personal stuff as we talk about how Jay has never written a resume and what he “sucks at”. You can watch the video here: https://lnkd.in/gHQhb7yr Also, a special thank you to former guest, Darin Lynch, for introducing me to Jay years ago. #EcommerceGrowth #SubscriptionCommerce #Entrepreneurship #BusinessStrategy #DigitalMarketing #CustomerRetention #StartupSuccess #InnovativeBusiness #LeadershipInsights #B2BMarketing #ecommerce #retail #DTC #podcast

48

20 Comments

9 out of 10 schools spending $50k/m on ads are inflating their cost per enrollment by this one thing. Poor web experiences. 3 of the biggest culprits are: Slow-loading sites We're impatient and so are people visiting our sites. Parents won't wait for your page to load. They'll leave and never come back. Every added second costs you potential enrollments. Overcomplicated forms Do your forms resemble a medical form? Too much information up front scares people away. Break-this up into a couple steps or remove items. Unclear call-to-action "What am I supposed to do?" Make it CLEAR what you want people to do. If people have to think, they'll just leave. How to fix this: 1. 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 2. 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘀 3. 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 If you implement one of these items, I'll bet you see a drop in your cost per enrollment. P.S What other culprits inflate the cost to acquire students?

8

8 Comments

I’m seeing far more merchants who built homegrown ecommerce stacks make the move to Shopify. So many brands over the years needed to build rather than buy. However, many are seeing that Shopify is not only a viable solution, but also the future of ecommerce. - The custom features you think you need, you probably dont. - The over complexity is draining your resources. - The cost of ownership is not proving an ROI. - The lack of native integrations are making you move slow. TruEarth realized this and made the move from custom cart to a native Shopify stack. Case study below ⬇️ #shopify #ecommerce

41

5 Comments

High-growth DTC brands, here’s a quick framework to assess an agency: All a business is is a collection of people working toward a common goal. So partnering with the best agency is one of the highest ROI things you can do in accelerating your own mission. Get it right and you’ll have an expert team in your corner. They’ll solve problems that you weren’t even aware were holding you back, save literal years on your growth journey and put a lot of money in your pocket. Get it wrong and you’ll be going round in circles led by the blind, no matter how well intentioned. In 2024, it’s literally do or die. So when assessing an agency, stop the 1-2hr pitch windows and actually spend time with them. Look beyond the shiny decks, the logos within, the revenue promises and the marketing fluff - anyone can claim anything. Assess the team: > Who are you getting? > What are their core skills? > What’s their track record? > Get some examples of when it went wrong, and why. > Understand if they were really responsible for the growth they claim, or did they ride the wave of circumstance/the brand? > What’s the price? The best people are not cheap, and it’s a big red flag if your retainer is. > Most importantly, are they A-players? Experts that you can implicitly trust to have your back and do the right thing? Only once you’ve spent the time to really get to know who you’re partnering with can you reasonably expect to make an informed decision. This is a team you’re trusting with millions of £, the future of your business and even the livelihood of your internal team. It’s not something you should make a Hail Mary call on; getting it right is more important than getting it done. So if you’re a mid-large DTC brand with a clear proposition and want a crack team on your side who just get it, we might well be right for you. Get in touch, spend some time with us and let’s see.

18

I just wanna shout-out our newest partner, the good folks at Stratabeat! I've been working with Tom Shapiro and Alexis Trammell to help promote their new B2B SaaS SEO Performance Study (you'll hear more about this on next week's podcast). I've been super impressed with their thoughtfulness and am grateful for this data. It basically paints a picture of exactly how SaaS companies should be thinking about SEO right now: * Creating original research * Verticalized content * Increased content cadence Plus a few other best practices. The data in here is really good. Link in the comments to check it out and thanks to Stratabeat for supporting Superpath!

35

4 Comments

Great How-To on finding existing pages to increase traffic and the process for improvement. Very short video but packed with step by step.

1

"What’s the biggest mistake DTC brands make in email marketing?" Here’s my answer. (DTC founders, if you’re not maximizing email revenue, save this) Most brands see email marketing as: 1️⃣ A tool for repeat sales, or 2️⃣ Just a channel for sending promotions. But if that’s all you’re doing, you’re missing out on serious growth. Here’s the framework we recommend to unlock email’s full potential: The LTV Framework — focused on building Lifetime Value. 1. Lead Nurturing Don’t just send discounts—connect with new subscribers first. Use welcome sequences and educational content to build trust early. Give potential customers a reason to care about your brand. 2. Targeted Retention Broad, generic blasts don’t drive loyalty. Segment by behavior—target high-value customers, recent buyers, and lapsing customers with tailored messages. This is how you boost real retention and LTV. 3. Value-Driven Campaigns Email isn’t just for promos; it’s a channel to deliver value. Share insider tips, product guides, and customer stories. The more value you provide, the more engaged and loyal your customers become. Most brands think email is a “nice-to-have.” After implementing the LTV Framework, they realize it’s a revenue engine. Takeaway? Don’t let your email marketing be an afterthought. Make it a strategy that drives long-term growth. Want to unlock serious LTV through email? DM me with “LTV” and let’s chat.

2

We cut 29/30 days from our onboarding process…kind of by accident. Any DTC brand will benefit, but health brands most of all. For the first 7 years, we did the standard “Free Account Audit” that every PPC/SEO agency relies on. Here’s why: - It takes an entry-level employee a few minutes to find a handful of problems. - Then a partner hops on a Zoom call, and says something like, “It looks like the last person in this account wasn’t setting you up for success.” - The brand owners tell themselves, “We trust this guy. As long as he’s on our account, we’re set.” - So they sign — and get handed to an account manager. These are great for marketing agencies… But not so much for the brands. Audits don’t give you a timeline or any real expectations. And the truth is… It only takes 5-10 hours to solve the issues we find in an audit. All the strategy work (including competitor and customer research) happens during the 30-day “Onboarding and Discovery” phase. ____ So a few months ago, we stopped “Free Audits” and started doing “90-Day Marketing Plans” instead. It’s a little risky because we’re paying the Account Manager to build the strategy before the brand commits. But the brands love it because they know: - Exactly what we’re going to do for them - Who’s actually working on the account - And how long it’s all going to take So our signup rate has more than doubled. ____ This all happened a few months ago. (When we decided to focus on health brands.) And that’s why 29 days disappeared. - We already have health, wellness, and fitness clients. And our team is 100% health, wellness, and fitness customers. So we already know the competitors. We are the customer research. - And now the 90-day strategy is set before we start. We spend day 1 fixing the technical issues. And then we’re off and running on day 2. It was an unexpected win for all involved. And a great confirmation that we made the right call on our focus and our strategy.

22

6 Comments