The Operator Engagement. The full marketing program, run by one senior operator working directly with founders. Marketing strategy and direction on top. Conversion tracking, Google Ads, Meta Ads, email, storefronts, and product photography underneath. No account managers in between.
7Services, one operator
$15M+Ad spend managed
10 yrsIn the trenches
1Senior on every call
The agency model
Six specialists. One PM layer.
Account Manager
Strategist
Google Ads Specialist
Meta Ads Specialist
Tracking & Analytics
Designer / Creative
Typical monthly retainer$15K – $50K/mo
The operator model
Conner Crowe
Strategy · Tracking · Google Ads · Meta · Storefronts
Same person on every call
Same person on the keyboard
Zero handoffs
Typical monthly retainer$4.5K to $8.5K/mo
Same disciplines covered. The agency splits them across six specialists + a PM layer at $15K to $50K/mo. The operator model collapses them into one person at $4.5K to $8.5K/mo. The senior who sold you the engagement is rarely the person doing your work. That's the layer the operator model removes.
01 How it works
Two ways in. Pick the one that fits.
Most engagements start with a discovery call. I will tell you which model fits your situation. No deck, no proposal that takes two weeks.
01
Project
One-time scoped work with a fixed deliverable. Best when the goal is a clean rebuild of one piece of the stack.
Best for
→Conversion tracking rebuild
→Google Ads account restructure
→Marketing audit + roadmap, no execution
→Single-channel launch from zero
Format
Fixed-scope engagement, 2 to 8 weeks depending on scope.
02
Fractional retainer
Embedded as your senior marketing operator on a monthly cadence. Strategy + execution + weekly working sessions with the founder.
Best for
→Running the full marketing program when you do not have a senior in-house
→Replacing a generalist agency that is not getting the strategic work done
→Founders who want a senior they can ask questions of any day of the week
Format
Monthly retainer, weekly working session, Monday written summary, direct line to me.
Marketing reports up to the founder but no one is steering it strategically
Tactical work is happening across paid, organic, and email with no unifying thesis
KPIs do not roll up to revenue, so it is unclear what is working
Founder is the bottleneck on every marketing decision and burned out from it
My approach
I work with founders and owners directly across two verticals: DTC ecommerce brands and service businesses running paid lead-gen. The strategy work is the same: positioning, channel mix, growth thesis, KPI commitments tied to revenue, not dashboard filler. The execution work runs weekly, with the whole marketing program in one operator's hands instead of split across four agency juniors.
What I do
Marketing strategy and quarterly roadmap built around real business KPIs
Channel mix decisions across Google, Meta, organic, email, and direct
Fractional marketing-lead engagement, weekly working sessions with the founder
Hands-on execution across paid acquisition, tracking, and conversion
Honest read on what is working, what is not, and what to kill
What you receive
·Written quarterly marketing plan with KPIs and timeline
·Weekly working session with the founder
·Monday written summary covering what changed, what is working, what is next
·Direct Slack or email line for in-week decisions
You get
You get the senior marketing operator most owners thought they were paying the agency for.
Google Ads and GA4 conversion numbers do not agree, and nobody trusts either
Lead-gen forms count every spam submission as a conversion
Shopify checkout-extensibility broke the purchase pixel and nobody noticed
Server-side tagging exists on paper but is misfiring on the alternate checkout domain
Phone calls and offline conversions never make it back into the ad platforms
My approach
If your reporting is off, every campaign decision downstream is off too. I audit your attribution path, then rebuild it so the numbers you optimize on are the numbers tied to revenue.
What I do
GA4 + GTM audit and rebuild, server-side where it earns its keep
Call tracking (WhatConverts or similar) wired into Ads where it matters
Form, phone, and checkout conversions validated end-to-end
Ads ↔ GA4 reconciliation, so the numbers in the two systems agree
Offline-conversion imports for sales pipelines that close off-platform
What you receive
·Tracking audit document covering every conversion path
·Cleaned and validated GTM container (yours, not a fork)
·Conversion-quality scorecard with which events fire where
·Written documentation so the next person can read the stack
You get
You get a tracking stack you can trust before you spend another dollar.
04 Service
Google Ads Management
Fix the structure. Fix the spend.
