Joshua Uebergang

The alternative is to choose a single market and treat focus as mostly refusal: 'Focus is saying no to a lot than yes to the few.' A market is judged against four tests — does it have money, is it growing, does it feel pain, urgency or irrational passion, and are people actively searching for a solution.

• Missing one is survivable; missing two makes everything harder.
• Shopify in 2015 passed all four, at a time when people who could not write code were launching brands in a weekend while competing platforms cost thousands and broke on launch day.

The proof offered is a cycling store client that stayed four years and grew 2,100% into a multi-million-dollar company, opening a physical shop and winning stockists who had previously refused to carry it.

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Uebergang argues that customers in crowded categories have heard every promise, guarantee and logo, so the job is to offer a reason to believe based on real results rather than manufactured claims.

• The method has three parts: start from the frustration behind the purchase instead of adjectives like 'simple' or 'effective'; carry the same argument through the whole chain from ad to product page to images and demonstrations; and check that each claim has proof.
• Proof is specific, not louder.

One example: a review about how someone uses a product every morning may answer a buyer's doubt better than a broad five-star quote, and a short demo may do more than another paragraph of benefits. The Microsoft Ads post follows the same approach, leading with measured cost per sale and order value before explaining why the channel works.

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The 50-64 age bracket is overrepresented on the platform, often people who bought a Windows computer from a local shop, opened Edge and never changed the default search engine.

• Because fewer advertisers compete there, clicks cost less while conversion rates stay comparable, which underpins the return.
• The argument is deliberately bounded: the channel will not replace Google and represents roughly 10% of Google's search volume, so the case is margin per conversion rather than scale.
• Evaluation is proposed over months, not days.

For one one-man Shopify store, they report $100,000 a year in added revenue, a $137 average order value on Microsoft against $123 on Google, cost per sale 13% lower, clicks 20% cheaper, and the 50-64 group converting at 5.2%.

• Most sales came from people who had never heard of the store, with no branded search and no retargeting.
• The setup advice is specific: import the existing Google campaigns, set separate budgets and bids, install the UET tag on Shopify, watch new search terms, and avoid the audience network.

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Channel and placement decisions are framed as unit-economics questions, with a stated willingness to decline high-end retail placements that looked impressive but lost money after staffing costs, channels that will not work for a particular store, and retainers sold to people who do not need them.

In the Jaxon Lane teardown, the founders stayed lean, watched unit economics and cut high-end stores whose staffing costs outweighed the exposure. In the Microsoft Ads case, the same store's Google and Microsoft results are compared on cost per sale and average order value rather than total spend.

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The working rule behind this is to avoid making a dollar that does not help someone — not save-a-life help, just being able to tell a customer they made a good choice. It informs choices visible in the other posts: working only on Shopify, saying on a first call that a channel will not work, and not selling unnecessary retainers.

The origin story is selling about $140,000 of male supplements at 23 from their parents' house by ranking a site at the top of Google, without finding out whether the tablets did anything or reading one of the hundreds of testimonials — described in hindsight as greed. The contrast with the later rule is the clearest stated change of position in the posts.

The early venture — ranking a product they never verified and showing indifference to its buyers — is presented as the reason for the later standard on channel and client selection, not as current practice.

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Meet and test suppliers in person when quality is the bottleneck, because emails only go so far; build fulfilment as if demand were already proven, because high minimums can force scale on a brand; and put formulations through repeated rounds because buyers decide quickly and will not reorder without results.

• The same instinct appears in a manufacturing post, where small, systematic changes are credited with freeing space and improving how the work feels.
• That post separately names its guest: Ryan Tierney, author of Lean Made Simple, who acquired the 63-year-old metal company Sperrin Metal and led the improvement work.

In the Jaxon Lane teardown, the founders spent nearly a year sourcing sheet masks online, found samples failed in real use, then travelled to Korea for trade shows, factory visits and on-the-spot testing; a first run above 30,000 units, forced by sheet-mask minimums, pushed them straight into a 3PL; each product went through 5 to 10 formulation rounds with chemists and dermatologists; PR on a modest budget came before paid ads and led to press coverage, celebrity seeding and a Wall Street Journal feature.

• In the Sperrin Metal post, the details highlighted are a brush-and-shovel holder on a wall and arrows on a machine label showing what is up, down, clockwise and anticlockwise.
• A company veteran is quoted as saying there were more changes in 50 days than in the previous 53 years.

This thread sits outside the ecommerce and paid-search lane that otherwise defines the public work. The Sperrin Metal post has no commercial offer or ecommerce application, but shows a wider interest in operational systems rather than a service a brand could book.

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It is the most concrete, numbers-first piece in the set and a natural entry point for anyone assessing paid search beyond Google.

