In general, advertisers should resist becoming overly reliant on the dominant platforms of Google and Facebook, which collectively accounted for nearly three-quarters of global digital ad spend in 2021. 

There are a few reasons for this, chiefly that Google and Facebook are competitive and can be prohibitively expensive, and that diversification of spend has a host of benefits including protection against diminishing returns.

Channel expansion is widely understood to be an important part of successful advertising strategies; it’s always a good time to test new opportunities. Yet there are signs that advertisers must recognize that mark channel expansion as mission-critical to growth, as we explain as part of Playbook Media’s Complete Guide to Channel Expansion.

Clear warning signs that your channels have maxed out include:

• The value of your engagements decreases after each impression;
• You’ve tested tons of new creative without improving scale or customer acquisition costs;
• Converting users outside of your core audience is increasingly difficult and expensive;
• Consumer behavior is shifting toward emerging channels (e.g. you’re selling fashion to Gen Z, which is heavily engaged on TikTok);
• Privacy regulations are, or threaten to be, impacting channel performance (iOS14 alone should have nudged you away from over-reliance on Facebook);
• Your business goals are shifting away from the strength of your current channels.

The easiest component of channel expansion is recognizing the need. Prioritizing the right new channels to test, structuring the tests themselves, and diverting enough budget to drive meaningful results are all more complicated endeavors that we unpack in our complete guide.

We’ve helped dozens of B2C companies at various stages of maturity successfully expand their channel portfolios to improve performance and scale. If you’re interested in a growth audit that includes channel expansion recommendations for your business, drop us a line.