Maximize impact. Eliminate waste. Gain full control.
In an era where digital advertising spend is expected to surpass $870 billion globally by 2027, marketers face a new challenge: it’s no longer about how much you spend, but how efficiently you spend it.
According to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and recent studies, advertisers lose 15–30% of their budgets due to hidden fees, non-transparent contracts, ad fraud, and inefficiencies within the programmatic supply chain. Shockingly, only 36–44 cents of every programmatic advertising dollar reaches the publisher.
At Runner Media, we help brands regain control. Our full-funnel, cross-channel media optimization framework is built on one principle:
Every dollar should be accountable, measurable, and strategically allocated.
The Transparency Crisis in Media Buying
The media supply chain has become increasingly fragmented and opaque. Between holding group agencies, resellers, ad tech platforms, and limited auditing rights, advertisers are often in the dark about where their budgets are actually going.
Common issues we uncover in media audits:
- Undisclosed fees and rebates from vendors
- Agency trading desks acting as undisclosed principals
- Redundant or underused martech tools
- Weak or outdated attribution models
- Budgets misaligned with performance outcomes
Our goal? Expose inefficiencies, eliminate hidden margins, and ensure that every euro, pound or dollar you invest actually works for your business.
Strategic Cross-Channel Media Planning
Modern audiences don’t live in silos. They move between search, social, video, display, influencer, TV, radio, and more. That’s why we take a cross-channel planning approach:
Sequential storytelling: Your campaigns should feel like one consistent story, not disconnected messages across platforms.
Holistic audience understanding: We map the full customer journey to optimize where, when, and how often your audience is reached.
Budget allocation modeling: Using data from attribution, incrementality testing, and ROI modeling, we recommend how to shift spend across channels for max impact.
Funnel-based strategy: We help ensure top-of-funnel tactics aren’t starving bottom-of-funnel results – and vice versa.
Advertising Account Audits & Performance Checks
Before you can optimize spend, you need to audit what’s really happening. We conduct in-depth platform audits across:
- Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Amazon DSP, DV360, The Trade Desk
- YouTube-specific audits: We verify what % of spend is delivered on premium content vs. music, kids’ videos, or low-engagement formats
- Social campaign quality: Viewability, attention, content adjacency, and engagement benchmarking
Every audit includes:
- Account structure and campaign logic
- Conversion tracking & bidding strategies
- Budget pacing & spend efficiency
- Creative analysis and fatigue detection
- Audience segmentation and overlap control
We also verify vendor invoices to ensure accurate billing, fee transparency, and fair pricing — reducing the risk of overpayment by 5–15%, which is still common in agency-run campaigns.
MarTech, Process & Team Cost Optimization
We go beyond platforms and media. Many inefficiencies live within your internal operations.
We review and optimize:
- MarTech stack: Eliminate overlapping tools, underused licenses, and manual workflows
- Team structure: Evaluate internal vs. external roles, identify gaps, and flag duplication or overstaffing
- Process flows: Identify bottlenecks in campaign briefing, QA, legal, and creative approvals
- Governance & dashboards: Implement real-time monitoring and internal compliance frameworks
Whether you’re scaling or reducing spend, agile, transparent, and efficient operations are what truly protect your ROI.
Deliverables You Can Act On
A clear, actionable report with:
- Financial media spend audit
A full review of your media budget to uncover inefficiencies and hidden costs. - Efficiency by channel & platform
Performance breakdown showing what works—and what doesn’t—across all media. - Strategy for better budget allocation
Data-backed recommendations to shift spend where it delivers the best ROI. - Quality checks for YouTube & social media
Analysis of content quality, audience engagement, and brand safety risks. - Invoice and vendor spend verification
Line-by-line review to catch overcharges, misclassified costs, or outdated rates. - MarTech stack cleanup recommendations
Audit of your tools to eliminate overlap and reduce unnecessary spend. - Governance and process improvement plan
Best practices for team workflows, vendor control, and long-term transparency.
What You Gain
Our clients typically see:
- 15–35% lower cost per acquisition through media and process optimization
- 20–40% reduction in wasted ad spend (fraud, non-viewable, misallocated budgets)
- Full visibility into every dollar spent
- Leverage to renegotiate contracts with agencies and platforms
- A centralized, performance-driven media operation ready to scale
Why It Matters No
In times of economic uncertainty and performance pressure, CFOs and CMOs alike demand that marketing budgets work harder. Transparency is no longer a “nice to have”—it’s a competitive advantage.
Let’s make sure your media investments are working as hard as you do.
Ready to Take Control?
If you’re unsure where your marketing money is really going, it’s time to change that.
Runner Media
In-house expertise. Transparent operations. Measurable impact.