The T.L.C. Lab

A Lab entry is a single marketing experiment run on a real newsletter, blog, or product — not a thought piece, not a list of "ten ideas you should try." Every row in the archive ships with the same six fields, in the same order, so the dataset stays comparable across years and channels:

1. Hypothesis. The single sentence we set out to test, written before the experiment shipped.
2. Channel. SEO, email, social, paid-organic, lifecycle, partnerships, or audio.
3. Spend. Total cost in USD — including tooling, contractor hours, and ad spend where applicable.
4. Sample size. Sessions, subscribers, or impressions touched by the experiment.
5. Result delta. The measured change against the prior 30-day baseline, with confidence noted.
6. Verdict. Worth repeating, hold, or kill — written as a one-line recommendation.

The numbers are public because the publication has no sponsors and never has. Every dollar of revenue comes from subscriptions and the paid TLC Pro cohort, which means the dataset has no incentive to flatter any vendor, channel, or agency. If an experiment flopped — and many did — it ships in the archive with the same prominence as the wins. The full editorial policy is published at tlc-blog.com/editorial.

— The TLC editorial team, 9 editors and 4 contributing analysts.