Typical timeline
4 to 6 weeks to stabilize, ongoing optimization after
Broad-match keywords pulling in queries that have nothing to do with the business
Performance Max claiming credit for branded search that would have converted organically
No isolated brand campaign, so non-brand performance looks better than it is
Shopping feed missing GTINs, product titles, or margin-tier custom labels
No weekly search-terms review, so the negative list goes stale
My approach
Two playbooks under one operator. For service businesses, it's Search-first: match-type discipline, query mining, geo-targeting, Smart Bidding tuned to qualified leads (not lead volume). For ecom, it's Shopping + Performance Max: feed engineering, exclusions, intent themes, Smart Bidding tuned to net revenue. Both start with a clean tracking foundation. A decade and $15M+ in managed spend across both.
What I do
Account audit, restructure, and clean-room rebuild where needed
Search, Shopping, and Performance Max with isolated brand and clean feed signal
Negative keyword strategy with weekly search-terms review
RSAs and asset groups written to filter the wrong traffic out
Conversion-value optimization tied to real margin, not top-line revenue
What you receive
·Restructured account with documented logic (brand isolation, ad-group strategy, bidding)
·Negative-keyword list maintained weekly
·Reporting dashboard tied to real business KPIs
·Monday written summary covering changes, tests, and decisions
You get
You get an account that scales without burning budget on the wrong queries.
05 Service
Meta Ads Management
Better creative. Cleaner signal.
Typical timeline
2 to 4 weeks to a working baseline, ongoing creative cadence after
Pixel and CAPI deduplication broken, so Meta is double-counting or missing events
Creative all looks like ads, so audiences scroll past
Audience structure built around interests when Meta would rather optimize broadly
Reporting set up around CTR and CPM, neither of which ties to revenue
No creative testing cadence, so winning ads do not refresh and fatigue hits
My approach
Meta is a creative game with a tracking floor underneath it. For service businesses, that's on-platform lead forms tuned to qualified leads, with offline conversion imports closing the loop. For ecom, it's catalog ads, dynamic creative, prospecting + retention split, all on a clean Pixel + CAPI foundation. Same writing discipline either way: copy and creative briefs that filter for the buyer, not the engagement metric.
What I do
Pixel + Conversions API audit and repair
Creative brief development and rapid testing cadence
Audience structure that respects how Meta works in 2026
Reporting that ties Meta spend to revenue instead of impressions
Hands-on copywriting for ad sets, not handed off to a creative shop
What you receive
·Rebuilt Pixel + CAPI with deduplication confirmed
·Creative testing framework with weekly ad-set decisions
·Reporting dashboard tied to revenue, not engagement counts
·Monday written summary
You get
A Meta program judged on leads, not engagement.
Selected ad creative
Built end to end, from the product render to the finished ad. No creative shop in the middle.
06 Service
Email & Lifecycle Marketing
Own the inbox. Earn the repeat.
Typical timeline
2 to 4 weeks to build the core flow suite, ongoing campaigns after
The only flow running is a default welcome email nobody styled
Abandoned checkout and browse abandonment are off, so warm buyers slip away
Campaigns go out from a generic template that looks nothing like the brand
No post-purchase or winback, so first-time buyers never become repeat buyers
Email revenue is a mystery because nothing is attributed back to the flow
My approach
Most stores leave the easiest revenue on the table: the buyer who already knows you. I build the full Klaviyo flow suite and the campaign calendar on top of it, with hero emails designed in your brand rather than a stock template. Every flow is wired to real store events and tied back to revenue, so you can see what email is worth.
The Shopify storefront is dated and the agency quote to fix it is $30K and twelve weeks
Paid traffic lands on the homepage because there is no real landing page for the campaign
Catalog ads underperform because half the SKUs ship with bare-product imagery and no lifestyle scenes
The site was built by someone who never had to run paid ads against it
Tracking was bolted on after launch instead of wired in from day one
My approach
Most marketing programs do not need a new site. Some do. For service businesses: single-purpose landing pages for each campaign or service line, built directly in Astro / Webflow / your existing stack, conversion tracking pre-wired at launch. For ecom brands: full Shopify storefronts and catalog buildouts (see the 150-SKU furniture case study). Same operator on the build as on the strategy call.
