Marketing Operators

“All of these products eventually are going to come together.”
Who calls the shots once Meta’s AI takes over? 
Nik Ketkar (Director of Product Management, Meta) sits down with Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) to map Meta’s plan for AI-run media buying. 
Half of a buyer’s job is still setup, structure, and budget tweaks. Meta wants that half gone, folded into Advantage+ and Ads Creative Studio. Once the AI proposes every move, buyers have to decide how much control to keep. The richer the inputs they feed it, the easier that control is to hand over. 
Interested in trying Meta's Ads Creative Studio or the other automation products Nik discusses in this episode? Fill out this form: https://9ops.co/meta-adscreativestudio
Powered By 
Motion 
https://9ops.co/motion-runneth 
Haus 
https://www.haus.io/operators 
NeonPixel 
https://9ops.co/neonpixel 
Richpanel 
https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops 
Proppel 
https://www.weareproppel.com/operators 
Aftersell 
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Operators Portal 
https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/

“We weren’t doing a good job showing the value.” 
Where does a new brand find trust when it can’t claim a bestseller like HexClad? 
Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) compare a scaled HexClad funnel with one from the weeks-old Winks. Step by step, they trace how each one builds trust across ads, landers, offers, and upsells. 
Winks has a premium product, yet customers couldn’t see why it was worth the price. HexClad earns that trust before the click, with Japanese creators and a bestseller hook. The weeks-old brand has to build the same trust with a fraction of the proof. 
Powered By 
Motion 
https://9ops.co/motion-runneth 
Aftersell 
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Haus 
https://www.haus.io/operators 
NeonPixel 
https://9ops.co/neonpixel 
Richpanel 
https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops 
Proppel 
https://www.weareproppel.com/operators 
Operators Portal 
https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/ 

https://x.com/M__Operators 
https://www.instagram.com/marketingoperators/

“Two of our winners have entered for free. They never purchased anything from us.”
How did Ridge turn a 6-week Tony Hawk partnership into an 8-figure sweepstakes lift? 
Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) break down how sweepstakes campaigns became eight-figure growth engines for their brands. They cover celebrity deal structures, creative production, and revenue lift across every category. 
Tony Hawk’s deal doubled Ridge’s TV response rates and pushed partner-page ads to 40% of Meta spend. HexClad gets the same proof differently, running year-over-year holdouts and entry tiers that reward bigger purchases. Both track how sweepstakes shoppers scatter into unexpected categories, forcing a rethink of acquisition strategy. 
Powered By 
Motion 
https://9ops.co/motion-runneth 
Proppel 
https://www.weareproppel.com/operators 
Aftersell 
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Haus 
https://www.haus.io/operators 
NeonPixel 
https://9ops.co/neonpixel 
Richpanel 
https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops 
Operators Portal 
https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard 
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/

“There’s so much that I took for granted. It’s such a different playbook.”
What happens when two operators who’ve helped build nine-figure brands start again at zero? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (advisor and former CEO, Jones Road) compare notes on two new launches: Ridge’s Gut Culture and Cody’s Winks.
They get into six hard lessons from the early days.
(1) Building with a lean team. (2) Earning credibility when nobody knows the brand. (3) Finding a message that gets clicks. (4) Testing offers before the data is conclusive. (5) Making subscription economics work. (6) Dealing with high ad costs. Cody shares what’s happening at Winks just weeks after launch; Connor explains what Ridge learned from six months of building Gut Culture.
Powered By 
Motion 
https://9ops.co/motion-runneth 
Richpanel 
https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops 
Proppel 
https://www.weareproppel.com/operators 
Aftersell 
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Haus 
https://www.haus.io/operators 
NeonPixel 
https://9ops.co/neonpixel 
Operators Portal 
https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/

Why do experienced operators still overcorrect on average order value? 
Varun Kundra (Co-founder, Aftersell by Rokt) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) to break down the pricing missteps that quietly cost real revenue and the metric worth watching instead. 
The hosts compare years of pricing tests at Ridge and Jones Road. They cover three ways to bundle for more revenue per order. Varun explains why image heavy upsells beat plain offers, plus a subscription upgrade converting at 20% to 30%. Connor and Varun wrap with a teardown of Winks, the brand behind Operators Build. 
Powered By 
Motion 
https://9ops.co/motion-runneth 
NeonPixel 
https://9ops.co/neonpixel 
Richpanel 
https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops 
Proppel 
https://www.weareproppel.com/operators 
Aftersell 
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Haus 
https://www.haus.io/operators 
Operators Portal 
https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard 
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/