If I were you, the very first thing I'd do is calculate my total Marketing Efficiency Ratio, or MER. This one number, which is your total marketing and advertising spend divided by your total revenue, becomes your North Star for all resource allocation. It tells you what percentage of every dollar earned you can reinvest into growth. It’s the guardrail that keeps you from driving off a cliff.
In the first week, I'd focus entirely on getting this financial foundation right. The hosts of Marketing Operators, like Cody Plofker and Connor MacDonald, constantly emphasize that marketing can't operate in a silo from finance. You have to know your numbers. Specifically, I’d figure out my contribution margin per order. That means knowing what cash is left after a sale once I subtract the cost of goods sold and all variable costs like shipping and payment processing. That leftover cash is what I have to pay for marketing and still have a profit. Without this number, you're flying blind.
Then, in the first month, I’d use that MER-defined budget and start allocating. I wouldn't get fancy. I'd lean on Taylor Holiday's advice from Ecommerce Playbook and split my budget, probably about 70/30 or 80/20 between new customer acquisition and marketing to my existing customers. For the acquisition portion, I’d stick with the proven channels, likely Meta and Google, and focus on running disciplined tests to see what works. The goal isn't to hit a home run, but to get a clear signal on what's driving profitable first orders.
What I'd ignore completely at the start is Return on Ad Spend, or ROAS. As Dave Levett argues on eCommerce Australia, obsessing over ROAS is one of the biggest myths in our industry. A high ROAS can easily hide unprofitable campaigns once you factor in all your business costs. It’s a vanity metric that feels good but can lead you astray. I’d also ignore the pressure to be on every single new or trending social media platform. Focus and discipline are more important.
The biggest trap I'd actively avoid is the trap of scaling ad spend just because a campaign has a good ROAS. This is where knowing your contribution margin becomes critical. If your margin is thin, a 4x ROAS might still mean you're losing money on every single order. The team at Marketing Operators talks about how many brands forecast incorrectly because they don't understand these fundamentals. The other mistake, which Taylor Holiday points out on Ecommerce Conversations, is wasting expensive acquisition ad dollars on your existing customers. Use cheaper channels like email and SMS to engage the people you’ve already won over.