Growing ecommerce businesses through CRO, UX research, and data analytics.

We're a conversion rate optimization agency for eCommerce brands looking to grow to the next level, but know they need to a better job converting traffic. 

We talk to your potential customers, find out why they're not buying, and fix those issues through a/b testing, personalization, and data-informed UX/UI design.

We help you grow by leveraging: 
-> Full-website conversion optimization
-> Landing page optimization
-> Personalization and segmentation
-> Conversion-focused web design
-> User experience research
-> Website analytics and reporting

We’ve worked with brands you know, like JensonUSA, Osprey, PENN Fishing, and The Shade Store. We’re also fired up about helping growing brands reach the next level. Some brands we've helped make this jump include Hydro Flask, Made In, Mizzen and Main, and Peak Design.

Brian Schmitt

If your work involves you on a screen with a keyboard

Then you need to read this: https://lnkd.in/eRDs5Va3

Then follow it with this:
https://lnkd.in/epK3rz6M

CEO at Surefoot.me | Driving growth in digital companies w/ CRO, Analytics, UX Research, and Site Design

Open article: Michael (@michael_chomsky) on X by x.com

Being brutally honest with someone is not about telling them how you see their reality. 

It's about honestly sharing your reality. Not taking about how great everything is when in reality you're struggling. 

The universe rewards being brutally honest about your struggles. 

One of those rewards is finding out how many people are rooting for you.

Founder & CEO surge.agency l Founder Nord Media | Growth Marketing for 6-9 figure eCommerce brands. Sharing things I learn along the way.

A little more about me for all of my current & soon to be followers 🤝

This is where I impress you right!? First off - thank you for visiting my profile, following me and joining me through this wild experience while I try to figure shit out.

It’s absolutely crazy to me how many different people have followed me over the last year and have engaged with my content + reached out to build friendships. I love connecting with new people and learning their stories.

You may not know me officially yet but – maybe you’ve seen me around or you heard about me.
So now… a little more about me 🤷‍♂️

👋 I’m Kody - a barely “C” student who struggled throughout high-school and college but managed to scrape by after 6 long years in college. I could never figure out what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be when I grew up (still haven’t lol).

I stumbled into the realm of marketing around 8 or 9 years ago and have been figuring out what I like and what I’m good at. I’ve worked as a marketing specialist, retention manager, growth marketer, growth manager, head of growth and now agency / brand owner.

During my “free” time I enjoy going to the movies, playing video games or hanging with my wife (Ali) & dog (Goose).

A little about my career and my accomplishments 👇

Years 1 & 2: Marketing specialist (Very basic stuff)

Years 3 & 4: Retention Manager - Generated over $400M in email revenue and ran a team of 30 🤯

Years 4 & 5: Growth Marketer / Growth Manager (Directly Managed $15M in ad-spend and grew 2 brands roughly 400% year over year)

Year 6 → Now: Head of Growth → Agency Owner → Brand Owner (Have in total directly managed over $200M in ad-spend, generated $650M+ in email revenue and have grown 7 brands into 9 figures, 17 into 8 figures)

+ many more into 6/7 figures annually. Was all of this where I thought I would be? Absolutely not… not even close lol… I always say I was able to combine a lot of luck with a lot of hard work and work ethic to achieve the results you see today.

So why am I sharing so much now? I’ve come to enjoy sharing my learnings and helping others who want to grow their business, start a brand, agency or improve their career.

Back in October 2023 I decided to start focusing on building a personal brand on Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram and in January 2024 this all compounded and built Nord Media.

Subscribe here 👉  http://nordmedia.com/newsletter

Kody N.

Brands will spend $50 to get a customer to checkout and then show them a blank thank-you page.

Make it make sense.

That page has a near 100% view rate. Higher than:

👉Your homepage
👉Your landing pages
👉Every ad you've ever run

It's also the highest-intent moment in your entire funnel. Payment's committed, trust is at its peak, and decision fatigue is gone.

And you're wasting it on a receipt.

That's exactly why I've been using Aftersell by Rokt

One-click upsells at this moment convert at dramatically higher rates because there's ZERO friction.

No pop-ups or aggressive tactics… just the right offer at the right time.

These are a few brands already running this and their results: 

👉Jones Road Beauty hit 11,803% monthly ROI from Rokt Thanks monetization alone
👉True Classic averages +$35 per upsell
👉40,000+ Shopify brands are already running this including HexClad, Kitsch, Ridge, Cozy Earth just to name a few.

They're getting ahead because they extract more value from every customer they already paid to acquire.

That’s why I'm a #proudpartner with Aftersell by Rokt because this is one of the easiest revenue wins I've seen in ecom.

