Founder @Blue Water Marketing | eCommerce & Digital Marketing Nerd

Hey, I’m Chris Marrano.

I’ve spent the last 15 years in the trenches of digital marketing, starting at Mullen (Boston) working with brands like Match.com and LendingTree, then going client-side at Harvard Business School before launching Blue Water Marketing from the ground up.

Today, I run an eCommerce growth agency that helps Shopify brands scale from 7 to 8 figures—without bleeding budget.

We do this by combining Meta Ads, Google Ads, Klaviyo, and content at scale with deep financial visibility (think MER, aMER, CAC, and contribution margin). We don't just run ads, we integrate into your brand’s systems and decision-making so growth is profitable.

I'm also building ADIQ.AI, an AI-powered SaaS platform that helps brands analyze creative performance in real time—because in this market, "creative testing" without data is guesswork.

Outside of business, I live in South Florida with my wife Taylor and our two boys. I’m a family-first operator. Weekends usually involve beach days, t-ball games, and building something in the garage (usually with a goldendoodle supervising).

If you're a DTC founder looking to:
✅ Turn creative chaos into profitable customer acquisition
✅ Build predictable growth systems backed by numbers
✅ Actually understand what's driving your MER

Let’s connect.

I have been auditing eight figure ecommerce ad accounts with the same Claude skill.

No dashboards.
No new tools.
No custom reporting.

Just a simple export from Facebook Ads Manager dropped into Claude.

Every time I do this, the reaction is the same.

“Wait… how did it see that?”

Patterns jump out that are almost impossible to spot when you are clicking around Ads Manager. Things that feel obvious once you see them, but are completely invisible before.

It does not tell you what to do.
It shows you what you cannot unsee after.

If you are running a seven or eight figure Shopify brand and want the exact audit skill I use, comment SKILL and I will send you the MD file.

Chris Marrano

Scaling 7 & 8 Figure DTC Brands Profitably | Building AI-enhanced systems | Founder@BlueWaterMarketing | Founder@ADIQ.AI

Most brands are tracking 47 different creative metrics.

And they still can't tell you which ads are actually working.

I've audited hundreds of Meta accounts. The ones drowning in data almost always have the same problem: they're measuring everything and understanding nothing.

Here's where we start every diagnosis:
- Hook rate. Are people stopping? If less than 25% watch past 3 seconds, nothing else matters. Your ad isn't even getting a chance.
- Hold rate. Are they staying? ThruPlays divided by 3-second views. This tells you if your message lands after the hook.
- Creative diversity. How much spend is concentrated on your top 3 ads? Above 60%? Andromeda is starving for fresh concepts.

Those three numbers tell you if an account is healthy or dying.

But knowing the problem isn't the same as fixing it.

To actually improve, you need to track performance at the concept level — not the ad level. You need to see trends over 7, 14, 30 days. You need to know which hooks are working, which CTAs are converting, and which concepts deserve more iterations.

That's why we built a Creative Performance Scorecard.

One sheet that tracks concept-level performance over time — built around the metrics that actually predict winners under Andromeda.

It's how we answer "which concepts should we make more of" across every client account.

Comment "SCORECARD" and I'll send it over.

The Meta ads advice that sounds smart but bleeds money…

“Go broad and trust the algorithm.”

Sounds sophisticated. Feels modern. Gets you likes from other marketers.

And it’s destroying accounts.

Here’s what actually happens when you “go broad” without the foundation…

You feed the algorithm 12 creatives that look like 2 creatives. Andromeda groups them together. Your “test” becomes a coin flip between two concepts.
Then you wonder why performance is volatile.

The advice isn’t wrong. It’s incomplete.

Broad works when you have 8-10 genuinely different creative concepts. Different hooks. 

Different formats. Different angles. Not color swaps and copy tweaks.

Without that? You’re not “trusting the algorithm.”
You’re hoping.

Two more pieces of advice I’d add to this list…

“Scale what’s working.” Sounds obvious. But most brands scale too fast, spike frequency, and kill the winner before it hits its ceiling. Patience is the edge no one talks about.

“Focus on ROAS.” Platform ROAS is a trailing indicator. By the time it drops, the damage is done. Hook rate and creative diversity are leading indicators. Fix those first. ROAS follows.

The best advice always sounds boring.

What’s a piece of Meta ads advice you’ve heard that sounds smart but never worked for you?

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Most brands still check performance by logging into Ads Manager. (Free Resource)

We just ask our AI.

Over the last nine months, we rebuilt how we operate internally by plugging AI agents directly into our Meta ad accounts.

Now our team can ask questions in Slack or through voice and get instant answers like:
- What are our top performing ads by CTR this week
- Which creatives are creeping above our CAC threshold
- What trends are actually moving performance across ASC

The system pulls live data, compares it to historical benchmarks, and responds in plain English. If needed, it generates a visual report automatically.

