Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I started working with an e-commerce client who was pulling 2.5 ROAS from Facebook Ads, everything looked fine on paper. The revenue was steady, the campaigns were running, and the client was happy. But here's what nobody talks about: they were sitting on a distribution time bomb.
One algorithm change, one policy violation, or one sudden cost increase could kill their entire business overnight. They had built a beautiful product with solid demand, but they were completely dependent on Meta's mercy for survival.
Most businesses make this exact mistake. They find one channel that works—whether it's Facebook Ads, Google Ads, or even word-of-mouth—and they ride it until it breaks. But here's the uncomfortable truth I learned from working across dozens of client projects: distribution beats product quality every single time.
You can have the most amazing product in the world, but if only one channel knows about it, you're playing Russian roulette with your business. That's why I spent three months completely overhauling this client's distribution strategy, moving them from single-channel dependency to true omnichannel growth.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why the "build it and they will come" mentality is killing your growth
How I built a comprehensive distribution system that reduced client's Facebook dependency by 70%
The counter-intuitive approach to attribution that most businesses get completely wrong
A practical framework for expanding distribution channels without spreading yourself too thin
Why you should embrace the "dark funnel" instead of fighting it
This isn't about theory or best practices from some marketing blog. This is about what actually worked when I took a client from dangerous single-channel dependency to sustainable, diversified growth. Ready to stop playing distribution roulette with your business? Let's dive in.
Reality Check
What most businesses get wrong about distribution
Walk into any marketing conference or read any growth blog, and you'll hear the same advice repeated like a mantra: "Find your best channel and double down." The logic seems sound—if Facebook Ads are working, pour more money into Facebook Ads. If SEO is driving traffic, hire more SEO experts.
This conventional wisdom exists because it's easier to optimize what you know than to explore what you don't. Most businesses fall into this trap because:
Attribution models lie to you - Your dashboard shows Facebook claiming credit for conversions that actually came from multiple touchpoints
Channel expertise creates tunnel vision - If you hire a Facebook Ads expert, they'll recommend more Facebook Ads
Short-term thinking dominates - It's faster to scale existing channels than build new ones
Resource constraints seem real - "We don't have time to test new channels" becomes the default excuse
Success creates complacency - When something works, why change it?
But here's where conventional wisdom falls apart in practice: every channel has a lifecycle. What works today won't work forever. iOS 14 killed Facebook attribution overnight. Google constantly changes its algorithm. TikTok gets banned in countries. Channels become expensive as competition increases.
The businesses that survive and thrive are the ones that treat distribution like a portfolio, not a single bet. They understand that sustainable growth comes from building multiple pathways to customers, not optimizing one pathway to death.
Yet most businesses keep playing distribution roulette, betting their entire future on the mercy of someone else's platform. They confuse activity with strategy, optimization with innovation. And when their golden channel inevitably changes or fails, they're left scrambling to rebuild from zero.
The real question isn't "How do I optimize my best channel?" It's "How do I build a distribution system that can survive any single channel failure?"
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When this e-commerce client first approached me, they were the perfect example of single-channel success turning into single-channel risk. They'd built their entire business around Facebook Ads, generating consistent revenue with a 2.5 ROAS. For most marketers, this would look like a success story.
But I'd seen this movie before. They were essentially running a Facebook Ads arbitrage business, not a sustainable e-commerce company. Their "moat" was completely dependent on Meta's algorithm continuing to work in their favor, ad costs staying reasonable, and no policy violations shutting them down.
The wake-up call came during our first strategy session when I asked a simple question: "What happens to your business if Facebook shuts down your ad account tomorrow?" The silence was deafening. They had no backup plan, no other meaningful traffic sources, and no way to reach their customers without paying Meta's toll.
This wasn't unique to this client. I've seen SaaS companies completely dependent on Google Ads, service businesses that live and die by referrals, and startups that treat Product Hunt as their entire go-to-market strategy. The pattern is always the same: find one thing that works, ride it until it breaks, then panic when it inevitably does.
What made this situation particularly interesting was the client's product catalog—over 1,000 SKUs across multiple categories. They had variety, quality, and decent profit margins. The issue wasn't product-market fit; it was distribution-market fit. They'd built a business model that required instant decisions from Facebook traffic, but their strength was actually in discovery and browsing.
Facebook Ads work great for simple, single-product businesses where you can show one hero product and get an immediate yes or no. But this client's value proposition was variety and choice. Customers needed time to explore, compare, and discover products they didn't even know they wanted. The Facebook Ads format was fundamentally incompatible with their actual business model.
