Every Shopify brand scaling beyond seven figures faces the same maddening challenge: where is your ad spend actually working?

You’re pouring budget into Facebook, Google, TikTok, email campaigns, and a dozen other channels—but thanks to iOS updates and platform-biased reporting, you’re essentially flying blind. Worse yet, many brands are unknowingly doubling down on channels that are bleeding money while cutting budgets from their most profitable campaigns.

Scott Desgrosseilliers, Founder and CEO of Wicked Reports, has spent over a decade solving exactly this problem. His marketing attribution platform has helped household names like Cheech & Chong and Neil Patel’s NP Digital transition from guesswork to data-driven growth.

In today’s episode, Scott shares his journey from helping a lobster company crack Facebook attribution to developing the Five Forces framework—a systematic approach that turns attribution chaos into actionable growth strategies. You’ll discover how to identify which campaigns deserve more budget, which ones are silently sabotaging your growth, and how to build measurement systems that actually support your marketing strategy.

If you’ve ever questioned whether your attribution data is telling the real story, this conversation will change how you think about measuring and scaling your DTC brand.

What You’ll Learn

✅  Why pixel ROAS misleads: Meta and Google dashboards inflate their own role in conversions, putting brands at risk of doubling down on false winners while missing the true profit drivers.

✅  The Five Forces Framework: Intention, Expectation, Action, Outcome, and Optimization—Scott’s systematic approach to bucket every campaign into “Scale,” “Chill,” or “Kill,” removing emotion from budgeting and driving clear, revenue-impacting decisions.

✅  Mastering new customer acquisition: Top-of-funnel campaigns always look less promising in dashboards, yet they’re the #1 engine for sustainable growth—why measuring only retargeting ROAS hides reality and stalls your scale.

✅  Why timing kills attribution: 7-day attribution windows are too short for most DTC brands—discover why most profitable sales take far longer and how real conversion lag time must shape campaign evaluation, especially before Q4 peaks.

✅  AI-driven recommendations that work: How Wicked Reports delivers “daily to-do lists”—not just dashboards—by integrating Shopify, paid media, CRM, and email data to pinpoint exactly what action will drive profitable growth next.

✅  Team and financial alignment: Building a unified “single source of truth” so marketing, finance, and leadership finally align on what’s working, what needs fixing, and where spend should go next.

Episode Sponsor: ShipBob

Episode Summary

Scott Desgrosseilliers didn’t plan to revolutionize attribution—he was just trying to help a friend’s lobster company understand why their Facebook ads seemed worthless. That $4,000 “failed” campaign actually generated nearly $100,000 in revenue over three months, but traditional tracking missed it entirely.

This eye-opening experience led Scott to build Wicked Reports after discovering most businesses can’t afford enterprise attribution solutions. Starting with manual UTM tracking and Excel presentations at Infusionsoft events, he caught the attention of industry leaders like Ryan Deiss, who became an early customer.

The conversation reveals how major brands like Cheech & Chong and Neil Patel’s team have transformed their marketing approach using Scott’s methodology. Steve and Scott dive into real examples of brands unknowingly scaling campaigns that target existing customers while starving the top-funnel campaigns that actually drive new growth.

Scott walks through his Five Forces framework with practical examples, showing how brands can move from overwhelming data to clear Scale/Chill/Kill decisions. The discussion gets tactical around attribution windows, new customer signals, and why most brands are measuring success all wrong in the post-iOS landscape.

The episode concludes with Scott’s vision for AI-powered attribution that delivers daily action items instead of static dashboards, and how proper attribution alignment can eliminate the constant battles between marketing and finance teams.

Strategic Takeaways

Guest Spotlight

Scott Desgrosseilliers
Founder & CEO, Wicked Reports

Scott never intended to revolutionize marketing attribution. After running databases at Apartments.com, he was moonlighting as a CRM consultant when a friend’s lobster company asked for help with “failing” Facebook ads. That simple $4,000 campaign turned out to generate nearly $100,000 in revenue—but traditional tracking completely missed it.

This revelation sparked Scott’s mission to make enterprise-level attribution accessible to growing brands. Starting with pivot table presentations at Infusionsoft events, he quickly gained attention from industry leaders like Digital Marketer’s Ryan Deiss. Today, after 25,000+ hours of hands-on attribution work, Scott’s platform serves major brands and agencies—including household names like Cheech & Chong and Neil Patel’s NP Digital team—delivering the clarity and confidence needed to make profitable marketing decisions through transparent first-party data and AI-powered recommendations.

Links & Resources

Main Tools & Platforms:

• Wicked Reports – Scott’s marketing attribution platform

• Shopify – E-commerce platform discussed throughout

• Klaviyo – Email platform mentioned for attribution tracking

Key Resources Mentioned:

• Meta Signal Tool – For tracking new customer conversions

• Five Forces Framework – Scott’s methodology (Intention → Expectation → Action → Outcome → Optimize)

• Wicked Reports Case Studies

Getting Started with Attribution:

• UTM parameter tracking for email/SMS campaigns

• 30-day attribution windows for new customer acquisition

• Scale/Chill/Kill campaign classification system

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