Marketing for Australian ecommerce brands, growth-focused DTC operators
Ecommerce marketing scored on contribution margin, not platform ROAS.
Most ecommerce dashboards report platform-attributed ROAS, which has been broken since iOS 14.5. The number that actually matters is contribution margin: revenue minus COGS minus discount minus fulfilment minus refunds minus the marketing dollar that produced it. We rebuild the measurement so finance and marketing finally agree, then we work the spend mix from there.
30 min · No pitch · Senior operator on the call
Engagement intake, currently open
$2M–$20M
DTC and ecommerce brand revenue. Built for established brands past product-market fit, not pre-PMF launches.
$1.42M
Recovered for one Melbourne DTC client, year one of an attribution rebuild engagement.
3.1 → 7.4
Meta Event Match Quality after a server-side rebuild with Klaviyo and Shopify, one documented engagement.
How we work ecommerce brands marketing
Four principles for ecommerce marketing.
Principle 01
Contribution margin, not platform ROAS
Meta's reported ROAS and Shopify's marketing report do not agree, and neither agrees with what hits the bank. We rebuild the measurement so the only number anyone reports is contribution margin per dollar of marketing spend, reconciled to the P&L monthly.
Principle 02
First-party data is the asset
Server-side GTM, Meta CAPI, Klaviyo CDP, Shopify customer events. The brands that win post-iOS are the ones whose first-party customer data is clean enough that the ad platforms can model lookalikes accurately. We rebuild that data layer first.
Principle 03
Email and SMS are paid channels
Klaviyo flows and Postscript SMS sequences are not 'free' acquisition. They have content cost, infrastructure cost, and attribution cost. We score them against incremental margin alongside paid social and search, and rebalance accordingly.
Principle 04
Channel mix drifts; we pick weekly
iOS updates, platform algorithm changes, seasonal demand shifts, the channel mix that worked last quarter rarely works this one. We design the reporting layer so the optimal mix is calculated weekly from first principles, not inherited from last year's media plan.
Deliverables
What an engagement actually delivers.
01
Server-side measurement rebuild on your domain. Meta CAPI, Google Ads enhanced conversions, TikTok events API, GA4 reconciled to Shopify and Klaviyo.
02
Contribution-margin reporting layer in Looker Studio that pulls revenue, COGS, fulfilment, refunds, and channel-attributed spend together. Daily refresh, monthly reconciliation to the P&L.
03
Channel-mix optimiser: a weekly dashboard that reports incremental margin per dollar of spend by channel and flags reallocations.
04
Klaviyo and Postscript flow audit: which sequences earn their margin, which don't, where the over-mailing has hurt deliverability.
05
Subscription / retention work where applicable: subscription-product attribution, churn-cohort modelling, win-back economics. Not all brands have this; where they do, we work it.
06
Day-to-day media run by senior operators against the rebuilt measurement (Meta, Google, TikTok, Klaviyo orchestration). After the engagement closes, the in-house ecommerce team operates the documented playbook.
07
Quarterly working sessions covering acquisition mix, retention, ascension, and disciplined scaling. Six months of post-engagement review included.
Who this is for
- Australian DTC or ecommerce brand, scaling on paid acquisition, established post-product-market-fit
- Spending at least $20K a month across Meta, Google, TikTok, Klaviyo, and other paid channels
- Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, or comparable platform with API access
- Klaviyo or comparable email / SMS platform connected to the ecommerce stack
- Founder or CMO who wants the measurement layer rebuilt properly, not patched again
- In-house performance person or existing agency who can operate the rebuilt system afterwards
Who it isn't
- Pre-PMF brand still proving the offer (attribution work won't fix a broken product-market fit)
- Sub-$2M revenue (the engagement is too expensive for the lift)
- Looking for a managed-service Meta or Google account run for you (this is consulting, not done-for-you)
- Need it shipped in three weeks for a Black Friday push (this isn't that kind of work)
- Unwilling to pause channels for two to four weeks while measurement stabilises
How we work with ecommerce brands
Fixed-scope engagements. Scoped to established DTC.
Three engagement shapes that cover the most common entry points for growth-focused ecommerce brands. Each ends with a documented handover the in-house team operates afterwards. We scope and price the engagement on the audit call, once we have seen your numbers.
Tier 01 · Diagnostic
The two-week diagnostic
Two weeks. Read-only diagnostic across Meta, Google, TikTok, Shopify, Klaviyo, and the data layer. Written report with a prioritised fix list, attribution-loss quantification, and a 90-minute walk-through.
