Ross Hudgens welcomes Jason Cohen, founder of WP Engine and Smart Bear, to unpack the “multipliers” behind outsized marketing results.
They get into how WP Engine grew affiliates into a channel competitors couldn’t touch, why most A/B testing quietly produces nothing, and Jason’s core argument that the quality of traffic at the top of your funnel matters more than everything below it combined.
Along the way: exclusivity deals, multi-brand strategy, defining a truly actionable ideal customer, and why showing your product’s bad reviews can actually lift sales.
Show Notes
00:00 Intro
00:57 The affiliate power curve
03:00 The “magic wand” test
10:19 Affiliates, brand value & AI search
15:12 Defining your ideal customer
22:42 Why your A/B test wins disappear (false positives)
28:27 Why A/B testing fails for SEO
33:49 Traffic quality beats everything else in the funnel
39:04 How to actually get higher-quality traffic
52:22 Why showing bad reviews boosts sales