What I do
Shopify theme builds and customizations, no page-builder layer in the way
Landing pages for paid traffic, on Astro or in your existing stack
Full brand catalog buildouts, including lifestyle and product imagery shipped through my in-house pipeline when the catalog has gaps
Conversion tracking wired in at launch, not retrofitted (GA4, GTM, server-side container, Meta CAPI, Klaviyo)
Catalog SEO foundation: collection structure, internal linking, product copy built to rank
Page-speed and Core Web Vitals work so the campaigns are not paying for slow pages
Editorial design system, not a Squarespace template fork
What you receive
·Working storefront or landing page on your domain, in your hands
·Custom theme or page templates, not a fork of someone else's
·Tracking wired in at launch (GA4, GTM, server-side container, Meta CAPI)
·Lifestyle and product imagery rendered through the production pipeline if the catalog needs it
·Documentation so the next person can pick the codebase up
You get
You get a destination wired for the marketing program from day one, built by the operator who runs the program.
Half the catalog ships with bare product-on-white shots and no lifestyle context
Catalog ads underperform because the creative has no scene to sell the feeling
A studio shoot costs $500 to $1,500 per SKU and takes weeks you do not have
New SKUs sit without imagery, so they never make it into ads or collections
The lifestyle photos that do exist look nothing like each other
My approach
Catalog ads and product pages live or die on the imagery, and a studio shoot runs $500 to $1,500 per SKU and weeks of lead time. I render your real products into styled room scenes and clean white-background packshots in-house, matched to a locked brand look, at 99% fidelity. The product stays exactly itself, only the scene around it changes. New SKUs get a full set in days.
What I do
Photorealistic lifestyle scenes, one real product per styled room
Clean white-background studio packshots, multiple angles per product
A locked brand look so every image feels like one catalog
99% product fidelity, the product stays exactly itself
Images sized and shipped for Shopify galleries, ads, and email
What you receive
·Lifestyle scenes and studio packshots for your selected SKUs
·A locked brand-look reference so future batches stay consistent
·Web-ready files for storefront, ads, and email
·A consistent set that makes the whole catalog look like one shoot
You get
You get a consistent lifestyle catalog at a fraction of studio cost, fast enough to keep up with new SKUs.
Selected production work
Real catalog products rendered in-house at 99% fidelity. No photographer, no studio day.
07 Specialty programs
Two verticals, one content engine.
The core services above run for any brand. Two verticals get a deeper build-out with a vertical-specific signature engine. DTC home brands get the in-house lifestyle photoshoot pipeline. Service businesses get the Lead Quality Engine. The Content Engine is a third, built once and run on a cadence for either vertical. Same operator on all three.
The questions I get on most discovery calls. If yours is not here, it will be the first one I cover.
Do you do all seven services or can I pick one?
Pick whichever fits. Most engagements start with conversion tracking because everything else depends on it, but if your tracking is already in good shape I can start anywhere. I will tell you on the discovery call whether you need what you think you need.
What is the minimum engagement?
For a one-time project, the minimum is a tracking audit, usually one to three weeks of scoped work. For a retainer, the minimum is three months, because Google Ads and the strategy work both need time to compound before performance stabilizes.
How do you set goals?
On the discovery call I want to hear three numbers from you: current monthly spend, current CPL or ROAS, and the realistic 90-day target. From there I will tell you whether the target is achievable and what the lever is. If your goals do not match the spend, I will say so on the call.
Who owns the work after the engagement ends?
You. I work inside your accounts using your logins, not mine. When the engagement ends, you keep the GTM container, the Google Ads account, the Meta Business Manager, the documentation, all of it. Nothing leaves with me.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes. Standard practice. I sign mutual NDAs with most retainer clients and confidentiality is implicit in everything I do, NDA or not. If you have your own NDA template, send it over and I will sign before the discovery call.
What if it is not working after a few months?
You can end the engagement at the end of any month. I will not lock you into an annual contract. If something is not working you and I should both be looking at the data on the same call and deciding whether to adjust, pivot, or part ways.
Ready to talk
Not sure which service you need? Start here.
Book a call. Bring the account, the numbers, and the story. I will tell you where to start.