The Rise of the Marketing Mercenary

The New Agency Model Is "Already" Here

Over the last couple years, I've been working in DTC. Of course this is a buzzword that primarily means direct to consumer marketing and advertising. It means we're basically doing straight online selling as opposed to through a distributor.

My point being that when you do DTC, you're also doing paid advertising at a level most agencies can't comprehend.

This is because DTC is about marketing and selling using paid advertising as your driver and setting up multiple customer funnels using statistical modeling and predictive analytics to teach and train Google and Meta how to sell for you so that when you do get a sale you also get a return on investment.

This ROI of course is measured and managed on a daily basis, re-invested, and so on.

Now, one might think the geniuses doing this along with all of the statistical modeling are the brightest of minds, top executives, and so forth.

And if one were to think that, they would be wrong, and it would cost them.

That's because these new marketing minds are not VP's, Directors, or even Managers. Of course, they can be, but in my experience these minds have no intention of being any of the above- rather they're the youth of today and they're already taking over.

At least based on my personal experience researching this new trend, losing several accounts to it, and then eventually becoming one myself.

This is my story about the new world of the Marketing Mercenary, let's see where it goes.

What's a Marketing Mercenary?

Our marketing agency in Seattle has both worked with and be labeled as a team of Marketing Mercenaries. With here here's what we can gauge to date. A marketing mercenary is not just a marketing specialist; they are engineers and growth hackers who leverage machine learning, data analysis, and ad tech to drive online sales. They work on commission because they are confident in their ability to deliver results, aligning their success with the success of the brands they work with. Unlike traditional agencies, marketing mercenaries don't just promise results—they deliver them.

In the past, brands relied on large marketing agencies, paying hefty fees for comprehensive services. Today, however, the rise of technology and access to data has paved the way for a new breed of marketers—independent professionals who can deliver the same results faster, smarter, and on a commission basis. These individuals are known as marketing mercenaries.

When I was operating my paid ads agency out of Tokyo during the pandemic, we were doing DTC selling for international brands. Some of these brands were big and some of them were new to the game. Regardless of the size, we kept coming up against the same problem, "My guys in China can do it cheaper".

However, it didn't stop with China, eventually it was a guy in Mexico, then someone from Belgium, and so on. All of these brands were getting full service scalable, profit-driven, marketing and advertising services from one-man/woman shows who were working out of their bedroom or from the beach.

What made it worse was that these Marketing guns-for-hire were offering pay per sale commission based advertising.

Meaning, they would do all of the advertising for free and only charge based on a commission of sale. Of course, there are a lot of complexities with this and also questions about what make good marketing or advertising if everything is based on the sale. However, regardless of what I think theoretically, it didn't matter because the transition to choose a commission only based freelancer over a full-service agency was already happening.

Now, I know what you're thinking- anyone choosing to work with a random freelancer out a random country sounds insane. But it's not. Because the brands who we eventually lost accounts to due to pricing issues and inability to offer full service advertising for $1,000/month were not just start-ups- they were household brand names.

What?

Yes.

How?

When you think about it, remove your ego for a second.

Let's be honest, the technology that exist today provides more opportunities for someone to learn predictive analytics, coding and programming, and then machine learning along with creative optimization testing in one weekend on YouTube than you can learn at Columbia University.

That's because it's all based on technology, technology changes so fast that those who master it are those who are willing to invest their nights and days learning how to leverage the latest updates that you cannot turn around fast enough to put in a text book.

Now, match that with an individual who learns in this process that they also have a mind with engineering-like capabilities when trained and you have a Marketing Mercenary who will pitch that they can do all of your marketing and advertising for free while only taking a commission of what they sell online.

Depending on the timeline of reading this, half of my readers will think I'm insane and the other half will think that this is yesterday's news.

All I'm telling you is the reality of what's happening today based on my experience.

Here's where I see it having an impact today.

The Impact of the Marketing Mercenary Trend

The thing to know about working with a Marketing Mercenary is that they're 100% about making money for you and for themselves. This is why they take their work and their art so seriously and why they also have no boundaries in the process.

After three years of battling Marketing Mercenaries in Asia, when I came back to the states my assumption was that this trend must have started in the US and ventured out.

I was wrong, very wrong.

While back in the US, I went from battling 25 year-old "guns-for-hire" over LTV models to helping a well known agency re-build its digital team- a digital team who didn't know how to set a single KPI goal.

I was shocked, what's going on here? How is this agency in business?

Of course, I think this agency was a specific case, but if the whole agency and their partners and clients (who were leading brands) were this lost, what does that mean for the rest of America?

But that's easy to see, there have been a number of ecommerce brands in the States who have either been hanging the white flag or restructuring their entire operation.

Why?

They've been beat or are about to lose it all.

This is because the Marketing Mercenary knows no boundaries.

You can be a leading ecommerce brands based out of Columbus, Ohio and selling Ohio based gear. However, a company can form out of Germany doing the same targeting people living in Ohio, hire a kid out of Canada to outsmart your entire staff in Ohio, and before you know it- you've lose your market share because you weren't paying attention and the agency that you hired was overselling you on how to create a "messaging statement".

By the way, I'm all for messaging statements, it's just a piece of the pie though. Back to my point, I know this because it happened to us. While in Asia, we had several copy-cat brands bringing new brands in Japan, taking out market share from Japanese companies who relied on distributors, and the people doing all of the marketing were MM's who had set up show in Singapore or some other country and were using translation software to get their Japanese right.

And guess what, these same brands - they're doing the same thing in the States now too, and they're winning.