Joshua reports adding $100,000 a year in revenue for a one-person Shopify store through Microsoft Ads, with figures attached: a $137 average order value on Microsoft against $123 on Google, cost per sale 13% lower, and clicks 20% cheaper.

• They say most sales came from people who had never heard of the store, with no branded searches and no retargeting, and that the 50-64 age bracket is overrepresented on the platform, converting at 5.2% for that client.
• The explanation is straightforward: that age group often uses a Windows computer with Edge and never changed the default search engine, so they search with intent and buy.
• The post is candid about the ceiling, putting Microsoft at roughly 10% of Google's search volume, and argues that a fraction converting at lower cost and higher order value is still worth having.
• The closing advice is specific: import existing Google Ads campaigns with the built-in tool, set separate budgets and bids because performance differs, install the UET tag on Shopify to track purchases, watch new search terms, skip the audience network, and wait a few months of clean data before judging.

For brands planning a campaign

A pilot can be scoped directly from this: import the existing Google campaigns, split budgets and bids, install the UET tag on the Shopify store, exclude the audience network, review search terms, and judge after several months. The reported 13% lower cost per sale and higher order value set the numbers a brand would want to match or beat; the 50-64 audience skew can inform targeting and creative.

A newcomer gets the reasoning, not just the claim.

Joshua describes leaving agencies that said yes to everything and watching them spend twice the time and money to solve a problem half as well.

• In 2015, they bet the agency on search marketing for Shopify, at the time becoming what they describe as Australia's first marketing-focused Shopify Expert.
• The post lays out four tests applied to a market: whether it has money, whether it is growing, whether it feels pain, urgency or irrational passion, and whether people are actively searching for a solution.
• Miss one and you can still do well, they write; miss two and everything gets harder.
• Shopify in 2015 passed all four because people who could not write code were launching brands in a weekend while competing platforms cost thousands and broke on launch day.
• The proof offered is a cycling store client that stayed four years and grew 2,100% into a multi-million-dollar company, opening a physical shop and winning stockists who had previously refused.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for judging fit as much as method. The four tests offer a reusable filter for whether a brand's category is worth narrow search investment, and the cycling store example shows the kind of long-horizon relationship Joshua tends to describe: a four-year client rather than a short project.

The origin story shows the standard they apply to later client work, including the willingness to tell a store a channel will not work for them.

Joshua writes about selling roughly $140,000 of male supplements at 23 from their parents' house, using the ability to rank a website at the top of Google and pointing it at what the post calls the most cutthroat industry available.

• They state plainly that they never found out whether the tablets did anything, that there were hundreds of testimonials on the site and none was checked, and that not caring about the men buying it was greed.
• The rule that came out of it, still applied, is not to make a dollar that does not help someone — not save-a-life help, just being able to tell a customer they made a good choice.
• The post ties that rule to three current behaviours: working only on Shopify, telling a store on the first call that a channel will not work, and not selling retainers to people who do not need one.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the clearest evidence of how Joshua frames honesty in client relationships, including turning down work. A brand weighing up an agency should read it as a statement of how the first call may go and what the agency says it will decline.

It shows the advice applied end to end.

This is a study of the men's skincare brand Jaxon Lane, co-founded by husband-and-wife team Jen Yu and Alex Penfold while both worked full-time jobs, with no investors and no ad budget.

• Joshua traces the sequence: they spent nearly a year trying to source sheet masks online, found samples that failed in real use, and travelled to Korea for trade shows, factory visits and on-the-spot testing, improving quality and speeding up supplier relationships.
• Their first production run exceeded 30,000 units because sheet masks carry high minimums, forcing them straight into a 3PL and fulfilment built as if demand was already proven.
• Each product went through 5 to 10 formulation rounds with chemists and dermatologists, on the reasoning that men decide fast and will not reorder without results.
• They skipped paid ads early, used a friend for PR on a modest budget, and got press coverage, celebrity seeding and a Wall Street Journal feature.
• Joshua also notes they moved away from large, rigid manufacturers toward smaller, more invested partners, and cut high-end retail placements when staffing costs outweighed the exposure.

For brands planning a campaign

A template for brands with a strong product and no ad budget: fix sourcing and formulation quality first, build fulfilment for the scale the product forces on you, use PR before paid acquisition, choose flexible manufacturing partners, and judge retail by profit per channel rather than prestige. The point that revenue is not the same as progress challenges brands chasing placements.

It is the clearest statement of how Joshua thinks about copy and proof.

Joshua argues that a Shopify store can explain what a product does and still leave shoppers asking why it would work for them when the last purchase did not.

