Tideway Growth Nelson Hudspeth, Brooklyn

Every channel is winning. The total isn't moving.

I help DTC brands with more than one agency figure out which numbers to trust and where the next dollar should go. It works best when you sell something people think about for a while before they buy.

Set up a 30-minute call

Added up, your channels claim more than your store made.

What the channels reported against what the store booked, in one illustrative quarter The five channel reports add up to $1.04M: paid social $380K, search $270K, email $190K, creators $110K and affiliate $90K. The store booked $800K. The $240K difference is orders counted by more than one channel. What the channels reported Paid social$380K Search$270K Email$190K Creators$110K Affiliate$90K $1.04M What the store booked $800K $240K Orders counted by more than one channel What the channels reported against what the store booked, in one illustrative quarter The five channel reports add up to $1.04M: paid social $380K, search $270K, email $190K, creators $110K and affiliate $90K. The store booked $800K. The $240K difference is orders counted by more than one channel. $1.04M $240K Affiliate $90K Creators $110K Email $190K Search $270K Paid social $380K $800K Channels reported Store booked Orders counted by more than one channel
Example numbers for one quarter, not a client's.

Nobody's doing anything wrong here. Each platform counts any order it touched within its own attribution window, and those windows overlap. So a customer who saw a paid social ad, opened an email and then searched for the brand shows up as a sale in three different reports. Each agency reports on its own channel, which is what they were hired to do, so the total doesn't belong to anyone.

Two ways to work together

  1. 01

    Growth Diagnostic

    Three weeks
    Fixed fee

    I line up what every channel says it drove against what your store booked and work out where the difference is coming from. You get a list of what to fix first, in order.

  2. 02

    Fractional Growth Lead

    About a day a week
    Three months to start

    I own the overall number and work with your agencies on it, usually on a weekly call. We decide together where the next dollar goes, and I give you a straight read on what it bought. If you start with the Diagnostic, part of that fee goes toward the first month.

If the number that isn't moving is pipeline, I can help there too. At an AI startup with no outbound function, I built the prospecting engine from scratch.

How the Diagnostic works

  1. Week 1

    Access and data

    You give me read-only access to the ad accounts, analytics, your store and the reports you get each week, and I pull the last 90 days. I also talk with your team and each agency about how their numbers get put together.

  2. Week 2

    Lining up the numbers

    I compare what each channel claims against what the store booked, day by day, and check the tracking for things like purchases being counted twice or events that never fire. Then I write down the attribution window behind each report, since that explains a lot of the gap.

  3. Week 3

    Readout

    We go through everything together in one working session. Your agencies are welcome to join, and it usually goes better when they do. They'll be the ones making most of the fixes.

What you'll have at the end

  • One set of numbers your team and agencies all report from.
  • How big the gap is and what's causing it.
  • A prioritized list of fixes, and who owns each one.
  • A straight answer on whether you need ongoing help or can run with it from here.
Nelson Hudspeth

Nelson Hudspeth

I've spent my career in paid growth, in-house at One Kings Lane, then at an agency managing spend for DTC, retail and CPG brands, then six years on the platform side at Pinterest.

At Pinterest, a beauty brand was growing a partnership with us while they moved to a new measurement model, and the model took longer to go live than anyone planned. Until it did, last-click was the only read anyone had, and on last-click the program looked like it wasn't working. When the model finally landed, it showed the program was working, and the budget came back.

I keep the client list short and work with the agencies you already have. Right now I'm doing this for one DTC brand.

Want to see how far apart your numbers are?

Before we talk, add up what each platform says it drove over the last 90 days, and pull what your store booked over the same stretch. On a 30-minute call we'll go through the gap and where I'd start looking. If they're close, I'll tell you that.

Set up a 30-minute call

It opens an email to nelson@tideway.io.