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Ep. 24, Weekly Session

You spent $8,000 on ads. What did each customer cost?

Every week, we work through one real ecommerce operations problem, live. This week: why the Amazon channel margin in your P&L is a different number depending on whether the deposit behind it was ever reconciled. 
Date
Thu, July 2
Time
12:00 PM ET
Duration
30 min
Format
Live
Cost
Free
john_may
John May
Customer Marketing & Engagement, Webgility. Hosts weekly.
What you'll get
  • 30 minutes on what a customer actually costs to acquire, the ad spend, the fees on that first order, and the repeat buyers your dashboard quietly counts as new
  • Live walkthrough of an $8,000 ad month where the real cost per new customer came in at more than double the dashboard number
  • Open Q&A at the end, bring your ad spend and your order counts and we'll run the math
How It Works

30 minutes. One question. Real numbers.

This isn't a webinar with 45 minutes of slides and a 5-minute Q&A. Each session covers one operational problem, worked through with real numbers, with time for your actual questions at the end. 
Part 01
The Question
Every session opens with one question every operator should be able to answer, and the misleading answer most books give instead. Not theory. The exact gap where ecommerce data and accounting reality diverge.
Part 02
The Walkthrough
We work the real number using real data: channel fee breakdowns, payout reconciliations, COGS, and margin math. You see how the right answer is built, line by line.
Part 03
Open Q&A
Bring your setup. Your channel mix. Your last promo. The last 10 minutes are for specific questions from the room, no pre-screening, no filters.
This Week's Session

You know what you spent on ads. You don't know what a customer cost.

 Your ad platform reports a clean cost per order. It counts every sale it touched, including repeat buyers who would have come back anyway, and it never sees the marketplace fees or the margin you give away on a first order.

Worse, when ad spend nets out of your payouts, your books can show almost no marketing cost at all, so acquisition looks close to free. This session works out the real, fully loaded cost to win a customer, live, the way your books should but don't. 
This is question 79 of 100 your books should answer. See the rest
Blended CAC versus the real number
Why dividing ad spend across every order, instead of new customers only, can cut your reported cost per customer in half and hide what acquisition really takes.
The costs the ad dashboard ignores
Your platform sees clicks and orders, not the marketplace fees, the payment processing, or the welcome discount on that first purchase. We add them back.
When your books think ads are free
If ad spend nets out of your payouts instead of posting as its own expense, your books show little or no marketing cost. We show what it takes to see the real number.
Coming Up

More questions your books should answer.

July 9
You think you need to hire. Your books should prove it.
Hiring is a margin decision wearing a capacity costume. We show what your books need to tell you before you add headcount, and why most can't answer the question yet.
Hiring / Headcount
July 16
Your Amazon deposit doesn't match your sales. We find the gap.
Amazon pays in lump settlements that bundle orders, fees, refunds, and reserves. We trace one payout back to the orders behind it and show you where the money actually went.
Payouts / Reconciliation
All 100
Every session is one of 100 questions.
These topics aren't random. Each one is a question your books should answer on demand and usually can't. See the full list.
Explore the 100 Questions →
Who Should Attend

Built for operators who are past the basics.

Multichannel sellers on 2 or more platforms
Shopify plus Amazon, Walmart, eBay, or any combination. If your orders land in more than one place, your accounting has a reconciliation problem worth understanding.
Founders and operators running their own P&L
You read the numbers yourself. You make the calls on inventory, channel spend, and pricing. This session is for the person who actually needs the numbers to be right.
Bookkeepers and accountants supporting ecommerce clients
If you close books for sellers on QuickBooks or Xero, this is where you see what the close actually needs to account for at the order and payout level.
The Signal

The questions here get harder as you scale.

 At $300K in annual ecommerce revenue, a missing fee classification is an annoyance. At $3M, it's a margin decision being made on the wrong number. The Clinic is built for the range where that distinction starts to matter. 
Typical attendee revenue $500K to $10M
Typical channel mix 2 to 5 platforms
Accounting system QuickBooks or Xero
Cost to attend Free
Past Sessions

Catch up on what you missed.

Ep. 44
20% off the price was 50% off the profit: one promo, reconciled
June 25, 2026
Ep. 43
The deposit cleared. The margin didn't: three versions of one channel P&L
June 18, 2026
Ep. 42
The Silent Gap: what's actually inside your Amazon settlement
June 11, 2026

See the question live. Then see the other 99.

 Register above, or use the button to jump back to the top. The next session is Thursday. It's free, it's 30 minutes, and it covers one number your P&L probably isn't showing you straight. 
Register for This Week → Explore the 100 Questions →