Amazon vs Meta: Who Actually Wins?

Most brands argue about channels.

Amazon vs Meta.
Paid ads vs organic.
Acquisition vs retention.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

The customer doesn’t live inside one platform.

This week on Upside, we sat down with growth marketer Rafay, someone who’s spent 15+ years scaling brands across Meta, Google, Shopify, and ecommerce ecosystems globally to unpack what actually drives performance today.

And within minutes, the myths started falling apart.

Rapid-fire highlights:

• The metric founders should stop obsessing over → Traffic
• The most underestimated growth lever → Conversion rate optimisation
• The most overrated channel right now → (yes… TikTok made the list)
• The one thing every brand must prepare for in 2026 → AI

But the real conversation went deeper.

We explored what happens when the Amazon mindset meets the owned-media world and why brands struggle when those two ecosystems operate in silos.

Because ads don’t fail in isolation.

Funnels fail.

If your ads work but your landing pages don’t convert → wasted spend.
If customers buy but never return → wasted acquisition.
If channels don’t talk to each other → broken growth.

The brands winning right now aren’t choosing platforms.

They’re building connected systems.

If you run an ecommerce brand or advise one, this episode will likely change how you think about advertising going into 2026.

🎧 Watch or listen to this week’s Upside now 👇

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