Why a good ad strategy isn’t enough any more: the key to gaining a competitive advantage

For years, brands could win with a solid paid media strategy—the right targeting, budget allocation, and creative execution.

But today, that’s no longer enough.

Paid media has become a commodity, platforms have taken control, and competition is fiercer than ever. Here’s why:

We’ve handed over control

Automation has levelled the playing field and has reduced the skills gap in paid media management. Gaps in campaigns and coverage are less than ever.

We also have far less manual control over performance, the amounts of levers we have to change performance has dramatically reduced

It’s harder to stand out

Auction saturation means the SERPs are more competitive than ever which in turns drives costs up, but with so much competition for a consumers attention it is harder than ever to stand out from the crowd

When you then throw in AI image generation increasing the content production capabilities of all brands the last opportunity to stand out has been compromised as well

Rising costs and shrinking margins

The increased cost of CPCs and CPMs coupled with increased raw material and fulfilment costs are working together to squeeze margins harder than ever - focussing on your paid ads strategy in isolation won’t address this

Reduced visibility on spending

With reduced visibility into audiences and tracking we’re more reliant on automated bidding and placement targeting, which we know isn’t always precise, and we’ve got less visibility into where our budget is going and with the challenges in attribution driving competitive advantage through paid media alone is challenging.

The Future: Beyond Paid Ads

This is exactly why we have developed our Scale framework

We aren’t just a paid media agency, we optimise customer journeys from impression through to retention. Our ascend Target proposition ensures we’re serving the right ad, to the right person at the right time, but to build on this ascend Enhance focuses on optimising your on-site performance to maximise the revenue you drive from each visitor

Here’s the hard truth: if you’re still betting your growth on paid ads alone, you’re already losing.

The game has changed—platforms control the rules, AI is flooding the market with content, and everyone’s targeting the same people with the same playbook. It’s not about who spends more—it’s about who converts better.

Ascend exists to break that cycle. We don’t just chase clicks—we engineer profit. Adapt or get left behind.