Their team is offering a free audit to directly break your funnel and identify the best upsell opportunities and will provide projected revenue based on your site specifically. Book a call today https://bit.ly/4rkMNCk

Kody Nordquist

Founder of Nord Media | Performance Marketing Agency for 7 & 8-figure eCom brands

Growing up, I watched my parents stress out over affording groceries, skipping car repairs, and never taking vacations. It was just out of the question.

Now that I am where I am and I have disposable income, the best part isn't the fancy stuff.

It's knowing I can:
- Eat healthy food without checking prices 
- Fix my car when it breaks 
- Cover emergencies without panicking 
- Travel without worrying about paying the rent too

I don't need Lambos, Rolexes, and designer everything.

I just want to be comfortable without worrying about the small things.

No flash, all stability and security. That’s real success to me.

undefined undefined

Social Media Marketing Certification Course

Content Marketing

Email Marketing

Inbound Marketing

Digital Marketing 

HubSpot Marketing Software

Growth Marketing Agency for 7 & 8-figure eCom brands. Focused on driving profitable growth at scale with proven systems and strategies. Currently managing $5M+ in monthly ad-spend for brands.

Nord Media is a growth agency that helps 7-9 figure eCom brands scale.

Founder & Head of Growth

Fuel Your Brand with Ready-to-Launch Creative Templates.

Partner (Acquired)

Surge Marketing is a full-service Growth Marketing Agency.

Founder (Acquired)

Key Responsibilities:

Campaign Strategy and Execution: Develop and execute paid media strategies to drive brand awareness, customer acquisition, and retention. Utilize data-driven insights to optimize campaigns and maximize ROI.

Channel Management: Oversee advertising campaigns across platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other relevant channels. Monitor performance and adjust strategies to meet objectives.

Budget Management: Manage advertising budgets effectively to achieve desired outcomes while maintaining cost-efficiency. Track and report on campaign performance, providing insights for continuous improvement.

Audience Targeting: Utilize advanced targeting capabilities to reach relevant audiences and drive engagement. Implement A/B testing strategies to optimize ad creative, messaging, and targeting parameters.

Partnership Collaboration: Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to align paid media efforts with overall marketing initiatives. Coordinate with creative teams to develop compelling ad content that resonates with our target audience.

Performance Analysis and Reporting: Analyze campaign performance metrics, including CTR, CPA, ROAS, and conversion rates. Generate regular reports to communicate insights and make data-driven recommendations for future campaigns.

Achievements:

Increased year over year subscription growth by 400%.
Improved campaign efficiency through rigorous A/B testing and optimization strategies, leading to a 65% reduction in cost per acquisition.
Implemented geo-targeting tactics that resulted in business developmental learnings that drove incremental lift in key states for growth and new business avenues.

Paid Media Manager

Effectively manage ($5M+ Annual) Digital Advertising budget across multiple paid media and SEM channels
Drive an effective ROAS and MER to enable rapid business growth while maintaining profitability
Grow business revenue by 120% YoY while also increasing profitability
Developed daily/quarterly metric growth reporting standards, rolling up directly to CEO 
Created brand strategy advertising tactics and deployment 
Develop and implement Digital Advertising campaigns to increase brand awareness, website traffic and drive sales
Lead content team to develop, test and improve content structure and funnels to guide customers from acquisition to conversion
Implement Lean Management and standards of work for self and teams to improve efficiency
Develop Email and SMS marketing efforts and scaled program 3000-->50,000 active subscribers in first 3 months
Improve Email & SMS marketing strategy and create unique subscriber growth and experiences
Develop a customer data-driven marketing funnel across all digital marketing avenues
Develop story-driven marketing campaigns to convey the brand and values effectively
Track and measure the performance of all digital marketing channels and propose optimization initiatives to maximize marketing ROAS
Create new marketing channels to test creative and adaptive marketing techniques

Director of Growth

Grew Enthusiast Enterprises Communications division from 3 people with $12.8M in annual revenue to 19 people and nearly $120M in annual revenue.
Oversaw the Email Strategy, SMS Marketing, Social Media, Marketing Automation & Copywriting teams with a growth expectation of 50% Y/Y.
Developed a calendar of content for all channels focused on product development and growth.
Oversaw the creation and distribution of campaign strategy aimed at promoting various sales and branding initiatives for the organization.
Created a strong insight customer use and feedback of products via NPS surveys and post-purchase follow-up.
Developed strategic planning between Social Media, Digital Advertising, Graphic Design and Communications to unify our brand messaging and improve customer perception of our brand & products.
Integrated product marketing strategies and created optimized marketing initiatives with integrated A/B testing and relevant KPI tracking.  
Improved the customer life cycle and retention by providing value to the customer through unique content and closing all gaps where a customer may become lost during their purchase process.
Created and managed revenue targets and budget expenses to ensure profitability growth.

