Context Collapse in Paid Media: An Emerging Threat
There’s a dangerous assumption in digital marketing: that the more AI tools, automations, and integrations we have, the smarter our campaigns will become.
But what if the opposite is happening?
Wil Reynolds, VP of Innovation at Seer Interactive, recently brought attention to a growing issue in the AI landscape, context collapse caused by an overabundance of tools. While his post was rooted in AI agent behavior, the core problem maps perfectly to paid media.
The lesson? An overly armed agent, much like an overly stacked media team, can quickly become directionless. And the more tools we connect without discipline, the harder it becomes to maintain clarity, strategy, and ultimately, results.
The Paid Media Stack Is Bloated and It’s Hurting Performance
Over the past five years, the average paid media team has gone from managing campaigns to managing a fragmented tech stack:
Performance Max (Google)
Meta Advantage+
Dynamic creative tools
AI-powered bid optimizers
Attribution modeling software
Auto-generated audiences
Rule-based script engines
Third-party dashboards
Chatbots, copywriting tools, and GPT wrappers
Each tool was designed to improve a specific part of the workflow, but collectively, they’ve created a bloated ecosystem. The result is what Wil describes as a ballooning action space, a term from AI modeling that reflects all the choices an agent (or strategist) can make at any moment.
The wider the action space, the harder it becomes to make the right choice.
Real-World Example: Performance Max Gone Wild
Take Google’s Performance Max campaigns. They promise automation, scale, and ease. But when layered with:
Custom scripts for budget pacing
GA4-based audience segments
Offline conversions via Zapier
Data overlays from third-party CRMs
Creative refresh logic from internal tools
…you create a campaign that’s too complex to troubleshoot, let alone optimize. And when performance tanks? Good luck finding the root cause. Was it the asset group? The audience signal? The API lag? The CRM push? You’ve created a black box of your own making.
Why Paid Media Is Especially Vulnerable
Unlike static AI tasks, paid media is dynamic, fast-moving, and revenue-driven. Campaigns must adapt in real time to:
Auction pressure
Market volatility
Seasonal trends
Creative fatigue
Channel behavior
When you add dozens of tools, each with their own logic, you reduce your ability to respond intuitively. Instead of solving problems, you’re debugging your stack. And worse, you begin to rely on the stack as a crutch, rather than applying first principle thinking.
A Call for Strategic Reduction
Here’s the truth most won’t say: you don’t need more tools you need better clarity.
Some guiding principles:
Less is more. One smart automation beats five unmonitored ones.
Know your stack. If you didn’t configure it, don’t depend on it.
Revisit your north star. Tools should serve your strategy, not the other way around.
Embrace friction. Not all manual work is bad—it forces pattern recognition.
Document logic. Every automation, every rule—know why it exists.
Conclusion: Smarter Isn’t Always Wiser
In an era where AI dominates the conversation, it’s easy to lose sight of the basics.
The best paid media strategists in the world aren’t those who know the most tools they’re the ones who can solve problems with the fewest. Let’s not let our campaigns do the same.
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