Marketing Operators

“She has built an amazing system and an amazing flywheel.”
What separates a performance creative director worth hiring from one who just manages a content calendar? 
Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) dig into what it takes to hire a director of performance creative today, why the creative strategist role has split into two distinct skill sets, and how AI agents are emerging as a serious ecommerce conversion rate optimization play. 
They debate whether a great creative strategist should be an operator or an ideator. The answer is neither alone. Both hosts unpack why less prescriptive creator briefs are now producing better-performing ads than heavily scripted ones. The hosts close with a quick over-under on the retention tools most brands either overinvest in or ignore entirely. 
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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 
https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026 
NeonPixel 
https://9ops.co/neonpixel 
Richpanel 
https://9ops.co/richpanel 
Aftersell 
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Haus 
https://www.haus.io/operators 
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/

“All bad tests turn good and all good tests turn bad.” 
How do you run ecommerce A/B testing faster without sacrificing statistical confidence?
Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) debate when to burn the current site down and rebuild versus grinding out incremental wins one test at a time. The answer depends on what you can afford to get wrong. 
They cover Ridge’s live theme rebuild, HexClad’s 27% RPU lift from a single collection-page interstitial in Japan, and the case for running four variants instead of two. Cody also breaks down the qualitative research stack that helped Jones Road Beauty string together six consecutive winning tests. 
Powered By 
Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 
https://motionapp.com/thumbstop-pulse/creative-benchmarks-2026?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-benchmarks-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast 
Haus
https://www.haus.io/operators 
Richpanel
https://9ops.co/richpanel 
Aftersell
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Operators Newsletter
https://9operators.com/

“It’s not a test. It’s diversity for the Meta algorithm.” 
Can running more landing pages hurt your ability to make decisions? 
Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) dig into landing page optimization strategy, conversion rate optimization for Meta ads, and when structured testing is the wrong tool entirely. They cover what Jones Road learned from overdeveloping pages and what a disastrous A/B test on a new offer taught Ridge about how Meta allocates spend. 
They examine the operational cost of landing page sprawl, how to structure a site-wide theme A/B test without introducing too many variables, and whether DTC brands at scale should slow down product launches or double down on them. AG1’s move into creatine opens a broader conversation about the limits of single-SKU subscription businesses along with where product expansion makes sense. 
Powered By 
Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 
https://motionapp.com/thumbstop-pulse/creative-benchmarks-2026?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-benchmarks-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast 
Aftersell 
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Haus 
https://www.haus.io/operators 
Richpanel 
https://9ops.co/richpanel 
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/

“We used to try to win every day. Now we’re willing to sacrifice entire months.”
What does it mean to optimize ad spend when there’s no universal answer?
Michael Ting (GM of DTC, JAXXON) joins Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) to challenge one of the most common assumptions in ecommerce email marketing and paid media: that there is a single optimized ad spend. There isn’t. The better question is what you’re trying to achieve and over what time horizon.
Michael walks through how JAXXON uses cost per email signup to make confident budget decisions, spending aggressively into slow seasons and monetizing that list when it matters most. The conversation also covers decision quality frameworks, doubling AB testing velocity, and how daily performance reporting builds operator instinct over time.
Powered By 
Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 
https://motionapp.com/thumbstop-pulse/creative-benchmarks-2026?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-benchmarks-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast 
Richpanel
https://9ops.co/richpanel 
Aftersell
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Haus
https://www.haus.io/operators 
Operators Newsletter
https://9operators.com/

“The digital deliverables have outpaced production company knowledge.”
How do you build a repeatable content creation process without hiring a full agency?
Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) break down how they approach content production across every budget level; ranging from $50k brand shoot days to $100 iPhone clips that outperform everything else in the ad account.  
The episode covers the full content production stack: multi-team shoot briefing, on-set creative strategy, and the in-house studio advantage. The trio also gets into clipping, AI-generated UGC, and whether dead internet theory is already shaping how products go viral.
Powered By 
Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 
https://motionapp.com/thumbstop-pulse/creative-benchmarks-2026?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-benchmarks-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast 
Haus
https://www.haus.io/operators 
Richpanel
https://9ops.co/richpanel 
Aftersell
https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 
Operators Newsletter
https://9operators.com/