Growth Marketing Manager

Developed digital marketing strategy by studying economic indicators, tracking changes in supply and demand, identifying customers and their current and future needs, and monitoring the competition.
Planned and executed on all web, SEO/SEM, database marketing, email, SMS, social media, and display advertising campaigns.
Developed and maintained a social media presence in Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. 
Identified short-term and long-range issues that must be addressed and developed a plan of action around these.
Measured and report performance of all digital marketing campaigns and assesses against goals (ROI and KPIs).
Optimized performance of campaigns and initiatives by utilizing analytical toolkits to identify underperforming areas.
Developed A/B test structure to optimize flow and conversion of the customer journey.
Collaborates with internal teams & external to enhance LTV of customers and identify gaps on a customer's lifecycle
Utilizes strong analytical ability to evaluate end-to-end customer experience across multiple channels and customer touch points.
Identified critical conversion points and drop off points and optimizes user funnels.

Your ad account looks fine:
- ROAS is holding 
- CPMs are manageable 
- Conversions are flowing

But your spreadsheet is screaming.

As of February 2026, the average US tariff rate sits at 17% on all imports.

For DTC brands sourcing from China (which is 50% of you), tariffs hit 54% before the November 2025 truce brought partial relief. 

Most products are still getting hit with 55%+ when you stack Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs.

Here's what that actually means: 

49% of DTC brands report tariffs significantly increased their landed product costs. 

An $80 product from China now carries $35+ in tariffs. 

Your COGS just jumped 20-30%, but your ROAS target didn't move.

That's the problem.

Triple Whale tracked the impact in real time: median ROAS fell from 1.84 to 1.22 between March 31 and April 17, 2025, a 33.7% drop that directly corresponded with the April 2 tariff announcement.

Median AOV dropped from $57.94 to $48.62 as consumers got price-conscious. 

CPA crept up from $21.89 to $21.95.

Most operators missed what actually broke: ROAS measures revenue, not profit.

If your product had 50% margins, you needed 2:1 ROAS to break even. Tariffs compress those margins to 35%? Your break-even ROAS just jumped to 2.86:1. 

TLDR: You've been scaling into losses while staring at green metrics in Ads Manager. Here’s the math you actually need to be running:

Break-Even ROAS = 1 / Net Margin (after COGS, shipping, fulfillment, processing, and tariffs).

Example: $30 product cost, $80 sale price, $10 shipping, $5 processing = $35 margin (43.75%). 

Break-even ROAS = 2.29. Add a 25% tariff ($7.50): margin drops to $27.50 (34.4%). New break-even ROAS = 2.91.

That's a 27% increase in the ROAS you need just to not lose money.

So what does all of this mean day to day? Don't just raise prices. 87% of merchants already did that, which compressed conversion rates across the board.

Instead:

- A/B test price points per SKU to find elasticity ceilings
- Bundle higher-margin products with tariff-exposed ones
- Revisit supplier pricing. Stronger USD creates leverage
- Test alternative sourcing (India, Mexico, Bangladesh) through short sprints

Most of all, shift your budget towards retention. Loyal customers convert at 60-70%, vs 5-20% for new prospects.

The spreadsheet broke before your ad account did, so you need to fix your unit economics before you touch your media plan.

That's how you’ll survive Q2.

3 reels a week and 10 variations of the same concept is not a creative strategy that will save you from rising CPMs. 

Andromeda processes 10,000x more ad variants in parallel than Meta's old system. 

It has more creative combinations to test than ever before, which means it rewards variety above everything else. 

When all your ads feel like cousins of the same concept, Andromeda picks one and quietly ignores the rest, which leads to high CPMs and low reach. 

On the dashboard, it looks like a performance dip, but the algorithm is simply exhausted because of a lack of creative diversity.

Reels is where this hits hardest, because:

- Users spend over 50% of their Instagram time watching reels

- GEM is prioritizing it as the primary top-of-funnel channel

- Meta is surfacing 25% more same-day Reels content than Q3 2025

- Andromeda is allocating its delivery, which means it's where creative diversity either compounds your reach or kills it.

And inside Reels, the first three seconds decide everything. 

Target 60%+ hold rate, lead with a face, pair a visual interrupt with audio, and caption everything because most people scroll without sound. 

If you can't stop the scroll in three seconds, the rest of the creative is irrelevant because Andromeda won't show it long enough to matter.

From there, build three lanes in your creative library:

- Raw UGC hooks for cold traffic. 

