Scale Smart Assessment

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Scale Smart Assessment

Do you find yourself asking, “Shouldn’t my ad spend be MAKING me more money than this!?”

We’ve got good news and real news.

The good news
Our Scalability Assessment takes 15 minutes max and contains 26 questions to help you determine, right now, if you are truly getting the most out of your ad spend.

This assessment was curated by industry leading media buyers who have masterfully leveraged millions of dollars in spend, to create exponential amounts of profit and revenue for their clients.

We asked ourselves, “what are the top metrics that impact a brands’ scalability?”

At which time, we distilled over 150+ KPIs that we monitor, manage, and optimize in order to maximize our media buys, down to 26 questions that will help you evaluate and better understand what is impacting your brands ability to scale, along with key insights as to how to start to look at your brand holistically. These questions represent the most common issues that we find while managing ad campaigns, that prohibit profitability and scale.

The real news
You’ll also learn if you’re looking at your ad strategy holistically — which unlocks a whole new world of opportunity to scale.

Maximum profitability and scale is not achieved by simply tinkering in your ads account. You must look beyond! This assessment will make you dig deep, identify metrics that you may not have been paying attention to, and confront the areas within your business that are negatively impacting your ROAS.

Note: In order to get the most out of this assessment, you’ll need to have your data at your fingertips. That means you need access to the backend of your Facebook ads manager, the backend of your store, and any analytics platforms your brand may use to track conversions.

Be warned, this audit is strictly eCommerce focused. If you’re using ads to drive leads or sell services, this assessment is not going to be right for you.

Please enter your information so that you can get the results of the assessment emailed to you!
Name*
First Name Last Name
Email*

First, we need to understand a little bit about your business. This initial set of questions will help uncover a bit about your industry, how your business is situated within it, and at what level you are engaging your available target audience.

Please select the option that best reflects where your brand fits, or your phase of business.*
Please choose one.
- Your business is considered a startup with under 50 employees, and under $5M in revenue. Your company would fall under the category of “small business” by the SBA. Also you’re either just entering an emerging market, or you’re doing something incredibly disruptive so it may just require a little time for the market to catch on to who you are and what is possible because of your product. Once they do, you’re off to the races!
- Your company generates $6 – $10 million in annual revenue, and your product is one of a few products within your niche that are closely considered by the masses. You’re disruptive, innovative, and a shining star within the industry.
- Is your product becoming a hot commodity? Your business is generating well over $10 million in revenue per year, but it is important for you to hold on to your growth trajectory year over year and not lose market share to your competitors.

What category best describes your eCommerce brand?*
These categories indicate how you sell your products to your customers. Please choose one.
- Private Label – I sell my products to retailers, and they resell under their brand name exclusively.
- Direct to Consumer – I ideate my own products and either own the manufacturing or have an agreement with a manufacturer to create them. I sell and ship these directly to the consumer online.
- Subscription – My products are sold on a recurring basis.
- Whitelabel – I sell my products to retailers, and they resell under their brand name. Sometimes the same or similar products are sold to multiple retailers using different names/branding.
- Dropshipping – I sell my goods/products but I never hold inventory.

Next, let’s dive into uncovering key information about your audience and your approach to targeting them, marketing to them, and with engaging them.

How extensively do your marketers really know your audiences?*
It’s one thing to know who is buying your products, or who needs your products or services, but have you really taken the time to ask both buyers and non-buyers how they feel? What they want? What they worry about? What they hate? What drives them to make purchases or deters them from converting? Or, simply if they feel like your brand is trustworthy and delivers on its promises? Which options below best describe how you consistently connect with your customers? Check all that apply.
- Select All
- We conduct annual focus groups of buyers and non-buyers who meet our target criteria.
- We hold ongoing surveys for both our buyers and non-buyers.
- Our customer service teams regularly communicate trends in obstacles to purchase, adoption, or repeat purchases, as well as FAQs to marketing teams.
- We consistently and frequently run heatmaps on all digital assets to track and evaluate consumer behavior and interaction with our products.
- We regularly communicate with prospects in our digital communities and leverage the data gleaned from those conversations to inform our marketing campaigns.

