Marketers & advertisers should seek alpha

In investing, investors are always on the hunt for alpha: investment ideas with outsized returns that crush industry benchmarks like the S&P. They don’t settle for “what everyone else is doing.” They look for edges the market hasn’t priced in yet.

Marketers and advertisers? We pretty much do the opposite.

We follow “best practices.” We copy peers. We buy the channels industry trades say are “hot” - frequently just because they're new. The problem? This is not necessarily aligned with what actually builds a brand.

Because here’s the truth: not all ad impressions are created equal.

Social feeds. Sidebar ads. Tiny banners on cluttered pages. These might as well be invisible. Just because something is technically an impression doesn’t mean it impressed anyone. Just because something in the digital space was effective in the past (even something like a search ad) doesn't mean it's as effective today, and certainly not tomorrow.

Sticking with the investment theme, many of the best investment ideas in the last decade weren’t even “new” companies. They were 1990s-era chipmakers like NVIDIA that the world suddenly realized were mission-critical. Marketers need that same mindset: find undervalued opportunities, not just new shiny objects. Do you want to get paid or do you want an industry award? Frequently these are two very different things for our sector.

The channels with real visibility and staying power aren’t always the ones making headlines. Stop following the herd. Start looking for your marketing alpha.

We're here to help.