For new and relaunching product brands
You have a product. You do not have a market yet.
A launch is not a scaling problem. There is no conversion history to bid on, no imagery to advertise with, and no reason yet for a stranger to believe you. The usual playbook improves something that already works, and none of it applies. I build the commercial layer first, then run the media once there is something for it to convert against.
01 The starting position
Six things a launch
does not have yet.
None of these are failures. They are what it means to be early. The mistake is buying traffic before they are addressed, which is the order most launches run in.
-
No storefront worth landing on
A stock theme with factory photography converts nothing, so every click bought before it is fixed only teaches you what you already knew.
-
No imagery beyond the factory shots
A new product usually has a handful of supplier images and nothing showing it in use. That is the asset the ads, the storefront and the listings all depend on.
-
No reason to be believed
Zero reviews, no press, no installed base. The buyer has never heard of you and has no way to check whether the product is real.
-
No demand data to bid on
Smart Bidding learns from conversions. A launch has none, so the algorithm has nothing to optimize toward and spends the budget finding out.
-
Spend starts before any of that is true
The usual sequence is to buy traffic first and fix the destination later. It is the most expensive possible order to do the work in.
-
Six vendors quoted for one launch
Brand, web, photography, video, content and media arrive as six separate engagements with six timelines that do not line up.
02 What I build
The commercial layer,
in the order it has to happen.
This is the one engagement where doing every discipline under one operator is a requirement rather than a convenience. A launch needs all of it at once, and the decisions have to agree with each other.
- 01
Positioning before pixels
Who the buyer is, what they are comparing you against, and the one claim worth making. Every asset after this inherits that decision, so it is the first constraint rather than a workshop deliverable.
- 02
The storefront
A store built around how the product is chosen, not a theme with your logo dropped into it. Fast, structured for search, and built to be added to as the catalogue grows.
- 03
Product imagery and video
Studio-grade product renders and in-use scenes produced in house, plus video cut to the aspect ratios each placement needs. This is the bottleneck that usually delays a launch by months, and it is the part I do not outsource.
- 04
The proof layer
The reason a stranger believes an unknown brand. Review capture wired in from the first order, content that answers what the buyer asks before purchase, and the listings and profiles that get the brand quoted elsewhere.
- 05
The media plan, and when not to run it
Paid media goes live when there is something for it to convert against, and not before. On the launch below, the most valuable thing I delivered in month one was a written recommendation not to spend the search budget yet.
- 06
The channels the buyer is in
For a trade product that can mean the jobsite and the distributor, not only the auction. I build for where the buying decision happens rather than where the reporting is easiest.
03 What it costs
One project,
then the program.
The launch project
$8,000
Positioning, the storefront, product imagery and video, and the media plan. Delivered as one engagement with one person accountable for it, rather than six suppliers and six timelines.
After launch
Ongoing management runs on the standard ecommerce retainer, from $3,950 a month with a three month minimum. Full pricing sits on the pricing page. If the product is not ready to carry that, I will tell you before the project starts rather than after.
04 Fit
Worth reading
before you book.
Who this is for
- →The product exists, is manufactured, and you can ship it today.
- →You own the category decision and can approve positioning without a committee.
- →You would rather spend the first month building the thing that converts than buying clicks.
- →You want one operator accountable for the whole commercial layer.
Who this is not for
- ×The product is still a concept, a prototype, or waiting on tooling.
- ×You need a logo and nothing else.
- ×You want media live next week regardless of whether anything is ready to convert.
- ×You are assembling the cheapest possible version of each piece from six suppliers.
05 FAQ
Before you ask.
Does the product need to be finished before you start?
What does a launch cost?
Why not hire a brand agency, a photographer and a media buyer separately?
When does paid media start?
How much of this have you done end to end?
Ready to talk