Chris Konowal

Frequent creative refreshes: - Meta says to do it 2x a month - We say 4x a month/1x a week Most DTC brands don't hit 2x, much less 4x. But if you want better performance, frequent refreshes are a key lever to pull.

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The Power of Fair Compensation with TikTok Shop Affiliates When it comes to working with affiliates and influencers, fair compensation is everything. You can still run paid influencer partnerships and campaigns, but with TikTok Shop’s integration, commission-based relationships are a game changer! Why? TikTok automatically calculates, tracks, and pays out commissions for you. It’s seamless and SO easy—seriously, why wouldn’t you do it? When setting commission rates, people often recommend 5-10%, but a sweet spot to get started is 30%. It’s eye-catching, and influencers will be eager to jump in and work with you. Plus, with this model, the more influencers post and engage, the more they earn. The best part? You can easily track everything. See who your top sellers are and who’s driving sales, and then focus more energy on those creators who are crushing it! It’s a win-win for brands and affiliates alike. 🌟 #AffiliateMarketing #TikTokShop #InfluencerMarketing #Ecommerce #MarketingTips #FairCompensation Trndsttrs TikTok 😃

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Why competitor campaigns don’t work for you... *Trigger warning* ➥Your product/service is inferior to the competitors you are targeting ➥Your ad copy does not highlight your USP’s ➥Your ad copy isn't clear you aren't {Competitor} ➥Your offer is weak ➥Your landing page does not convince the user you are better than their intended search Competitor campaigns can be extremely lucrative. I mean… Who wouldn’t want to monetize their competitor’s notoriety? Focus on ensuring that none of the above points are true for you and this could be one of your best prospecting campaigns! What issues do you see contribute to failed competitor campaigns?

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Most DTC ad accounts aren't even doing the bare minimum to improve performance. What do I mean? There's one thing Meta recommends doing to both: a) Prevent ROI dropoff b) Keep CAC steady Creative refreshes. Our recommendation is heavy — 1x per week, or ~4x per month. Meta's recommendation is moderate — 2x per month. Most DTC brands aren't hitting even half of this — MAYBE 1x a month. This simple rule is one of the most neglected in ad strategy for ecommerce brands. Why? Usually from a lack of creative inbound — there's not enough creative to supplement the number of refreshes needed. I won't get into creative volume, but here's why creative refreshes are critical. Creative fatigue: it builds up when audiences are overexposed to the same creatives. It can drive up your CPA and make your ads less sticky, leading to higher ad spend for desired performance (or no spend if you're using cost controls). Meta prioritizes the "best" experience for users — this means new, new, new. You don't immediately have to jump to 1x a week for creative refreshes, but if you're not at least hitting Meta's recommended rate (bi-weekly), you're leaving easy results on the table.

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Too many 7-9 figure DTC brands becomes victims of ‘black magic’ forecasting. Most of the time It’s at no fault of their own. Black magic forecasting is when either brand or agency are pulling numbers out of nowhere. They give out projections based on: - Complete BS - What sounds sexy to close the client - What sounds sexy to please the company That said - I’m not anti-benchmarks. It’s helpful to know them. However, when we talk about project planning outside the advertising world: In real estate In doing a home build In construction management The emphasis is on making decisions based on solid and realistic numbers. Not fake fairy tail ones that sound really awesome. If the real projections aren’t hitting certain standards: - Cost - ROI - Profitability Then the project doesn’t go through. No way. And it should be the same in advertising. If the financial benchmarks that we care about: - ROAS - CAC - Gross Margin Aren’t hitting our benchmarks, there’s no reason the project should commence.

