Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

In this episode of the podcast, Taylor and Luke take you inside the system Common Thread Collective has built to define what modern media management really looks like in 2025. Media buying has evolved - incrementality, experimentation, MMM, and FP&A can’t live in silos anymore. Taylor and Luke break down how to turn these complex ideas into one cohesive, profit-first workflow that drives real...

Stop guessing — start scaling. In this episode of Podcast, Richard and Luke break down how one eight-figure brand completely rewrote its Q4 plan using the Profit System’s Spend Power Model and Creative Demand Model. You’ll see exactly how reallocating ad spend, optimizing contribution margin, and forecasting creative volume can unlock immediate profit gains in the next 30 days — without guessing o...

Most brands blow their Q4 creator budget on one thing: holiday only content. In this episode of thPodcast, Richard sits down with Adrianne, Director of Creator Content, to break down why that’s a mistake and what to do instead. Learn CTC’s full framework for sourcing and scaling creator content that actually performs through Q4 and beyond. From building evergreen briefs to managing creator timelin...

As Q4 kicks off, one of the biggest levers brands can pull is their offer strategy . In this episode, Richard Gaffin (Director of Digital Product Strategy) and Taylor Holiday (CEO) break down how to design offers that maximize both new customer acquisition and retention during Black Friday/Cyber Monday. They walk through insights from CTC’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday Offer Database —a collection of...

In this special episode, we share Taylor Holiday’s keynote from Stord’s Summit. ( https://www.stord.com/ )  He unpacks the four eras of DTC—COVID’s boom, the lean “Ozempic era,” and what he calls the “Flow Era.” Drawing from CTC’s dataset, client stories, and industry benchmarks, Taylor explains why 2025 could mark the strongest period in DTC history. You’ll learn: Why the excess of capital and de...

In this episode of the E-Commerce Playbook , Taylor Holiday and Richard Gaffin dig into the Measurement Roadmap—CTC’s framework for deciding what to test, when to test it, and why it matters . They unpack why incrementality testing is so crucial, the massive swings it can reveal in platform reporting, and how brands can use repeated tests to progressively “shrink the error bars” around decision-ma...

Most brands rush into new ad platforms before they’re ready. In this episode, Richard and Tony break down why channel expansion is less about “good or bad” and more about timing and fuel. They revisit the core sequence—master Meta, then Google—before adding channels like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, or Pinterest. And they go deep on why CTC is bullish on AppLovin, the mobile gaming ad platform that’...

As Q4 approaches, creative demand becomes one of the biggest challenges for brands looking to scale efficiently. In this episode, Richard Gaffin (Director of Digital Product Strategy at CTC) sits down with Luke Austin (VP of E-Commerce Strategy) to unpack CTC’s new Creative Demand Model—a framework that quantifies exactly how much creative output brands need in order to hit their revenue and spend...

In this week’s episode of the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast, Luke Austin (VP of Ecommerce Strategy at CTC) sits down with Mike McVerry, SVP of Ecommerce & International Sales at Urban Armor Gear (UAG) to unpack how the brand unlocked 40% YoY revenue growth and 43% contribution margin growth in 2025 … despite a shrinking market. Together, they break down: Why “spend more to grow more” wasn’t worki...

In this special episode of the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast, Luke Austin takes the reins and brings in two of CTC’s top-performing growth strategists—Lacie Geary and Brian Sakansky—for a deep dive into what it takes to build and execute a forecast with precision. You’ll get a rare look under the hood at CTC’s Profit System, including how we: Set and execute daily client-level forecasts for revenue,...

When should you really be spending more? Which days of the week drive the most revenue— for your brand ? In this episode, Richard is joined by Luke Austin (VP of Growth at Common Thread Collective) to walk through real client data and uncover just how different day-of-week and month-over-month effects can be across brands, even within the same vertical. You’ll learn: Why blindly scaling spend in Q...

In this episode of The Ecommerce Playbook Podcast, Richard Gaffin and Taylor Holiday dig deeper into the Spending Power Model—breaking down why the next dollar you spend doesn’t always produce the same return. They explore concepts like the marginal frontier (the moment your next dollar becomes unprofitable), spending power, and how to balance short-term profitability with long-term growth. Taylor...

