Businesses have to adapt to change. I’ve covered a lot of macro changes recently, from women redefining leadership to the rapid rise of AI tools . But sometimes meaningful change is quieter. Sometimes, it comes through something as simple as your marketing team’s ad strategy.

Ad strategy is shifting fast. Google has automated and revamped its ad options. Meta is shifting things, too — and making things harder in the process. ChatGPT is testing ads in its AI tool.

Companies are reacting to this gradual loss of flexibility by cutting back on ad spending. This is a good first step, but what comes next? If the goal is to keep your business growing, how do you do that while advertising platforms continue to restructure their rules and billing models?

The New Advertising Normal

It’s important to make a distinction between what is happening in the ad world right now. Note that I didn’t mention results yet. That’s because the shift isn’t necessarily impacting the results that ads are creating. The issue arises more with flexibility.

Meta, for example, is shifting from convenient credit card payments to bank-based alternatives. These stricter billing controls are more of an “enterprise-style billing” approach. It’s cause for concern for marketing heads.

And I get it. Meta wants to shift how people pay for their promotions. It is trying to mitigate risk, accommodate scale and control as much as possible.

But that creates a lot of cash flow questions for companies leaning on a credit card to keep those ads live. This is creating an environment where marketers are unsure. They don’t know what the future holds tomorrow, let alone a year from now. It’s no surprise that 54% of marketers around the world are planning to reduce their ad spend this year.

How to Manage Ad Spend in the New Normal

Pulling back due to change is a reasonable first step. But it can’t be your last step. You need to take stock, build a strategy and re-engage. Here are a few thoughts on how marketers can do that in the months ahead.

Find Smarter Ways to Manage Cash Flow

Cash flow really is at the heart of this. If you can keep funds flowing into Google, Meta, or similar platforms, your campaigns can continue to perform. That makes improving cash flow management a practical place to start.

The good news is you don’t have to dig through receipts or piece this together manually. Some companies use tools like Ramp to track and manage spend at a high level, giving finance teams more visibility into where money is going. Dash.fi builds on that by going deeper into ad spend itself—reconciling transactions, flagging potential overcharges or inconsistencies, and identifying optimization opportunities directly within platforms like Google and Meta.

Instead of just showing you the numbers, it helps clean up what you’re already doing and ensures you’re not tying up cash in unnecessary or inefficient ad spend.

Pay Closer Attention to Spending Patterns and Needs

Along with justifying ad spend, you want to look for patterns as the cash flows out. As you fix how you pay for ads without stunting growth, look for spending patterns across all of your ad promotions.

Evaluate for bottlenecks that hold up one area because cash is unevenly distributed to another. The goal should be central visibility of all of your ad spend. That way, as you start re-allocating funds, you understand what areas can afford to flex and where your cash needs to sit tight.

Spread Budgets Across Different Channels

Finally, don’t lock too much into one place. It’s okay to allocate larger percentages of your budget to specific channels when they’re proven. During times of change, though, you want to keep things well distributed.

Diversify across proven channels while testing new ones. This is also a good moment to experiment with emerging formats like AI-driven ads, including ChatGPT and keep an eye on what’s gaining traction.

Protecting Growth and Building an Ad Strategy for the Future

When traditional advertising channels are restricted or restructured, resist the urge to panic.

Pull back and optimize. Re-evaluate for opportunities and then re-engage with a more diversified strategy designed to set you up for long-term success.

If you can do that, you’ll set yourself up not just to overcome challenges. You'll be better positioned to grow steadily as the advertising landscape continues to evolve.