Scaling an e-commerce brand effectively requires moving beyond vanity metrics like platform-level ROAS. This episode with Brandi Dugal, CEO of The Fidget Game, reveals how to achieve sustainable growth by implementing a holistic, whole-business measurement approach using Marketing Efficiency Ratios (MERs), diligent creative testing, and authentic founder-led storytelling. Learn how to transform challenges like inventory overload into opportunities for strategic re-evaluation and customer-centric growth.
Key takeaways
Implement Marketing Efficiency Ratios (MERs) to assess overall marketing effectiveness beyond platform-specific ROAS, integrating all marketing spend against total revenue to get a true picture of profitability.
Segment ad campaigns by product and meticulously tag ad angles to gain granular insights into what resonates with different customer segments and drives performance.
Prioritize high-volume creative testing and embrace "founder-led storytelling" in ads, even if unpolished, as authentic narratives often outperform highly produced, generic UGC.
Establish continuous feedback loops with customers through direct conversations to inform product development and marketing messages, ensuring offerings align with real user needs.
Adopt a "zoom out" perspective on business performance, constantly testing and iterating strategies across the entire ecosystem rather than focusing on isolated metrics or channels, especially when growth plateaus.
Brandi Dugal is the Founder and CEO of The Fidget Game, a company that creates curriculum-aligned learning games to make reading and literacy practice effective and fun. The company's resources are used in more than 50,000 schools. A former teacher with classroom experience in multiple countries, Brandi developed The Fidget Game after working with students who were struggling to read. Through the Fidget Forward program, she makes educational tools more accessible to classrooms and families in need. In this episode… Scaling an e-commerce brand often requires a counterintuitive move: letting go of the metrics you once used to measure growth. Yet when growth stalls, how do you know whether to pull back or push harder? Brandi Dugal's answer is to zoom out, measure the whole business, and keep testing until the system reveals what works. As an educator-turned-e-commerce founder, she recommends looking beyond platform-level ROAS and using marketing efficiency ratios (MERs) to assess overall marketing efficiency. Brandi also suggests separating campaigns by product, tagging ad angles carefully, testing high volumes of creative, and staying close to customers through real conversations, feedback loops, and founder-led storytelling. Sustainable growth comes from pairing disciplined measurement with authentic, customer-informed creative. In this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris chats with Brandi Dugal, Founder and CEO of The Fidget Game, about scaling through creative testing and whole-business measurement. Brandi shares how MER changed her Meta strategy, why authentic founder-led ads outperform polished UGC, and how gamified classroom insights shaped her product development.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Implement Marketing Efficiency Ratios (MERs) to assess overall marketing effectiveness beyond platform-specific ROAS, integrating all marketing spend against total revenue to get a true picture of profitability.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Segment ad campaigns by product and meticulously tag ad angles to gain granular insights into what resonates with different customer segments and drives performance.
What does this episode say about product & merchandising?
Prioritize high-volume creative testing and embrace "founder-led storytelling" in ads, even if unpolished, as authentic narratives often outperform highly produced, generic UGC.
What does this episode say about founder & leadership?
Establish continuous feedback loops with customers through direct conversations to inform product development and marketing messages, ensuring offerings align with real user needs.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Adopt a "zoom out" perspective on business performance, constantly testing and iterating strategies across the entire ecosystem rather than focusing on isolated metrics or channels, especially when growth plateaus.
