Is Your Portfolio Maximising Growth Opportunities Through Paid Advertising?
In a market where capital efficiency is non-negotiable and growth expectations remain high, one key question often goes under-asked by investors and board advisors:
“Are our portfolio companies using paid advertising to its full potential - creatively, strategically, and aggressively enough to drive real growth?”
Paid media isn’t just a line item on the budget, it’s a lever for customer acquisition, market capture, and brand building. But if you’re only being shown Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Return On Ad Spend (ROAS), and Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) numbers, you might be missing half the picture.
Here’s what smart investors and board members should be asking about paid campaigns to see if there's more growth on the table:
1. Are we tracking the right growth metrics - not just media efficiency?
Yes, ROAS and CAC are critical. But they’re also backward-looking. Great marketing leadership will also be tracking forward-facing signals of growth:
- Customer LTV:CAC ratio
- Creative fatigue trends and performance by ad concept
- Audience penetration - how many new eyeballs are we reaching?
- Brand search lift and organic uplift tied to paid campaigns
- Incrementality testing (to separate real impact from noise)
2. Are the campaigns bold enough to win market share - not just clicks?
So many ads are forgettable. Safe. Performance-focused but not performance-driven. And in 2025, attention is your most valuable currency.
Key things to look at:
- Are we seeing distinctive creative or obvious “stock” ad templates?
- Is the team testing ideas that stretch the brand and get noticed?
- Is the messaging built to resonate emotionally, not just functionally?
- Have we created an environment where it's ok to get it wrong before we get it right?
Brands like Liquid Death and Duolingo didn’t grow by playing it safe. There’s opportunity in owning a creative space - and too few are taking it.
3. Is AI being used to gain a competitive advantage?
AI isn’t just a buzzword. When smartly integrated, it can:
- Accelerate creative testing (via tools like AdCreative.ai)
- Optimise audience segmentation dynamically
- Surface insights from ad performance data at speed and scale
- Automate variant generation, saving time for strategic thinking
Ask whether your portfolio teams are stuck in manual mode, using AI in a lazy and unfocused fashion, or harnessing AI with a human-led strategic and experienced approach to outpace slower, traditional teams.
4. Are we building brand equity - or just buying short-term results?
Short-termism kills long-term value. It’s not brand vs performance, it’s brand as performance.
Board members should be asking:
- Are we consistently reinforcing the brand promise in paid content?
- Is there a plan to build memory structures in the audience’s mind?
- Can this brand weather the storm if CPAs rise or funding tightens?
Building brand equity is a margin-improving, valuation-enhancing move. It reduces reliance on spend, and increases pricing power.
5. Is this company ready to scale, or could they use help unlocking next-level growth?
If the creative isn’t working hard enough, if media is being managed without strategic vision, or if the brand is lacking distinctiveness, it’s a red flag.
Outside partners—like OSER —can drop into portfolio companies to:
- Audit and optimise media + creative strategy
- Build brand assets and test bold new ad directions
- Layer in AI tools and workflows to drive more effective growth
A short engagement could dramatically impact Q3–Q4 results and build a stronger foundation for 2026.
Bet on the execution, not just the idea
As an investor or advisor, you're not just betting on the idea. You're betting on execution. And bold, creative, intelligent marketing execution is still one of the most under-leveraged levers in the growth playbook.
Want a second opinion on whether your portfolio companies are leaving growth on the table?
Let’s talk. OSER is designed for precisely this kind of high-leverage intervention.