How dedicated are you to community management on ads?*
Please identify the brand’s level of dedication to interacting with audiences who engage with your ads.
- Highly dedicated; respond with answers that allow our brand voice to shine through and crush objections within the hour.
- Somewhat dedicated; respond with generic answers the same day.
- Not very dedicated; respond at some point.
- Not dedicated; respond sometimes, every now and then.
- We don’t monitor or respond to comments on ads.

How robust is your email list?*
Indicate the range of the number of subscribers on your email list.
- More than 250,000 subscribers
- 100,000 to 249,999 subscribers
- 25,000 to 99,999 subscribers
- 5,000 to 24,999 subscribers
- Less than 5,000 subscribers

How robust is your email campaign strategy?*
Email is one of the most valuable, complementary forms of marketing to any paid advertising program. Yet, we find that ecommerce brands regularly miss a plethora of opportunities to connect with people who have opted in on a personal level based on where they are in their purchase process, what their needs are post-conversion, or even how they choose to relate to your brand.

Indicate the level at which you are interacting with the various segments of your email list. Please choose one.
- We have thoroughly segmented our lists based on behavior, avatar, interactions with our brand, and level of intent, and send email correspondence regularly.
- We have a moderate amount of segmentation of our lists based on avatar and interactions with our brand and sometimes send correspondence.
- We have some segmentation based on where subscribers were sourced (ex: general list vs. purchasers).
- We have no segmentation in place and don’t know who our subscribers are as people (or their buyer psychology).
- We don’t have an email campaign program.

What does your total following look like on social media across all platforms where you’re present?*
How many total followers do you have across your social channels?

Don’t forget to add YouTube subscribers, Pinterest followers, and your audience totals across all of your social channels. You’ve earned these audiences! Please choose one.
- Over 1 million followers
- 500,000 – 1 million followers
- 250,000 – 499,999 followers
- 50,000 to 249,999 followers
- Less than 50,000 followers

What other digital communities or universes has your brand built and is maintaining?*
Outside of your main website, are you having conversations with prospects, customers, or your target audiences in places that you’ve curated, built, and/or managed? If so, choose the options that best describe these channels where you have built communities. Check all that apply.
- Community forum on owned media (websites, membership sites, blogs, podcasts)
- Community forum on rented media (social media platforms)
- None

What work have you done to extend your cLTV?*
Check all that apply.
- We have incorporated a continuity program / subscription program into our eCommerce offerings.
- We have a robust cross-selling or post-conversion strategy employed via email campaigns and/or paid ads.
- We have built consumable products into our offering suite.
- We have email drip campaigns designed to encourage refills/repurchases of consumable products.
- We’ve introduced passive revenue streams by activating partnerships with complementary but not competing brands to introduce exciting new products our customers will love.
- Nothing… I have no idea what it is.

The next several questions will dive deeper into your actual advertising strategy and best practices.

Do you run your company’s Facebook and/or Instagram ads, or do you have someone else running them?*
Please choose one.
- Self
- Freelancer
- Agency
- In-House Team

What is your average spend per month?*
Please choose one.
- Over $500,000 per month
- $250,000 to $499,999 per month
- $100,000 to $249,9099 per month
- $40,000 to $99,999 per month
- $20,000 to $39,999 per month
- Less than $19,999 per month

What is your current blended ROAS (across all active ad campaigns) in a 60-day period?*
When you look at the results of your ad campaigns, what is the range of the average return on ad spend across all active campaigns for the last 60 days? Please choose one.
- 15x or higher
- 8x to 14.99x
- 5x to 7.99x
- 3x to 4.99x
- 1x to 2.99x
- Less than 1x
- I do not know

What type of ads scaling strategy do you employ currently?*
When you’ve found some winning ad-and-audience combos, and you’re ready to invest more money into what’s working, what’s your typical approach — over and above just spending more? What’s the actual framework?

