Always Be Testing

In this episode of Always Be Testing, host Tye DeGrange is joined by Cormac Jonas, CEO and Founder of The Jonas Agency, for a deep dive into what’s actually broken in modern performance marketing. With years of experience across affiliate, paid media, and creator-led growth, Cormac brings a sharp perspective on why so many brands are optimizing campaigns while ignoring the bigger problem: flawed measurement.The conversation unpacks how misattribution, last-click bias, and platform incentives distort ROI, using the recent Honey browser extension controversy as a real-world example of how value gets misassigned across channels. They explore why TikTok and YouTube reshaped high-intent demand, how AI, CTV, and programmatic traffic are inflating “performance” metrics, and why owning an audience now matters more than owning traffic. This episode is a candid look at where affiliate and performance marketing are heading — and what brands need to fix before scaling spend.

Guillaume Cabane, founder of HyperGrowth Partners and veteran B2B SaaS growth leader, shares why most companies fail to scale and what a true growth team looks like. He discusses rapid, high-cadence experimentation, breaking big projects into testable pieces, aligning growth with sales, the real role of SDRs, where AI helps, and the cultural shifts needed to tolerate failure and move fast.

In this episode of Always Be Testing, Tye DeGrange sits down with Ziggy Kopetti, a veteran affiliate marketing operator and platform founder who has spent years working inside the mechanics of performance marketing—from attribution and partner incentives to how networks and platforms actually make money.The conversation explores how affiliate programs really scale, where brands commonly misjudge incentives, and why many performance issues are self-inflicted by poor structure rather than bad partners. Ziggy breaks down the economic realities behind affiliate platforms, how creators and publishers think about risk and reward, and why transparency and alignment matter more than tooling alone. The episode also touches on where affiliate marketing is headed, what brands misunderstand about creator partnerships, and how short-term optimization often creates long-term trust problems.

In this emergency episode of Always Be Testing, I’m joined by Ben Edelman—an economist, lawyer, and one of the most respected affiliate fraud investigators in the industry. Ben has spent over two decades uncovering adware abuse, browser extension misconduct, and attribution fraud, working with merchants, networks, and publishers to protect the integrity of affiliate marketing.We break down what actually happened with the Honey browser extension, why multiple affiliate networks removed it, and why this case is fundamentally different from past controversies. Ben explains how affiliate attribution is supposed to work, how “stand down” rules came to exist, and how Honey allegedly bypassed those rules by intentionally concealing violations from testers and networks. We also discuss the real impact on content publishers, review sites, and the broader ecosystem—and why concealment, not just rule-breaking, changes the legal and ethical stakes. This episode is a deep, technical, but essential conversation for anyone who cares about transparency, trust, and accountability in partner marketing.

In this episode, I get the chance to sit down with Jen Goodwin, a powerhouse with 17 years of experience driving growth across e-commerce and affiliate marketing. Jen has helped scale some of the biggest brands in the space and played a major role in two successful exits — the acquisition of Coupons.com (Quotient) and Honey’s $4B sale to PayPal.She’s worked at every level of an organization, mentoring new talent, partnering with the C-suite, and leading teams through transformation and growth. Today, she co-leads Hi Energy Agency, where she helps publishers scale faster through smarter affiliate partnerships and more efficient monetization strategies across major networks.Our conversation digs into what real leadership looks like inside high-growth environments — the tough decisions, the clarity required, the importance of operational discipline, and the mindset shifts that separate good teams from great ones. Jen brings a level of honesty and practical insight that operators will immediately recognize and appreciate.

In this episode of Always Be Testing, I sit down with Howard Schaffer — a 25-year performance marketing leader, former CMO and VP across major wellness, fitness, and tech brands, and now the founder of HOS Performance — for a deep dive into what really holds companies back from scaling. Howard and I unpack why so many teams are still operating on shaky data foundations, from broken UTM structures to inaccurate attribution and reporting gaps, and he shares the exact diagnostic framework he uses when he steps into an organization. We talk about what every new CMO should evaluate in their first 30–60 days, how to assess channel performance without bias, and why disciplined tracking and clean measurement matter far more than adding another fancy analytics tool. We also get into AI’s growing role in competitive research and creative iteration, how SEO is evolving, and why creator-led partnerships are becoming more valuable than traditional influencer deals. This conversation is full of practical insights for CMOs, performance marketers, analysts, and founders who want to understand what’s slowing down their growth — and how to fix it.

In this episode, we sit down with Scott Ginsberg — VP of Performance Marketing at Penske Media, the powerhouse behind brands like Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, and Robb Report. With two decades in affiliate and performance marketing (including leadership roles at BrandCycle, CJ, and Yahoo), Scott breaks down how the industry evolved from “coupons and last-click” into one of the most strategic levers in modern growth.We explore how top publishers balance editorial integrity with monetization, the rise of content-commerce, how AI is reshaping traffic and attribution, why brand-publisher relationships win long-term, and the underrated leadership principles that drive great teams.This episode is a masterclass for marketers, operators, and leaders navigating a shifting ecosystem.

This episode features Adam Robinson, Founder & CEO of Retention.com, who shares his journey from finance into tech and how he built Retention.com from the ground up into a lean, high-margin SaaS serving both e-commerce and B2B brands. He talks about hitting a growth plateau around ~$3M ARR and the breakthrough that followed, the role of continuous product innovation, and how founder-led brand building on LinkedIn became a core distribution and trust engine for the company. The conversation also explores defining what “enough” truly means, designing work around the life you want to live, and his decision to relocate to Aspen to raise his family in a more intentional environment.

In this discussion, Amro Naddy, VP of Product at U.S. News & World Report, shares insights on balancing editorial integrity with data-driven optimization. He highlights the challenges of managing teams in a complex organization and emphasizes the importance of connecting product and marketing strategies for success. Amro also tackles the future of product-led growth, the need for expertise in reviews versus AI-generated content, and innovative business models for the AI era. Plus, he offers valuable leadership advice and shares a memorable family adventure.

In this episode of Always Be Testing, host Tye DeGrange sits down with Michael Cole, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Everflow and active member of the Performance Marketing Association’s Measurement Council. With a decade of experience leading growth and analytics in the partner and affiliate space, Michael helps brands unlock performance marketing efficiency through better data, smarter attribution, and stronger relationships between advertisers and publishers.Their conversation dives deep into how affiliate marketing and partnerships are rapidly evolving in the age of AI and advanced measurement. Michael shares how Everflow empowers marketers to see the full picture of affiliate performance — from first click to repeat purchase — while debunking the biggest myths holding brands back. Together, they unpack how AI is reshaping discovery, what most marketers still misunderstand about attribution, and how partner programs can deliver growth that’s both scalable and sustainable.