Growth & Strategy
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I took on an e-commerce client running purely on Facebook Ads with a 2.5 ROAS, everyone told me to optimize the campaigns. "Test new audiences," they said. "Improve your ad copy." Classic advice, right?
But here's what nobody wants to admit: putting all your growth eggs in one platform basket is like building a house on quicksand. One algorithm change, one policy violation, one competitor bidding war - and your entire business can collapse overnight.
That's exactly what my client was facing. Their entire growth engine depended on Meta's algorithm and rising ad costs. Sure, they were generating consistent revenue, but there was a hidden vulnerability that could kill their business at any moment.
Instead of tweaking ad campaigns, I took a completely different approach. I spent three months building what they had been missing: a comprehensive distribution system that could survive platform changes, algorithm updates, and market shifts.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why single-channel dependency is a death sentence (and the metrics that prove it)
My exact 90-day multi-channel distribution build process
How I uncovered attribution lies that were hiding real growth opportunities
The distribution checklist that transformed a vulnerable business into a growth machine
Why SEO suddenly became their highest-converting channel
Industry Reality
What everyone preaches about distribution
If you've been in the growth game for more than five minutes, you've heard the same distribution advice recycled everywhere:
"Start with one channel and master it" - Focus all your energy on Facebook Ads, Google Ads, or whatever platform is trending. Get your ROAS to 4x, then think about expanding.
"Track everything with proper attribution" - Set up pixel tracking, UTM parameters, and multi-touch attribution models. Know exactly which touchpoint drove each conversion.
"Scale what works" - Once you find a profitable channel, throw more budget at it. Double down on winners, cut the losers.
"Test systematically" - A/B test your way to growth. Try different audiences, creative formats, and targeting options within your chosen platform.
"Build audience segments" - Create detailed buyer personas and target them with specific campaigns across platforms.
This conventional wisdom exists because it's simple to understand and easier to sell. Agencies love it because they can specialize in one platform and charge premium rates. Software vendors love it because they can build tracking tools around single-channel optimization.
But here's where this approach fails in practice: it treats distribution like a slot machine instead of an ecosystem. Real customer journeys aren't linear. People don't see one ad and immediately buy. They research, compare, get distracted, come back later, and convert through completely different touchpoints.
More importantly, single-channel thinking creates a dangerous blind spot. You optimize for what you can measure, not what actually drives growth. And when your primary channel gets disrupted - which always happens eventually - you're left scrambling to rebuild from zero.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When this client approached me, their situation looked solid on paper. They were a Shopify e-commerce store generating consistent revenue through Facebook Ads with a 2.5 ROAS and €50 average order value. Most marketers would have called that acceptable performance.
But I knew something was off when I dug into their business model. They had small margins, which meant that 2.5 ROAS wasn't actually profitable after accounting for their costs. More critically, their entire business depended on Meta's advertising platform - one policy change away from disaster.
The problem wasn't their products. They had over 1,000 SKUs, all quality items with decent demand. The issue was the fundamental mismatch between their catalog complexity and Facebook's advertising format.
You see, most successful Facebook campaigns thrive on 1-3 flagship products with simple value propositions. But my client's strength was variety and discovery. Customers needed time to browse their extensive catalog, compare options, and find the right product for their specific needs.
Facebook Ads demanded quick decisions in a high-pressure environment. Users scroll fast, make snap judgments, and either buy immediately or scroll past forever. This format was fundamentally incompatible with how their customers actually wanted to shop.
My first instinct was to optimize within the Facebook platform - test new audiences, improve creative formats, refine targeting parameters. We spent weeks tweaking campaigns, but the fundamental economics didn't change. We were forcing a square peg into a round hole.
That's when I realized the problem wasn't campaign optimization. It was distribution strategy. They needed channels that aligned with their product catalog's strengths, not channels that fought against them. More importantly, they needed to build a distribution system that could survive platform dependencies.
The breakthrough came when I stopped thinking about "fixing Facebook Ads" and started thinking about building a resilient growth engine that worked with their business model, not against it.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of tweaking ads, I led a complete distribution overhaul. Here's exactly what I built over 90 days:
Phase 1: Distribution Audit (Days 1-14)
First, I mapped their actual customer journey, not what Facebook reported. I interviewed recent customers and discovered something crucial: most buyers had multiple touchpoints before converting. They'd see a Facebook ad, Google the brand, read reviews, browse the site, leave, come back through direct traffic, and finally purchase.
Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for all these conversions, but the reality was much more complex. I set up proper tracking to understand the dark funnel - all those invisible touchpoints that influence purchase decisions.
