Why We Don't Care Which Ad Platform You Use
The Agency Incentive Problem
Most agencies have a specialism. They're a 'Google Ads agency' or a 'Meta Ads partner'. Some have official certifications from the platforms, which come with spending thresholds — you need to maintain a certain level of spend on that platform to keep the badge.
Think about what that means for their recommendations. If an agency's Google Partner status requires £10,000 per month in managed Google spend, they're not going to suggest you shift half your budget to TikTok. Even if TikTok would perform better for your audience.
A platform-agnostic agency doesn't have that problem. No partnership tiers to maintain, no spending thresholds to hit, no platform sales rep breathing down anyone's neck about quarterly targets. The only thing worth optimising for is your cost per result.
Platforms Are Just Distribution Channels
This gets lost in the noise. Google, Meta, TikTok — they're not strategies. They're distribution channels. Each one gives you access to a different audience in a different mindset at a different cost.
Google captures existing demand. Someone searches 'plumber near me' and your ad appears. They already want what you're selling.
Meta creates demand. Someone scrolls Instagram, sees your ad for a product they didn't know about, and clicks. You're interrupting them with something relevant.
TikTok is somewhere in between. The content feels organic. The discovery mechanism is different. The audience skews younger but that's shifting. CPMs are often lower than Meta, which means cheaper reach — but whether that reach converts depends entirely on your offer and creative.
None of these channels is inherently better than the others. The right one depends on who you're trying to reach, what you're selling, and what stage of the buying process they're in.
The Platforms Nobody Talks About
Reddit has cheap CPCs, highly engaged niche communities, and an audience that actually reads things. If you're selling a B2B SaaS product and there's an active subreddit where your target audience hangs out, Reddit ads can deliver qualified leads at a fraction of what you'd pay on LinkedIn. The targeting is community-based rather than interest-based, which means you're reaching people who've self-selected into specific topics.
The catch: Reddit users hate obvious advertising. Your creative needs to feel native. If your ad reads like an ad, it'll get ignored or downvoted. But if you get it right, the cost per acquisition can be absurdly low.
Snapchat
Snapchat gets dismissed as a platform for teenagers. That was true in 2018. In 2026, Snapchat's UK audience includes a significant chunk of 25–40 year olds. CPMs are low. The AR ad formats are genuinely different from what Meta offers. For e-commerce, especially fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands, Snapchat can outperform Meta on cost per purchase.
Pinterest is a search engine dressed as a social platform. People go there with intent — they're planning, researching, looking for ideas. If you sell anything visual (interiors, fashion, food, weddings, home improvement), Pinterest ads put you in front of people who are actively looking for what you offer. CPC is typically lower than Google, and the audience is further along the consideration path than on Meta.
Expensive per click but unmatched for B2B targeting. You can target by job title, company size, industry, and seniority with a precision no other platform offers. If your product sells to finance directors at mid-market companies, LinkedIn puts you directly in front of them. The high CPC is offset by the quality of the lead — if each client is worth £20,000+, paying £50 per click is a rounding error.
How We Decide Where to Spend
We start with three questions:
Who is the audience? Not demographics in a slide deck. Where do they actually spend time online? What are they doing when they're there? Are they searching for a solution (Google) or scrolling past content (Meta, TikTok)?
What's the economics? What's the average CPC on each platform for your keywords or audience? What conversion rate can we reasonably expect? Does the maths work at your margins?
What's the creative format? Some products sell with a 15-second video. Some need a long-form landing page. Some need a static image with a clear offer. The platform should match the format that works for your product, not the other way around.
We test where the data points. If the first test on Meta looks promising, we scale Meta. If Reddit outperforms it on a smaller test budget, we shift spend. There's no ego in it. The numbers decide.
The Multi-Platform Advantage
Running across multiple platforms isn't just about finding the cheapest clicks. It also reduces risk. If Meta's algorithm has a bad week (and it does — anyone who's run Meta campaigns has seen inexplicable CPA spikes that resolve themselves five days later), your entire pipeline doesn't stall because you've got traffic coming from other sources.
It also gives you attribution insight. When someone sees your brand on TikTok, searches for you on Google, and converts via a retargeting ad on Meta, a single-platform view misses the full picture. Running across channels lets you understand how they work together, not just independently.
This only works if your tracking is set up to handle multi-touch attribution. Which, if you've read our posts on server-side tagging and broken tracking, you'll know is non-negotiable.
When to Stick With One Platform
There are legitimate cases for focusing spend. If your budget is under £2,000 per month, spreading it across four platforms means none of them gets enough data to optimise. Better to find the one that works and go deep.
If you're just starting out with paid ads, pick the platform where your audience is most concentrated and learn how to make it profitable before adding complexity. There's nothing wrong with being a Google Ads shop until the economics justify expanding.
But do it because the data says so, not because your agency only knows Google.
The Bottom Line
We've got no loyalty to any platform. We've got loyalty to whatever is working. If that changes month to month, we move with it. If a new platform launches tomorrow with cheap CPMs and your audience on it, we'll test it next week.
The point of paid media is to acquire customers at a profitable cost. Everything else is just plumbing. Choose the plumbing that delivers the water.