So, in short, my point is that what's already happening and what will happen is that by not focusing on how to bring together bottom line metrics and re-think your marketing and advertising to something akin to investment banking, you will lose out on the future if you're not already losing in the present.

The Dilemma of the Marketing Mercenary

Okay, I've been waiting for this part.

While I just hyped up the one-man agency show, there are also a lot of problems as well.

This is interesting because while the Marketing Mercenary is a confident growth hacker great with math skills and keen to data driven insights, there are several things they are not good at.

To keep it simple, I'll use their words, not mine.

1) "We Need More Creative"

This is the debate for all debates, a Marketing Mercenary usually doesn't have design skills and will trash your creative director saying their AI tools can do everything. Some of this is true, but being a good programmatic media buyer means testing thousands of creatives and to test thousands you need to "proper" creative direction to know what to test. I've been on both ends of this stick. In short, what you need to know is that you may find a good Marketing Mercenary to work with, but if they say to you "We Need More Creative" and have no direction for how to do it, you're about to go down a no-win path.

2) "There's No Audience for This"

If a Marketing Mercenary isn't getting result, they'll never blame themselves or say there are other things to test, you'll often get the blame tossed back at you. We once had a Marketing Mercenary working for us who while on the zoom call, and while he was eating a bag of chips, was also trying to tell us our product had not market fit because they couldn't get results- meanwhile we had a profitable product with a well over average CVR. We stopped working with that individual and immediately go our fit back and results.

Why did this happen?

Because a Marketing Mercenary doesn't often understand how media planning or marketing planning works, omni-channel advertising and so forth. So, they may know how to growth hack Meta's Conversion API by tying it to your Shopify Data Sets, but if your audience was on Pinterest the whole time, did any of their work even matter?

3) "I Use My Own Formula's"

I have serious respect for growth hackers out there who have their own ecommerce models for scaling accounts. But if you're lying about your accounts, losing for us thousands of dollars a week with "0" sales and when we brainstorm you can't share your model so we can fix it, then we have a problem. The thing about working with a Marketing Mercenary is that these media buyers are artists and engineers who don't just want to make money, they love to do it. As a result, a lot of the work being done is mathematically correct, but beware when you find yourself in a position where the person for hire is using you to test their latest theory.

Why is this?

This is because to be a good Marketing gun-for-hire, you have to know how to market and sell online while driving a profitable ROI fast. To do this you have to build a sales funnel and then use one of the 9+ attribution models to identify how you attribute effectiveness which will then create a ratio of scale that you can use as a definitive factor for both how to train your platform but also when to scale or not scale investments. Of course, when you think of the permutations or different funnels that can be developed using these factors, it's endless. This is why everyone has their own "formula for success" or growth hacking process - and believe you and me, no one will share it.

As a result, the dilemma is that a Marketing Mercenary can make you a lot of money, but they can also put your brand in jeopardy if you don't take into account their lack of traditional marketing acumen. To make the relationship work, you need to merge what you know to be true with what they know to work and as a result can do some serious growth online.

The Benefits of the Marketing Mercenary

Outsourcing to a marketing mercenary can save brands significant amounts of money. Traditional agencies come with high overhead costs, including staff salaries, office spaces, and administrative expenses. In contrast, marketing mercenaries operate independently, often from anywhere in the world, with minimal overhead. This lean operation model allows them to charge less while delivering high-quality, data-driven results.

Marketing mercenaries are equipped with the latest ad tech tools, making paid advertising almost akin to investment banking. They understand the intricacies of digital platforms and how to optimize campaigns for maximum ROI. These professionals continuously adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape, ensuring that their strategies are always cutting-edge.

Brands that fail to recognize the potential of marketing mercenaries risk falling behind. The competitive edge provided by these independent experts is undeniable, and those who leverage their skills can outperform even the most established agencies.

Finding and Working with a Marketing Mercenary

The rise of the marketing mercenary signifies a shift in how brands approach marketing. By embracing these independent, highly skilled professionals, businesses can achieve superior results, save costs, and stay ahead of the competition. It's time to think beyond traditional agencies and consider the benefits of hiring a marketing mercenary to drive your e-commerce success.

1. Identifying the Right Mercenary

• Look for professionals with a proven track record in your industry.

• Check their expertise in using data analytics and machine learning for marketing.

• Ensure they have a performance-based approach, working primarily on commission.

2. Establishing a Working Relationship

• Set clear expectations and performance metrics.

• Maintain open communication and regular updates on progress.

• Foster a partnership mindset, focusing on mutual success.

While I battled the Marketing Mercenary for years over budgets, strategies, and accountability. One day I woke up and eventually found that I had become one. As a 3x agency founder, there is nothing more that I love than marketing and advertising. However, if you know the math, if you understand how everything comes down to the sale, and after spending the last three years trying to build and scale a DTC agency globally, your perception changes. For me, I stopped trying to build different levels of AE's and so forth and at my last agency just started training people as to how to be the best from day one. I realized that if someone had the skills and will, the talent could be taught.

But there's more, for myself I found less patience for politics and more passion in how to generate profit online. I think that 10 years ago this wasn't possible, you had to play the game of politics and in some ways still do. However, because everything is trackable now, you can bypass a lot of that as long as your team wants to make money.

Of course, if they don't, go somewhere else.

Where?

A place or company that doesn't care about politics, but understands how the current game is played and wants you to generate profit as a result.

You might be a one man show doing all the work, but the tools and technology are there to do so, therefore rest assured knowing you're now a Marketing Mercenary, with no boundaries and ready to take on a results driven world.