Measurement Madness: Unlocking YouTube, Fixing Meta, & Saving Subscriptions

The hidden data and critical shifts that could reshape your growth strategy

Whether you've been watching your Meta ROAS slip, wondering if YouTube could work, or battling subscription churn, this is a measurement moment for DTC brands.

Even with all of the fancy tools platforms available, most brands are operating with incomplete information – for example, missing up to 70% of YouTube's impact, failing to account for Amazon halo effects, and misunderstanding why subscribers churn.

This week we're sharing 3 valuable podcasts, breaking down three critical measurement topics that could make or break your 2025 growth plans.

Today:

• 1️⃣ YouTube's Hidden ROI - New data reveals Google is massively underreporting YouTube's impact and how it's actually outperforming Meta in key areas

• 2️⃣ The Meta Measurement Crisis - Why eight-figure brands are trapped in a "death spiral" of ad spend cuts and the new metric that could fix it

• 3️⃣ The Subscription Recession - As consumers purge non-essential subscriptions, we analyze how the winners are adapting

• Quick Hits - Find a new app that allows you to track competitor reviews…

Let's dive in.

1️⃣ Is YouTube Your Most Underrated Growth Channel?

Every DTC brand has love-hate relationships with ad platforms. Meta prints money—until it doesn't. Google's a must-have—until you wonder if your branded search spend is just a tax.

And then there's YouTube, sitting awkwardly in the middle.

For years, brands have struggled to measure its impact. Clicks are low. View-through conversions feel suspect. You boost spend, and…crickets.

But new incrementality tests from Haus (190+ studies across 74 brands) and insights from Andrew Faris' podcast with Olivia Kory (of Haus) suggest we might have been thinking about YouTube all wrong.

Key Insights:

📊 YouTube is underreported—big time. Google Ads reports only 30% of YouTube's actual DTC sales impact on average. The real lift? 3.4x higher than what the dashboard tells you.

🛍️ The Amazon & Retail Effect: Brands selling beyond DTC saw YouTube drive a +99% halo effect on Amazon & retail sales, compared to just +53% for Meta. If you're on Amazon, YouTube could be a silent growth driver you're not accounting for.

🚀 YouTube feeds Meta? Some brands reported that strong YouTube spend actually boosted Meta performance by feeding in-market demand—essentially priming customers before they enter Meta's algorithmic funnel.

BONUS Haus Report Insights:

⏳ It's a long game. YouTube's impact builds over time—incremental ROAS (iROAS) improves by 79% two weeks after a campaign ends.

🚀 It drives new customers. Across tests, 76% of YouTube's impact was on new buyers—a major lever for acquisition-focused brands.

📡 Demand Gen campaigns outperform Video Action Campaigns (VAC). Google's newer Demand Gen format saw a 27% stronger iROAS over time, making it the go-to campaign type for performance marketers.

💰 YouTube Shorts? Not yet. Tests showed that Shorts placements underperformed VAC/Demand Gen by 20% on iROAS—suggesting that while creative portability from Meta is appealing, Shorts might not be the best direct-response bet yet.

What Should Brands Do Next?

✅ Assess your current YouTube presence. Are you already getting organic traction from influencers? If yes, you might be primed for paid acquisition.

✅ Start testing Demand Gen campaigns. Demand Gen outperformed VAC by 27%—if you're going in, start there.

✅ Monitor Amazon & retail lift. If you're on Amazon or sell wholesale, track search volume and branded queries before and after launching YouTube. You might see a surge.

✅ Watch for Meta efficiency gains. If you scale YouTube and Meta starts performing better, you may have unlocked a powerful cross-platform growth loop.

✅ Measure beyond platform-reported results. Run a geo-based incrementality test or, at the very least, compare pre/post-lift on non-click-based conversions.

✅ Budget for the long game. YouTube's impact ramps up over weeks, not days. If you expect instant payback, you'll pull the plug too soon.

Supply Chain Eating Your Margins? SHYFT Your Approach.

What if you could cut COGS by 40% while scaling production capacity by 600%?

One DTC beauty brand did exactly that, growing from $25M to $200M, with our help.

While others talk supply chain, we actually make it happen.  

Shyft Global provides emerging DTC brands with enterprise-level supply chain operations without the enterprise overhead.

Here’s how we help you shift to your next phase of growth → 

• International teams with boots on the ground 🌎

• Navigate tariffs and regulatory challenges 📝

• Streamline logistics and eliminate expedited freight costs 🚢

• Reduce COGS while improving product quality 📈

2️⃣ DTC's Measurement Crisis: The Death Spiral of Ad Spend

Are 8 and 9 figure brands suffocating their own growth?

That's the argument Taylor Holiday, CEO of Common Thread Collective, made in a recent episode of Sharpen Your Skills. He believes brands are trapped in a flawed measurement system, leading to a downward spiral of ad spend cuts that ultimately choke off demand.

What's Happening?

Brands that once relied on website-only conversion tracking are now expanding into Amazon, retail, and higher-funnel media like TV—but they haven't updated their measurement systems.

