About
Dan King, President of King Marketing, kept running into the same failure mode across clients: if the foundation is messy, every meeting turns into a data argument. Strategy work stalled because nobody could agree on the baseline or drill down fast enough to diagnose what changed.
SourceMedium gave Dan a reporting baseline he could trust across clients, so he could spend time on decisions (like discount strategy and profitability) instead of hunting for data.
King Marketing is a boutique consultancy for eCommerce brands, typically in the $2M–$50M revenue range. Dan has led marketing and growth for brands like Ritual and MeUndies.
The challenge
- Data foundations were messy, so analysis started with reconciliation instead of diagnosis
- Growth decisions depended on shared KPIs the team could stand behind (especially post-iOS14)
- Fragmented metrics across sheets and dashboards didn’t scale as teams grew and asked more questions
To help brands grow, Dan needs a clear baseline and a culture of decision-making built on numbers the team can stand behind. But as he worked with more companies, he found himself spending too much time tracking down data instead of doing the work that actually moves the business.
He bucketed the problems he saw most often into three categories:
- Lack of data infrastructure: Messy foundations made it difficult to bring data together and slice it for real analysis.
- Fragmented KPIs: Metrics lived across drives, sheets, and dashboards, forcing teams to do mental math to tell a story.
- Lack of technical resources: Brands needed technical help but weren’t ready for a full-time engineer or analyst.
Apple’s ios14 compounded these issues. Before, brands could get away with using platform data because it gave directional insights.
“Now you have to focus on your data; the stakes are much higher; you just can’t rely on third-party data tools anymore.”
The problems became so significant that Dan considered not working with brands that had not figured out their data infrastructure and reporting.
The solution
- A baseline KPI layer that held up under scrutiny (garbage in, garbage out)
- Drill-down views to go from “what changed?” to “why?” without weeks of spreadsheet work
- An operator workflow for decisions like discounting, tied back to margin and profitability
Dan selected SourceMedium to handle the heavy-lifting data work so he could focus on insights and strategy with clients.
He chose SourceMedium over other tools because he wanted confidence that the foundation would be set up correctly. He’s skeptical of dashboards that look polished but sit on top of shaky data: garbage in, garbage out.
Dan uses SourceMedium to understand the health of a client, benchmark key KPIs, and then go deeper to diagnose what’s driving performance.
Discounting is one example where he turns data into decisions. By combining custom metrics, Dan and his clients can see total discount rate and then break it down by dimensions like time and order value. From there, they can decide how much room they have for promotions and where discounts are actually worth it, protecting margins while still driving growth.
The bigger point is that the team can understand growth levers beyond topline metrics. SourceMedium helps connect marketing strategy to financial reality, illuminating where to grow through the lens of profitability.
What changed
- Decision enabled: Promotion and growth strategy could be set with profitability in mind, not just topline performance.
- How they validated it: A consistent KPI baseline made it easier to diagnose issues and challenge assumptions early.
- What got faster: Less time spent hunting for data, more time spent applying it.
The results
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3 recurring problems surfaced quickly
Data infrastructure, KPI fragmentation, and limited technical bandwidth became visible and actionable instead of hidden behind spreadsheets. -
$2M–$50M brands got a clearer baseline
Dan could benchmark performance and move into diagnosis faster across clients at similar stages. -
Discount strategy tied back to margins
Teams could see total discounting, break it down, and decide where promotions made sense.