How I’d Spend $1M on Modern Marketing as an Adtech CEO
Last week, I wrote that adtech CEOs and marketing leaders need to think bigger. Modern distribution has broadened the range of attention outcomes. This isn't the old days when crushing it meant earning 80% share of voice in a trade press that only published a dozen stories about you per year. The traditional media coverage potential has contracted — but the total attention you can earn has expanded dramatically.
Why? Because the best marketing outcomes now happen through owned channels: social first and foremost, but also newsletters and podcasts.
Today, I want to answer a more ambitious question: If you believe that — and you have the money, let’s say $1M — what does an all-in, modern marketing program actually look like? What’s the distribution playbook at its best?
To understand it, look at what Ryan Serhant has built in real estate.
The Serhant Playbook: How to Own the Conversation
Ryan Serhant started as a real estate agent. Then came a Bravo reality show (Million Dollar Listing). Then came a massive social media following, a bestselling book, and eventually his own real estate firm, SERHANT., now with hundreds of agents and $1B+ in sales volume.
His narrative is taking on outdated legacy brokerages. His pitch is provocation: old real estate is dead, and modern agents need to master brand, content, and media.
The core of his strategy is short-form content, especially Instagram. But he’s not just explaining how real estate works. He’s entertaining. Every video is a little story: funny, suspenseful, chaotic, emotional. He sells the lifestyle, the product, the personal drama — and builds a magnetic brand around it.
And now it’s not just Ryan. He’s building a team of agents who operate the same way — real estate agents who think and act like influencers. It’s the exact same move Roy Lee is making at Cluely. In a 10- to 20-person marketing team, 5 of those people should be creators.
Then you layer in amplification:
Ryan partners with creators like MrBeast.
He launched an actual reality show.
He wrote a book.
He speaks on stages.
He collaborates with brands and influencers across formats.
All of that leads to earned media. Traditional PR and modern distribution feed each other in a flywheel.
This is the modern model.
How I’d Run the Serhant Playbook as an Adtech CEO
The Vanderhooks once told me the ideal marketing strategy would be a reality show. They’re right. That’s the critical mindset shift: you’re not “doing B2B marketing.” You’re building a character-led media company where your CEO is the protagonist. The goal is to fully immerse your customers, those who influence them, and anyone adjacent in your narrative.
Step 1: Social-first, personality-led distribution.
As an adtech CEO all in on modern marketing, I’d hire a LinkedIn and Twitter ghostwriter. Their job is to write daily content in my voice, respond to comments, follow me around, and build the persona. (Peter Thiel reportedly has a guy like this.) Then I’d hire a second person for video — short-form IG and TikTok edits. Finally, I’d hire a growth-focused producer overseeing all of it, someone with demonstrated ability to grow social followings.
Step 2: A podcast — but not “how to do digital advertising.”
The pod extends the narrative and the sphere of influence. It’s not about product features. It sits at the intersection of your CEO’s quest and the things your customers care about. For an adtech company, it should be about media, tech, culture, politics, entertainment — all the places ad dollars go. You’ll build affinity faster than your competitors build retargeting pools. If you’re a DSP, this is how you beat the giant in your category: through affinity, not just performance.
Step 3: A narrative-driven newsletter.
Take the best content from social and turn it into a weekly newsletter. Share one killer idea per week. Make it the newsletter for people who care about media and marketing. Your LinkedIn/Twitter ghostwriter can draft it. But I’d hire someone else to grow it — a growth marketer who really gets newsletter distribution and email list building.
Step 4: Build your creator ecosystem.
Hire a creator manager. Bring on a bench of creators — in-house, contracted, or sponsored — who amplify the CEO’s content and create their own. The CEO is the face. The creators are the amplifiers. No one else in adtech is doing this.
Be Everywhere — Or Be Forgotten
Use the combination of AI and a 5–10-person creator-led marketing team to be everywhere. You’ll be the #1 adtech company by share of voice — not because of your budget (others will spend more on marketing for less impact) but because of your owned and shared content-led approach.
People will know you. They’ll know what you stand for. They’ll have an opinion about you.
And if the CEO is charismatic (don’t run this playbook otherwise), they’ll like you — which leads directly to deals you wouldn’t have otherwise closed.
I always say there are only two tests of adtech marketing success:
Are we getting attention from the people who matter?
Is sales hearing, “We’ve been seeing you everywhere”?
No one in adtech is running the “I’ve been seeing you everywhere” playbook. But the company that does will build the best modern marketing organization in our category. And they’ll outperform their competitors as a result.