The result is:

📉 ROAS declines on Meta as customer journeys become multi-touch.
🛑 Ad spend gets cut because website-only attribution no longer reflects reality.
🔄 Demand shrinks across all channels, leading to further ad cuts and stagnation.

Why It's Killing Big Brands

🔹 Amazon Eats Your Demand – 50% of all e-commerce transactions happen on Amazon. When brands start selling there, their website ROAS drops—but their ad-driven demand is still fueling sales on Amazon.

🔹 New Customer Obsession – Many brands still measure ad efficiency only on new customer acquisition. But winning back lapsed customers might be their biggest growth unlock.

🔹 Legacy Metrics Are Outdated – Ad spend fuels overall business growth, not just direct website purchases. Yet, most brands are still tracking ROAS like it's 2018.

The Solution? Incremental Marginal Return (IMR)

Taylor argues that brands need to stop thinking in terms of ROAS and start thinking in terms of investment returns across all channels.

IMR = (Incremental Revenue – Marginal Cost) / Ad Spend

"Your ad dollars are an engine for growth for all customer types and all distribution. Right now, the measurement system is too narrow, and it's suffocating brands."

Next Steps for Founders & Marketers:

✅ Measure Amazon & retail impact in your attribution models.
✅ Run holdout tests to see the true incremental value of Meta, Google, and YouTube ads.
✅ Stop excluding lapsed customers—they're often easier to convert than new ones.
✅ Think like an investor—optimize for overall return, not just website ROAS.

3️⃣ The Subscription Recession: Why DTC Subscriptions Must Adapt or Die

The golden era of DTC subscriptions is over. That’s the analysis from the ASOM Podcast crew, at least.

Consumers are canceling more subscriptions than ever, prioritizing essentials over nice-to-haves. The pandemic boom that fueled explosive growth for subscription brands has faded, and only the strongest operators are making it through.

Let’s go over some of insights provided by John Roman (CEO of BattlBox), Amer Grozdanic (CEO of Praella), Bryan McDonald (Director of eCommerce at Oma's Pride), and Jimmy Kim (CEO of eCom Email Marketer & Founder of Sendlane).

The Great Subscription Purge: Why Churn is Killing DTC

📉 Consumers are drowning in subscriptions—and cutting back.

• Streaming services alone cost $55–$100+ per month. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have all raised prices, making it harder for discretionary subscriptions to survive.

• Direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscriptions are suffering most. The brands that flourished during the pandemic (meal kits, grooming boxes, pet subscriptions) are seeing record churn rates.

• Middle-class budgets are tightening. People are keeping their "must-have" subscriptions (Amazon Prime, phone plans, Netflix) and canceling everything else.

The Brands That Adapted: How They're Fighting Churn

Some subscription brands have cracked the code and found ways to keep customers engaged.

📦 BarkBox → Expanded into treats & retail

• BarkBox started as a toy subscription. But when they added their own branded treats, they boosted retention and upsells.

• Then they expanded into Target, Petco, and Chewy, using retail as a lead-gen funnel for subscriptions.

• Result? 3M+ active subscribers and $600M in revenue.

🥗 HelloFresh → Pivoted to ready-to-eat meals

• Post-pandemic, people stopped cooking as much. Meal kit churn skyrocketed.

• HelloFresh added ready-to-eat (RTE) meals, making it easier for customers to stay subscribed.

• Result? 45% growth in RTE sales while meal kit sales declined.

🏭 FabFitFun → Became a fulfillment giant

• When revenue dropped, FabFitFun leveraged its logistics infrastructure to offer fulfillment services for other brands.

• Result? New revenue stream + sustainability in a slowing subscription market.

Like everything in eCom, the strongest brands don't just sell subscriptions—they evolve them.

What's Working Now: The New Subscription Playbook

If you're running a subscription business in 2025, you need a retention-first strategy.

💰 1. Surprise & Delight Discounts – FabFitFun identified when churn spikes (months 3 & 9) and automatically applied a discount before customers canceled. Small, well-timed offers keep people subscribed longer.

👥 2. Community & Membership Tiers – Brands like Ridge Wallet & Lululemon are leaning into memberships, offering exclusive perks & private communities to increase emotional loyalty.

🛍 3. Hybrid DTC & Retail Play – Like BarkBox, brands are expanding into retail to bring in new customers and upsell subscriptions. If you're purely online, you're missing out.

🔁 4. Subscription + One-Time Purchases – People don't always want to commit upfront. Brands are now offering hybrid models (e.g., BarkBox's one-time themed boxes) to let customers ease into subscriptions.

"If you're running a subscription brand today, you're not just fighting for customers—you're fighting for relevance."

Quick Hits

• How Obvi went from losing money on every order to profitability through offer framing.

• Shopify launches AI store setup.

• A new app that allows you to track your competitor’s reviews in Slack.

• How a focus on ROAS may be killing your growth, from the former CEO of Chubbies.