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 2.5 ROAS, everything seemed fine on the surface. They had a solid product, decent conversion rates, and steady cash flow. But there was a hidden vulnerability that most businesses overlook until it's too late.
Their entire growth engine depended on Meta's algorithm and ad costs. One policy change, one iOS update, one competitor bidding war - and their revenue could disappear overnight. Sound familiar?
This dangerous single-channel dependency is what I call the "Facebook trap," and it's killing businesses that should be thriving. The solution isn't better ad copy or audience targeting - it's building what I call a true omnichannel sales platform.
Here's what you'll learn from my 3-month distribution overhaul experiment:
Why attribution lies but distribution doesn't (and how this changed everything)
The exact system I built to create multiple customer touchpoints
How SEO "stole" credit from Facebook and why that's actually good
The dark funnel reality that most marketers refuse to accept
Why "build it and they will come" is dead, but "distribute everywhere" works
This isn't about abandoning what works - it's about building antifragile growth systems that get stronger when individual channels fail.
Industry Reality
What every marketer believes about omnichannel
Walk into any marketing conference or open any growth playbook, and you'll hear the same gospel about omnichannel sales platforms. The industry has convinced itself that omnichannel means "being everywhere at once." Here's what every expert recommends:
Unified customer data platforms - Expensive software that promises 360-degree customer views
Cross-channel attribution modeling - Complex tracking systems to measure every touchpoint
Synchronized messaging - Same brand voice across all channels
Integrated tech stacks - Everything connected through APIs and webhooks
Consistent customer experience - Seamless handoffs between channels
The conventional wisdom exists because it sounds logical. If customers interact with multiple touchpoints before buying, then obviously you need to control and optimize every single one, right?
But here's where this "best practice" falls apart in practice: Most businesses spend so much time connecting channels that they forget to make each channel actually work. They become data-rich but insight-poor, tracking everything but optimizing nothing.
The real problem isn't channel integration - it's channel dependency. When 80% of your revenue comes from one source (usually Facebook or Google), you don't have an omnichannel strategy. You have a single point of failure with expensive tracking software.
That's exactly where my client was when I met them. Perfect attribution setup, beautiful dashboards, and a terrifying reliance on Mark Zuckerberg's mood swings.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
My client came to me with what looked like a success story. Their e-commerce business was generating consistent revenue through Facebook Ads with a 2.5 ROAS and a €50 average order value. Most marketers would call that acceptable performance.
But when I dug deeper into their business model, I discovered a ticking time bomb. With their small margins, they were essentially breaking even after accounting for product costs, fulfillment, and overhead. Any increase in ad costs or decrease in conversion rates would push them into the red.
Here's what really concerned me: they had over 1,000 SKUs in their catalog - all quality products that customers loved. The problem wasn't their products; it was the fundamental mismatch between their catalog complexity and Facebook's advertising format.
Facebook Ads thrive on simplicity. Show a hero product, get a quick decision, drive immediate purchase. But my client's strength was variety and discovery. Customers needed time to browse, compare products, and find exactly what they were looking for.
The Facebook Ads environment was fundamentally incompatible with their shopping behavior. We were forcing a square peg into a round hole, and it was expensive.
My first attempt was predictable - I tried to optimize within Facebook's constraints. Better audience targeting, improved creative testing, funnel optimization. We saw marginal improvements, but nothing that addressed the core issue.
That's when I realized we weren't dealing with an optimization problem. We were dealing with a distribution problem. The question wasn't "How do we make Facebook work better?" It was "How do we reduce our dependence on Facebook while building sustainable growth?" This realization completely changed our approach.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of trying to fix Facebook's limitations, I designed a complete distribution overhaul focused on building an omnichannel sales platform that worked with their business model, not against it.
Phase 1: Website Foundation (Month 1)
First, I restructured their website for SEO optimization. This wasn't about making it "SEO-friendly" - it was about treating every page as a potential entry point. With 1,000+ products, we had 1,000+ opportunities to rank for specific search terms.
