Growth & Strategy
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I started working with an e-commerce client who was generating consistent revenue through Facebook Ads with a respectable 2.5 ROAS, everything looked solid on the surface. They had built their entire growth engine around Meta's algorithm, and it was working—until I realized they were sitting on a hidden vulnerability that most businesses never see coming.
Here's the thing: your customers don't follow linear journeys. While your Facebook Ads manager is claiming credit for every conversion, the reality is messier—and more profitable—than any attribution model can capture.
After implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy alongside their existing Meta ads, something fascinating happened. Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9 overnight. Most marketers would celebrate their "improved ad performance," but I knew better. The reality? SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, but Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic wins.
This experience taught me that the most successful businesses don't choose between paid ads and SEO—they understand how these channels work together in ways that traditional attribution can't measure. Here's what you'll discover:
Why Meta ads and SEO create invisible conversion loops
How to embrace the "dark funnel" instead of fighting it
The specific metrics that reveal true cross-channel impact
A step-by-step playbook for implementing both strategies together
Why attribution lies become your competitive advantage
Industry Reality
What marketers are taught about channel attribution
Walk into any marketing conference or read any growth blog, and you'll hear the same advice repeated like a mantra: "You need to know which channels are driving your conversions." The entire industry is obsessed with attribution models, tracking pixels, and giving proper "credit" to each marketing touchpoint.
The conventional wisdom goes like this:
First-touch attribution: Credit the first channel that brought the customer
Last-touch attribution: Credit the final touchpoint before conversion
Multi-touch attribution: Distribute credit across all touchpoints
Data-driven attribution: Use machine learning to assign credit "intelligently"
Channel separation: Test channels in isolation to determine "true" performance
This approach exists because it makes CFOs feel comfortable. They can point to spreadsheets and say, "This channel generated X revenue for Y spend." It's clean, measurable, and fits nicely into budget planning meetings.
Marketing teams spend countless hours debating attribution windows, implementing complex tracking systems, and trying to eliminate "attribution dark matter" from their data. The promise is simple: if you can measure it perfectly, you can optimize it perfectly.
But here's where this conventional wisdom falls apart in practice: customer journeys are inherently messy. A typical customer might see your Meta ad, Google your brand name, read reviews, visit your website multiple times, get retargeted, ask friends for opinions, and then finally convert weeks later. Which channel "deserves" the credit?
The industry's obsession with clean attribution is creating a false choice between channels, when the real opportunity lies in understanding how they amplify each other.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The client I worked with had built their entire business around Facebook Ads—and it was working well enough to mask a fundamental problem. They were running a solid 2.5 ROAS with their Meta campaigns, but they had put all their eggs in one algorithmic basket.
Here's what their customer journey actually looked like: someone would see their Facebook ad, maybe click through to browse, but then leave without buying. Later, they'd Google the brand name or search for the product category, land on the website organically, and make a purchase. Facebook would claim credit through its attribution window, while organic traffic appeared to be "free" conversions.
The hidden vulnerability was this: they had no idea how dependent their "organic" traffic actually was on their paid advertising. If Facebook's algorithm decided to reduce their reach, or if ad costs increased, their entire growth engine could collapse—including the "free" organic traffic they thought was separate.
The problem with being a single-channel business isn't just the risk—it's the missed opportunity. Every channel has natural limitations. Facebook Ads demands instant decisions in a feed environment. But what about customers who need time to research? What about people who prefer to Google products before buying? What about those who never see your ads but would love your products?
When I analyzed their customer behavior more deeply, I found something fascinating: their best customers actually had multiple touchpoints before converting. The ones who only saw a Facebook ad and bought immediately had higher return rates and lower lifetime value. The customers who took longer, who researched and came back organically, became their most valuable buyers.
This realization changed everything. Instead of trying to optimize a single channel to perfection, we needed to create multiple pathways for customers to discover and trust the brand. The goal wasn't to find the "best" channel—it was to build a system where each channel made the others more effective.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of trying to fix Facebook's attribution or find the "perfect" tracking setup, I took a completely different approach: I decided to embrace the attribution chaos and use it as a feature, not a bug.