• Saturated markets, they say, have exhausted customers on promises, guarantees and logos.
• The proposed fix is to give shoppers a reason to believe, based on real, earned evidence rather than manufactured claims.
• The post gives three working steps: start from the frustration behind the purchase rather than adjectives like simple or effective, carry the same argument through the entire channel from ad to product page to images, demonstrations and reviews, and check that every claim has proof.
• A review describing how someone uses the product every morning may answer a doubt better than a broad five-star quote, and a short demo may do more than another paragraph of benefits.
• The aim is to help shoppers understand why the last purchase disappointed them and why this one fits.

For brands planning a campaign

Applies directly to creative testing. Instead of new benefit copy, brief assets around the frustration that precedes the purchase, run one argument consistently from ad through landing page, and pair each claim with a specific review or demo rather than generic star ratings.

Useful for readers who want to see the analytical style, not just the advice.

Joshua writes about Ryan Tierney, author of Lean Made Simple, acquiring the 63-year-old metal company Sperrin Metal and leading 50 days of continuous improvement.

• The post picks out small changes — a brush and shovel holder on a wall, and arrows added to a machine label showing what is up, down, clockwise and anticlockwise — and quotes a company veteran saying there were more changes in 50 days than in the previous 53 years.
• Joshua reports that 5,000 square feet was opened up through the efficiency work, and argues that the easy thing to miss is how much better the people feel: taking ownership and showing excitement, with the organised environment producing a better product and customer experience.
• A link to the video is included.

For brands planning a campaign

A reminder to weigh operational and team effects alongside output metrics. For a brand evaluating partners or running a pilot, it supports judging a change by whether the people executing it take ownership, not only by the space or cost it saves.

It offers a quick read on the stance in the longer posts.

Asked what they wish someone had told them about ecommerce 10 years ago, Joshua answers with two words: nobody is coming.

• The post describes owners waiting for a glimmer of hope — a YouTuber with the latest secret, a hire, a mentor, an investor or an agency — and notes that they run an agency but still say it.
• The conclusion: the owner is the person who changes the business.

For brands planning a campaign

Sets expectations for how Joshua positions agency work: as support for an owner who is already acting, not as the thing that rescues a store. Brands expecting an agency to carry the business should consider whether that suits the relationship they want.

For one Shopify store run by a single owner, Uebergang reports that Microsoft Ads generated $100,000 a year in added revenue, with an average order value of $137 against $123 on Google, a cost per sale 13% lower and clicks 20% cheaper.

• Most of the revenue came from people who had never heard of the store, with no branded search and no retargeting.
• The case rests on reach, not a clever tactic: the 50-64 age group is overrepresented among Bing users, many of them on a Windows machine using the Edge default they never changed.
• They are direct that the channel will not replace Google and represents roughly 10% of Google's search volume, making the case about margin per conversion, not scale.

Compares one client store's Microsoft results with its Google results on cost per sale, click cost and average order value, then attributes the gap to who uses the platform rather than targeting tricks.

The 10%-of-Google search-volume ceiling is presented as a real limit on how much growth the channel can deliver.

For brands planning a campaign

A brand considering a Microsoft pilot gets a concrete setup path: import existing Google Ads campaigns with Microsoft's built-in tool, set separate budgets and bids because performance differs, install the UET tag on Shopify to capture purchases, monitor new search terms, avoid the audience network and give the channel a few months of clean data before judging it. Treat the reported numbers as one store's results, not a benchmark.

Examples: Source 1

Their four-test filter asks whether a market has money, is growing, feels pain, urgency or an irrational passion, and has people actively searching for a solution.

• Shopify passed all four at a time when non-coders were launching brands in a weekend while a Magento store cost thousands and broke on launch day.
• The stated payoff is focus rather than volume, illustrated by a cycling store client that stayed four years and grew into a multi-million-dollar business.

Market selection distilled into four questions, with focus treated as saying no more often than yes.

For brands planning a campaign

Expect a narrow channel recommendation and a willingness to decline work. A brand looking for a broad-channel agency will get a Shopify-and-search answer; the upside is that expanding paid search beyond Google fits the stated specialty.

Examples: Source 1

Uebergang frames buying as a search for hope that this time the product will work, then grounds it in routine frustrations: a skincare routine abandoned because it takes too many steps, a cotton t-shirt that will not stretch, a makeup product that does not highlight wrinkles. They recommend naming the recognised problem in the ad, explaining the difference in plain language on the product page, and showing it with images, demonstrations and reviews.

Checks every claim for proof across the chain from ad to product page, favouring a review about how someone uses the product every morning over a broad five-star quote.