- Polished demos for the audience in the consideration stage. 

- Social proof stacks for conversion.

Rotate monthly winners into Flexible Ads and let Andromeda match the right format to the right user at the right stage.

The metric that tells you if your creative diversity is actually working is CPMr which is cost per 1,000 unique people reached. 

Keep it under $20. When it climbs, instead of adjusting bids, introduce new concepts.

Feed Andromeda a variety of creative concepts, and it’ll reward you with reach.

If your value lives in media buying mechanics, Meta is already building your replacement.

Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that Meta is testing a system where a brand will enter a product URL and a budget, and the platform will build an entire campaign out of it. 

It’ll generate the creative, select the audience, allocate spend, and optimize delivery all on its own. 

That tells you where this is going:

- 4M advertisers are already using Meta’s AI creative tools.

- Advantage+ is driving around $60B in annualized revenue.

- Legacy controls are being phased out.

- And Flexible Ads are live right now.

You can upload 10 creatives into one container, and the system decides what each user sees.

Now layer reality on top of it: 

- Chinese import tariffs are sitting as high as 54% in the current cycle. 

- Ecom brands are raising prices to protect margins. 

- COGS are climbing. 

- Cash flow pressure is increasing. 

- Scaling decisions now carry more financial weight than they did 2 years ago.

As execution is becoming automated and margins are tightening, your value is shifting upward.

If your contribution is ONLY building campaigns and adjusting bids, you’ve become replaceable.

But if your contribution is protecting margin and guiding risk, you’ve become even more essential for a brand's growth.

You’re the layer of judgment automation can’t replicate.

The operators who’ll stay valuable in the upcoming years are the ones who own:

- Break-even ROAS and contribution margin

- Offer structure and pricing strategy

- Signal quality and data integrity

- Creative direction and concept differentiation

- Budget decisions under financial pressure

The platform is absorbing the mechanics. Your leverage now lives in judgment, economics, and strategic control.

The thing that got you to $1M won't get you to $10M. What got you to $10M won't get you to $50M.

Brands hit a ceiling when they stop testing. They find a winner and protect it instead of building the next one.

But the brands that break through are the ones willing to test new offers, launch new products, and push into new markets before they feel like they have to.

The formula that built your business might eventually become its only ceiling.

If you're worried that media buyer role is dead you're likely not doing good media buying work.

Do I think the role will evolve over the next 12 months? Yeah absolutely.

Do I think it's a dead role? Not the slightest.

There's been way to many instances where the role has "died" and certain people have been removed from the role but those people failed to adapt.

Our industry isn't stagnant - you need to be constantly evolving and changing and learning or you're going to be replaced.

So if you're that worried about your "role" being dead. Maybe you've been doing it wrong all along.

Ecom operators poured all their attention into Meta in 2025, but Google just completely rewired Performance Max. Here’s what you need to know.

First of all, nobody’s saying you should abandon Meta.

But if you're still treating Google as "set it and forget it" while running $50K+/month in ad spend, you're leaving money on the table. 

That PMax black box everyone complained about? 

It doesn't exist anymore.

Here's what landed in the last 90 days:

→ Full channel-level reporting (you can see EXACTLY how PMax delivers across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, Maps)

→ Complete negative keyword support with shared lists

→ PMax experiments (50/50 split tests against Shopping/Search/Display)

→ Brand exclusions applied to Search text ads only while keeping Shopping active

→ High-value new customer acquisition mode rolled out to ALL advertisers

→ Device and demographic targeting betas

On top of that, Google's "Power Pack" strategy is replacing the old "Power Pair”, and your product catalog can now surface inside AI Overviews and AI Mode, meaning:

→ Commercial queries triggering AI Overviews jumped from 8% to 19% in 12 months

→ Organic CTR dropped 61% on those queries

→ Paid CTR dropped 68%

Search Engine Land's SMX Next deep dive also confirmed PMax is "fundamentally different and far more manageable" than it was 12 months ago.

You can finally see what's working, what's not, and control it. The transparency is there now. The controls exist. The data is clean.

2026 isn't the year to keep ignoring platform updates.

Meta gets all the attention because everyone's obsessed with creative testing. But Google quietly became manageable, transparent, and worth reassessing for Q1.

The operators crushing it right now are running both platforms like actual businesses.

Googles Performance Max Rewired 

Your ROAS looks fine, but your margins are bleeding.

Why? Because tariffs jumped COGS 20-30% while your break-even ROAS stayed the same. 

You’re still trusting a dashboard number that’s been outdated for months.

Recalculate your break-even, and thank me later.

taplio

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Kody N.

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The Battle

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Kody N.

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