Here's the step-by-step process we implemented:
Phase 1: SEO Foundation (Month 1)
I started with a complete website restructuring focused on SEO optimization. This wasn't about adding a blog and hoping for the best—it was about creating a comprehensive content ecosystem that would capture every stage of the customer journey.
The key insight: every page becomes a potential entry point. Instead of thinking about the homepage as the main door, we created dozens of specific landing pages for different search intents. Product comparison pages, solution-focused content, and educational resources that addressed real customer questions.
Phase 2: Content Strategy Development (Month 1-2)
We built content around search intent, not just brand messaging. The content wasn't generic "how-to" articles—it was specific, actionable guides that solved real problems for their target audience. Each piece was designed to work both for organic discovery and as supporting content for paid traffic.
Phase 3: Cross-Channel Optimization (Month 2-3)
This is where the magic happened. Instead of running separate campaigns, we started using Facebook Ads and SEO as complementary forces:
Meta ads introduced the brand to cold audiences who had never heard of them
SEO captured the warm research phase when people googled the brand or product category
Retargeting brought back the researchers who found them organically but hadn't purchased yet
Content supported every touchpoint with trust-building information
Phase 4: The Attribution Reality Check
Within a month of implementing the SEO strategy, Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. Most marketers would celebrate, but I knew what was really happening: SEO was doing the heavy lifting, and Facebook was taking the credit.
Instead of trying to "fix" this attribution error, we leaned into it. We understood that customer behavior is messy, and that's actually a competitive advantage. While competitors were obsessing over clean attribution, we were focused on total business growth.
Attribution Insights
Facebook claiming SEO wins revealed the true customer journey—and that's exactly what we wanted to happen.
Dark Funnel Strategy
Stopped fighting messy attribution and started optimizing for total business impact instead of individual channel metrics.
Omnichannel Thinking
Built coverage across all customer discovery methods rather than trying to control the entire journey through one channel.
Competitive Advantage
While competitors optimized single channels, we created an ecosystem where each channel amplified the others.
The results were dramatic, but not in the way traditional attribution would show you:
Facebook's reported ROAS increased from 2.5 to 8-9 within 30 days of implementing SEO. This wasn't improved ad performance—it was Facebook claiming credit for organic conversions that happened after people researched the brand.
Organic traffic grew significantly, but more importantly, these visitors had much higher engagement and conversion rates than cold paid traffic. They were coming with intent, not interruption.
Customer lifetime value increased because people who took time to research before buying became more loyal customers. They understood the product better and had realistic expectations.
But here's the most important result: the business became anti-fragile. Instead of panicking when Facebook ad costs increased or reach decreased, they had multiple traffic sources feeding their growth engine. When iOS 14.5 updates disrupted Facebook tracking for many businesses, they barely noticed because their customers were finding them through multiple channels.
The "dark funnel" became their competitive advantage. While competitors were still trying to perfect single-channel attribution, this business was capturing customers at every stage of their buying journey, regardless of which touchpoint got the "credit."
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The biggest lesson from this experience: stop believing in linear customer journeys. The most successful businesses I've worked with understand that attribution lies, and that's actually a feature, not a bug.
Here are the key insights that changed how I think about channel integration:
Customer behavior is naturally omnichannel—fighting this creates friction, embracing it creates competitive advantages
Attribution models are stories we tell ourselves—the real story is in total business growth, not individual channel performance
Each channel has natural strengths—Facebook excels at interruption marketing, SEO excels at intent capture
The best customers use multiple touchpoints—single-touchpoint conversions often have lower lifetime value
Distribution beats product—it doesn't matter how good your ads are if customers can't find you when they're ready to research
Coverage trumps control—being discoverable everywhere beats perfectly optimizing one channel
Attribution chaos is a moat—while competitors obsess over measurement, you can focus on growth
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups: Use Meta ads to introduce your solution to cold audiences, then capture them with SEO content when they research your category or specific use cases. Your trial signups will have higher intent and better conversion rates.
For your Ecommerce store
For Ecommerce stores: Let Meta ads create initial awareness, then dominate the research phase with product comparison content and reviews. Your organic traffic will convert better because they've already been warmed by paid touchpoints.