Tier 02 · Build
The twelve-week rebuild
Twelve weeks. Server-side rebuild, CAPI / events-API integration, Klaviyo data flow rebuild, contribution-margin reporting layer, channel-mix dashboard. Documented handover to the in-house team. Scope (and the proposal) reflects the complexity of the platform stack.
Tier 03 · Full engagement
The twelve-week rebuild, in full
Twelve weeks. The full PROFIT framework, six pillars worked in sequence covering acquisition mix, attribution, conversion, retention, ascension, and disciplined scaling. The right scope when more than measurement needs work.
If you're under $2M revenue or the work is genuinely measurement-only, the standalone Attribution Fix engagement is often a better fit than the ecommerce-specific shapes above. We will flag this on the audit call.
Where to go next
Related work and the cities we run it from.
Related services
Cities we work with ecommerce brands in
Run your numbers
Proof, with the working shown
We'd rather show you the maths than the buzzwords.
“Profit Geeks rebuilt our whole sales engine, and not just the ad accounts. They went after the systems sitting behind them too. Sales are up 140% and we've pushed past $25M. Honestly the bit I didn't see coming was the operation running leaner than it did back when we were half the size.”
“We were quietly bleeding about a thousand dollars a week and had no idea why. They found the leaks, sorted out the measurement and the offer, and now we'll do more than $10K in a single day. Same product. Completely different business.”
“We went from scraping together two installs a week to running four crews and fifteen-plus jobs a week, north of $10M turnover. The clever bit was they tied the scaling to what we could actually deliver, so growth never broke the operation. Booked jobs, not vanity leads.”
“After iOS, our Meta numbers stopped matching the bank, and we'd basically been writing the gap off as “just tracking.” Profit Geeks rebuilt our measurement server-side and reconciled it straight back to the P&L. Turned out about $1.42M of ad spend in year one had been working all along. They're the first team that showed me the maths instead of a dashboard.”
“We didn’t spend a dollar more on ads. What they did was fix how we counted a booked job versus a platform “conversion,” cut the wasted spend, and by week twelve our blended ROAS had more than tripled. Revenue went from $4.8M to $9.1M. Same senior bloke on every call too. No juniors, no relay race.”
Reasonable questions
What you're probably thinking.
01
We've been burned by an agency before.
Most of our intake has. The difference is structural. A senior operator runs your account, not a junior hidden behind a dashboard, and you leave the first call with written findings you own even if we never work together. No relay race, no account manager translating between you and the people doing the work.
02
How do I know it'll actually work for my business?
You don't yet, and neither do we until we've seen your numbers. That's why the first step is a diagnostic, not a contract. We've documented this in DTC and home services (the case studies show the full working) and run the same playbook in professional services. If the maths isn't there for you, we'll tell you on the call.
03
What if there's nothing worth fixing?
Then you've spent thirty minutes and walked away with a second opinion that cost you nothing. We'd rather say no than take on an engagement we can't earn, so we turn away intake that isn't a fit. There's no pitch and no follow-up sales sequence.
04
What does it cost, and what am I signing up for?
One fixed-scope engagement fee, billed in instalments. No per-channel markup, no retainer fluff. The same senior operators handle measurement, media and margin, and scaling is tied to your contribution margin, so spend only climbs when the numbers say it's working. The call is where we scope what that looks like for you.
Frequently asked
Eight questions about marketing for ecommerce brands.
How is ecommerce attribution different from regular paid-acquisition attribution?
Ecommerce gets to look at every transaction on the bank. The reconciliation between Meta-reported revenue, Shopify-reported revenue, and bank-anchored revenue is a daily exercise, and the gap is usually 20 to 40 percent post-iOS. The work is rebuilding that reconciliation, not just adding more pixels.
Do you work with Shopify Plus or just standard Shopify?
Both. Shopify Plus gives more flexibility on the data layer (custom apps, scripts, checkout extensibility); standard Shopify handles 90 percent of brands at this revenue level fine. The rebuild approach is the same; the implementation differs slightly.
What about TikTok and emerging channels?
We integrate TikTok Events API, Pinterest, Snap, and Reddit when the brand actually spends meaningfully on them. Most growth-focused brands we meet are spending on Meta and Google primarily, with TikTok as a third channel. We don't recommend adding channels for the sake of it; we model whether the new channel can clear margin first.
Will the engagement work alongside our Klaviyo agency?
