By Steve Merrill, Founder of WRKNG Digital — October 28, 2026

How do you find a marketing team that actually cares about your profit?

Find a team that gets paid on your contribution margin, not your ad spend. The fastest test: ask what number they report on first. If it's ROAS, impressions, or reach, they're selling activity. If it's profit per new customer, they're selling outcomes.

I ran a clothing company for 15 years and grew it to about $10 million a year before I exited. I spent over $5 million of my own money on Facebook ads. So I've sat on your side of this table. I've hired the wrong people and paid for it.

Here's the bottom line. Most agencies optimize for the thing that's easy to put on a slide. You want the opposite.

What does "profit-focused" actually mean?

It means the team starts with your real numbers before they touch an ad account. Cost of goods. Shipping. Payment fees. Returns. Discounts. They build the plan around what's left after all of that, which is your contribution margin.

A 4x ROAS sounds great. But if your product has a 25% margin, a 4x ROAS can still lose money once you count shipping and returns. ROAS doesn't know what your product costs. Profit does.

Shopify's own guidance tells merchants to track contribution margin per order, not just revenue, because margin is what you actually keep. A profit team lives in that number.

How do you vet a profit-focused marketing team for Shopify?

Five steps. I've used a version of this to hire and to fire.

1. Ask how they define a win

Put it to them straight. "What's the first number you'll show me each month?" The answer tells you everything. Profit teams lead with contribution margin and new-customer profit. Activity teams lead with reach and ROAS.

2. Check if they ask for your real numbers

Before any team pitches you a strategy, they should ask for your COGS, shipping cost, fees, and return rate. If they quote you a plan without knowing your margin, they're guessing. Walk.

3. Tie their pay to what you care about

Avoid percent-of-ad-spend deals. That model pays the team more when they talk you into a bigger budget. You want part of their pay to move with profit or new-customer growth. Now you're on the same side.

4. Make them prove it with one case

Ask for one store where they cut spend and grew profit. Not a store where they tripled revenue, because revenue can grow while profit shrinks. Get the before-and-after contribution margin. Real numbers.

5. Test them on AI shopping

This is the one most teams fail in 2026. Ask how they'll get your products recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Those assistants now answer buying questions and name specific products. If the team gives you a blank stare, they're behind.

Why does AI shopping belong in this conversation?

Because the way people find products is changing fast. Google has rolled AI Overviews into search results, and those answers often recommend specific brands before a shopper ever clicks a blue link. Google's own announcement made that shift official.

OpenAI has pushed the same direction, letting ChatGPT surface products and merchants inside answers. Their shopping update shows where this is going. A shopper asks a question. The model names a product. No ad was bought.

That traffic converts well and costs nothing per click. A profit-focused team already knows this and has a plan for it. An old-school team is still buying impressions like it's 2019.

What are the warning signs of a team that isn't profit-focused?

A few that cost me money over the years:

• They report blended ROAS across all products and won't break it down by margin tier.
• They push for a bigger budget every month without a profit reason.
• They can't tell you your break-even ROAS off the top of their head.
• They talk about impressions and brand lift when you ask about cash.
• They've never mentioned returns, which quietly eat margin on apparel and beauty.

Data does not lie. It tells a specific story about where a business is bleeding. A team that avoids the hard numbers is usually hiding from them.

What should you ask on the first call?

Keep it simple. Three questions.

What's my break-even ROAS given my margin? How will you grow profit, not just revenue? And how will you get my products cited in AI shopping answers?

If they answer all three with specifics, keep talking. If they dodge, you just saved yourself six months and a lot of ad budget.

Frequently asked questions

What is a profit-focused marketing team?

It's a team measured on contribution margin and new-customer profit, not clicks, impressions, or blended ROAS. They start with your COGS and fees before they spend a dollar, and they report on money kept.

Why is ROAS a bad way to judge a Shopify marketing team?

ROAS ignores cost of goods, shipping, returns, and discounts. A 4x ROAS can lose money on a thin-margin product and win big on a fat-margin one. Profit per order tells the real story.

How should I pay a profit-focused marketing team?

Tie part of their pay to profit or new-customer growth, not a percent of ad spend. Percent-of-spend deals reward the team for growing your budget, which works against you.

Should a Shopify marketing team handle AI shopping and AEO?

Yes. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews now recommend products inside their answers. A profit team should already have a plan to get your products cited there, because that traffic converts and costs nothing per click.

Ready to work with a team that gets paid on your profit?

At WRKNG Digital, we don't promise specific results. We promise what our team will actually do, and we tie our work to the numbers that keep your store alive. We also get your products in front of the AI assistants your buyers already use.

See how our agentic commerce approach works for Shopify stores.