Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I started working with an e-commerce client who had built their entire growth engine around Facebook Ads, everything looked fine on the surface. ROAS sat at 2.5, revenue was consistent, and the founder was proud of their "performance marketing" approach.
But there was a hidden time bomb: their entire business depended on Meta's algorithm and ad costs staying stable. One iOS update, one policy change, one competitor bidding war could kill their growth overnight.
That's when I learned the hard way that distribution beats product quality every single time. You can build the most beautiful product in the world, but if only one channel knows about it, you're gambling with your business survival.
After spending three months rebuilding their distribution system from scratch, we discovered something that challenges everything most founders believe about growth: sustainable acquisition isn't about finding the perfect channel—it's about building multiple pathways for customers to discover you.
Here's what you'll learn from my real distribution experiment:
Why single-channel dependency is killing your business (even when it's working)
The 3-month framework I used to build omnichannel distribution
How "dark funnel" attribution lies were hiding our real growth drivers
The specific tactics that took us from 2.5 to 8-9 ROAS (spoiler: it wasn't better ads)
When to prioritize distribution over product improvement
Reality Check
What the growth gurus won't tell you
Walk into any startup accelerator or scroll through growth Twitter, and you'll hear the same distribution advice repeated like gospel:
"Find your one golden channel and double down." Focus all your energy on perfecting Facebook Ads, or SEO, or cold email until you've mastered it. The theory sounds logical—why spread yourself thin when you could dominate one channel?
Here's what every growth expert tells you to do:
Test multiple channels quickly to find your winner
Double down on the highest ROI channel until it's maxed out
Optimize that channel relentlessly before exploring others
Scale your "proven" channel with bigger budgets
Only expand to new channels when the first one plateaus
This conventional wisdom exists because it's easier to measure and manage. CFOs love single-attribution models. Marketing teams prefer specializing in one area. Agencies sell expertise in specific channels.
But here's where this approach falls apart in reality: customer journeys aren't linear, attribution is broken, and platform dependency is a massive business risk. When iOS 14.5 killed Facebook attribution, thousands of "performance marketing" businesses died overnight.
The real problem? Most founders confuse tactics with strategy. They optimize for short-term attribution instead of long-term distribution resilience. They build beautiful conversion machines that only work when one specific traffic tap is turned on.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came during my second month working with this e-commerce client. Their Facebook Ads account got flagged for review—a common occurrence that usually resolves in 24-48 hours. But this time, the review stretched into week two.
Revenue dropped 80% overnight. Customer acquisition stopped completely. The founder, who had been cocky about their "data-driven growth," was suddenly staring at a business that couldn't survive two weeks without Meta's approval.
That's when I realized we were dealing with a classic case of single-channel addiction disguised as performance marketing. Sure, their 2.5 ROAS looked healthy, but they had built a house of cards.
The client had a quality product with over 1,000 SKUs—all good items that customers loved. Their challenge wasn't product-market fit; it was distribution-market fit. Facebook Ads demanded instant decisions, but their strength was product discovery and browsing. Customers needed time to explore their extensive catalog, compare options, and make thoughtful purchasing decisions.
They were trying to force a square peg into a round hole. The quick-decision environment of paid ads was fundamentally incompatible with their browsing-based shopping behavior.
My first instinct was to optimize their Facebook campaigns—better audiences, improved creative, refined targeting. We spent weeks A/B testing everything. The results? Marginal improvements that barely moved the needle.
That's when I realized the problem wasn't their execution—it was their entire growth philosophy. They weren't just dependent on Facebook; they were dependent on one way of thinking about customer acquisition. They had optimized themselves into a corner.
After the account flag incident resolved, I made a controversial recommendation: instead of scaling Facebook spend, we needed to build a completely different distribution engine. One that didn't depend on any single platform's algorithm or policy decisions.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
The solution wasn't rocket science, but it required a fundamental mindset shift. Instead of asking "How can we make Facebook work better?" I started asking "How can we build multiple pathways for customers to discover us?"
Here's the exact 3-month distribution overhaul I implemented:
Month 1: SEO Foundation Building
I completely restructured their website for organic discovery. This wasn't just adding a blog—it was rethinking their entire site architecture around search intent rather than internal navigation logic.
The key insight: every page became a potential entry point. Instead of thinking "homepage → category → product," I mapped out hundreds of ways customers might land on any page through search queries.
We optimized product pages for long-tail keywords, created collection pages that targeted specific search intents, and built content that helped customers make purchasing decisions—not just pushed products.
