Choosing help to place spend where your buyers actually are

When you want to reach your customers through paid media—whether search, social, display or video—you face a hard choice: a media buyer who specialises in your sector and understands your margin, or a generalist who handles dozens of verticals. The tension is real. Specialists bring intimate knowledge of where your audience congregates and which publishers value-trade. Generalists bring scale, relationships with media partners, and sometimes fresher eyes. Neither is wrong; your job is to know which trade-off suits your business right now.

Media buying is ultimately about attention placement. You're paying to put your message where humans are—not where you hope they are, or where they *should* be. That shift in thinking matters more than most conversations about buyers acknowledge. A buyer who grasps where *your* customers actually scroll, click, or watch will spend your rand more purposefully than one who applies a template. The catch: that knowledge is often hard to signal on a cv or website.

Depth in your industry versus adaptability

Ask whether your buyer has worked extensively in your vertical or adjacent sectors. Have they placed ads for e-commerce brands? Saas? Trade services? Quick-service restaurants? A buyer who has built media plans for three similar businesses will recognise patterns—which platforms convert, which waste spend on lookalike audiences that don't convert, which seasonal forces matter to your category.

But don't confuse "they've worked in tech" with "they know your exact problem." A buyer who built awareness campaigns for b2b software may be weaker on driving foot traffic to a retail store or appointments for a professional service. The specificity matters. Equally, a buyer new to your sector but who asks sharp questions about your customer journey, your margin tolerance, and your competition may learn faster than someone coasting on old wins.

When you meet a candidate, ask them to describe a recent campaign in a similar space—not a case study, but a real conversation about what worked, what didn't, and why. Listen for whether they can tell the difference between vanity metrics (clicks, impressions) and real outcomes (sales, qualified leads, repeat bookings). If they can't, move on.

Platform skill and media mix judgment

A capable buyer should not be equally strong across all platforms. They should be honest about where their strength lies—perhaps Google Search and YouTube, perhaps Meta and TikTok, perhaps Programmatic Display and Native. That honesty is more useful than a claim of universal mastery.

What matters more is their judgment about *mix*. When should a small budget go 80% to one platform rather than scattered across five? When does it make sense to test a new channel? When should you double down on what's working? Ask them how they'd divide a test budget across platforms for a business like yours. The reasoning will tell you whether they think like a media buyer (allocating where the margin is highest) or a media salesperson (spreading the love to all their vendor relationships).

Reporting clarity and real-time visibility

Insist on a concrete example of how they'll report. Not a description—an actual sample dashboard or screenshot. You need to know, week-on-week or campaign-on-campaign, where your spend went, what it generated, and whether it's tracking toward your target cost-per-result. A buyer who makes reporting feel like a negotiation, or who vaguely promises "detailed monthly analysis," is flagging a lack of transparency infrastructure.

Legitimate buyers use platforms like Google Analytics connectors, Meta's native tools, or third-party dashboards that update automatically. They should be willing to share login access so you can verify independently. If they resist, ask why.

Speed of iteration and comfort with constraints

Media buying isn't static. Good buyers shift budget away from underperforming placements and scale winners—sometimes weekly, sometimes daily depending on your campaign length and budget size. They should describe how quickly they can act and what authority they have (or need from you) to make moves.

Also gauge their relationship with your constraints. Every business has limits: a margin floor below which a sale isn't worth the acquisition cost, a geographic focus, a customer profile they do *not* want to reach. A buyer who gets annoyed by constraints or tries to talk you out of them is selling you, not buying for you. A buyer who treats constraints as puzzle pieces—how to reach high-intent audience A in region B without overpaying for region C—is thinking like a partner.

When you're ready to move forward, find verified buyers on Strove who can show you real examples and answer these questions directly. The right fit combines sector familiarity, honest platform judgment, and a track record of transparent reporting.