Danny Lima, Senior Paid Media Manager at Kanbar Digital, joins Michael Barber to unpack how modern performance marketers should think about paid media, channel expansion, and growth. With more than 15 years across Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Meta, Danny explains what organic search taught him about patience, customer language, and the full search journey.
They discuss how to decide whether a new platform deserves a real budget, why brands should earn the right to expand beyond their core channels, and how budget realities affect testing, creative, learning, and profitability. Danny also shares how he approaches YouTube as a measurable full-funnel channel, how to structure Performance Max around different funnel jobs, and why campaign metrics alone cannot tell the whole story.
The central lesson is simple: before asking which platform deserves more money, identify what is limiting growth, determine what needs to change, and fund the channels or business functions capable of changing it.
Watch the full conversation for a practical perspective on smarter paid media strategy and incremental growth.
Takeaways:
- Organic search teaches paid teams patience and better customer-language analysis.
- Search data reveals how people move from broad questions toward purchase decisions.
- A channel test must answer a specific business question and receive fair funding.
- Once multiple channels influence a buyer, optimize the journey—not isolated campaigns.
- Brands should earn the right to expand beyond efficient core channels.
- Being everywhere can magnify inefficiencies instead of solving them.
- Budget reality means funding enough data, creative, and learning to judge fairly.
- YouTube needs a measurable job, strong creative, and patience to learn.
- Performance Max structure, signals, conversions, and creative help guide funnel roles.
- The next dollar should target the constraint limiting growth, not a favorite platform.