Yes. Most clients have a Klaviyo agency or freelancer running flows; we work alongside whoever runs day-to-day. Where there's friction (the Klaviyo team can't see contribution margin), we usually surface it early and the data we produce makes their work better, not threatened.
What about post-purchase upsells and subscription products?
Both factor into the measurement layer. Subscription products require lifetime-value modelling and churn-cohort attribution; post-purchase upsells affect AOV and contribution margin per order. We instrument both as part of the rebuild where they're meaningful to the brand's revenue mix.
Do you work with non-Shopify platforms (BigCommerce, WooCommerce, custom)?
BigCommerce: yes, routinely. WooCommerce: case by case (the data layer is more brittle). Custom platforms: we'll scope it on the audit call. The principles transfer; the implementation cost varies.
How much should our brand be spending on attribution and measurement infrastructure?
For most growth-focused brands, the right spend on attribution / measurement / data infrastructure is somewhere between 0.5 and 2 percent of revenue annually, paid as a series of fixed-scope engagements rather than an open-ended retainer. The ROI shows up in better paid-channel decisions, not in a marketing dashboard line item.
How much does this cost?
We don't publish a rate card. Engagements are fixed-scope and quoted in a written proposal after the audit call, once we've seen your numbers. The work comes in two shapes (the two-week diagnostic, the twelve-week rebuild), and we tell you on the call which one fits and what it costs.
What you actually buy
One piece of work. Twelve weeks. It starts with a free call.
Which of these sounds like your week?
- Meta says one number, Google says another, the CRM says a third, and the bank says something else again.
- The leads come in and most of them are rubbish.
- Traffic is fine. Not enough of them buy.
- You cannot spend more without losing margin.
- Something is wrong and you cannot say what.
All five are the same job. We do not sell five products for them. We sell one rebuild, and the free call is where we work out which part of it you need first.
00 · Free
Run your own numbers
Six calculators and an attribution reference. Work out your break-even ROAS, your CAC payback, and whether the spend is structurally profitable, before you talk to anyone. The calculators need no signup.
01 · Free · 30 minutes
The profit audit call
A senior operator looks at your real spend, revenue and attribution gap on a call. You leave with a written fix list you keep, whether or not we ever work together. No deck, no follow-up sales sequence. We reply within one business day with three times to choose from.
02 · Optional · Two weeks
The two-week diagnostic
Read-only. We change nothing in your accounts. Every tag, event and consent rule mapped and written up: 20 to 35 pages, every issue rated P0 to P3 with an engineering-day estimate, and a 90-minute walk-through on day twelve. Yours to hand to us, your own team, or your existing agency. About a third of clients run this first, then decide.
03 · The engagement · Twelve weeks
The twelve-week rebuild
Twelve weekly 90-minute working sessions with you and your operating team, plus the build work those sessions identify. Measurement rebuilt server-side so the reports reconcile to the bank. The funnel worked where the leak actually is. Scaling rules tied to contribution margin, not platform ROAS. At week twelve your team gets a written playbook and operates it without us, with a quarterly check-in for six months included.
What it costs
Four things set the number
- The size of your stack
- How many ad platforms are live
- The state of your CRM integration
- How many service lines and locations you run
Two things do not
- Your industry
- How much you spend on ads
Revenue only matters because a bigger business is usually a bigger scope. We do not price off a percentage of it. We charge for the work, not for what you look like you can afford.
How it is billedFixed scope, quoted in a written proposal after the call, paid in instalments across the engagement. No hourly billing, no retainer, nothing that renews on its own.
Included at no extra costThe written playbook at handover, and a quarterly check-in for six months after the engagement closes.
What happens after you book
Three steps. No mystery.
Step 01 · Within 1 business day
30-minute audit call
A senior operator on the call. We look at your real numbers, spend, revenue, attribution gap, and tell you on the call whether the rebuild is worth doing for you and where it would start. No pitch deck.
Step 02 · Within 1 week
Written proposal
Fixed scope, fixed number, written up. The proposal names deliverables, timeline, the people involved, and the price. No hourly billing, no retainer drift.
Step 03 · Within 2 weeks
Engagement starts
Senior operators from day one. The measurement rebuild starts, we take over day-to-day buying on the channels we can measure, and the first working session lands. Inside two weeks of the call.
Next step
Built for established DTC. Measurement that finally agrees with the bank.
If the Meta dashboard says one thing, the Shopify report says another, and finance says a third, the next step is a 30-minute audit call. Bring a Meta dashboard, the matching Shopify period, and your bank-deposited revenue for the same window. We will tell you on the call which engagement (or none) is the right fit.