Services → Paid Media
Service 02 · Paid Media

Most agencies run ads.
We run ads that convert.

Full-funnel paid media management across social, search, streaming, and retail — built on what your buyers actually respond to, not platform defaults and category guesswork.

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The Difference

Ads built on research perform differently.

Most paid media agencies start with the platform. They build an audience from demographic defaults, write creative based on the brand brief, and optimize toward whatever metric is easiest to move.

We start with the buyer. Every audience, every creative brief, every bidding strategy is built around what we learned about why people actually buy in your category. The platform comes second.

We work F&B only. That means we've seen the patterns — what moves buyers in your category and what looks like it works but doesn't.

How our research feeds into media →

Typical paid media agency
Schaefer
–Audience built from platform demographic presets
✓Audience built from buyer interview findings
–Creative brief written by account manager
✓Creative brief anchored to the purchase motivation
–Optimization toward CTR and impressions
✓Optimization toward real conversion signals
–Monthly reporting deck, quarterly strategy reviews
✓Continuous optimization, clear weekly visibility
–Same playbook across CPG, SaaS, retail, DTC
✓F&B only — we know your category
Channels

Every channel where your buyers are.

We manage across paid social, search, streaming, and retail media — with a unified strategy so spend decisions across channels are made together, not in isolation.

01
Paid Social
Full-funnel campaign management across awareness, consideration, and conversion — on every platform where F&B buyers spend their time. Creative testing is built into the structure from day one, not bolted on later.
Meta Meta
TikTok TikTok
Pinterest Pinterest
X X (Twitter)
02
Search & Streaming
Search campaigns built around real buyer language — not generic keyword lists. Streaming TV and display for upper-funnel reach, retargeting high-intent shoppers across the open web.
Google Google
YouTube YouTube
MNTN
Microsoft Microsoft / Bing
03
Retail Media
Right where your buyer is deciding. We manage sponsored placements, bidding, and creative on retail media networks to drive conversion at the digital shelf — where intent is highest.
Amazon Amazon
Walmart Walmart
Instacart Instacart
04
Reporting & Optimization
You see what's working, what changed, and why — without having to dig through a 40-slide deck. We optimize continuously, not on a monthly review cycle. Every dollar tracked to a real outcome.
Weekly visibility
Every dollar tracked
How We Work

Strategy first, then spend.

We don't plug your brand into a template. Every engagement starts with what we know about your buyer and what you're trying to achieve — then we build the media strategy around that, not the other way around.

New clients start with a research engagement so the media strategy is grounded in something real. Existing Schaefer research clients move directly into media with an audience and creative brief already in hand.

Learn about our research process →

The engagement flow
01
Buyer research
Interviews and surveys with real buyers in your category. The insight that comes out becomes the foundation for everything in media.
02
Audience & channel strategy
We define the audience, the channel mix, and the spend allocation based on where your buyers actually are — not platform rep recommendations.
03
Creative brief & launch
The creative brief comes from the research, not the brand standards doc. Campaigns launch with structured creative tests built in from the start.
04
Continuous optimization
We don't wait for the monthly check-in. Budget moves toward what's working in real time. You get weekly visibility into what changed and why.
Results

Built for F&B. Proven in market.

We work exclusively in food and beverage — which means the patterns we've seen across brands compound. We know what works for retail CPG on Meta. We know what retail media placements move units at grocery. We know what CTV reach strategy makes sense for a challenger QSR.

That category depth is the thing most agencies can't replicate. It's the reason our clients' results improve faster.

Case Study · MeatWorks Co.

Research-backed targeting cut cost per acquisition in half.

After our buyer interviews surfaced the real purchase occasion, we rebuilt the Meta audience from scratch. The new targeting wasn't about demographics — it was about the specific moment in the week when buyers were in market. CPA dropped 52% in the first 60 days.

Read the Case Study →
Case Study · Straus Family Creamery

Two buyer segments. Two creative tracks. Both outperformed.

Research identified a second buyer segment Straus hadn't been targeting. We built separate creative and audience strategies for each. Running both simultaneously — with the right message to each segment — outperformed the prior single-track approach across every metric.

Read the Case Study →

Schaefer · Paid Media

Every dollar should be
accountable to something real.

We run paid media for F&B brands that want to know exactly why their ads are working — and want to build on that. If that's what you're looking for, let's talk.

Work With Us → See Our Results