▶ 00:00 YouTube Ads for Ecommerce Brands · Management · Consulting
The YouTube Ads Guy
I don't ask brands to believe in YouTube. I help them prove it.
I've been buying Google ads for over a decade, and I shifted my focus onto YouTube years before the industry followed. I've worked panels at YouTube events, and Google has published my results. Now I run and advise YouTube advertising for ecommerce brands that want a second acquisition channel they can actually measure.
And the name wasn't my idea — after enough Slack channels and meetings where I got introduced as "the YouTube Ads guy," I stopped arguing and bought the domain.
▶ 01:12 · Who this is for
Four situations I get called into
One channel is carrying you
Meta does most of your acquisition, CAC keeps creeping, and next year's plan assumes it won't get worse. You want a second channel that's real, not a line item.
YouTube is live and nobody trusts it
You're spending. The platform says it's working and your attribution says it isn't. Finance wants to cut it, and somebody needs to settle the argument with a test.
It works. Now scale it.
You've seen the lift and want to go from five figures a month to six or seven without watching efficiency fall apart on the way up.
Retail is next
You're headed onto shelves and need YouTube to move product in specific markets, with a clean read on what it did for retail and for DTC.
Agency or media buyer? I take a small number of white-label and coaching engagements. Tell me what you need.
▶ 02:45 · Services
Three ways to work together
From a fixed-scope audit to a fully managed YouTube program, built for ecommerce and DTC brands. Every engagement starts the same way: a first conversation where we look at your actual situation.
The Prove-It Audit
A fixed-scope review for ecommerce brands that want a straight answer on YouTube: worth more budget, worth fixing, or worth starting at all. I go through the account, the creative, and the measurement, then hand you a plan you can run with or without me.
- Account & campaign architecture review
- Creative review & briefing gaps
- What your attribution is and isn't telling you
- 90-day plan with budgets and the lift test to run
- Written findings + walkthrough call
Management
Complete YouTube ads management for ecommerce brands that want it handled: strategy, campaign builds, creative briefing, optimization, and reporting that holds up in front of a CFO. Built on the same playbooks Google wrote up.
- Full-funnel YouTube programs
- Demand Gen & video campaign builds
- Creative briefing & partner coordination
- Incrementality-backed reporting
- Scaling from first dollars to $1M+/mo
Consulting
Live-account consulting for teams that run their own media: strategy sprints, campaign architecture, creative direction, and measurement design. I look at the account with you and tell you what I'd do, plainly.
- Strategy sprints
- Campaign architecture reviews
- Creative & offer strategy
- Measurement & testing design
- Ongoing advisory retainers
Coaching and team training are still on the menu for media buyers and in-house teams — one-on-one, group, or standing office hours. Ask about it.
▶ 05:30 · Track record
Named brands. Real numbers.
No anonymized "8-figure brand" case studies. These are the accounts, with the results, and one of them was written up by Google itself.
Led Google and Microsoft ads through the run-up to Grüns' $1.2B acquisition by Unilever. We ran a waterfall series of incrementality tests to validate methodology, scaling aggressively into Q4 on the formats and media mixes the testing proved out. Google published it as an official YouTube advertising success story.
Coordinated a $2M YouTube flight supporting RTIC's national retail expansion — positive iROAS, and a nationwide retailer relationship on the other side of it. I also managed the full demand gen and DTC YouTube program behind their direct business.
Scaled EF Ultimate Break's YouTube program from $25K to $125K a month — back when Video Action Campaigns had just become a campaign type and most buyers hadn't touched them. YouTube fed search and remarketing down-funnel and drove 50% year-over-year revenue growth.
▶ 08:14 · Measurement
The part most YouTube people skip
Every brand's real objection to YouTube isn't "does video work." It's "I can't see it in my attribution." That objection is legitimate — last-click was built to make YouTube look bad — and answering it properly is most of my job.
I've measured YouTube's incremental value from every seat at the table: Google's own testing frameworks, in-house data science teams, and independent incrementality platforms. Before that tooling existed, I engineered my own incrementality tests, because I needed answers the platforms weren't giving anyone yet.
The result is a practice where budget decisions rest on measured lift, not platform-reported ROAS. When YouTube earns more spend, I can show you why — and when it doesn't, I'll tell you that too.
▶ 11:02 · The story
I didn't add YouTube to the menu. I moved the practice there.
You can date a YouTube buyer by the formats they've lived through. Here's where I was for each one.