Month 2: Content Strategy Implementation
While everyone talks about "content marketing," most e-commerce brands treat it as an afterthought. I built a content system that served actual purchase intent, not vanity metrics.
We created buying guides, comparison content, and "how to choose" articles that targeted customers at different stages of their purchase journey. Each piece was designed to naturally lead to relevant product pages.
The magic happened when we started ranking for commercial intent keywords that Facebook ads could never target effectively—searches like "best [product type] for [specific use case]" that brought in customers ready to buy.
Month 3: Email and Retention Systems
Here's where the real distribution multiplier effect kicked in. Instead of treating email as a discount delivery system, we built genuine value-driven sequences that turned customers into advocates.
We implemented automated email workflows that provided ongoing value: care instructions, styling tips, complementary product suggestions based on purchase history.
The breakthrough came when we realized that existing customers were our best distribution channel. Happy customers naturally shared products with friends, left reviews, and created social proof that attracted organic traffic.
The Attribution Reality Check
Here's where it gets interesting. Within 30 days of implementing SEO, Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. 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 taught me that attribution is a lie, but distribution coverage is real.
Instead of fighting attribution, I embraced what I call "dark funnel optimization." I stopped trying to track every touchpoint and started measuring overall business resilience: Can we survive if any single channel disappears tomorrow?
Attribution Reality
Facebook claimed credit for SEO wins, teaching me that customer journeys are messy and attribution models are fiction. Focus on total business resilience, not channel-specific metrics.
Dark Funnel Embrace
Most customers touch 5-7 channels before buying. Instead of fighting this complexity, I designed our distribution to cover all possible discovery paths.
Channel Physics
Each channel has its own rules. Facebook rewards instant decisions; SEO rewards patient discovery. Match your product strengths to channel physics, not the other way around.
Distribution Insurance
Building multiple channels isn't about growth—it's about survival. When one channel fails (and they all do eventually), you need backup systems that can carry the business.
The results spoke for themselves, but not in the way most people measure "success." Yes, revenue grew, but more importantly, business resilience multiplied.
Within 90 days, we achieved true omnichannel distribution:
Organic traffic increased 300% through strategic SEO
Email drove 25% of monthly revenue through value-driven sequences
Customer lifetime value improved 40% due to better discovery experience
Word-of-mouth referrals doubled as customer experience improved
But the real victory? When Facebook ads went down again (platform issues this time), revenue only dropped 15% instead of 80%. The business could survive and thrive regardless of any single platform's stability.
The most surprising outcome was discovering that our "worst performing" organic channels were actually our highest-value customers. People who found us through search intent stayed longer, bought more, and referred others at much higher rates than paid traffic.
This taught me that distribution isn't just about volume—it's about matching customer intent with discovery method. Customers who actively search for solutions are fundamentally different from those who respond to interruption advertising.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons that completely changed how I think about growth:
1. Distribution beats product quality every time
You can have the best product in the world, but if only one channel knows about it, you're gambling with your business. Great distribution can save a mediocre product; perfect products die in distribution silence.
2. Customer journeys are dark and messy
Stop believing attribution reports. Real customers Google you after seeing your ad, visit your site multiple times, read reviews, compare options, and buy weeks later. Design for this reality, not your analytics dashboard.
3. Channel-product fit trumps everything
Facebook Ads work for impulse purchases; SEO works for research-heavy buying. Match your product's natural buying behavior to channel physics, not the other way around.
4. Survival > optimization
A business that can survive any single channel disappearing is stronger than one that's perfectly optimized for one channel. Build redundancy, not efficiency.
5. Organic compounds, paid doesn't
Every piece of content, every email, every customer experience becomes a distribution asset that works while you sleep. Paid ads stop working the moment you stop paying.
6. Word-of-mouth scales distribution
Your best customers become micro-influencers who bring you more ideal customers. This only happens when discovery experience matches expectations.
7. Test distribution before product
Most founders spend 90% of their time on product and 10% on distribution. It should be reversed. Distribution constraints determine product-market fit more than features do.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, distribution-led growth means:
Build content around user search intent, not feature announcements
Create multiple trial entry points through different content types
Design onboarding for discovery method—search users need different flows than ad users
Prioritize customer success as distribution—happy users become your best acquisition channel
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores, distribution resilience requires:
Optimize every product page as a landing page for organic discovery
Build content that serves purchase intent, not just SEO keywords
Create email sequences that add value beyond discount announcements
Design for browsing behavior that matches your product catalog complexity