As for the channels you can use, I admit I get paid for it. A lot of it is payment specific, but there are some organic pieces here as well.

Google

Google covers both search and visual content. Whether we think about Performance Max, whether we think about video and visuals on the search results page, whether we think about YouTube, the second biggest search engine, there’s a visual component there. But the startup costs and time investment on Google are pretty high, so if you need to move quickly, you might need to look at other channels. On the other hand, you might want to say, “You know what? I’m going to set aside these two to four weeks to build my creative side, build my account, invest so I can take advantage of this really big market share.”

Microsoft

Microsoft may be the best runner-up, but it’s also the cheapest of the bunch. And Microsoft’s Audience Network actually has some really nice hidden gems that, if you use them properly, can serve you really well. Microsoft is on average 30% cheaper than Google and does really meaningful things from a search results page perspective for high-income users and those who are perhaps more educated. Don’t miss the fact that Microsoft now runs DuckDuckGo and Baidu as search engines.

Amazon

Amazon is one of my favorites that nobody thinks about, at least not in our world. Because let’s face it, Google and Microsoft are pretty isolated from Amazon, which has historically been seller-only. However, Amazon is now launching a new solution to allow customers who don’t sell on Amazon to use Amazon audiences. So if you’re really struggling with your privacy-first world and are really targeting your advertising, Amazon could give you a really meaningful way to talk to your customers if you know who they are and what kind of content they really want to consume.

Social

And finally, when we think about social media. And I’ll go ahead so we can have our social media. One of the things that’s actually really interesting about social media is that Meta, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Pinterest, all of these media are categorized as social media, but they all have different rules for engagement, different mechanisms. And so at the end of the day, from a pricing perspective and how much you need to invest in testing and creativity, it really depends on the channel.

That said, and I’m going to go back now so we can look at good old Google. Nothing compares to Google when it comes to the cost of setting up creative and the time, because at the end of the day, Google needs conversions to run on the paid side. And on the organic side, there’s just quite a long ramp-up period, as opposed to social.

So, when we think about the channels we want to use to reach our people and help them understand their needs and wants, we ultimately need to keep our budget constraints in mind.