Being Just An "Ads Guy" Isn't Enough

“We’re just looking for an ads guy”

Is a statement I’ve heard a few times when speaking with businesses looking for some paid media help. Outside of whether or not these businesses are actually ready to invest in paid media, there’s some trouble with “just being an ads guy.”

This limits how much value a freelancer, or even agency, can provide an in-house marketing team. There are a limited number of levers that a marketer has to pull in an ad platform, and I don’t think this will be changing any time soon as companies like Google and Meta continue to lean into AI and automation.

On top of that, no amount of tinkering in Google Ads or LinkedIn can save a campaign that has:

• Unproven messaging

• A lack of clear positioning on the website

• Creative that doesn’t stand out

• A broken lead management processes

While understanding how to set up and optimize campaigns is important, I believe that the real value which paid media practitioners can provide aligns with the bullets above.

If a freelancer or agency isn’t providing services like customer research, positioning recommendations, messaging development, creative strategy, landing page design, marketing ops, data analysis, and others; that means the client-side team has to rely on supplemental resources to fulfill those responsibilities. 

That can add up in resource costs, and losses in productivity as the marketing team adds headcount across FTEs and part-time support.

If I was a betting man, I’d put some money on an evolution coming from paid media freelancers and agencies. I think that smaller teams will position themselves less around tactical paid media work, and more around strategic marketing expertise than can be executed through paid media as a channel.

This is the approach that I’m taking with clients, and I’ve found that as a result we can move much faster because there are fewer roadblocks to planning and execution.

Have questions, considerations, or critiques? I’d love to hear them! If you’re reading this via email, just hit respond. Otherwise, you can find me on LinkedIn.