Tactical & Practical

By Nate Lagos

Giving you highly actionable marketing advice from someone who's been in the weeds of profitably growing ecom brands. To get involved in the conversation & clarify anything Nate talks about in thi... more

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FAQs about Tactical & Practical:

How many episodes does Tactical & Practical have?

The podcast currently has 103 episodes available.

Tactical & Practical episodes:

August 04, 2026 Million Dollar Headlines
Usually, I write headlines with only ONE customer persona in mind.
But that strategy kinda breaks down when I need to write headlines on your homepage, collection pages, or PDPs where a diverse mix of people are visiting those pages all the time.
And I've only found one way to do that, but it's now worked across 16 brands I've tested it at.
Here's the difference:
If I'm writing to a gift-giver during Q4, I want the messaging to speak specifically to them. I want them thinking that they're not just buying a *thing*, they're buying a symbol of their love, their appreciation, and something that satisfies their desire to NUTURE the person they're buying a gift for.
It'll sound something like,
"Show your [husband, wife, son, daughter, boyfriend] they're [worth it, earned it, appreciated enough] with a gift that's as [positive adjective] as they are."
"Show your man he's worth it with a gift that's as showstopping as he is."
"Let her know you see & appreciate everything she does by giving her a gift that's as uniquely beautiful as she is."
See what I mean?
But, most pages on your website ARE NOT persona-specific. Your homepage, collection pages, and PDPs get a diverse group of traffic. Some gift givers, some people buying from themselves, some ppl who are super problem-product aware, some who are less educated, some are confident, some are insecure, etc...
So, you need a headline format that can work well for all of them.
There's only one headline format that I've ever seen work well in those cases, and I break it down in this episode of tactical & practical, brought to you by Intelligems.io & Waste Not (https://www.wastenot.io/case-studies/large-dtc-watch-brand?ref=nathaniel)
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12min
July 16, 2026 6 Steps To Fix Your Meta Ad Performance, with Cody Wittick
Cody Wittick makes his Tactical & Practical debut by outlining the 6 steps he takes when Meta performance drops, rather than panic pulling levers. His full breakdown can be found in this tweet:
https://x.com/Cody_Wittick/status/2059355220358955458?s=20
This episode is brought to you by Intelligems.io, which is my favorite tool to use to increase meta performance. Test headlines, copy, images, offers, prices, and everything else you can think of on your shopify store!
If you're struggling to get meta to reach new people, you need to be using WasteNot.io | I've used it at two brands now and seen an immediate reduction in CAC that resulted from us getting better at excluding past customers. Click here to sign up today: https://www.wastenot.io/case-studies/large-dtc-watch-brand?ref=nathaniel

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34min
July 01, 2026 Gifting Messaging Without The Discount
Did you know you can start running gifting messaging on your site & in your ad account BEFORE you launch a sale, like Father's Day or BFCM?
Early in the month of May, I tested Father's Day Gifting Messaging across websites of 4 different brands that all sell products that make good father's day gifts.
Even before the sale or the offer is launched, this messaging outperformed evergreen site content, increasing CVR & RPS.
Then, and maybe most importantly, once the sale does launch, we already know which messaging is best to roll out across the site and ad account, and can squeeze every single drop we can out of the promo period.
One client, YoY father's day comps are nuts:
They spent 30% LESS money on ads, and did 34% MORE revenue.
You 1000% need a plan to test gifting messaging in OCTOBER this year, weeks before you launch any kind of holiday sale, so that when you launch the sale, you're launching it already having your messaging dialed in.
Tactical & Practical is brought to you by Intelligems.io - they're the software solution that allows me to test all this messaging on site and shows me where we're increasing Conversion Rate, Revenue Per Session, and a lot more!

Tactical & Practical is also sponsored by Waste Not! A software that fortifies your Meta ad spend to cut waste, reduce audience overlap, and decrease cost to reach new audiences! Check out what they've done for me here: https://www.wastenot.io/case-studies/large-dtc-watch-brand?ref=nathaniel
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11min
June 24, 2026 Linear TV Outpaces Meta At Better ROAS
Proof Wallets is spending as many ad dollars on Linear TV as they are on Meta, and performance is better on TV...
If I was consulting for @DanaPeters0321 at the time they launched TV campaigns, I probably would've told him not to do it.
I would've argued that it's a distraction this early in the business, and that there was still a lot of room for them to grow & optimize Meta.
Good thing Dana and I didn't meet till a few months later, because now there's one ad that has spent multiple millions of dollars and isn't slowing down.
This episode of Tactical & Practical is SUPER tactical, we cover the logistics of Tatari advertising (this episode is not sponsored by them btw), how performance has been, and their trajectory for this channel.
This episode is brought to you by Intelligems.io. Optimize every piece of your shopify store by split testing prices, offers, content, new landing pages and more. It can even split test by traffic source which is necessary if you're going to be testing new channels like we talk about in this episode!