For brands planning a campaign

For a brand running paid search, this is the message-matching layer: the search ad and landing page should name the same frustration the searcher brought with them, then back up the difference with a specific demonstration or usage review rather than a generic benefit claim.

Examples: Source 1

It covers the founding couple sourcing masks online for nearly a year, then travelling to Korea for trade shows, factory visits and on-the-spot testing; a first production run above 30,000 units, forced by sheet-mask minimums; five to ten formulation rounds per product; PR on a modest budget before any ad spend, leading to press, celebrity seeding and a Wall Street Journal feature; moving from large rigid manufacturers to smaller, more invested partners; and cutting retail placements whose staffing costs outweighed the exposure.

A third-party case built around a founder's decision, followed by numbered takeaways pitched as transferable rules rather than brand trivia.

The subject is another company, not a client of Uebergang's agency, so the post analyses the brand's choices rather than agency results.

For brands planning a campaign

A useful template for a credible brand story in a crowded category: a clear problem, evidence of product effort, press earned before ads, and partners treated as collaborators. It also signals that Uebergang will scrutinise product quality and unit economics before growth tactics.

Examples: Source 1

In the Jaxon Lane case, the founders stayed lean, watched unit economics and walked away from high-end retail placements that looked good but lost money.

• The personal version is a rule Uebergang says they have followed since selling male supplements at 23: not making a dollar that does not help someone.
• That means working only on Shopify, telling a store on the first call when a channel will not work for them, and not selling retainers to people who do not need one.

Treats channel and placement decisions as unit-economics questions, with an explicit willingness to say no to placements and clients.

For brands planning a campaign

A brand pitching a pilot should expect to discuss cost per sale, average order value and margin by channel, and bring data to support the case. A channel that cannot show a return will likely be declined rather than quietly run.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Uebergang describes owners waiting for a YouTuber with the latest secret, a hire, a mentor, an investor or an agency to change the business, and says plainly, as an agency owner, that the person who changes the business is the owner. The origin post supplies the counterpart: an early venture where they ranked a site for male supplements but never checked whether the tablets worked or read a single testimonial, behaviour they call greed in hindsight.

The post is motivational and ethical rather than operational, offering limited evidence about how a campaign would run.

For brands planning a campaign

Signals a working style that leaves execution and decision-making to the brand. A brand considering an agency should not expect to outsource judgement, and should expect candid feedback on whether a proposed channel or retainer makes sense.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Uebergang highlights a brush-and-shovel holder on the wall, arrows added to a machine label to show which way is up, down, clockwise and anti-clockwise, 5,000 square feet freed up by the changes, and a veteran's remark that there had been more changes in 50 days than in the previous 53 years. They close by noting how much better the people doing the work feel once they take ownership.

No commercial offer or ecommerce application is attached; ask whether this operational-systems work is available to book.

For brands planning a campaign

Adds a lean-operations streak to a marketer whose public work is otherwise paid search and Shopify. Brands facing bottlenecks in fulfilment, storage or warehouse operations should ask whether Uebergang offers related services.

Examples: Source 1

They say the agency works only on Shopify.

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They argue the channel is undervalued because it reaches older, high-intent searchers at lower cost.

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They overlap with Uebergang’s practical advice for Shopify stores and data-led marketing.

The examples focus on Google Shopping readiness and conversion improvements for a makeup store, rather than Uebergang’s paid-search channel comparisons and Shopify specialization.

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They’re relevant to readers exploring Uebergang’s paid-search guidance.

Wyatt’s examples concentrate on product-feed segmentation and Google campaign structure; Uebergang’s posts emphasize Microsoft Ads as an additional channel and the store-level economics behind channel choices.

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They connect with Uebergang’s emphasis on comparing channels by cost per sale, order value, and profit rather than headline revenue.

Tesselaar’s examples focus on margins, new-customer acquisition, and structuring Performance Max; Uebergang’s clearest paid-search example compares Microsoft Ads with Google for one Shopify store.

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In one post, Robin explains why ROAS can hide low margins, returning-customer sales, and diminishing returns, then recommends checking profit, new-customer acquisition, and incremental spend. That analysis could help a Shopify brand set its economics and reporting criteria before testing Microsoft Ads.

The reviewed examples focus on Google Ads and Performance Max, not Microsoft Ads or a cross-platform expansion plan. Joshua Uebergang is the closer match for a Microsoft Ads pilot alongside Google, including setup and measurement steps.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

One post describes using product labels, sales and impression thresholds, best-seller data, and margin information to structure those campaigns. That is useful when a store’s immediate concern is giving products more deliberate coverage within Google Ads.

The reviewed examples address Google Shopping and Performance Max, not Microsoft Ads. Ask for a direct Microsoft-versus-Google comparison and pilot plan.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2