Two audiences, two CACs, one budget
Buyer and supplier acquisition have different costs, different payback periods, and different consequences for getting the ratio wrong.
What's different here
Marketplace paid media fails when it's run as one account with one budget and one CAC. Supply and demand acquisition are separate businesses with separate economics: a supplier acquired into a category with no buyers churns immediately, and a buyer acquired into thin supply forms a lasting judgment about your marketplace. The budget question isn't how much to spend, it's what ratio to spend it in, and that ratio should shift as each category's liquidity changes.
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What paid ads looks like for marketplaces.
These are the plays that wouldn't appear on a generic paid ads page. They only make sense in marketplaces & platforms.
Separate accounts, separate CAC targets
Supplier and buyer campaigns reported independently with their own payback models. A blended marketplace CAC is an average of two numbers that should never be averaged.
Pace spend against category liquidity
Throttle buyer acquisition in categories where supply is thin and redirect it to supply campaigns there. Most marketplace ad accounts have no mechanism for this and spend uniformly regardless.
Bid on the substitution, not the category
People don't search for marketplaces, they search for the thing they need. The query is 'emergency plumber Bristol', not 'plumber marketplace'.
Exclude existing participants
Suppliers searching for your login and buyers checking an existing booking will click your ads. Audience exclusions stop you paying to reach people you already have on both sides.
What holds marketplaces back
The cold-start problem
Buyers leave because supply is thin; suppliers leave because there's no demand. Both sides churn and neither reaches critical mass.
You're spread across too many categories
Marketing eleven categories at once means none reaches liquidity. Concentration feels risky and is almost always the right call.
You're measuring GMV, not match rate
GMV can grow while the core experience gets worse. Match rate and time-to-first-match are the health metrics that actually predict retention.
Supply-side churn is invisible
Suppliers who receive no requests quietly stop responding. By the time it shows in your numbers, the damage is done.
Same rigor, applied here.
The full paid ads scope and process are identical whoever the client is. What changes for marketplaces & platforms is the tactics above, not the delivery model.
What's included
How it runs
- 01Audit & diagnose — Week 1
- 02Fix measurement — Weeks 1–2
- 03Rebuild & launch — Weeks 2–4
- 04Test & iterate — Ongoing
- 05Scale profitably — Month 2+
Marketplaces & Platforms results, in detail.
Full case studies with the numbers, the mistakes, and the recommendations clients didn't want to hear.
Scoped like the core service, no surcharge.
Every engagement is quoted from your actual brief. There's no vertical surcharge for this combination. Request a quote and we'll scope it properly.
Single Channel
One platform, managed properly.
Scoped to your brief
- 1 platform (Google or Meta)
- Server-side tracking setup
- 8 creative assets/month
- Bi-weekly optimization
- Up to $40k/mo ad spend
Multi-Channel
Brands running paid across search and social.
Scoped to your brief
- Up to 4 platforms
- Full server-side + CAPI setup
- 20 creative assets/month
- Landing page builds & testing
- Weekly optimization calls
- Dedicated media buyer
- Up to $200k/mo ad spend
Performance
High-spend accounts wanting aligned incentives.
Scoped to your brief
- Unlimited platforms & markets
- Percentage-of-spend model
- Dedicated buying squad
- Incrementality testing
- 40+ creative assets/month
- Custom attribution modeling
All engagements start with a free audit. Prices exclude media spend, which you pay directly to the platforms on accounts you own.
Marketplaces & Platforms questions, answered straight.
Judge it on the transactions the supplier enables over their lifetime, not on a single take. A supplier who completes forty jobs is worth forty times a single fee, which usually reframes an alarming CAC as reasonable. If it still doesn't work at that horizon, the constraint is your take rate or supplier retention, not the ad account.
Other services for marketplaces
Let's talk about your growth constraint.
Buyer and supplier acquisition have different costs, different payback periods, and different consequences for getting the ratio wrong.
Our commitment: Free account audit with no obligation. If we can't find at least 20% waste in your current spend, we'll tell you to stay where you are.