Search first, like everybody
I cut my teeth on Search and Shopping — over a decade of holistic Google Ads management, eventually as a Senior Google Strategist at OMG Commerce running millions in monthly spend. YouTube was still "a branding play" in most rooms I sat in. I bought my first views when skippable in-stream was practically the whole menu, and learned early from people like Bryant Garvin, one of the first in-house leaders to make YouTube a real performance channel at Purple Mattress.
The pivot, before it was obvious
When Video Action Campaigns made YouTube a true direct-response channel, I went in heavy while most buyers were still debating it. EF Ultimate Break was proof: $25K to $125K a month on YouTube, 50% YoY revenue growth, just after VACs became a campaign type.
Running the playbook at scale
By the time VACs became Demand Gen, I'd been running the playbook for years. RTIC's $2M retail flight put real-world reps on the reach side of the platform — Video View and Video Reach campaigns (VVC/VRC) — alongside their full DTC YouTube program, and that sophistication fed directly into Grüns' incrementality-led scale-up that Google published. Along the way I've worked closely with Raindrop, the premier YouTube creative agency — that's their founder, Jacques Spitzer, on stage with me in the photo up top.
Management, consulting, and audits
Today I run YouTube programs for ecommerce brands, advise teams that run their own, and coach a few buyers along the way — with measurement discipline holding the whole thing together. The formats keep changing. The fundamentals don't.
▶ 13:40 · Bona fides
The company I keep
Creative Strategy & Content Production
Great media buying dies without great creative, and I come from the creative side of the table: years as a director of photography for brands like Interstate Batteries, Plantronics/Polycom, and Midtronics, plus dozens of CPG brands. I've worked closely with in-house production teams and vendors across the country — including Raindrop, the premier YouTube creative agency — and I build programs where media and creative talk to each other.
Smart Marketer
Google Ads Certified through Smart Marketer — the certification media buyers in the ecommerce world actually respect. I've attended their masterminds and been part of many of their programs over the years.
Longstanding working relationships with Google's AGT and LCS teams, along with product and measurement leads — plus direct incrementality collaborations and an official Google-published YouTube advertising success story.
▶ 15:20 · FAQ
Fair questions
What does the $100 first hour include?
A working session, not a sales call. Bring your account, your questions, or your growth problem and we'll dig in together. If you send details ahead of time, we can compress it to thirty focused minutes — I'll show up with thoughts already prepared.
Do you manage accounts, or just consult?
Both. Complete done-for-you YouTube ads management for ecommerce brands that want it handled, and live-account consulting for teams that run their own media. Either one can start with the Prove-It Audit.
What is the Prove-It Audit?
A fixed-scope, fixed-price review of your YouTube program — or your readiness for one, if you haven't started. I go through account structure, creative, and measurement. You get written findings, a 90-day plan with budgets and the lift test to run, and a walkthrough call. The fee is credited toward your first month if we move into management.
Should I book the hour or the audit?
If you want to talk a problem through, book the hour. If you want a written answer on whether YouTube deserves budget, with a plan attached, get the audit. Plenty of people do the hour first.
How do you prove YouTube ads are actually working?
I use everything at my disposal to triangulate performance: multi-touch attribution, incrementality testing run with partners or in-house, and Google's own testing frameworks. I've measured lift alongside in-house data science teams and Haus, and I've used MTA platforms like Northbeam, Triple Whale, and Converge since they were first introduced to the ecommerce industry. Before that tooling existed, I engineered my own incrementality tests.
Who do you work with?
Mostly ecommerce and DTC brands: ones leaning too hard on a single channel, ones running YouTube without trusting the numbers, and ones ready to scale what's already working. I also take a small number of agency white-label and coaching engagements.
Do you train teams?
Yes. Group training is available for agency and in-house teams, from foundational YouTube ads curriculum to advanced measurement and creative strategy.
What size ad budgets do you work with?
Everything from first YouTube dollars to programs spending more than $1M a month. The strategy changes with scale; the measurement discipline doesn't.
▶ 17:55 · Book
Start with an hour
The easiest way to find out whether I can help is to talk about your actual situation. No deck, no discovery-call theater.
Or send your details ahead and we'll make it thirty focused minutes — I'll come with thoughts prepared. Either way, you leave with things you can act on whether or not we ever work together again.
Got it.
I'll get back to you within one business day — usually faster.
▶ 19:10 · Notes
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Occasional notes on ecommerce YouTube ads: ad teardowns, format changes, and measurement. No schedule and no pitch. Unsubscribe any time.
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