PODCAST

DTC Hotline

Common Thread Collective

Hot takes. Cold truths. Real eCom advice.

business marketing

All Episodes

00:27:05

The Truth About Meta Performance Before Black Friday...

DTC Hotline ·

2025/11/14

Everyone panics in early November… but your Meta ROAS isn’t actually broken, you’re just looking at the wrong numbers.In today’s episode of The DTC Hotline, we break down the real truth about Meta performance leading into Black Friday:why efficiency always looks terrible right now, how delayed attribution works, and why this is the single worst moment to pull back on spend.Tony, Luke, and Richard walk through:The 7-day vs 28-day attribution gap most brands ignoreWhy 80% of your value shows up late

00:19:10

How Do I Project Growth for My $3M Brand?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/11/07

Your brand’s doing $3M in revenue. You’re growing fast. But how do you actually project that growth for 2026, without guessing?In this episode of The DTC Hotline, we break down how to build a growth forecast like a $30M brand — using constraints, not wishful thinking.You’ll learn:How to forecast growth when you’re in the $3M–$10M stageThe Spend-to-aMER model (and why it beats ROAS)How to set profitability constraints before chasing scaleThe difference between a $3M and $30M planning mindsetWhat most

00:15:49

How to Set Up Your Meta Account for Black Friday Success

DTC Hotline ·

2025/10/31

How should your Meta Ads account be structured to win this Black Friday and Cyber Monday? In this episode of The DTC Hotline, the CTC crew Richard, Tony, and Luke break down exactly how to set up your Meta account for BFCM success.You’ll learn:The simplest campaign structure that maximizes performance during peak salesWhen (and why) to use separate campaigns or bid capsHow to create a “phantom” highest-volume campaign ready to flip on when spend surgesThe right budget pacing and time-zone settings

00:30:25

How do you identify and fill your Q4 revenue gaps?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/10/24

Most brands talk about hitting their Q4 goals — but few have a system to identify and close revenue gaps before they happen.In this episode of The DTC Hotline, Tony, Luke, and Richard break down how to spot and fill revenue shortfalls during the holidays, using the same daily frameworks CTC applies across top DTC brands.They’ll walk through:How to pinpoint whether your gap is in new or returning customersThe daily cadence CTC uses to track and close gaps in real timeWhen to deploy incrementality

00:35:10

How Many Meta Ads You Actually Need to Hit $500K/Month

DTC Hotline ·

2025/10/17

Most brands have no idea how many ads they actually need to scale profitably on Meta.In this episode of The DTC Hotline, Tony, Luke, and Richard break down the creative math behind Meta ad performance revealing how to calculate your brand’s true creative demand and avoid overspending during Q4.They’ll walk through:How to know if your Meta spend has hit the point of diminishing returnsThe 5 creative metrics that predict your next winnerHow to estimate your ideal ad count to hit $500K/monthWhy Meta’s

00:35:15

AppLovin’s Rise, Google Ads Setup, and Amazon Reality...

DTC Hotline ·

2025/10/10

AppLovin’s Rise, Google Ads Setup, and the Amazon Reality CheckWelcome back to the DTC Hotline, your direct line to hot takes, cold truths, and real e-commerce advice from the team at Common Thread Collective.In this episode, “The Professor” and “The Chopper” dig into three huge topics shaping paid media right now:-AppLovin’s Rise — Why this mobile ad platform is suddenly delivering 2× Meta’s ROI, how its non skippable video inventory works, and what makes its pixel shockingly powerful.-Google Ads

00:33:01

Do New Customers Need to Be First-Order-Profitable...

