Are you measuring new reach on Meta the right way or just guessing?

Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) dig into the tactics + measurement frameworks driving their paid media strategies right now.

The conversation spans Meta’s incremental attribution rollout and what the data shows. They cover signal engineering with conditional pixels, the case for non-purchase optimized campaigns on YouTube, and why building a deliberate testing roadmap matters more than chasing every new ad tech feature. Plus, behind the scenes on Jones Road’s biggest creator partnership came together.

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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026

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Richpanel

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Aftersell

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Operators Newsletter

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Drawing on over a decade of experience on the brand, HoldCo, and agency sides of DTC, Andrew Faris (Founder, AJF Growth) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) to discuss what it takes to build and scale an ecommerce brand across every stage of growth.

The conversation covers what advice from larger operators can get wrong for smaller brands and why AOV may be the most underrated metric in subscription businesses. They explore how to think about the atomic units of an offer, the real trade-offs between in-house and agency media buying, and why the message is the most underrated growth tactic in ecommerce today.

This episode is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth

Or, skip the waitlist and launch your Axon by AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators

Can you build a sports brand by saying no to most customers?

Matty Martin (Head of Marketing, Cadence) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad), to break down what it takes to scale one of the fastest-growing sports hydration brands from scratch. Matty shares how he went from setting up the Shopify site himself to leading a full marketing team; all while sending every single email the company puts out.

They dig into why Cadence stays focused on the athlete and resists chasing the hangover angle, how three redesigns in one year tripled sales at GNC, and the free-gift mechanic that pushed their subscription rate from 30% to 75%. Matty also walks through the brand’s expansion into Target and Walmart, its approach to omnichannel measurement, and why Candence’s athlete partnerships drive retail credibility as much as awareness.

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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026

https://motionapp.com/thumbstop-pulse/creative-benchmarks-2026?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-benchmarks-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel

Aftersell

https://9ops.co/4i3bb5

Rivo

https://www.rivo.io/operators

Prescient AI

https://www.prescientai.com/operators

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/