This is not a dashboard. This is not automation for the sake of automation.
It is an operating system for performance marketing.

When creative is the only real edge, speed of decision making matters more than ever.

You cannot move fast if your data lives behind clicks, exports, and lag.

We are not replacing humans. We are replacing delay.

If you want to see how we built this and how you could adapt it for your team, comment AI OPS and I will send the walkthrough.

I had the chance to sit down with Dave Ten on his latest podcast, and we went deeper than surface level AI talk.

We unpacked the AI infrastructure we’re building, how Meta’s Andromeda update quietly changes how ads are selected and scaled, and where I believe AI is actually headed in marketing.

My core belief hasn’t changed.

The advantage is no longer clever account structure.
It’s signal quality, creative volume, and fast feedback loops.

AI is not here to replace teams.
It’s here to collapse learning cycles and make systems more resilient as platforms evolve faster than operators can react manually

If you’re building for the next version of ecommerce and paid media, this conversation is worth your time.

Check out the episode in the comments below.

We’re rolling out our AI Agent and AI Media Buyer Chatbot to beta users next week.

The internal team has been testing it for the past few weeks.

The feedback is insane.

The Agent monitors all your Meta accounts 24/7 like a junior buyer who never sleeps. Generates pause, scale, and alert recommendations and actually learns from every decision you make. 

Approve a rec that crushes? Confidence goes up. Reject one as too aggressive? Thresholds adjust.
It gets smarter the more you use it.

The Chatbot is like having a senior media buyer on call at 2am.
- “CPM spiked 40%—what do I check first?”
- “Should I kill this ad set or give it more runway?”
- “Client wants to know why ROAS dropped. Help me diagnose.”

Real answers. Based on your actual data. No waiting.

One works while you sleep.

One answers when you’re stuck.

We’re only letting in a handful of beta users. Drop “AGENT” in the comments if you want early access.

Andromeda broke my entire agency this summer.

I've been running Meta ads 2013. This was the biggest shift since iOS 14.

You probably noticed I didn't rush to make a video about it.

Every guru jumped on the trending keyword within days. Racing to be first. Recycling Meta's documentation. Guessing at what might work.

I waited 4 months.

Why? Because I'm not a coach. I'm not selling a course. I run an agency with real clients spending real money.

I needed to actually figure out what works before telling anyone else what to do.
So we tested. We broke things. We rebuilt systems from scratch. We spent millions in ad spend across dozens of accounts until we had real answers.

Now I do.

I finally made the Andromeda video. Not because it's trendy anymore—because I'm confident it's right.

Everything we learned. The exact system we're running now. Real ad account walkthroughs.

No fluff. No upsell. Just the playbook.

Link in comments.

Summer 2025 broke a lot of Meta ad accounts for Shopify brands

We had clients hitting their best months ever in August. By September, some dropped from 3.2x ROAS to 1.6x.

Same creative. Same offer. Same budgets. Just... didn't work anymore.

The culprit: Andromeda's final rollout.

Here's what changed: → Interest targeting? Basically useless now → Lookalike audiences? Severely diminished → ABOs with 3-5 ads? Fatigue in days, not weeks

The algorithm is now 10,000x faster at processing creative variations. It doesn't care about your targeting anymore—it cares about what you're showing people.
So we rebuilt everything.

New testing structure: 15-30 ads per test instead of 3-5.

Creative diversity isn't optional anymore. It's the entire strategy.

And we leaned hard into AI. 3,200+ automations running weekly. What used to take 8 hours now takes 20 minutes.

Just gave a talk breaking all of this down—what happened, why it happened, and the exact systems we're using now.

Full video is live. Link in comments.

What did you see this summer? Drop your experience below.

Most ecommerce brands are still spending hours and THOUSANDS of dollars on static ad creation (Get Some Free Ads)

Briefing designers. Waiting for revisions. Iterating. Testing.

Meanwhile, the algorithm wants fresh concepts constantly.

We built AdIQ.AI to fix this.

4 clicks. That's it. AI-generated static ads built specifically for eCommerce.

Not generic templates. Not Canva with extra steps.

Scroll-stopping creatives designed for Meta.

Right now, I'm filling the beta waitlist and giving away 20 free credits to anyone who signs up.

Prices go up at the end of the week.

And soon we're rolling out the IQ side, automated theme analysis, image analysis, and concept creation to tell you why ads work, not just make them.

Comment "ADIQ" or DM me if you want in.

ps. I have no affiliation with ZitSticka™ but I thought these ads were cool

Founders, stop trusting your agency’s reports blindly.

I just showed a Shopify brand owner what their account actually looked like.

They fired their agency that week.

Here’s what happened.

A founder DM’d me asking if their numbers seemed off.

They were spending $80K/month.

Their agency said everything was “optimized.”
I asked for one thing.

A 90-day export from Ads Manager.

I dropped it into the same Claude skill I use to audit eight-figure accounts.

