The biggest takeaways from managing a client for 7+ years

Seven years, countless platform changes, new campaign types, creative shifts, and plenty of testing later, one thing has become pretty clear re: paid digital strategy: what drives growth today probably won't be exactly what drives it tomorrow.

Recently, we looked back at one of our longest-standing client relationships, and a few things stood out about what helped us continue finding new opportunities for growth that I wanted to share:

• Adapt with the platforms. Digital advertising barely resembles the manual CPC era. We found that leaning into changes like Smart Bidding, value-based bidding, and Performance Max early gave us time to learn how to make them work rather than scrambling to adapt once we had no other choice.

• Don't underestimate creative. Search has remained foundational, but creative has become a major growth lever as we've scaled social programs. More creative diversity and a video-first approach helped us reach and engage audiences differently, while continuous testing helped us understand which messages actually resonated.

• Credibility is table stakes. Especially in financial and legal services, people make quick judgments about whether they trust a business. A current, polished website and consistent brand presence aren't really differentiators anymore. They're just the baseline.

• Give the algorithms better data. As platforms became more automated, clean data became even more important. I can hear "garbage in, garbage out" resounding in my head. Connecting marketing and sales data, improving CRM hygiene, and feeding better conversion signals back to the platforms helped us optimize toward leads that actually became customers, not just leads that converted.

• Don't stop believ.... testing. Some of our biggest wins came from testing new channels, creative approaches, bidding strategies, and audience tactics before we needed to. Even when something is working, there's always value in asking what else could work better.

The biggest takeaway for our team? A strong marketing strategy shouldn't stay static. Platforms change. Consumer behavior changes. Technology changes. Our strategy has to keep learning and changing with them.

What have you all had to change most about your marketing strategy over the last few years?