Marcell Marketing

Questions?
Answered

What if I’ve already got someone doing some of this—can you work alongside other freelancers or in-house people?

Yeah, that’s totally fine. If you’ve already got someone handling part of the puzzle—whether it’s creative, copy, or ads—I can plug into what’s missing. I’m not here to take over everything unless that’s what you need. I’ve worked both solo and alongside teams before, so I know how to collaborate without stepping on toes. The goal is to get results, not ego points.

What’s the onboarding process look like once we’re ready to start?

Once we’re good to go, the first step is access. You’ll share logins and permissions for the platforms we’ll be working with—Shopify, Meta Business Manager, Google Analytics, your creative asset folder, and anything else relevant. From there, I’ll do a full audit to see what’s been done, what worked, and what didn’t. That gives me the context to build a strategy based on your goals. I’ll also set target KPIs so we know what we’re aiming for. We’ll go through it all on a Strategy Call, and if you’re happy with the direction, we start executing. This whole process usually takes about a week from signing—faster if access comes through quickly.

Do you only offer ongoing retainers, or can I test things out with a short-term project first?

I don’t do “short-term” projects in the traditional sense, but I do offer month to month retainers. If you're unsure about committing, there’s a 100% money-back guarantee on the first month. If it’s not a fit, cancel at the end of the month and you'll receive a full refund—no hard feelings. In some cases, I also offer the onboarding audit as a standalone—this isn’t something I promote openly, but if you need a lower-commitment way to test things out, I’m open to offering it. If you decide to move forward after the audit, the fee gets credited to your first month. If not, no pressure—you’ll still walk away with a full strategy you can use.

Why would I choose to work with one strategist instead of a full agency team? Wouldn’t a team be more effective?

It depends where you are in your growth. If you’re running multiple ad channels, pushing $20k+ in monthly spend, and need deep execution across Meta, Google, email, CRO, creative, etc.—then yeah, a full agency team makes sense. That’s when having multiple specialists is necessary. Even I wouldn’t try to do all of that myself. But most brands aren’t there yet. If you’re earlier in your growth curve—spending under $15k/month and mainly focused on paid social—then working with one experienced strategist can actually be the smarter move. You’re not overextending your budget, but you’re still getting high-level execution and direction where it counts. The reason I can pull this off is because I cap my client load at four. The work I do solo would normally be split between 3–4 roles in an agency—but that setup exists so teams can handle 5–6 clients at once along with all the different daily and weekly team meetings associated (that time adds up!). I’m not trying to operate like that. And when the time comes to expand beyond Meta—whether that’s Google, email, or anything else—I bring in trusted growth partners to own those channels properly. You’re not stuck with a one-person setup forever. We scale the services as the business demands it. So no, working with one person isn’t always better. But if you're not ready for a full team yet, and you're looking for a focused, experienced partner to help you grow sustainably—that's where I come in.

How do you decide if a brand is actually ready to scale or not?

First, let’s define what “scaling” actually means—because not every brand that wants to grow is ready to scale. Scaling is about taking a proven concept and growing it exponentially. That means your product, your funnel, and your marketing have already shown they can work profitably—and now you’re in a position to pour fuel on the fire. If you haven’t hit break-even yet, you’re not there yet. That’s not a bad thing—it just means the focus should be on optimizing. Maybe it’s tightening up your CRO, dialing in your messaging, refining your offer, or fixing gaps in your retention strategy. Whatever the case, the goal is to find what works before trying to scale it. From a financial standpoint, I look for at least 10% net profit before we talk about scaling. Anything less than that and you’re putting the business at risk. Scaling requires testing—new creatives, new audiences, new angles—and there’s always uncertainty with that. If every dollar you spend needs to perform right away, you’re not in a safe position to scale. You need room for things not to work while we figure out what does. Beyond the numbers, there’s also operational readiness. Can your team handle a jump in order volume? Do your 3PL terms support faster turnaround? What happens to your cash flow if variable expenses spike with growth? These are real questions that need clear answers. So no, I don’t treat “scaling” as just “spending more.” I look at the full picture—margin, stability, infrastructure, and growth potential. If you’ve got the foundation, we scale. If you don’t, we build it first.

Do you charge a commission or percentage of ad spend after a certain amount?

Nope. Even if we’re spending $1M a month, my fee doesn’t change. I don’t charge a percentage of ad spend. A lot of agencies do, and I get why—they’ve got big teams to pay, layers of admin, software overhead, office space, retreats, you name it. But that’s not how I run things. I keep my setup lean on purpose. I’m not trying to cover costs for a 15-person operation. I work with four clients at a time, and that’s enough to live a solid, stress-free life doing great work. No hidden incentives, no pressure to scale just so I can earn more. If we scale, it’s because your business is ready—not because I’m chasing a bigger paycheck.

Do you only work with small brands, or can you also handle larger budgets—like $50k+ a month?

I can absolutely handle larger budgets. In fact, most of my agency experience has been with brands spending well over $50k/month. The reason I built this model wasn’t because I couldn’t support bigger brands—it’s because I saw a gap. There are a lot of brands that aren’t a good fit for traditional agencies, and I wanted to offer a solution that actually works for them. That said, if you are running a larger operation, I’ve got Growth Partners I bring in when needed. Together, we operate like a full-stack agency—each of us focused on what we do best. So whether you’re spending $5k or $500k a month, I can build the right support structure to match.

Do you manage TikTok or LinkedIn ads too, or just Meta?

One of my core values is "There’s Always a Way Forward" and that applies here too! If you’re looking to run on TikTok or LinkedIn, I won’t just shrug and say “I don’t do that.” Depending on my client load and your goals, I might take those platforms on myself—or I’ll bring in a trusted partner who specializes in them. Either way, if it makes sense for your growth, we’ll find the right path forward and make sure it gets done properly.