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I used to work on a $1mil/month PPC account. Steal. Imitate. Rip off. ← That’s the biggest takeaway for health brands w/o $1mil/month budgets. More specifically— Copy whatever they do consistently. Because they’re spending a ton of money testing. And you can benefit from learning on their dime. Look at Bass Pro Shop’s Ad Library as an example: They might be the biggest hunting brand in the world, but they have almost zero generic “hunting” ads. They get specific: - “Elk season. It’s here.” - “Get ready for deer season.” - “Make this waterfowl season legendary.” Because they spent a small fortune figuring out that Elk hunters are 500X more likely to click on an ad if it’s specifically for Elk hunting. When it comes to health/wellness/fitness… Your products can generally benefit a broad section of the population. And that’s why health brands fall into the broad messaging trap more often than most. It’s counterintuitive: - You don’t want to exclude a portion of your audience. - But when your messaging is too broad, it doesn’t resonate with anyone. I’m sure the PPC strategist for Bass Pro tested generic hunting ads. They probably spent millions on it. So here’s my advice: - Pick 3 or 4 of your customers. - Get very specific about why they buy. - Create messaging that targets exactly them. - And allocate 50% of a generic ad’s budget to hyper-targeted ads. Then go check out the Ads Library of the biggest brands you can think of and see what other trends you can find. (Or just follow me and I’ll keep letting you know what I see.) And also, I'm curious: Who's your “Elk Hunter?” At Digital Position, LLC, ours is a brand that’s trying to scale, frustrated by communication with their existing agency, and selling to active/health-focused customers.

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The most common reason brands do attribution wrong? Fear. "This is the way we've always done it." "What if you're wrong? It's a big risk." "This is what I'm measured against." "This isn't my direct responsibility." Most of my job is just mitigating risk: • Risk of wasting time • Risk of wasting money • Risk of hurting revenue • Risk of upsetting growth But there are so many brands that I work with that have grown DESPITE their strategies rather than because of them. • They don't focus on incrementality • They throw millions of dollars at advertising • They focus on little things that don't matter • They ignore massive problems that are killing them The brands that I work with that routinely put up 2x, 3x, 5x growth year over year are willing to take calculated risks -- informed by data -- and then heavily invest in something that truly works. One brand went from $14m in revenue to $43m in revenue year over year because they realized that they were sitting on a goldmine of recurring customer value. Their biggest constraint in the business was just getting more customers. But the conversation started with something like "Oh that would require us to spend a lot more on media and increase our CAC. How are you sure we can afford it." The easiest way to mitigate risk in my experience is to test your hypothesis in as controlled of an environment as possible: • Build a TikTok campaign in only a few geos • Try changing the mix for a single promo • Split test your first party audiences • Split test your traffic I'm not asking you to go ALL IN without validating it first. That'd be foolhardy. But I'm also demanding that you pull your head out of the sand and start making some moves. What's that famous quote, "All profit is derived from risk?" If you want to be successful more than just your natural trajectory, you'll have to set fear aside and make some moves. #growth #dtc #ecommerce

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The 3 biggest opportunities for ecommerce brands in the 2nd half of 2024? 🥉 Testing ad creative 🥈 Testing landing pages 🥇 Testing your entire website ecommerce brands that do this will see... - Better conversion rates - Better average order values - Better lifetime values This will be the biggest missed opportunity for brands over the next 5-10 years. #cro #ecommerce #d2c #digitalmarketing #marketing

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What if your BFCM coupon codes actually drain your budget? Here’s the thing: coupon codes seem like an easy win, but for a lot of Black Week advertisers, they’re actually hurting conversions. Here’s why: → Shoppers spot your discount code, but by the time they check out, they’ve forgotten it. → They leave the checkout page to hunt for the code again… and often don’t come back. → Or worse, they find a competitor instead. The result? A simple code can turn into a conversion killer. It could drain your budget without generating any sales. For this reason, at Taskforce Agency we are not fans of coupon codes. But if you have no choice; Here’s a quick fix: Keep that code in sight, right through checkout. Banner it across product and checkout pages so they never have to hunt for it. Most e-commerce platforms even have plugins that make this super easy to set up. For everyone diving into Black Week, stay sharp, keep hydrated, and maybe give this tweak a try. A small change could save big on lost sales! P.S. If you’ve got a winning Black Week strategy, share it! Let’s help each other make this week a win. Cheers!