Please choose one.
- We take a holistic approach that allows our brand to grow along with the pace of our scaling of paid advertising.
- We employ a series of advanced tactics on our ad campaigns that we rotate in when one stops working.
- We solely focus on scaling ads both horizontally and vertically.
- I don’t personally know; I’d have to ask our marketing team / media buyer.

How would you best describe your testing strategy?*
Do you have a consistent methodology in determining which ads are performing better than others, and how to take what you’ve discovered to apply to new campaigns?

Do you have a structured framework for optimizing existing campaigns?

What is your approach to testing new ad creative, offers, audiences, etc?

Please choose one.
- We’re constantly testing variations of copy, creative, headlines and audiences in the background of our existing campaigns and funnels and run optimization exercises that factor in predictive intent, not just purchases
- We test creatives and/or copy when first launching a campaign, then pause underperformers based on CPA
- We test ads after audiences appear to fatigue and conversions dip
- We rarely test copy, audiences, or creative these days. We know what works
- We rarely test copy, audiences, or creative; we don’t have much expertise on that front
- I don’t know; I’d have to ask my team, freelancer, or agency

In this next section, we’ll be reviewing your offers, products, and sales funnels; and identifying opportunities to scale.

How many unique products do you offer (excluding variations of colors and sizes)?*
Please choose one.
- We have more than 20 different products.
- We have 10 to 20 different products.
- We have 5 to 10 different products.
- We have 3 to 5 different products.
- We have 2 products.
- We have one product.

What is your current AOV?*
How much are your customers spending on average for each order?

Take your total revenue and divide it by the number of orders during that same time period, and that should give you your average order value, or refer to your Shopify dashboard.

Please choose one.
- Over $100
- $80 to $100
- $60 to $79
- $30 to $59
- Under $30

What are the trends in your AOV?*
Take a look at your average order value for the last month, the last 3 months, the last year, and see if it has steadily increased or decreased.

Are there any trends? Have you noticed any seasonality in your AOV?

Please choose one.
- AOV increases consistently and steadily month over month.
- AOV increases somewhat consistently, though the increase varies month over month.
- AOV remains about the same month over month.
- We’ve seen our AOV decreasing lately, month over month.
- Our AOV has consistently and steadily decreased month over month.

What work have you done to increase your AOV?*
Are you actively reviewing your average order value and running campaigns or building offers that will increase that AOV?

Check all that apply.
- We’ve implemented a bundling strategy for our products to increase our AOV.
- We’ve incorporated upsells and cross-sells to get the most out of our highest intent customers.
- I don’t know, what’s AOV? Or how do I figure this out?

What is your repeat customer rate on a monthly basis?*
Take the number of people who have purchased more than once in a given period of time, and divide it by the total number of customers who purchased during that same period in order to get your repeat customer rate, or refer to your Shopify dashboard. Please choose one.
- Over 80%
- 40% to 79%
- 25% to 39%
- 20 to 24%
- Under 20%

What is your current cart abandonment rate?*
Take the number of people who added items to their cart, divide it by the number of people who didn’t purchase, and then multiply it by 100 in order to get your cart abandonment rate. Please choose one.
- Below 60%
- 60% to 69%
- 70% to 79%
- 80% to 89%
- 90% or higher

Last, we’re going to uncover information about your brandside functions. These are often areas in ecommerce businesses that are overlooked and can have a crippling impact on one’s ability to scale.