If you're struggling to get meta to reach new people, you need to be using WasteNot.io | I've used it at two brands now and seen an immediate reduction in CAC that resulted from us getting better at excluding past customers. Click here to sign up today: https://app.wastenot.io/users/register/?ref=nathaniel
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25min
June 17, 2026 To Iterate? Or Not To Iterate?
When should you iterate? And when should you test net new creative concepts?
The simple answer for me, is when you hit a point of diminishing returns with iterations, shake the etch a sketch, and start over with net new concepts
The first round of headline testing increased CVR by 27%
The next round, we iterated on the winners, and increased CVR by 11%
The next round, we iterated again and only increased CVR by 2%
It’s time to start the cycle over
This episode is sponsored by intelligems.io - the best way I know how to run tests like I show in this episode.
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11min
June 05, 2026 Fashion Meets Marketing
Great conversation with @heyitsalexP around perceived value, marketing in the world of fashion, upsells, bundles, and more.
Tactical & Practical is sponsored by Intelligems.io - my go to testing tool to help find new ways to increase the percieved value of our products. Check them out!
Follow Alex on twitter and subscribe to her newsletter here:
https://x.com/heyitsalexP
https://t.co/kIyKSdSSQ1
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33min
May 21, 2026 Country Music Meets Creative Strategy
The most valuable copywriting inspiration I've ever gotten is from songwriters.
They're the best at writing in a way that makes people feel something. They're excellent at making the aspirational feel within reach. They're better than any marketer at making people feel at home, and comfortable in their lyrics.
Great advertising should aspire to do those things too.
So, in this episode, I share 3 songs that taught me how to speak to our customers with more familiarity, how to hype up our customers without being too cheesy or on the nose, and how to bring an aspirational lifestyle to appear within reach to our customers if they use your product.
This episode is brought to you by Intelligems.io so you can test copy, content, prices, and offers all across your shopify site to make more money!
Sign up for my copywriting skool here: https://www.skool.com/bottomsup/about
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20min
May 06, 2026 Bottom's Up Copywriting (I want to write copy for you)
Since I'm taking some time off from full time employment, my entire steak & whiskey budget is now dependent on freelance work...

So, I'm going to market my freelance services the way I wish freelancers & agencies marketed to me while I was on the brand side. Which means...

1. I won't make you hop on a call if you don't want to, I'll explain everything in this podcast.

2. I won't gatekeep my process, I'll lay it out in detail. If you have an internal team that are experienced & talented copywriters, & they have the spare time to adopt new processes, you can send them this and you can execute on it without paying me a dime. You're welcome.

3. I won't charge bigger brands bigger retainers just because they can afford it. The price is the price is the price, and I explain in this episode why my flat fee (no percentage of spend bullshit) is a no brainer and you're guaranteed to make a ton of money off my work.

Who's ready to write better copy & make more money?
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18min
May 01, 2026 Media buying can be deadly (Connor MacDonald from Ridge speaks)
CMO of Ridge & the Most Valuable Guest of Tactical & Practical, Couuor Mac joins the pod to talk media buying, on-site messaging testing, and hammock-maxxing.
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39min
April 24, 2026 Why Split Testing Doesn't Work For Some Of You
Some of you have spent a year split testing on your website and don't have anything to show for it...

and I think I know why.

I ran a headline test on a landing page. The control variant was a very evidence-based, authority / credibility kinda headline. The variant that won the split test, and increased CVR by 48%, was on the other end of the spectrum, it was very emotional & benefit driven.

THAT DOESN'T MEAN I SHOULD JUST SET THAT HEADLINE LIVE AND FORGET IT.

All the results of that split test tells us is that CURRENTLY, our ads are doing a better job of bringing emotional buyers to our website.

It means that we're NOT good at bringing logical buyers into our funnel.

So now, my job is to create two separate funnels for the same product, one that appeals to emotional, benefit driven buyers, and the other that appeals logical buyers.

Split testing should teach you how to grow your TAM, not just increase conversion rate for one specific cohort of your target market.
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7min

FAQs about Tactical & Practical:

How many episodes does Tactical & Practical have?

The podcast currently has 103 episodes available.

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