I implemented category-specific landing pages, optimized product descriptions for long-tail keywords, and created buying guides that addressed real customer questions. The goal was to capture people actively searching for solutions, not interrupt them while they're scrolling social media.
Phase 2: Content Strategy (Month 2)
I developed what I call "discovery-friendly content" - resources that helped customers understand their options before making a purchase. This included comparison guides, use-case examples, and educational content around their product categories.
The content strategy wasn't about driving immediate sales. It was about building trust and authority with people who weren't ready to buy yet. These warm leads would convert better than cold Facebook traffic.
Phase 3: Multi-Channel Activation (Month 3)
With the foundation in place, I activated multiple distribution channels simultaneously:
Google Shopping - Product catalog optimization for commercial intent searches
Email marketing - Segmented campaigns based on browsing behavior and purchase history
Pinterest - Visual discovery for their product categories
YouTube - Product demonstration and comparison videos
Affiliate partnerships - Collaboration with complementary brands
The critical insight was that each channel served a different part of the customer journey. SEO captured active searchers, email nurtured prospects, social media provided discovery, and partnerships expanded reach.
Most importantly, I tracked everything independently rather than trying to force attribution across channels. Each channel needed to be profitable on its own.
Attribution Reality
Facebook took credit for SEO conversions, revealing the dark funnel truth that changed our entire measurement strategy.
Platform Physics
Each marketing channel has its own rules. Facebook demands instant decisions; SEO rewards patient discovery. Success comes from matching strengths.
Channel Independence
Every distribution channel must be profitable standalone. Cross-channel attribution is interesting but not actionable for optimization decisions.
Discovery Design
Built content and experiences that worked with customer browsing behavior instead of fighting it with aggressive conversion tactics.
Within the first month of implementing the SEO strategy, something interesting happened with our Facebook Ads attribution. The reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9, and my client was initially thrilled.
But I knew better. Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic victories. The reality was that SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, but Facebook's tracking was taking credit for users who had multiple touchpoints before converting.
By month three, we had achieved true channel diversification:
Organic search now generated 40% of total revenue
Email marketing contributed 25% through automated sequences
Facebook Ads maintained 30% but at much healthier margins
Other channels (Pinterest, YouTube, affiliates) generated 5%
More importantly, the customer acquisition cost dropped across all channels because we were building cumulative brand awareness and trust. Customers who discovered us through SEO were more likely to convert from email. People who saw our YouTube videos converted better from Facebook Ads.
The omnichannel effect wasn't about perfect attribution - it was about creating multiple touchpoints that reinforced each other organically.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experiment taught me that most businesses oversimplify the customer journey. We want to believe it's linear: see ad → buy product. But real customer behavior is messy and involves multiple touchpoints across weeks or months.
Key Lessons Learned:
Embrace the dark funnel - Accept that attribution is broken and focus on channel-level profitability instead
Product-channel fit matters - Your products and business model should determine your primary channels, not market trends
Distribution beats optimization - Building new customer touchpoints outperforms optimizing existing ones
Patience pays compound returns - SEO and content take months to work but create lasting competitive advantages
Channel synergy is real - Multiple touchpoints improve conversion rates across all channels, even if attribution doesn't capture it
Start with strengths - Leverage what makes your business unique rather than copying competitor strategies
Independence before integration - Make each channel work individually before trying to connect them
The biggest lesson? Stop believing in "build it and they will come." Start believing in "distribute everywhere they already are." True omnichannel isn't about technology integration - it's about strategic distribution.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, this approach means:
Build content that educates prospects before they're ready to buy
Create multiple free touchpoints (tools, resources, communities)
Use email to nurture long sales cycles
Optimize for trial quality, not just quantity
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores, implement by:
Building SEO-friendly product discovery experiences
Creating content that helps customers choose the right products
Using email for cart abandonment and repeat purchases
Leveraging visual platforms for product showcase