Today’s episode cuts straight to a costly mistake holding back serious growth for Shopify brands: disconnected marketing systems and fragmented execution.
If acquisition costs are creeping up, lifetime value feels stuck, and your paid channels and retention efforts are running in silos, this is your blueprint to unify your approach and unlock real, profitable growth.
Joining me is Bobby Palmieri, co-founder and CEO of Lilo Social—a two-time Inc. 5000 agency, Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, and one of Klaviyo’s Master Elite partners (top 0.2% worldwide). Bobby’s team manages over $100 million in ad spend for DTC brands, setting the pace with full-funnel strategy, fresh creative processes, and AI-powered insights. In this episode, we dig into Lilo Social’s holistic playbook: how their creative development, testing frameworks, and attribution models fuel momentum and breakthrough results for leading Shopify merchants.
What You’ll Learn
✅ Why siloed marketing kills growth – The hidden costs of disconnected ad, email, and creative teams, and how full-funnel alignment drives real profitability
✅ Lilo’s proven full-funnel system – How they unify paid media, email/SMS, landing pages, and creative into one revenue-driving engine
✅ The message-first creative formula – Why emotional triggers beat competitor copying and brute-force asset production every time
✅ AI as your competitive moat – How leading brands use automation to surface winning angles, accelerate creation, and outpace competitors
✅ Attribution without the confusion – Practical methods to tie spend to results, hold channels accountable, and avoid platform over-reporting
✅ Email and SMS growth engines – How constant testing and cross-channel feedback transform retention channels into profit drivers
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Episode Summary
Steve and Bobby dive into the problem plaguing so many Shopify merchants: marketing chaos. When paid ads, email, and creative teams work in silos, the result is rising acquisition costs, flat lifetime value, and a lot of frustrated founders. Bobby breaks down Lilo Social’s “full-funnel” approach—getting every touchpoint aligned, focusing on real business metrics instead of vanity ROAS numbers, and making sure your messaging stays consistent whether someone sees your ad, lands on your page, or gets your email.
Bobby walks through their creative development process, which starts with digging deep into competitor reviews and ad comments to find what actually makes people buy. No more guessing or copying templates—it’s all about understanding the emotional triggers first, then building the creative around that. He also shares how they’re using AI to speed things up, from analyzing thousands of reviews in minutes to creating visually striking ads that are intentionally “fake” to grab attention in crowded feeds.
They tackle the attribution mess that’s driving everyone crazy. Bobby’s solution? Clean up the overlap with strict customer exclusions in paid channels, use Shopify as your single source of truth, and focus on click-based attribution to see what’s actually driving incremental sales. Plus, they discuss how to transform email and SMS from basic automated flows into active growth engines through constant testing, cross-team insights, and smart segmentation strategies.
Strategic Takeaways
- Unify creative, paid, and retention efforts – Full-funnel integration is the fastest path to scalable, profitable growth
- Message-first creative beats templates – Focus on emotional triggers that actually convert, not copying what others are doing
- Use AI for speed and insights – Let AI find patterns in customer feedback and ad comments to uncover winning angles fast
- Get attribution right – Hold each channel accountable with click-based attribution, and always tie spend back to real revenue
- Landing pages create leverage – Build specific pages for your top ad angles and offers—your homepage can’t do everything
- Make email and SMS active channels – Constant A/B testing and cross-team insights are key to maximizing lifetime value
- Creative fatigue is inevitable – On-demand creative services and smart retention strategies keep brands agile and growth momentum strong
Guest Spotlight
Bobby Palmieri
Co-founder & CEO, Lilo Social
Bobby leads one of the top performance marketing agencies in North America, managing $100M+ in ad spend, and has helped hundreds of DTC brands overcome marketing chaos and scale profitably. His expertise spans paid media strategy, advanced creative production, leading-edge AI adoption, and holistic retention growth.
Guest Information
Connect with Bobby:
- Website: Lilo Social
- LinkedIn: Bobby Palmieri
- Email: [email protected]
Links & Resources
- Lilo Social
- Shopify
- Klaviyo
- Facebook Ads (Meta)
- Google Ads
- Triple Whale
- Northbeam
- True Botanicals
- Hum Nutrition
- TikTok
Thanks for Supporting the Pod!
Over the past eight seasons, I’ve been incredibly lucky to chat with some of the brightest founders in ecommerce building remarkable Shopify brands and partners shaping the app and marketing ecosystem. Honestly, every conversation has taught me something new, and I’m grateful for the chance to learn alongside you.
What matters most is that this podcast helps you solve real challenges and unlock new growth for your business. Your support, feedback, and stories have made this journey truly special. Thanks for tuning in, sharing your wins, losses, and being part of the eCommerce Fastlane community.
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