Channel Diversification: Which Marketing Channels Should You Explore Next?

Brands at every stage that meet certain prerequisites may be primed to experiment with channel diversification. This in-depth guide will help you determine if that’s you and, if so, how to get started.

If you’ve noticed Meta’s ad prices spike, or that a new privacy update on Google has thrown a wrench in your targeting strategy, you’re not alone. Our tried-and-true channels aren’t cutting it on their own anymore, and we’re all feeling the burn.

As we head into 2025, the answer to stalling growth isn’t just doubling down on what worked this past year. It’s time to get serious about channel diversification—your marketing strategy depends on it. 

Diversifying your marketing media mix can help you reach untapped audiences, mitigate platform risks, and generally scale smarter. But these benefits can only truly be achieved if you’re primed to adopt a diversified marketing mix and if you’re able to get cross-functional buy-in across your organization and from leadership.

So, if you’re:

• Wondering if you're ready to diversify
• Wanting to know which channels are worth exploring
• Curious about how to build a plan that delivers real, measurable ROI

…then you’re in the right place. We’re making the case for channel diversification and the potential new revenue streams that may accompany it.

For a more robust conversation about channel diversification and what it means for your 2025 strategy, catch a replay of our webinar “Diversification 101: Making the Case for Channel Diversification“ hosted by Right Side Up Founder Tyler Elliston.

Channel Diversification: Does it Really Matter?

The benefits of channel diversification are remarkable. Nift found in their 2024 Marketing Channel Diversification Report that DTC and retail brands using 3+ marketing channels are 73% more likely to achieve higher ROAS. And while most brands are using 8.5 channels, on average, only 54% of marketers are confident about which ones are driving measurable results. But perhaps most importantly, the report found non-traditional channels (so, not Meta or Google) have driven the most engagement and revenue growth.

If this isn’t convincing enough, let’s dive into the benefits of channel diversification a little more broadly.

First and foremost, it allows for scalability. By opening new marketing avenues, you expose your brand to fresh audiences who might engage less frequently with traditional channels,favoring non-traditional ones instead. Diversification also mitigates the risks associated with platform dependency, like limited reach and platform or policy changes.

For example: When Facebook’s CPMs soar or targeting restrictions tighten, businesses overly reliant on Meta can experience devastating impacts on growth.

Diversifying channels to include a broader mix provides additional incentives for  your brand to adopt more advanced measurement techniques, explore deeper audience segmentation, and refine cross-channel strategies. The result? A better, richer understanding of who your audience is, where they are online, and what they ultimately want.

Relying on Google and Meta isn't enough to fuel long-term success—especially when you consider that more and more people are using TikTok and YouTube as search engines than Google, and Meta has a rapidly declining usership—you get where we’re going here. Luckily, there are plenty of other avenues worth exploring, and we’re going to dive into them.

What’s the best first step to diversifying your marketing channel mix? It begins with readiness.

4 Signs You’re Ready to Diversify

Knowing when to diversify is crucial. Not every company is in a position to expand its channel mix, and doing so prematurely could cause you to waste precious time, money, and resources.

Here are a few prerequisites you’ll want to meet:

You have a solid ROI on core channels 

If you’re seeing consistent, scalable ROI from Google and Meta, that’s a signal you’ve tapped into your existing market potential—and it might be time to diversify.

You’ve got the budget and the scale

Spending over $100,000 a month on core channels generally suggests scalability, but you don’t necessarily need to be in the six-figure spend bucket to see the impact of diversification.

Your channels have diminishing returns

If your current successful channels are showing signs of diminishing returns or targeting headwinds (like privacy laws impacting Meta), this is a red flag—but it’s also an opportunity for diversification.

You’re eyeing new audiences

Targeting new demographics or geographical markets that aren't active on your current channels means diversification becomes a necessary tactic to connect with those audiences.

One caveat: Don’t diversify just because you're facing challenges in your core channels. If you haven’t yet achieved product-market fit or substantial returns on Google or Meta, attempting to diversify may not produce the results you’re hoping for.

How to Lay the Groundwork for Diversification

Once you’ve determined that channel diversification is the right move, preparation is key.

Get cross-functional buy-in

The marketing team alone doesn’t decide how, where, and when to expand the media mix.

CFOs need to approve budget expansions, while sales and product teams need to understand the potential new customer journeys. Alignment across multiple departments is a must for success.

In order to get that buy-in, you need to allocate the time and resources needed to test incrementality or viability (more on that next!), and you’ll want to show those giving the buy-in as much data as possible around what you plan to test, what your expected outcomes are, and what you hope to achieve from these tests in order to move the needle.

Allocate time and resources

Some channels, like podcast advertising or TV, take longer to generate results due to delayed consumption and attribution difficulties. 

Don’t fall into the trap of measuring success too early. 

For some channels, it can take months to fully realize the impact of an initial campaign, so gather as much information as you can in those first tests and present any data you can along the way.

Track and measure success

New channels often come with new measurement challenges. While channels like Google and Meta provide instant feedback loops, newer channels may require attribution models that rely on surveys, URL tracking, and broader campaign evaluation. Be prepared to navigate the complexities of view-through conversions, offline interactions, and cross-channel touchpoints.

