In this session from Commerce Roundtable San Diego, Ronak Shah, Co-Founder and CEO of Obvi, and Abir Syed, a fractional CFO for eCommerce brands, break down how to build a smart, scalable marketing budget. They share how to interpret key financial data, understand marketing expenses within your P&L, and use contribution margins and LTV to CAC ratios to make better decisions that drive growth.
They also dive into practical strategies for improving profitability, from incrementality testing and cash flow management to using modern dashboards instead of outdated spreadsheets. Ronak and Abir reveal real-world tactics for boosting performance through A/B testing, influencer partnerships, subscription growth, and international expansion. Perfect for founders and operators who want to turn their numbers into strategy and scale with confidence.
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00:00 Understanding the Role of a Fractional CFO in E-commerce
01:03 Introduction and Background of the Speakers
03:36 Setting Up a Marketing Budget in Today's Economy
04:06 The Importance of Quality Decisions and Data Interpretation
05:20 Traditional vs. E-commerce Budgeting Approaches
07:56 Complexities of Budgeting for Growing Brands
14:24 Optimizing LTV to CAC Ratios and Cash Flow
18:33 Incrementality Testing and Its Importance
22:25 Challenges with TikTok Attribution
22:48 Understanding Incrementality Coefficients
22:58 Creating an Attribution Table
24:41 Budget Allocation Framework
25:41 Considering Payback Periods
27:58 The Importance of Channel Fragility
31:38 Practical E-commerce Hacks
37:04 Q&A Session
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Follow Ronak Shah at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronak06/
X: https://x.com/obviceo?lang=en
Follow Abir Syed at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abir-syed/?originalSubdomain=ca
X: https://x.com/Abir_CPA
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