TikTok goes dark for 14 hours, other traffic streams light up

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Hey ecom Warrior!

Grab your popcorn - this week's drama is better than Netflix! Let's dive into what's shaking up the digital world... 🍿

  • TikTok's brief shutdown

  • The secret organic traffic weapon that no one’s talking about

  • Your next product goldmine: Pet tech

  • 60-second challenge

TikTok US advertisers, get ahead

In the time taken to write this newsletter, TikTok has pulled the plug in the US, and then reversed the decision only 14 hours later.

We’ve harped about it for months, and the ban has come and gone (at least temporarily). As at today for U.S. users, TikTok is unbanned and can be used freely.

However, this development may not be permanent - especially if the “right kind” of investors don’t turn up.

As ecom merchants, we can’t wait around for things to happen to us. We need to be prepared for every eventuality. We know that the cost of hiring influencers on other platforms will probably increase. We also know that more advertising cash will be spent targeting other markets.

But those are not the only other alternatives. Plenty of other social media channels will send customers your way, some of which you may have thought of:

BTW, if you’re looking for a tested growth agency to help with your Instagram strategy, check out Social Boost. You’ll get a full (human!) team managing your organic growth and sales on Instagram for less than $100/mo (they are currently offering 30% off) :

Growth hack: Hack other people’s audiences

Wildgrain is a Shopify store that has attracted 30,000x more organic traffic than it has paid traffic - partly by hacking other people’s audiences.

I had to snoop around a little to figure out how they were doing this and realized they were using little-known strategies to attract traffic.

Podcasts. (…in addition to PR articles and blog posts - and we’ll be sharing free media/PR opportunities this Wednesday)

So, what’s a bread shop doing sponsoring a tech podcast? You tell me.

But it seems to be working. If not for the organic traffic, but for the backlinks and their effect on getting the store to rank higher in search results.

And that’s not the full picture. I snooped around a little more and found that they had recently sponsored a true crime podcast as well that “airs” on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and iHeartradio. The latest episode on YouTube got 55,546 views at last count. You do the math.

And you don’t physically have to talk on the podcast. You could just reach out manually and say, “Hey, I’d like you to mention my product in your podcast,” and take it from there.

Challenge: Reach out to podcasters

This week, take 60 minutes to reach out to podcasters and improve your traffic and sales by at least 1%. Here’s how:

  • Create a list of 10 podcasts with > 20 episodes. They’re on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts, etc. (Wildgrain shows that they don’t even have to be in the same niche as you.)

  • Compose your draft email. (E.g “Subject: Are you open to podcast sponsors? Body: We’re a [insert category] store interested in working with you. Would love to sponsor your podcast - please reply if you’re interested.” )

  • Send.

Or do it at scale using AI with PodPitch. Customers seem to have success with them.

Save 13 Hours Weekly of Podcast Pitching with PodPitch.com

It's 2025. Want to finally be a regular podcast guest in your industry? PodPitch will make it happen. Even the beehiiv team uses it!

The best way to advertise isn't Meta or Google – it's appearing on dozens of podcasts that your customers already love.

You could write a few emails yourself to podcast hosts...

Or you could automate thousands of emails going out weekly, pitching your people as the PERFECT next podcast guest.

  • Log in with your email

  • Load your brand info

  • Click "automate"

Emails pitching your team as the perfect next guest will start sending out automatically to podcast hosts.

Big brands like Feastables are already using it instead of expensive PR Agencies.

Trend: Wet cat food feeders

Wet cat food feeders are exploding, especially in the UK, US, and Australia.

Wet pet food makes up 27% of total dog and cat food sold globally, and sales could reach $31B by 2028. Apparently, this trend is growing because cat owners are worried about keeping wet food fresh and needing to be present at mealtime. So, these gadgets keep wet food fresh and your schedule free.

You can jump on this trend by testing wet cat feeders if you have related products

P.S

Thanks to your votes, we’ll be covering how ecommerce brands use Google Discover to gain new traffic. Look out for this next Monday’s session.

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Keep crushing it,

Ada

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