You see someone cool across the room. They’re laughing their hearts out, wearing a great outfit, and hanging out with some of the loveliest people you’ve ever set eyes on. You’re left in utter awe. How can you be friends with this person?

So you introduce yourself. But immediately you exchange pleasantries, you can’t help but notice that something is off. Maybe they’re full of themselves—or lack anything interesting to say. It’s all a facade, and you fell for it, you think, as you embarrassingly walk away in the opposite direction.

A similar scene plays out in the adtech world every other day. Clients (like yourself) spot a visually stunning adtech website, complete with rosy executive profiles reading like biographies. But upon closer inspection,  they’re rewarded with a cliche’ tagline (*yawns*), confusing service offering, or worse, a non-existent ‘Case Studies’ segment . Woe unto them if they decide to procure said adtech services. 

In a nutshell, this is, well, tragic. Why settle for a mediocre adtech partner when you can get the cream of the top?

A great ad tech partner pumps up the intrigue by actually walking the talk. Read on for actionable tips on how to pick the very best of the bunch.

1. A Jack of Most Trades, A Master of All

The best adtech agency Kenya doesn’t just offer compelling services in one niche; it spreads out its wings to cover several of them—and just as adeptly as the first.

To that end, make sure the partner you’re eyeing has a full-fledged portfolio and can handle different types of creative and performance marketing with equal dexterity and expertise. Is their media tech expertise as diverse and deeply rooted in data as their contextual advertising prowess? Can they whip-up a top-notch SEO-optimized website in the same way they can deliver knitter-sweater social media content?

Don’t take their word for it, though. Reach out to some of their past and current clients to get a feel of what it is like to partner with them. And if you’re still not convinced, checking out some of their real work is worth a shot. Scratch that, it’s a must-do.

2. Media Strategy Goes Beyond Merely Running Ads

If there’s one place you can’t afford to fumble in the selection process, it’s here. A half-baked or poorly articulated media strategy is a disaster waiting to happen. We can’t emphasize this enough. 

Quack adtech agencies masquerading as professionals will usually try to win you over using a few all-too-familiar phrases:

• “Let’s just boost the post.” This bunch have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. No clear objective from the outset, and certainly no funnel thinking. A big, big red flag. 

• “Our targeting is broad so we don’t miss anyone.” Here, everyone is an audience, which means no one really is.

• “We like to spread the budget across platforms for maximum visibility.” You know what happens when small amounts are sprinkled everywhere haphazardly? That’s right: minimal to zero impact.

• “Fret not, the creative will do the heavy-lifting.” No it won’t. In fact, the only lifting you’ll be doing is your hand to hit the desk out of frustration; pretty ads that don’t say anything and don’t guide action ultimately don’t convert.

• “We’ll review performance at the end of the campaign.” That’s akin to checking the map after you’ve already fallen off a cliff. When report learnings are ignored, mistakes are bound to repeat themselves. 

At its core, a well-thought-out media strategy weaves together audience insight, creative direction, platform choice, and budget allocation into one cohesive plan. The result is a consistent stream of traffic and users, you might just mistake them for bots. 

Before you ask, yes, we’ve crafted high-impact media strategies for clients more times than we can count. Recently, one of our newer clients reported 10,000 new registrations on their website within 24 hours—.fairytale numbers, I know, but real nonetheless. A traffic campaign strategy we’d developed and executed with the precision of a marksman had delivered with aplomb. And boy was the client thrilled.

3. Clear, Well-Documented Workflows

On a scale of one to 5DM, how clear were the workflows of the agencies you worked with in the past?

Did everyone know what was happening in a particular week, the next one, and the next after that, and why? Or did every status call feel like the campaign was being discovered for the first time?

Unfortunately, there is no way around clarity. Every high-performing campaign you admire almost always has a quiet army toiling in the background: planners, strategists, media buyers, and creators all working from the same playbook.

We all wish concise, well-fleshed-out workflows and meticulous documentation were something adtech agencies magically woke up with. Like Santa quietly sliding a neat process deck down the chimney sometime in Q1. 

Sadly, it doesn’t work like that. 

Clear workflows are brought to life with impeccable craftsmanship. They’re hatched in strategy rooms, pressure-tested over time, and refined after campaigns fail, succeed, and fail again.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a pilot to fly; subsequently, you can always hire the best adtech agency with battle-tested strategists to fight this war on your behalf.

We hear you asking, what then do I look out for to single out workflows worth investing in? Easy:

• A clear starting line (read: a well-documented end goal)
• Structured, predictable communication with well-defined follow-up and–yes, we said it—escalation procedures.
• Roles that don’t overlap awkwardly.
• Built-in decision points.
• Learning loops that actually loop.
• Live, continuous optimizations, not post-mortems.
• Reporting that clearly connects spend to outcomes (think: users gained, awareness lifted, everything’s else is noise).

Best AdTech Agency Is Our Second Name. We Live, Love, and Own The Craft.

Some adtech agencies in Kenya wish to be the best to ever do it. Others, perhaps oblivious of the true meaning of “best media buying agency,” blub too much but fall flat when they’re presented with the actual work.

Then there is us, 5DM Africa. We don’t just wish or claim to be the best; we ARE the best. That’s because we understand what it takes to build campaigns that perform and platforms that deliver. The best part? Our media planning process is simple and repeatable, so you and your team can simply plug-and-plug—and be on your way to adtech superstardom. 

Send us a quick message today, and see if our media buying strategy is the final piece in your advertising puzzle. 

Here’s to winning prospective clients’ hearts and minds consistently in 2026—one masterful ad at a time (Happy Hour drink, anyone?)!