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OK #agency peeps, we've chatted about $0-$10K/mo, $20-$50K/mo, $50-$150K/mo, $150K-$500K/mo & how to know if you might be ready for an exit (link to all in comments). Today, we are continuing with the series...#agencyacquisition - how to find a buyer. Things to know: 1. Selling your #marketingagency is not fun. (Apparently, I was on vacation with my family at the tail end of my 1st acquisition...truly, I do not remember a minute of it, and I don't recognize any of the pictures of me from that vacation). 2. Selling gets easier when you know what you want to get out of the sale. The chances of getting FU money is pretty low. But you can absolutely get money that will change your life. So you need to start with what is the minimum amount of money that it will take for you to stop chasing your dream and start supporting someone else's. Assuming that you know what your floor is, there are a couple of buyers types to think about: 1. Strategic: You do something they don't, or you serve a complimentary market that they don't. Usually, you get the best acquisition terms here. 2. Marketshare Buyer: This is a buyer who does what you do, and they want your top line revenue. This is usually the easiest kind of sale, but they tend to be less lucrative. The strategic buyer will likely want you, as the CEO of the biz, to hand around and lead the team since they don't do what you do. The marketshare buyer probably wants you to go away. When you are searching for a potential buyer, sort the world into two --> Strategic Buyers & Marketshare Buyers. Getting a buyer to know you exist isn't complicated. Just email the CEO or Corp dev or head of sales...they will get you in front on the right person. But generally speaking, before you need to talk to anyone, you should have a sense of: 1. Their size (if they aren't at least as big as you are, it is going to be hard to swallow you) 2. How you fit: • Marketplace buyer is pretty simple - we will take your revenue from X to Y, and add $Z in EBITDA to your biz • Strategic buyer is harder - you need to create a story about how your service aligns with what you do, and how easy it would be to cross sell what you do to their existing clients and vice-versa. A great place to look for a marketplace buyer is anyone that is bigger than you are that you respect. But they can't be too much bigger - a $1mm agency means nothing to a $15B agency holding company. Start looking for strategic buyers amongst the other agencies and service providers at your existing clients - that shared connection makes for an easy starter convo.

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Five reasons why you shouldn't do TikTok Shop 1. You can't afford sending 300+ units as free samples to creators 2. Your products are $100+ AOV in a category with $50 AOV on TTS 3. You can't afford to do discounts 4. You have a long lead time when products go out of stock 5. You aren't ready to breakeven or lose money in month 1 and 2

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3 surprising truths about TikTok Shop: 1. We’ve seen almost no canabalization between TikTok Shop and Shopify/DTC 2. There is a very clear correlation between volume of videos and revenue outcomes 3. It is fairly price elastic (similar to early Amazon- consumers are price sensitive). Using promos to get to your first 1000 units sold and then pull back.

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Tell me the one advertising belief that will get you tar-and-feathered: Mine = For DTC brands, great ads aren't about optics — they're about performance. Meta doesn't care how "pretty" or "branded" your statics and videos are, it cares about having proof that your creatives are going to perform in the algorithm. Because that's Meta's end goal, and when we satisfy that, we fulfill our goals. But we're remarkably inconsistent at choosing what's best in Meta. The only thing we can control is volume, i.e. the amount of creative we give Meta. UGC, CGC, IGC, all of it — quality isn't subjective, it's objective. More volume is the driver of quality in the lens of Meta.

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I spent 5 years learning how to turn CRO failures into a 7-figure agency. From posting cringe button color tests on LinkedIn to optimizing billion-dollar e-commerce stores. After months of reflecting, recording, and brainstorming... I recorded a raw and honest 45min podcast episode breaking down how we did it. Our success wasn't based on luck. It happened because we focused on mastering CRO fundamentals, embracing feedback, and building systems that scale. Our journey is unique. I want you to take inspiration and apply these lessons to your business too. 𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝟰𝟱-𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿: → How two clueless 19-year-olds built a leading CRO agency → The lessons we learned from LinkedIn critics (and why it made us better) → The exact A/B testing process that changed everything → Why overanalyzing stats almost killed our innovation → Insights from Tesla and LEGO on conversion strategies → The ridiculous reason I got banned from WeWork ...and much more. This is the most personal and insightful content I’ve ever created - my favorite work so far. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: 1. Like this post 2. Comment "Sharing is Caring" or "Agency" 3. ♻️ Repost for QUICK access (the comments can get crazy!) And I'll send you the video link!