In place of this week’s Tuesday ECPP episode, we’re featuring CTC’s newest podcast: The DTC Hotline . In this week’s episode, Richard Gaffin is joined by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to field real questions from operators and listeners—offering hot takes, cold truths, and unfiltered answers. They tackle: What to do when you...

In this episode of the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast, Richard Gaffin and Taylor Holiday dive deep into the practical use cases of Spend & aMER forecasting models—powerful tools that help brands set budgets with clarity, not guesswork. Taylor walks through real examples, showing how these models adjust for changing costs (like tariffs) and how gross margin shifts ripple through your entire P&L...

In this episode of the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast, Richard Gaffin and Taylor Holiday unpack the critical connection between forecasting models and creative production. Forecasting isn’t just about predicting numbers … it’s about building a marketing and creative plan that can actually deliver them. Taylor explains why most forecasts fail: brands treat them like predictions instead of action plans....

In this episode of The Ecommerce Playbook Podcast , Richard Gaffin and Taylor Holiday unpack why forecasting isn’t just about models—it’s about execution. They explore how the best brands combine data, marketing calendars, and disciplined ownership to create forecasts that actually hold up in the real world. Drawing from billions in client data, Taylor explains why finance-driven forecasts often f...

In this episode of The Ecommerce Playbook Podcast, Richard Gaffin and Taylor Holiday break down why so many e-commerce leaders rely on guesswork and ambition instead of reality—and how forecasting models like Spend & aMER can change that. Taylor compares these models to a DEXA scan: a clear, data-driven look at your business health. Together, they explain how accurate forecasting systems help...

In this week’s episode of The DTC Hotline, Richard Gaffin is joined once again by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to take real questions from eComm operators and Admission members—no fluff, just clear, hard-earned answers. They tackle: • What to do when “nothing works” on Meta (and why that diagnosis is often wrong) • How to s...

In this episode of the E-Commerce Playbook Podcast, Richard Gaffin is joined by Luke Austin (VP of E-Commerce Strategy at CTC) and Steve Rekuc (Director of Data) to unpack one of CTC’s most powerful forecasting tools: the Spend & aMER Model. This model reveals whether your brand is overspending past the point of profitability—or underspending and leaving growth on the table. By layering in 40+...

Get an exclusive look behind the curtain with our VP of Strategy, Luke, as he breaks down how CTC is transforming profit-driven growth through clarity, measurement, and scalable systems. Discover how our incrementality tool, daily forecasting workflows, and creative growth frameworks come together in the “prism”—our metaphor for the integrated decision-making engine that fuels brand success. In Th...

In the debut of The DTC Hotline, Richard Gaffin is joined by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to take real questions from eComm operators and Admission members—no fluff, just unfiltered answers. They tackle: • Why your Meta cost caps aren’t spending (and what to do about it) • How much creative is really “a lot” in today’s ad e...

As brands approach the $1M–$10M revenue range, they often find themselves stuck—still hustling, but with slower growth and rising costs. That’s where CTC’s Global Accelerator comes in. In this episode, Richard Gaffin is joined by Joy Sharma and Jan Almuni to share the blueprint for how seven-figure brands break through to eight. They reveal the step-by-step playbook used across dozens of brands in...

In this episode of the E-Commerce Playbook Podcast, Taylor Holiday and Richard Gaffin unpack the surprising success of last week’s episode—and explore what it reveals about content that actually resonates. What about the convo with Taylor and Andrew led to such a positive response? Turns out, the answer has less to do with tactics—and everything to do with time, unique perspective, and story. If y...

After months of speculation, testing, and internal debate, CTC put Meta’s new Incremental Attribution Tool to the test—three times. In this episode, Richard Gaffin sits down with VP of Paid Media Tony Chopp to break down what really happened across those tests, including a final geo holdout study using actual Shopify revenue. The result? You’ll learn: - What CTC’s 3 incrementality tests revealed a...

In this episode of The Random Show, Taylor Holiday and Andrew Faris sit down for a moment of focus—because something big just happened. Common Thread Collective has a new growth partner. Taylor breaks down what the deal really means, why it isn’t a retirement plan, and how private equity views agencies differently than eComm brands.• Why service businesses generate more cash (and get better multip...