Ecommerce treadmill is a bad business model

Most ecommerce agencies optimize for ROAS and call it a strategy. You get a dashboard full of green numbers and a brand nobody remembers. We do the opposite. We make ecommerce brands famous — so your acquisition costs drop, your repeat rate climbs, and you stop renting attention you should own.

You spend more every quarter to get the same number of customers. CAC goes up. ROAS goes down. Your agency tells you to increase budget. The algorithm changed. Competitors bid higher. So you bid higher too.This is what happens when your entire marketing strategy is direct response and nothing else. No brand. No mental availability.

No reason for anyone to choose you over the next sponsored post in their feed.

The DTC brands that scaled profitably — Gymshark, Allbirds, Glossier — invested in being known, not just being clicked. Fame reduces acquisition costs because people search for you by name instead of discovering you through a €4 CPM.

68%
DTC brands report rising CAC year-over-year
40%
of ecommerce ad spend is wasted on audiences with zero brand awareness
3x
cheaper to acquire a customer who already knows your brand
2.4x
higher LTV for customers acquired through brand-led campaigns

Ecommerce marketing that compounds

Google Shopping, Performance Max, and Search campaigns built around your product feed, margins, and growth targets. We manage Google Merchant Center, optimize your feed structure, and build PMax campaigns with segmented asset groups — not the single-campaign-dump that most agencies default to.

Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, and Reddit ads for ecommerce. We build full-funnel campaign structures: awareness creative that earns attention, consideration ads that educate, and conversion campaigns that close. The creative strategy matters more than the bid strategy — we produce scroll-stopping ads grounded in your brand positioning.

This is what separates us from every other ecommerce agency. We do the positioning work that gives your brand a reason to exist beyond price and convenience. Category entry points. Distinctive brand assets. Mental availability. That's your strategic foundation that makes every ad dollar work harder.

Email, CRM & Lifecycle Marketing

Your highest-margin channel is email. We build Klaviyo flows — welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back, VIP — that turn one-time buyers into repeat customers. Campaign calendars tied to your product drops and promotions. Our segmentations go deeper than "opened an email in the last 30 days."

Conversion Rate Optimization

Traffic is expensive. Wasting it on a store that doesn't convert is more expensive. We run structured CRO programs: landing page optimization, checkout flow analysis, A/B testing on product pages, and post-click experience audits. Focused on AOV and conversion rate improvements that multiply the return on every other channel.

We track what matters: blended ROAS, MER (marketing efficiency ratio), CAC by channel, LTV by cohort, and contribution margin. Not the inflated platform numbers that make agencies look good and brands go broke. Media mix modelling, brand lift studies, and incrementality testing so you know what's actually working.

We work with your ecommerce stack

based is not a dev shop. Not a Shopify theme builder. We're the marketing team that plugs into your existing ecommerce platform and makes it sell.
Integration iconIntegration iconIntegration iconIntegration iconIntegration iconIntegration iconIntegration iconIntegration iconIntegration icon

The metrics we optimize

Not impressions. Not CTR. Not platform-reported ROAS in isolation. The numbers that determine whether your ecommerce business is actually growing profitably.

We don't hide behind platform data and include each client's margins, logistics, and other business specifics to deliver honest and profitable results.
ROAS
Blended return on ad spend across all channels that shows the ad's performance contribution to your sales.
MER
Marketing efficiency ratio — total revenue ÷ total marketing spend
CAC
Customer acquisition cost by channel and blended
LTV
Lifetime value by acquisition cohort

Ecommerce marketing FAQs

What ecommerce platforms do you work with?

We work with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento. Most of our ecommerce clients run on Shopify. We integrate with Google Merchant Center for Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, and with Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and Omnisend for email marketing and lifecycle automation.

What ROAS should I expect from ecommerce ads?

It depends on your category, price point, and brand maturity. A new DTC brand with no recognition might see 2–3x ROAS initially. An established brand with organic demand can hit 5–8x. We track blended ROAS (total revenue / total ad spend) alongside platform-reported ROAS because the platform numbers are always inflated. We also track MER, CAC, and LTV to give you the full picture — not a single vanity metric.

How is based. different from other ecommerce agencies?

Most ecommerce agencies are performance-only shops. They optimize for ROAS and ignore brand entirely. The result: rising acquisition costs and total dependency on paid media. We combine fame-first brand strategy with ecommerce performance marketing. We build brand campaigns that reduce your CAC over time, not just direct response campaigns that inflate it.

Do you manage Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns?

Yes. Google Shopping and Performance Max are core to our ecommerce PPC offering. We handle feed optimization through Google Merchant Center, campaign structure, bid strategy, audience signals, and creative asset management. We build PMax campaigns with segmented asset groups by product category and margin tier — not the single-campaign-dump approach most agencies default to.We report on metrics that matter for fame: reach, frequency, attention, brand lift. Not just impressions and clicks. Monthly reporting with quarterly business reviews.

What's your pricing for ecommerce marketing?

Monthly retainers starting at €4,000/month for ongoing partnerships. This covers strategy, creative, media buying, and reporting. We don't charge a percentage of ad spend — our incentives are aligned with your growth, not with convincing you to spend more.

Can you help with Klaviyo and ecommerce email marketing?

Yes. Email and lifecycle marketing are part of our ecommerce service. We build and manage Klaviyo flows (welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back), campaign calendars, and segmentation strategies. Email is where brand and performance meet — a good email program drives repeat purchases and increases LTV without increasing acquisition spend.

Do you work with DTC and direct-to-consumer brands?

DTC is a core focus. We've run campaigns for DTC apparel (Heavy Metal Artwear), DTC accessories, and DTC consumer brands. The DTC model requires different marketing than marketplace-dependent brands — you're building a direct relationship with the customer, which means brand matters more, not less.

Based? Based on what? 

based - a word used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize someone for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others think. Especially common in online political slang. The opposite of cringe, some times the opposite of biased. -Urban Dictionary

Done optimizing for mediocrity? Let's talk.

We'll let you know if we are a fit or not.