The Dashboards That Make Us Millions: What 7–8 Figure D2C Brands Actually Track
Most dashboards fail, not because brands lack data, but because they’re tracking the wrong data.
In this episode of the Scalability School Podcast, Andrew Foxwell, Zach Stuck, and Brad Ploch break down why most dashboards confuse teams, hide profitability problems, and create a false sense of performance. They argue that true growth comes from dashboards built for financial clarity, new customer acquisition visibility, and operational decision-making not from staring at platform ROAS.
This blog post recaps the full conversation and captures the dashboard framework these operators use to run multi-million-dollar D2C brands.
Why Most Dashboards Fail (and Cost Brands Millions)
The team opens with a common problem: nobody agrees on what “revenue” means.
Order revenue? Net sales? Post-discount? Post-returns? Shopify? Shopify + Amazon?
If your team isn't aligned on definitions, your dashboards become useless.
Another major issue: brands expect their agency or growth partner to optimize based on platform ROAS, even when it tells only a fraction of the story. Instead, what matters is:
Contribution Margin (CM)
Estimated Net Profit (subtracting estimated OpEx)
AMER (New Customer MER)
NCAC (New Customer CAC)
Dashboards fail because they don’t reflect the actual economics of the business.
The group’s take: If your dashboard doesn’t show the full picture, your decisions will be wrong.
The Most Important Metric Most Brands Ignore: New Customer MER
One of the most dangerous mistakes for 7–8 figure brands is relying on blended MER.
Blended MER can look healthy. While new customer acquisition is quietly collapsing.
The team stresses the importance of:
New Customer Revenue
New Customer AOV
New Customer CAC
A.M.E.R. (Acquisition MER)
Why it matters:
If your blended MER looks strong because of email, discounts, and returning customers, you might think the business is thriving—while your acquisition engine is dying in the background.
This reality hits every brand eventually:
Your returning customer base can only buoy revenue for so long. If new customer revenue dries up, long-term growth collapses.
Why LTV Is a Trap (Unless You’re Subscription)
Hot take from the crew (and backed heavily by real operator data):
LTV is a terrible optimization metric for non-subscription businesses.
They explain why:
For one-time-purchase brands, LTV provides zero cash flow indication.
Operators use LTV to justify higher CAC—then run out of money.
Most brands don't have enough historical data to responsibly model LTV.
Agencies on Twitter often preach LTV optimization without understanding financial reality.
For 7–8 figure subscription businesses, it’s different. LTV becomes predictable and meaningful.
For non-subscription? It’s a vanity number with dangerous implications.
The one exception?
Track time between purchases. Reducing your “P1 → P2 window” is far more impactful than chasing LTV.
The Ultimate Dashboard Structure (Step-by-Step)
Brad walks through the exact structure they use across their agency and brand portfolio.
Here’s the simplified version:
1. Financial Layer (Top of Dashboard)
Most important, least optional.
Contribution Margin (with & without Amazon)
Estimated Net Profit (subtract estimated OpEx)
Returns impact
Cost of Delivery (COGS + shipping + taxes + freebies)
Why it matters:
You cannot scale without understanding the actual profit reality of the day.
2. Business Metrics Layer
The high-level snapshot:
Omni Revenue (Shopify + Amazon)
Omni Ad Spend
MER
Trend lines for yesterday / today / 7-day
This layer answers:
“Is the business trending healthy or not?”
3. Customer Metrics Layer
The layer most brands are missing.
New Customer:
NC Revenue
NC Orders
NC AOV
AMER
NC CAC
Returning Customer:
RC Revenue
RC Orders
RC AOV
Why this matters:
You must know whether revenue growth is coming from new customers or simply from squeezing the same customers harder.
4. Platform Performance Layer
A quick read on channel contribution:
Meta ROAS (1-day click, properly filtered)
Google ROAS
TikTok ROAS
Spend
Purchase Conversion Value
Purchases
CAC
The goal:
Understand how each platform is influencing AMER not just whether ROAS looks good.
5. Pacing Layer
Built in Google Sheets, not Triple Whale.
Daily pacing vs monthly goals for:
Revenue
Spend
AMER
Contribution Margin
Net Profit
Brands dramatically under use pacing.
It’s the simplest way to avoid surprise finance disasters at month-end.
6. Operational Layer: Products & Cashflow
Not daily, but weekly:
Product sales by SKU
New vs returning customer SKU mix
Top SKUs this week vs last week
Low inventory risk
Cash on hand (if available)
This layer highlights SKU-level opportunities. For example when a rising SKU has no ad support.
7. Day-of-Week & Time-of-Day Efficiency
One of the most slept-on levers in e-commerce.
Some brands lose money every weekday but make it all back on weekends.
Others get crushed on weekends and win mid-week.
Once you know your brand’s rhythm:
You can safely pull back spend on unprofitable days
You can push harder when efficiency spikes
You avoid the “set it and pray” approach to budget pacing
8. Creative Performance Layer: The Rise of Spend Velocity
This is where the creative signals come in.
The group agrees the #1 creative health signal today is:
Spend VelocityThe rate at which Meta chooses to spend on a new ad in the first 72 hours.
If an ad starts absorbing budget quickly, Meta likes it—even before the purchase data is fully baked.
They test creative using:
Spend velocity
Purchases
Purchase Conversion Value
ROAS
CAC
AOV
And not thumb-stop, hold rate, or ICR for high-spend accounts.
For low-spend accounts (<$20–50K/mo), early indicators like CTR and thumb-stop can still be useful—but spend velocity wins once there is real spend.
Key Takeaways from the Episode
1. Your blended MER target might be hiding a collapsing NCA engine.
Split new vs returning revenue or you’re flying blind.
2. Dashboards must unify definitions, especially “revenue.”
If your team uses different versions, nothing makes sense.
3. Day-of-week efficiency reveals massive wasted spend.
Some brands lose money every Tuesday and never notice.
4. Contribution Margin is the single most reliable profitability metric.
It tells the real story of daily economics.
5. Spend Velocity predicts creative winners in under 3 days.
Your fastest indicator of breakout ads today.
6. LTV can be dangerous for non-subscription brands.
It gives false confidence and destroys cash flow.