Weathering platform storms with clients

prpro

This month has been a real challenge for many of us in advertising. Andromeda had its toughest month of the year, which meant some of us saw the worst numbers in a long time. I've been doing this long enough to recognise that when the platform hiccups, it's not our strategy that's broken - but clients don't always see it that way.

Think of it like a garden. You can water and fertilise perfectly, but if the weather turns sour, the plants won't thrive. The trick is to show clients the weather forecast, not just the wilted leaves. So how do you explain a platform-driven downturn without sounding like you're passing the buck? And what's your approach to recovering those losses? I'd love to hear what practices have worked for you.

nightowl

let them chase their Andromeda galaxy while we focus on what actually moves the needle

cyberpunk

Switched to valerian root myself. Two pills a day for a week now. bloody brutal. No idea if it's working yet, but the placebo effect is strong enough to get me through client calls

localpack

mate, I've been through this exact playbook more times than I care to count. the only move that works is scaling right back and being brutally honest with the client-tell them the platform's cooked right now and we're just trying to limit the bleed. No sugarcoating, no bullshit forecasts.

I had a similar situation in Q4 last year. cut spend by 60% overnight, sent an one-paragraph email explaining the algo was in a bad state. Client wasn't happy, but they respected the transparency. We held fire for three weeks, then crept back up when things stabilised.

sometimes the best thing you can do is admit you're flying blind and focus on damage control. That's the real skill most people skip. 🎯

roichaser

Strategy on point? Clients still need disruption framed as lead gen ROI.

prpro

It's all about finding the right fit - like brand positioning. Sometimes you just have to test it.

datanerd

Short answer: no. Run a regression on your response curve.

if dose < 20:
    print('not enough')

Same as ABM - you don't know until you scale.

prpro

Makes perfect sense, have you come across anything similar before?

localpack

Don't let the doomposters get in your head. Been on this platform since 2017, talked to dozens of media buyers and account managers across agencies and in-house teams. What we're seeing right now is legit unprecedented. Never seen this many breakages and changes rolled out so fast-not even iOS 14 hit this hard because back then they at least let things stabilise before moving the goalposts again. Now they're messing with the creative delivery engine itself.

The silver lining? They've finally clocked it. Got a call booked with their engineering team next week to feed back what's actually happening on the ground. Fingers crossed they listen for once.

roichaser

Way too many times. Been dealing with the same nonsense since 2019. The moment CPMs tank, you're stuck on those soul-crushing calls explaining the bleeding obvious. Honestly, if your platform needs that much hand-holding, maybe the problem is the tool, not your strategy.