Hey Cowboys,
Happy Friday! It’s finally here. It’s also Weather Report day with Bryan from Northbeam. Love that guy.
Today’s guest lineup 👇
Today’s Squad: The Performance Marketing Playbook
Today we’re chatting with 3 operators from the paid growth side of DTC on what's actually working in performance marketing right now.
Nate Lagos (Founder, Shootin’ Doubles) → 12PM CT
Matt Froehlich (Growth Manager, Flat Circle Ads) → 12:40PM CT
Bryan Bumgardner (Growth, Northbeam) → 1:05PM CT
How Medicube Sells $20M /mo on TikTok Shop
Friend of the show, Brian Blum, created a great video digging into the strategy Medicube uses to make $100M /mo, with $20M /mo coming from TikTok Shop.
34K creators posted for them in the last 30 days, producing 170K videos — likely driving ~15B views/month
Creators get hyper-specific instructions engineered to go viral and convert
They coin sticky viral phrases like "new face card at 30 yrs old"
This is what high growth looks like now. Not one big partnership, but thousands of coordinated creators pushing tested, conversion-first messaging until it's impossible to ignore.
More Ecomm Top Stories
Ulta Beauty Targets Gen Z Boys With New Fragrance Line - Ulta Beauty is launching its first men's masstige fragrance collection aimed at Gen Z and Gen Alpha shoppers. The move comes as fragrance demand continues to grow among younger consumers driven by social media and online communities.
Friend Relaunches AI Companion Necklace - Friend has relaunched its AI companion necklace with a built-in speaker that gives the device a voice and more conversational interactions. The updated wearable is priced at $249, up from its original $99 launch price.
Tony Romo Arrested on OWI Suspicion - Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and CBS broadcaster Tony Romo was arrested in Milwaukee on suspicion of operating while under the influence. He was released after booking and is scheduled for a September 21 court appearance.
Live Now: Northbeam Weather Report
The Northbeam Weather Report is a weekly segment on Ecomm Cowboy where our boy Bryan Bumgardner breaks down the latest paid media cost trends. The segment is live today at 1:05PM CT.
Some highlights we’ll get into:
Meta got more expensive in H1 2026, with both CPMs and CPCs climbing
Google was the standout performer, CPC down 9.72% and CAC down 5.73%
YouTube Ads saw efficiency gains everywhere except new CAC
"All other platforms" got broadly more expensive, with CPM up 8.73%
We’ve got a lot more data to dig into so join us live on YouTube to get it before anyone else.
Measure What’s Driving Revenue with Northbeam
Measure what's actually driving your revenue.
If you live in the Ads Manager, you know the problem: every platform takes credit and every dashboard tells a different story. Meta says 4.2 ROAS. TikTok claims the same conversion. Which one is lying? Honestly — all of them.
Northbeam fixes this with proprietary data that starts from the actual purchase and then rebuilds the customer journey from real orders, real clicks, and real verified ad views. That measurement gets pushed back into the ad platforms, so optimization runs on what's actually driving revenue — not what the platforms assume is.
Start measuring what used to be unmeasurable.
→ Book your demo at Northbeam.io
Ecomm Cowboy is the go-to live show for ecommerce operators, breaking down the latest DTC, retail, and AI news while interviewing the founders and executives building today's fastest-growing brands.
We’re live every Monday to Friday at 12PM CT.
Have questions or want to come on the show? Simply reply to this email, we’re happy to chat.
Made Possible By:
Seguno - the Shopify-native marketing suite for brands that run it themselves.
Insense - The all-in-one UGC and influencer marketing platform.
Postscript - Make more money from every SMS message.
Proxima - Use real conversion data to power your creative briefs.
Northbeam - Measure the “unmeasurable,” make your marketing profitable.
Rokt Aftersell - More profit from the orders you’re already getting.
Universal Ads - TV ads that deliver for performance marketers.
Richpanel - The AI helpdesk that saves you headaches (and money).
SATHI - Affiliate attribution beyond last-click commissions.
Slash - A better business banking platform.
Trendtrack - Track competitors' winning marketing strategies daily.
Tie - The internet’s #1 shopper ID platform.
See you on the stream,
Ecomm Cowboy Team