Nurture inbound leads

A lot of brands use Facebook and Google specifically as mid- and even bottom-funnel channels. If you’re moving up the funnel and diversifying your media mix to open up the top of the funnel for acquisition, nurture becomes extremely important. 

As sales cycles extend, especially in B2B marketing, where a prospective buyer can have 100+ touchpoints before coming to a decision, nurturing leads via email, content, or personalized outreach will help convert those prospects into paying customers.

How to Choose the Right Channels for Your Brand

Now you’re prepped and primed to diversify, selecting the right channels is the next step. Every organization is going to select a different mix of channels because every audience is unique—but these are some channels that many brands have found success with, regardless of industry or audience demographics.

TikTok

TikTok wasn’t always revered as a “marketing” channel. While it had the potential to drive millions of impressions, it didn’t always drive conversions off-platform. But TikTok hit a growth spurt, helping it emerge as a direct response channel with significant ROI potential. Its ability to capture attention from younger demographics and adapt to direct response advertising makes it a hot contender for DTC, ecommerce, and B2C brands specifically, though B2B brands like Adobe, Shopify, and Grammarly are killing it on TikTok, too.

Plus: If Amazon is a major part of your strategy, it may be worth exploring the capabilities of TikTok Shop.

Podcast advertising

If you want to expand your marketing media mix offline, podcast advertising is often a great choice. Our offline experts rave about podcasts, and there’s an opportunity for just about every vertical in every industry to benefit from the channel.

For one, podcasting offers deep audience engagement through host-read endorsements. It also massively boosts your brand awareness to prospective audiences that otherwise wouldn’t have known about your brand or the benefits your brand offers.

While targeting may be less precise, the trust factor and conversion rates can be much higher on podcast advertising than traditional channels. However, patience is key here—podcast advertising often requires multiple placements and long-tail consumption before results are seen.

OTT and CTV

Does your brand have broad, national appeal? Can you play nicely within multiple age demographics?

OTT (over-the-top) television and CTV (connected TV) advertising provide ways to reach audiences with the precision of digital while maintaining the reach of traditional TV. 

If you have or plan to invest in really high quality, video-driven campaigns and need big screen exposure, this is the way to go. Check out examples from brands like 1Password and Rumpl.

LinkedIn ads

Does LinkedIn have sky-high CPMs? Sure. But is it still the absolute best place for B2B marketers to target by job title, function, and industry? Yes. That alone makes it indispensable. 

LinkedIn ads are best suited for high-value conversions, and that precision targeting (in our opinion) justifies the higher costs. If you’re using LinkedIn organically but haven’t started to boost posts, gather leads using their native ad forms, or used their document-style ads to get your case studies, ebooks, and white papers out into the world, it’s worth putting a bit of marketing budget behind those initiatives. 

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing has been around for years, especially in the DTC camp. Lately, it’s been picked up more heavily by Amazon Sellers hoping to drive external traffic to their stores and save on rising ad costs.

Affiliate marketing is particularly helpful in uncertain economic times because it’s predictable—you only pay your affiliates when a sale is made. Successful affiliate strategies rely on trusted partners with access to the right audiences, driving new leads while paying only for actual conversions.

Direct mail

Believe it or not, direct mail remains a powerful option for hyper-targeted campaigns. That’s right: Slap a stamp on it and drop them into people’s actual, physical mailboxes, not their digital ones.

Direct mail offers high visibility in crowded markets and is effective at every stage of the funnel, but especially in retargeting past customers. From USPS themselves:

“With retargeted direct mail, you can upsell products that complement their recent purchase, or provide enticing information about your loyalty program, describing the perks and long-term savings customers can gain by joining.”

One note with direct mail: Ensure the cost-to-scale ratio is manageable before jumping in.

Common Risks With Diversification—and How to Mitigate Them

Channel diversification can lead to spreading your resources too thin. To avoid this, take these precautions:

• Begin by allocating a controlled percentage of your budget—typically no more than 20%—to new channels during the testing phase. This way, even if a new channel underperforms, it won’t severely impact your overall strategy.
  
  
• With multiple channels, brand messaging can become fragmented or inconsistent. Create a unified content and branding strategy that can be adapted to each platform.
  
  
• More channels mean a complex web of data, making it harder to measure true impact. Use an advanced attribution model (multi-touch or data-driven) and ensure tracking tools are in place from the start.
  
  
• Investing in channels that don’t align with your target audience may lead to low ROI. Conduct audience research for each channel and use data from small tests to confirm fit before fully committing.

Achieve Channel Diversification for Unparalleled Growth in 2025

As you scale your marketing in 2025, diversification will become a key driver of growth, sophistication, and risk mitigation. 

Armed with channel expertise, readiness, and a well-defined test plan, you can confidently experiment with new platforms while refining your core mix.

This article will be a helpful guide you can refer back to as needed, but should you need additional guidance or resources to achieve a more robust media mix in your marketing strategy, consider partnering with Right Side Up.

Whether you need fractional talent, an agency team, or a new full-time employee, we’re here to help and can connect you with experts across virtually all marketing disciplines. We’ll provide you with the deep subject matter expertise required to excel in channel diversification and growing your bottom line.

Click here to book time with our team and learn how we can help you hit your growth goals.