Another pitch deck, another promise to hit the “right person at the right time.” I’ve heard that line for years. This week, it came with a new twist: the marching order to “feed the system.” The pitch was simple. Marketers should hand over more signals, more assets, more budget, so the machine can spit back better targeting and tighter outcomes. I have a different view. It’s time to stop feeding the system and start fixing it.
The tools aren’t neutral. They shape the work, the budgets, and even the stories brands tell. When an executive says the quiet part out loud, it confirms what many feel. The machine is hungry, and we’re training it to eat us.
The platform pitched marketers on tools to help them “feed the system,” as one exec put it, to make sure brands show content to the right person at the right time.
The Core Problem We Refuse to Name
This model turns creative strategy into machine fodder. Marketers are urged to upload countless variations, tag every moment, and chase micro-wins. The work bends to the optimizer, not the audience. Precision becomes the point, not persuasion.
There’s a cost. Data signals pull from people’s lives. Attention gets sliced, retargeted, and squeezed. And the outcome is often dull: more sameness, less story.
I’m not arguing against data. I am arguing against a system that asks for endless inputs while giving back shallow accountability. If success is always “right person, right time,” we stop asking harder questions. Was the message true? Did it help someone choose well? Did it build trust?
What This Pitch Gets Wrong
Three claims usually come with this kind of sell. They sound smart. They’re thin.
- More signals equal better outcomes. Sometimes. But more inputs often mask weak strategy and lazy creative. Noise looks like scale.
- Automation beats judgment. Only when the goal is a click. Long-term brand lift is human. People remember meaning, not micro-optimizations.
- Right person, right time is the whole game. It isn’t. It ignores consent, context, and culture. Timing without trust is spam with better timing.
Yes, the machine can find the hand raisers. But the hard work lives earlier: shaping offers, telling a clear story, and standing for something even when the dashboard blinks red.
What Marketers Should Demand Instead
We don’t have to accept the terms. We can change them. I want tools that respect people and help brands earn attention, not just rent it.
- Transparent levers. Show what signals are used, how they’re weighted, and how creative is rotated. If the system can’t explain itself, it doesn’t earn more input.
- Quality over volume. Fewer, sharper assets beat 200 minor edits. Reward ideas that travel, not file counts that bloat.
- Real outcome metrics. Stop grading on clicks and cheap views. Track repeat purchase, referrals, and long-term lift. Make that the scoreboard.
- Consent-first data. Default to less tracking, clear opt-outs, and audience controls. People are not a resource to strip-mine.
- Creative north star. Lock the message before you split-test it to dust. Measurement should refine a point of view, not erase it.
These shifts won’t please every platform rep. They will, however, make the work better and the results easier to defend in the light.
Yes, There’s a Counterargument
Some will say the system already works. They’ll cite cheaper conversions and faster tests. I get it. Short-term gains are real. But short-term gains can also trap teams in paid loops, starve brand memory, and push spend into auction wars that help only the platform.
If the system needs constant feeding, maybe it’s the wrong diet. Better tools should need fewer signals, not more. Better ads should break out of the auction, not sink into it.
My Take, Plain and Simple
I want marketing that treats people like adults and ideas like assets, not inputs. I want fewer dashboards and more decisions that someone can own. And I want us to stop pretending that perfect timing fixes weak truth.
Platforms will keep selling their hunger as a feature. We don’t have to buy it. We can ask for clarity, choose metrics that matter, and back creative that stands on its own legs.
Stop feeding the system. Start feeding the story.
A Better Way Forward
If you buy media, set new rules this quarter. Demand transparency reports. Cap variant counts. Shift 20% of budget to message testing outside the algorithm. Build consent into every brief.
Brands earn trust by how they act, not how they target. Let’s act like it.
Call your partners. Tighten your goals. And the next time someone tells you to feed the system, tell them you’re building something that can stand without it.