Phase 2: SEO Foundation Build (Days 15-45)
While Facebook demanded instant decisions, SEO rewards patient discovery. Perfect for their catalog complexity. I restructured their entire website architecture around discoverability rather than conversion pressure.
Here's what I implemented:
Category-focused content strategy - Instead of pushing individual products, I created comprehensive guides around product categories that customers actually searched for
Long-tail keyword targeting - Captured specific search intent from customers ready to discover products like theirs
Site speed optimization - Reduced load times by 40% to improve both user experience and search rankings
Technical SEO overhaul - Fixed crawling issues that were preventing Google from properly indexing their large catalog
Phase 3: Content Distribution Engine (Days 46-75)
Content became our distribution multiplier. I created a system where every piece of content could be distributed across multiple channels simultaneously:
Each blog post was reformatted for email newsletters, social media posts, YouTube videos, and guest publication pitches. This approach meant one piece of content creation effort generated 5-10 distribution touchpoints.
Phase 4: Attribution Reality Check (Days 76-90)
Here's where things got interesting. Within a month of implementing the SEO strategy, Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. Most marketers would have celebrated their "improved ad performance."
But I knew better. SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, but Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic wins. The dark funnel was working exactly as expected.
Instead of trying to track every touchpoint (impossible with iOS 14+ changes), I focused on expanding visibility across all possible customer research paths. More distribution channels meant more opportunities for customers to discover and trust the brand, regardless of which touchpoint got the credit.
The Multi-Channel Checklist I Used:
Audit current dependencies - Map revenue by channel and identify dangerous concentrations
Match channels to customer behavior - Align distribution with how customers actually discover and evaluate products
Build owned media assets - Create content hubs that you control, independent of platform algorithms
Implement cross-channel tracking - Understand the customer journey across multiple touchpoints
Test systematically - Launch new channels in controlled experiments with clear success metrics
Scale based on channel-fit - Double down on channels that align with your product strengths
Key Learning
Stop believing in linear customer journeys. Real growth happens in the messy space between touchpoints.
Attribution Lies
Facebook claimed credit for SEO conversions. Embrace the dark funnel instead of fighting it.
Channel Physics
Every platform has rules. Success comes from matching your product to channel strengths.
Resilience Multiplier
Multiple weak channels often outperform one strong channel when platforms change.
The transformation was remarkable. Within 90 days, we went from a vulnerable single-channel business to a multi-channel growth engine:
Diversified Revenue Streams: Facebook went from 100% of traffic to 40%, with organic search contributing 35% and direct traffic making up 25%. This distribution meant platform changes couldn't kill the business overnight.
Improved Economics: The blended customer acquisition cost dropped by 30% because SEO and direct traffic had much higher margins than paid advertising.
Sustainable Growth: Month-over-month growth became more predictable because it wasn't dependent on ad auction dynamics and platform policy changes.
But the most important result was resilience. When iOS 14.5 launched and disrupted Facebook tracking for most e-commerce businesses, my client barely noticed. Their growth engine had evolved beyond platform dependency.
The attributed ROAS improvements were misleading, but the business results were real. They had built a distribution system that could survive algorithm changes, competitor bidding wars, and platform policy updates.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons I learned from building multi-channel distribution systems:
Distribution beats optimization - Expanding to aligned channels often delivers better results than optimizing existing ones
Attribution is mostly fiction - Modern customer journeys are too complex for accurate tracking. Focus on overall business metrics instead
Channel-product fit matters more than channel performance - A "bad" channel for most businesses might be perfect for yours
The dark funnel is your friend - Multiple touchpoints create trust and consideration that single channels can't achieve
Owned media is insurance - Platforms change, but content you control provides distribution stability
Start building before you need it - SEO takes months to compound. Begin diversification when current channels are still working
Resilience requires intentional weakness - Multiple smaller channels often outperform one dominant channel during market shifts
The biggest mistake is waiting until your primary channel stops working to build alternatives. By then, it's too late to build the patient, compound growth engines like SEO and content marketing.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies implementing multi-channel distribution:
Start with content-driven SEO for your core use cases and integration pages
Build email sequences that nurture trial users across multiple touchpoints
Use LinkedIn content for thought leadership while driving traffic to owned content hubs
Track user journey across channels rather than last-click attribution
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores building multi-channel distribution:
Prioritize product category SEO over individual product ads
Create discovery-focused content that aligns with browsing behavior
Build email sequences that continue the shopping journey across sessions
Use social proof and reviews to bridge the gap between channels