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9 out of 10 DTC brands are missing this key ingredient for email personalization. THE REAL PROBLEM: Here’s the truth: personalization only works if your data works. If your data is messy, incomplete, or siloed, no amount of fancy subject lines or dynamic content will fix it. I talk to DTC teams all the time, and the conversation always leads to one thing: how can we make our email campaigns more personal? 🔴 Garbage data? Your email strategy follows the spray-and-pray method. 🟢 Quality data? Hello, higher engagement and conversions. Here’s how to keep your email database enriched with quality data: ↳ Regularly clean and update your lists ↳ Use tools like Typeform to fill in gaps ↳ Segment subscribers based on behavior ↳ Run surveys to gather real insights ↳ Collect zero-party data with quizzes (try Digioh) The formula is simple: Better data = Better personalization = Better results ----------- DM me if you need help rinsing your email database from garbage data/profiles.

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The $25 Billion Deal That Collapsed—and Why SEO Still Wins 🚨 The collapse of the Albertsons-Kroger merger is sparking conversations across the country—about competition, pricing, and the challenges of growth. But here’s the thing: whether you're a small grocery store or a massive chain like Kroger, one constant remains... You need to be found when people search for you. While massive mergers aim for scale, the real competitive edge for any business lies in its visibility. SEO is your front-line strategy: 1️⃣ Consumers search first – Whether it's "grocery delivery near me" or "cheapest organic produce," your position on search results matters more than ever. 2️⃣ Build trust & loyalty – An optimized digital presence builds authority, just like a strong in-store experience builds customer loyalty. 3️⃣ Outpace competition – Even the big players can't rely solely on their size. Online relevance is the great equalizer. The lesson here: size matters less if you’re invisible online. So, before you think about massive acquisitions, start with the basics. P.S. What’s your take on the merger fallout? And is your SEO strategy recession-proof? Let’s chat in the comments! #kroger #Albertsons #seo #marketing

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Spooky product update... practically steals competitor traffic by growing Conquesting Campaigns by 2-5x on Google--at the same efficiency (CPAs or ROAS)? Why Spooky? They're called "Ghost Ads"! And trust me, it'll scare your competitors to lose 200%-500% more of their converting traffic to your business. 😁 But that's why many of the largest, most sophisticated programs in each space are Early Adopters / 1st Movers on Traffic by Intent's approach & tech! This works specifically because of a very unique approach we're deploying. It targets your competitor keywords in ways that you can't without our software. And you'll see those keywords light-up as "covered" in your Ad Copy within Google's UI, even though it'll never show your competitor's brand name in your Ads... it's the only thing of its kind on the market! DM me or reach out at [email protected] to learn more. #paidsearch #googleadwords #googleads #googleadvertising #microsoftads #microsoftadvertising #bingads #ppc #sem #payperclick

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Test Your Pop-Up 🚨 I can’t tell you how many brands we audit that have absolutely no pop-up testing going on. Always have some sort of test running. A 2-3% improvement to your opt-in rate can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars long-term. Do this 2-3 times a year and you’re making an extra million a year.

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I couldn’t agree more with Eric's perspective: Buying iOS at scale should be a cornerstone of your programmatic strategy. Why? 1️⃣ Zero competition: While much of ad tech chases IDs, iOS offers a wide-open lane. 2️⃣ Fraud-resistant: Fraudsters avoid iOS because it’s less lucrative for them. 3️⃣ Better value: Lower CPMs + actual human targeting = higher efficiency. Congrats to Eric on a fantastic conversation—I’m thrilled to see this critical point being emphasized. Let’s shift the focus to where it really matters.

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