DTC Hotline ·

2025/10/03

You can’t just “optimize” your way through Q4.In this episode, Richard, Tony, and Luke tackle two real questions from DTC Hotline listeners:What should you prioritize when your new customer file is shrinking—short-term profitability or long-term growth?How should brands structure creative, offers, and remarketing campaigns heading into BFCM?The conversation covers hard trade-offs between short-term EBITDA targets and multi-year growth horizons, plus what kinds of investments (media, product, or

00:27:11

How do you exit Meta's learning phase?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/09/26

You can’t media-buy your way out of a product, or offer, problem.In this episode, Richard, Tony, and Luke tackle two big questions from listeners:- What can low-conversion brands do to escape Meta’s learning phase?- How do you actually measure if YouTube demand gen is working?And the answers? They don’t live in your ad account.You’ll hear hard truths about attribution, the real power of offer strategy, and why performance marketers need to stop over-optimizing and start zooming out. Plus: how CTC is

00:46:24

Is Anyone Making Enough Creative?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/09/19

In this week’s episode of The DTC Hotline, Richard “The Professor” Gaffin is joined by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to answer the toughest operator questions—live from the Hotline.They tackle:• How to actually scale creative production (and why most brands get it wrong)• What Loop Earplugs is doing right—and how to replicate their model• Why relying on one team for all your ad creative will cap your performance• What a

00:43:39

What is the Best Offer for BCFM This Year?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/09/12

In this week’s episode of The DTC Hotline, Richard “The Professor” Gaffin is joined by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of Ecommerce Strategy) to answer the toughest operator questions—live from the Hotline.They tackle:How to structure BFCM offers that boost perceived value without killing your marginWhy “returning customer media” might be more incremental than you’d expectWhat Spend-to-aMER modeling can reveal about overspending (or underspending)

00:38:32

How is eCom actually using AI?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/09/05

In this week’s episode of The DTC Hotline, Richard “The Professor” Gaffin is joined by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to answer the toughest operator questions—live from the Hotline.They tackle:• How price increases in response to tariffs are affecting brands, supply chains, and consumer sentiment• Why “creative fatigue” is Meta’s most important hidden metric—and why finding ad #6 or #7 is so hard• How brands should weigh risk

00:35:49

What's the best (and worst) e-Commerce niche right now?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/09/02

For today's episode of The Ecommerce Playbook Podcast, we're featuring our latest episode of The DTC Hotline. Richard Gaffin is joined by Tony Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke Austin (VP of Ecommerce Strategy) to take on real questions from DTC operators.They tackle:What to do when your Meta campaign suddenly “stops working”How to troubleshoot between creative fatigue vs. policy/pixel/payment issuesConvincing strict brand teams to loosen up and allow creative diversityWhether top-of-funnel

00:33:37

Meta Targeting, Subscription LTV, & Traits of a Great...

DTC Hotline ·

2025/08/22

In this week’s episode of The DTC Hotline, Richard Gaffin is joined by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to take on real questions from DTC operators—bringing hot takes and cold truths on today’s toughest ad challenges.They tackle:- Should you move away from ASC if Meta overspends on the “wrong” age bracket?- What to do when Meta pushes spend into underperforming ads- How to approach media buying for subscription businesses with

00:35:38

How Do I Pitch My Boss on Cost Caps?

DTC Hotline ·

2025/08/15

In this week’s episode of The DTC Hotline, Richard Gaffin is joined once again by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to take real questions from eComm operators and Admission members—no fluff, just clear, hard-earned answers.They tackle:• What to do when “nothing works” on Meta (and why that diagnosis is often wrong)• How to spot the real business problem hiding behind poor ad performance• Why TikTok creative might crush while Meta

00:36:35

What is the future of eCom? Ep.01

DTC Hotline ·

2025/08/08

In the debut of The DTC Hotline, Richard Gaffin is joined by Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy) to take real questions from eComm operators and Admission members—no fluff, just unfiltered answers.They tackle:• Why your Meta cost caps aren’t spending (and what to do about it)• How much creative is really “a lot” in today’s ad environment• The best tools for competitor research and ad spying• What to do when LTV is low and repeat

00:00:50

Introducing our newest podcast . . . The DTC Hotline!

DTC Hotline ·

2025/08/06

Welcome to The DTC Hotline — the eCom call-in show. Hot takes, cold truths, real advice.Episode 1 premieres this Friday, August 8th!Hosted by Richard Gaffin, Tony “The Chopper” Chopp (VP of Paid Media) and Luke “The Weatherman” Austin (VP of eCommerce Strategy), this show takes real questions from real operators and breaks them down with unfiltered insights.Got a burning DTC question? Call or text the DTC Hotline at 866 - DTC - 2263.

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DTC Hotline

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