What do your shipping times / delivery speeds look like?*
What are you promising your customers for your standard shipping turnaround based on your order processing times? Please choose one.
- Under 1 week
- 1 week to 1.5 weeks
- 1.5 weeks to 2 weeks
- 2 weeks to 4 weeks
- 4 weeks or more

How responsive is your customer service to prospect inquiries?*
What mechanisms are you providing to prospects that have product or sales inquiries, and what timeline are you giving people for responses? Please choose one.
- Live chat / call center available.
- Email responses within 6 hours.
- Email responses between 6 hours and 2 days.
- Email responses after 3 days.
- We don’t field prospect inquiries.

What are your gross profit margins on your best-selling product(s)?*
Profit margin is incredibly important to understand so that you can ensure that you are running profitable ad campaigns.

Gross Margin = Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). COGS includes the purchase value of your product, as well as any other costs that directly relates to your product such as shipping, import duties and warehousing, but note that it does not include marketing expenses, staff costs, and other operating expenses.

Once you have your Gross Margin, express it as a rate by taking it and divide it by how much you sell that product for, and then multiply it by 100 in order to get your gross profit margin percentage:

Gross Margin Rate = (Gross Margin / Revenue ) * 100

While there are still marketing / advertising, payroll, web development, taxes, building / warehouse expenses, overhead, and other operational costs to content with that are not factored into this number, your gross profit margin will get you closer to understanding how much you can spend on ads in order to remain profitable.

Gross Margin Rate = (Gross Margin / Revenue ) * 100

While there are still marketing / advertising, payroll, web development, taxes, building / warehouse expenses, overhead, and other operational costs to content with that are not factored into this number, your gross profit margin will get you closer to understanding how much you can spend on ads in order to remain profitable.

Please choose one.
- 65% or higher
- 50% to 64.99%
- 40% to 49.99%
- 30% to 39.99%
- Under 30%

Now, what are the net profit margins for your brand?*
Net profit margin is calculated by taking the company’s net income for a given period and dividing by net sales. For example, let’s say your company generates $2,000,000 in net income and net sales of $6,000,000. Dividing those two numbers and multiplying by 100 gives you a net profit margin of 33%.

Note that net profit margin takes all business expenses into account (marketing / advertising, payroll, web development, taxes, building / warehouse expenses, overhead, and other operational costs), not just the cost of goods.

Your net profit margin helps you determine how efficient your business is at converting profits from sales, while your gross profit margin (calculated in the previous question) helps you figure out the profitability of a specific product or service.
- 25% or higher
- 20% to 24.99%
- 10% to 19.99%
- 5% to 9.99%
- 1% to 4.99%
- I don’t know man, I just want to be done with this assessment!

How would you grade your operations & fulfillment systems?*
Please choose one.
- Our products are shipped out on time, every time – even during the holiday season, regardless of mail carrier issues because we have contingencies in place. We rarely if ever run out of inventory because we have systems in place that allow our Ops teams to accurately forecast what will be sold for the upcoming month or quarter.
- Our products are usually shipped out on time, but we struggle with accurately predicting how much inventory needs to be ordered for next month / next quarter.
- We have intermittent fulfillment issues that result in late shipments every now and then and we occasionally have a backlog of orders that need filling, so we can’t go as hard with scaling advertising as we’d like.
- We have bottlenecks in our fulfillment process that regularly result in delays longer than 2 days.
- Systems? What systems? We’re flying by the seat of our pants right now, trying to keep up with demand.

Are you currently meeting your target CPA on ads required to reach your revenue targets from ad spend?*
Use our calculator to quickly arrive at a back-of-the-envelope estimate for your target CPA (and ad spend requirements) using historical data.

In lieu of historical data, use industry standard metrics (input 2% for CTR, 2% for store’s conversion rate, and $0.40 CPC.) Please choose one.
- We’re hitting our target CPA, but we’d like to see if we can lower it.
- We’re very close to our target CPA, but can’t quite seem to get there.
- We’re missing the mark but we know exactly what needs to happen to get closer.
- We’re eons away from our target CPA and the amount we have to spend to convert a cold audience member into a customer is far too high.
- What’s a CPA? Is that like an accountant?

Scalability Assessment

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