A DTC consultant who actually runs the account
Most brands do not need another agency. They need one experienced operator who owns the number, touches the ad accounts daily, and tells them the truth.
What a DTC ecommerce consultant should actually do
I have spent 12+ years in the ecommerce trenches running paid media, email and organic growth for direct-to-consumer brands. When you hire me as a consultant you are not buying a strategy deck and a quarterly check-in. You are buying the person who logs into Meta, Google, Klaviyo and GA4 and moves the levers himself. Where the work is mostly organic, the DTC SEO agency page covers that scope.
That distinction matters more than most founders expect. An agency sells you a pod: a strategist who scopes the work, an account manager who relays it, and a junior buyer who executes it. A consultant collapses all three into one person who has actually scaled brands before. Fewer meetings, faster decisions, and one throat to choke when a number moves the wrong way.
What the consulting engagement covers
Meta advertising
Full-funnel Meta buying: account structure, creative testing cadence, audience strategy and the daily calls on what to scale or kill.
Google Ads and Shopping
Search, Shopping, Performance Max and YouTube built around your feed and your margin, not a generic best-practice checklist.
Email and SMS lifecycle
Klaviyo flows and campaign calendar built on your real reorder data so retention revenue compounds instead of plateauing.
SEO and AI visibility
Technical fixes, category and content work, and the structured content that gets you cited in AI answers.
Analytics and attribution
GA4, server-side tracking and a reporting view that reconciles platform-reported numbers against what Shopify actually banked.
Conversion rate work
Landing pages, PDP and cart friction, and the offer testing that makes the traffic you already pay for convert harder.
How a consulting engagement runs
Audit
I go through the ad accounts, Shopify, Klaviyo and analytics and come back with what is actually broken, ranked by dollars.
Plan
A short, specific plan: which channels get budget, which creative gets made, which flows get built, and what each is expected to return.
Build and run
I build the campaigns and flows and run them day to day. You get the work, not a status update about the work.
Report and adjust
A plain-English monthly read on profit, not vanity metrics, plus what changes next month and why.
Why founders hire a consultant instead of an agency
Agencies are built to be scalable businesses. That is a fine goal, but it is not the same as your growth. Here is what changes when one operator owns the account:
- The person you met in the pitch is the person doing the work.
- No minimum team size to justify, so the budget goes to media and creative.
- Decisions happen the day the data changes, not at the next scheduled call.
- One person sees paid, email, SEO and analytics together, so channels stop fighting each other.
- You get told when something is not working, early, instead of being managed.
Common questions
What does a DTC ecommerce consultant cost?
Engagements are structured as a monthly retainer sized to the scope and the media budget involved. Scope drives price, not headcount, so the number is usually well under what a comparable agency pod costs. I will quote you on a call once I know what the account needs.
Do you work with brands that already have an agency?
Sometimes. I am often brought in to audit an existing agency relationship, fix a specific channel, or run the channels the agency does not cover. If it turns out the agency is doing fine work, I will say so.
What size brand is a good fit?
Typically ecommerce brands doing meaningful revenue with real ad spend behind it, where a percentage-point improvement is worth serious money. Very early brands are usually better served spending on product and organic before hiring anyone.
How is this different from your agency-alternative offer?
Same operator, different framing. The consulting engagement is often narrower and more advisory, while the full engagement means I own the day-to-day execution across every channel. We will figure out which one fits on the call.
Let us talk about your account
Tell me what you are selling and what is not working. I will tell you honestly whether I can help and what it would take.
30 minutes · No obligation · I come prepared
