The Jones Road Playbook: How On-Demand Data Enables Rapid Testing Across Acquisition & Retention 

Founded by iconic makeup artist Bobbi Brown, Jones Road offers a glimpse into the future of clean beauty and better-for-you skincare. In late 2020, the beauty brand launched with six hero products, including their bestselling miracle balm. Fast forward two years later, they're crushing it on TikTok, growing their team, and launching new products (i.e. new sparkle wash shades).

Where can you buy the brand's bestselling miracle balm? Although the brand is DTC-first, they have their own shop in Montclair, New Jersey, and a physical retail presence in Credo.

We sat down with the brand's Director of Ecommerce Cody Plofker to better understand how the brand leverages Tydo to develop high-performing acquisition and retention campaigns.

“Having the right data is essential for our marketing efforts. Using Tydo, we know where to look, what to test, and what drives meaningful outcomes.” 

Phase One: Analyzing Health Metrics  

Every morning, the Jones Road team runs through a business health check. 

Using Tydo, they look at  key data surrounding acquisition, retention, and conversion. More specifically, the team checks in on AOV, CAC, MER, and Blended ROAS. With regards to conversion rate optimization, MER and CAC are their north stars.

Once Jones Road onboarded with Tydo, they immediately started using the tool as a means to understand what's going right and wrong across each business vertical. While the team dives deep on metrics, the work doesn’t stop there. They dive into the why behind the data.

“Step one is reviewing the overall health of the business, specifically diving deep on organic and paid marketing efforts. Then, we shift into action.”

Phase Two: Developing Clear Hypotheses 

Once the team reviews performance data and pulls out distinct purchasing trends, they shift into hypothesis development. This informs their actions as a company.

For example, if Tydo shows that the brand’s CAC is higher than usual for a handful of days on end, the team will dive deeper and explore "the why" behind the numbers.

They'll brainstorm possible hypotheses, which might include decreased organic traffic, poor ad performance across Facebook or Google, or decreased landing page conversion percentages.

Using Tydo, the team knows where and when to ask the right questions to form these hypotheses. Then, they’ll use that qualitative feedback to roll out tests across retention or acquisition.

“When we’re diving into the business and doing the necessary detective work, it’s critical that we have access to our top five or six metrics on one single dashboard. That’s absolutely essential to our team’s success.”

Phase Three: Layering Data to Drive Outcomes

After clear, data-driven hypotheses have been developed, the team quickly pushes out a range of tests to aggregate quantitative feedback around trends they've identified.

If their conversion rate slips for more than a few days, the team dives into traffic distribution metrics to silo out individual traffic source conversion percentages.

For example, at Jones Road, email might convert at 8% while Facebook might convert at 2%. The marketing team uses that info to roll out tests to improve conversion rate, such as new visual assets, ad copy, and landing page flows.

Numbers are only one part of the story. While running tests, Jones Road layers qualitative feedback over their hard data. For example, they’ll often layer their data by integrating input from the CX and sales teams around real-time behavioral trends.

This process of layering data requires robust internal communication workflow. Pulling together individual team members’ perspectives into a holistic narrative is critical to rapid testing at Jones Road.

“The most important part of the process is aggregating input across teams. Only then can you clearly see a cohesive picture of what’s going on.

Data-First Product Development

When it comes to new product launches, particularly in the emerging clean beauty industry, the team leverages both quantitative and qualitative data inputs, as well as direct feedback from Jones Road founder Bobbi Brown. 

Their number one priority is listening to their customers. Both Bobbi, Cody, and the team spend time listening to to what bundles, products, or looks their customers want in the Jones Road product lineup.

On the quantitative side, it’s all about diving into their bestselling beauty products—miracle balm, the face pencil, and the best pencil. More recently, the team created a personalized communication channel for new customers—and even brought on superstar Eli Weiss to lead all things CX—in an effort to quantify and gather feedback around their unique problems, concerns, and interests.

Jones Road prioritizes both customer feedback and targeted audience development. For example, the team implemented a makeup quiz on their site to gather data around customer psychographics and potential new product formulations. In addition, Jones Road spends $8,000 on TikTok ads per day, and they direct all of that traffic to their quiz. Put simply, it's a high-converting lead magnet to scale up their top-of-funnel.

“In terms of new product dev, we’ve been able to fluidly merge anecdotal customer feedback with rigorous quantitative data on Tydo’s platform.”

Aligning External Partners 

When it comes to aligning external agencies and partners, Jones Road is best in class.

According to Cody, the key to a healthy, two-sided partnership, is a combination of clarity and context. First, brands need to provide agencies with clear outcomes and targets on a monthly and quarterly basis. Second, brands need to provide information about relevant products and offer context so that agencies can successfully execute across paid performance channels and in turn drive increased revenue.

At Jones Road, mobilizing data analytics through Tydo has become a crucial component in their process of aligning with agency partners. Using Tydo's Report Cards, Jones Road can ensure that their partners have improved levels of clarity and context around performance expectations, specifically when it comes to ongoing acquisition and retention targets.

“With the help of Tydo, we’re always on the same page with our agency. Having access to the same data sets immediately forces alignment."

Aligning Internal Stakeholders 

At Jones Road, it’s critical that everyone on the team has a thorough understanding of data analytics. 

For example, designers need to know how certain images drive a higher CTR, while copywriters need to access performance data around which CTAs are consistently converting.

When it comes to cross-team communication, Cody leverages Tydo to help educate and inform the rest of the team, including the board, about their North Star metrics.

Cody offers four pieces of advice as it relates to ensuring internal team alignment on the fundamentals:

1. Start by ensuring your products are world-class, full stop.
2. Create strategies early on to generate organic traffic.
3. Work towards healthy profit margins as a north star.
4. Optimize for strong cohort retention on day one. 
   

“Retention and acquisition go hand in hand. The better you are at retaining users and driving organic traffic, the more you can spend on acquisition.”