Three minutes later, I sent them the results.

What it found:
→ 62% of spend going to ads with CPAs 40% above target
→ No creative testing structure — just random launches
→ Four “scaling” campaigns competing against each other
→ Zero ads paused in 45 days despite clear fatigue signals

The agency never flagged any of it. Not because they were lying. Because they weren’t actually looking.

Most agencies report what you want to hear.

Spend is up. ROAS looks fine. Keep going.

But the patterns that kill profitability? Those live in the data nobody reviews.

The Claude skill doesn’t tell you what to do. It shows you what’s actually happening.

And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

If you’re a Shopify founder spending $50K+ on Meta and want to see what your account actually looks like — comment SKILL and I’ll send you the exact MD file I use.

My thought is that by the end of 2026, consumers will assume every ad is AI.

Not necessarily in a negative way. In the same way no one asks if an email was written by a human anymore.

I see it happening already “wow, this is a crazy good AI ad” or “is this AI” even when it’s not.

AI will be invisible
Expected
“Boring”

And that changes everything for DTC.

What will stop mattering:
• Whether the creator is real or AI
• Whether the video was filmed or generated
• How much effort went into production

Consumers will not reward effort.
They will not reward novelty.
They will not reward volume.

Because everyone will have it.

What will matter more than ever:
• Relevance. Does this speak to me right now
• Timing. Did this show up when I was ready to buy
• Clarity. Do I instantly understand the value
• Proof. Does this feel grounded in reality
• Consistency. Have I seen this brand enough to trust it

Signal will matter more than source.

This is where most brands will struggle.

When ad creation becomes instant, the feeds get louder.
Most teams will overproduce low signal content.
Speed will get mistaken for strategy.
Activity will get confused for progress.

The brands that win in 2026 will not be the ones using the most AI tools.

They will be the ones with:
• Clear positioning
• Message discipline
• Tight feedback loops
• Systems that learn quickly

AI will be the multiplier.
Strategy will be the constraint.

AI does not lower the bar.
It raises it.

Because when everyone can ship, intent is the only thing that stands out.

I spent most of this morning building a Brio train set with my boys.

We started simple. Just a circle. Nothing fancy. No bridges. No switches.

Just making sure every piece connected cleanly so the train could go around without falling apart.

Once the circle worked, they wanted more. A bridge here. A split track there.

Before I knew it, the original circle was still there, but now it had branches, loops, and different paths heading in every direction.

And it hit me how closely this mirrors building a business.

At the beginning, all that matters is the circle.
Your core process.
Your fundamentals.

Does the system actually work end to end?

Most people skip this.
They rush straight to adding branches.
More channels.
More offers.
More complexity.

But if the circle is broken, every new piece just creates more problems.

The companies that scale well do the opposite.
They obsess over making the core loop boring and reliable.
Acquisition.
Fulfillment.
Retention.
Feedback.
Repeat.

Once that loop runs smoothly, expansion becomes obvious.
New products are just branches.
New channels are just switches.
New markets are just longer tracks.

The foundation never changes.
It just supports more paths.

Watching my kids build reminded me that growth is not about adding more pieces as fast as possible.

It is about making sure the base can handle whatever you add next.

If your business feels chaotic, it is usually not because you need something new.

It is because your circle is not finished yet.

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100 static ads in 25 minutes.

That's what I just walked through on camera.

The biggest bottleneck for ecommerce brands right now isn't targeting. It's not even budget.

It's creative production.

Meta's algorithm wants diversity. Andromeda rewards fresh concepts. But most brands can't keep up with the demand.

That's exactly why we built AdIQ.

4 clicks. No graphic designer. Dozens of ready-to-upload creatives in minutes.

I just dropped a full walkthrough showing the entire process:
→ Building personas (like health-conscious suburban moms) 
→ Customizing ad elements and hooks 
→ Testing different messaging angles at scale

This pairs perfectly with UGC if that's your focus.

If you're spending more time waiting on creative than actually testing, the video breaks down exactly how we've solved that at Blue Water.

Link in comments.

We added $25K/month without changing the offer, the leads, or the team.

On paper, everything already looked great.

Open rates. Click rates. Delivery rates.

The dashboards were green.

The pipeline was not.

Deals kept stalling.

Leads that felt hot on Monday were cold by Thursday. Reps were refreshing inboxes, waiting on replies that came too late to matter.

We assumed it was a lead quality problem.

It wasn’t.

It was a speed problem.

Email is great for context.

Terrible for urgency.

And we were using it for both. So we split the work.
Time-sensitive follow-ups → SMS
Detail and context → Email

Fully automated instead of relying on someone to remember the next touch

What changed?

Conversations that used to take 3–4 days started closing in 24–48 hours.

Same leads. Same offer. Same team.

Just faster execution.

Result: +$25K/month in added revenue.

Comment TOOL and I’ll send you what we used.

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