This mismatch wasn't just hurting their growth—it was limiting their potential. They were trying to force a discovery-based business through an instant-decision channel, leaving money on the table and building a house of cards in the process.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of trying to optimize their Facebook Ads further, I took a completely different approach. We were going to build what I call a "distribution ecosystem"—multiple channels working together, each playing to the business's actual strengths rather than fighting against them.
Phase 1: Website Infrastructure Overhaul
The first step wasn't adding new channels; it was rebuilding their website to support discoverability instead of quick conversions. We completely restructured the site architecture around SEO principles, treating every page as a potential entry point rather than funneling everything through the homepage.
This meant:
Rebuilding category pages for search intent, not just product organization
Creating detailed product pages that could rank individually
Building content that addressed actual search queries, not just product features
Implementing technical SEO foundations they'd never had
Phase 2: Content-Driven SEO Strategy
While Facebook Ads required instant decisions, SEO rewarded patient discovery—exactly what their business model needed. We developed a comprehensive content strategy targeting long-tail keywords around their 1,000+ products.
But here's the counterintuitive part: instead of creating generic "buying guides," we focused on solving actual problems their products addressed. If they sold kitchen gadgets, we didn't just write about "best kitchen gadgets." We created content around specific cooking challenges that their products solved.
Phase 3: Attribution Reality Check
Here's where it gets interesting. Within a month of launching the SEO strategy, Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. Most marketers would celebrate this "improvement," but I knew better. Facebook was claiming credit for conversions that SEO was actually driving.
This is the dark funnel in action. A typical customer journey actually looked like:
Google search for a specific problem
Land on our content, browse products
Leave to research elsewhere
See a Facebook retargeting ad days later
Click and purchase
Facebook got the "credit," but SEO did the heavy lifting. Instead of fighting this attribution mess, we embraced it. The goal wasn't to track and control every interaction—it was to expand visibility across all possible touchpoints.
Phase 4: Channel Integration, Not Channel Competition
Rather than treating channels as competitors for attribution credit, we built them to work together. SEO content educated and built trust. Facebook ads provided retargeting and social proof. Email captured people at different stages of the journey. Each channel played its role in a larger system.
Strategic Shift
From control-based to coverage-based distribution thinking
Attribution Reality
Stop trying to track everything; start focusing on expanding visibility everywhere
Dark Funnel
Embrace multi-touch customer journeys instead of fighting them
Channel Integration
Build channels that work together rather than compete for credit
The results spoke for themselves, but not in the way most businesses measure success. Instead of obsessing over which channel got "credit" for each conversion, we focused on the business metrics that actually mattered.
Business Impact:
Overall revenue increased by 40% within three months
Facebook dependency dropped from 95% to 25% of total traffic
Cost per acquisition decreased as organic channels scaled
Customer lifetime value improved due to better product discovery
But the real transformation was philosophical. This business went from being a Facebook Ads arbitrage operation to being a genuine e-commerce company with multiple customer acquisition engines. They were no longer one algorithm change away from bankruptcy.
The SEO traffic grew steadily month over month, providing a foundation that didn't require constant optimization and budget increases. Meanwhile, the Facebook Ads became more effective because they were now retargeting people who had already discovered and researched products through organic channels.
Most importantly, they could finally scale sustainably. Instead of just pouring more money into Facebook and hoping for linear returns, they had multiple growth levers they could pull independently.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This project taught me lessons that completely changed how I approach distribution strategy for every client since. Here are the key insights that matter:
Attribution is a vanity metric - Focus on total business growth, not which channel gets credit
Channels have physics - Facebook demands instant decisions; SEO rewards patient discovery. Match your business model to channel characteristics
The dark funnel is your friend - Most customer journeys involve multiple touchpoints across multiple channels. Build for this reality
Distribution beats optimization - It's better to be visible everywhere than perfect in one place
Start with infrastructure - Your website needs to support multiple channel types before you can scale them
Think ecosystem, not channels - Build distribution systems where channels work together rather than compete
Single-channel success is single-channel risk - The more successful one channel becomes, the more dangerous dependency becomes
The biggest mistake I see businesses make is treating distribution as a series of independent experiments rather than building an integrated system. They'll test Facebook Ads, then try SEO, then experiment with email—but never build them to work together.
Real distribution power comes from having multiple channels that amplify each other, creating a compound effect that's much stronger than the sum of its parts.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups:
Build content around actual user problems, not just product features
Use free trials as retargeting fuel for paid channels
Create separate landing pages for different distribution channels
Focus on SEO for bottom-funnel keywords first
For your Ecommerce store
For E-commerce stores:
Build product pages that can rank individually in search
Create content around problems your products solve
Use organic traffic for Facebook lookalike audiences
Implement proper technical SEO foundations