Some of the Best Media Isn't for Sale

The best distribution advantages are often discovered, not bought.

Google, Meta and programmatic platforms are incredible at making audiences accessible. They're scalable, measurable and easy to buy. That's also the problem. If you can buy the audience with a few clicks, so can everyone else.

Some of the best growth opportunities I've found weren't sitting inside a media platform. They came from finding businesses that already had the attention of the customer I wanted and asking a simple question:

What could we build together?

Early in my career at ING DIRECT, we were marketing mortgages. The obvious approach was to find people searching for mortgages. But the customer journey started earlier. Before someone needs a mortgage, they're probably shopping for a home.

That thinking led us to work with Zillow when it was still an emerging destination for home shoppers. Instead of waiting for consumers to start searching for a mortgage, we could put the brand closer to the moment that created the need.

That lesson stuck with me.

Years later, we applied the same thinking while building Nitro College. We developed direct relationships with more than 15 partners. Some were smaller publishers and niche sites with real influence over the audiences we wanted to reach.

These weren't necessarily opportunities you'd find in competitive intelligence software. There wasn't always a rate card or an ad product waiting to be purchased.

They had to be discovered.

The best way I've found to discover them is surprisingly simple: live your brand.

Search like your customer. Follow the people they follow. Read the sites they read. Sign up for the newsletters. Go through the experiences yourself.

You'll start noticing things.

A page with meaningful traffic, but no monetization. A publisher with authority, but no clear call to action. A business serving the same customer at a different point in the journey. An audience that makes sense for both companies, but nobody has figured out how to connect yet.

Reach out. Learn their business. Explain yours. Look for the win-win.

The best direct relationships I've been part of felt like genuine partnerships. Both sides were transparent about what they wanted, both wanted the experiment to work, and both were willing to learn.

Sometimes your competitors can't copy your media plan because they can't see it.

Of course, plenty of these ideas don't work.

That's part of the strategy.

Nobody bats 1,000. If every marketing experiment works, you're probably not experimenting very much.

I've had plenty of tests fail. But the data points from those failures often helped connect dots that created opportunities later. You learn something about the audience, the placement, the offer, the economics or the customer that you didn't know before.

You also gain another person thinking about the same customer from a different perspective.

Every test builds two portfolios: a portfolio of growth and a portfolio of learning.

There is a bigger goal here than finding cheaper media.

If you buy someone else's audience, monetize the click and never establish a relationship with the customer, you're still renting distribution. You might have a profitable arbitrage, but you haven't necessarily built an asset.

The real opportunity is converting distribution into a first-party relationship. Now you can build recognition, learn from future interactions, increase lifetime value and create opportunities beyond the original transaction.

The goal isn't just cheaper acquisition. It's turning distribution into an asset.

That doesn't mean abandoning Google, Meta or the channels already producing returns. Quite the opposite. I think about growth like an investment portfolio.

My rough framework is 70 / 20 / 10.

Put 70% behind what's proven and producing positive returns. Put 20% behind thoughtful bets on new partners, channels and audiences. Keep 10% for the off-the-wall ideas that might not work at all.

The percentages aren't sacred. The discipline is.

Your core keeps the business performing while the other 30% keeps you learning. Some experiments die quickly. Some graduate into bigger bets. Every once in a while, one becomes part of the 70%.

Today's experiment can become tomorrow's core channel.

It's easy to spend all of your time optimizing what's already inside the dashboard. Sometimes that's exactly what you should do.

But occasionally, close the dashboard. Experience the internet like your customer. Find the people and businesses that already have their attention. Look for the gaps. Start conversations.

Some of the best media isn't for sale. Sometimes you have to go find it.