Why Transparency in Digital Marketing Isn't Optional—It's Everything


By Ben Brucker, Founder of Ads in One Place


I didn't start my digital marketing career planning to launch an agency. For 20 years, I worked in radio—although I had come from a family that had its roots in print. My grandfather Bud Furillo had been the longtime Sports Editor for the L.A. Herald Examiner, and my other grandfather Jerry Brucker wrote for the San Diego Evening Tribune, The Atlantic, and was the editor of the La Jolla Light. You could say media was in my blood, and my mother being the General Manager of 5 radio stations in Southern California pushed me into ad sales, where I built radio advertising campaigns for 20 years.
When radio stations started adding digital marketing to their offerings, I was skeptical at first, but soon enough I loved it. The data, the targeting precision, the ability to measure everything—it was a completely different world from traditional radio buys.
Within a few years, I became the Digital Marketing Manager for our coastal markets. I was good at it. Our clients were seeing real results. But there was a problem that kept gnawing at me: the business model was broken.


The Problem I Couldn't Ignore


The radio station model was designed for a different era. We were reselling digital marketing services through third-party vendors, marking everything up significantly, and frankly, overcharging clients for work that could be done more efficiently and affordably. I watched clients pay premium prices for campaigns that weren't being optimized properly, weren't being monitored closely enough, and worst of all—weren't giving clients the visibility they deserved into their own marketing data.
The radio station just didn't have the vision for what digital marketing could really do when done right.
I knew these clients could get better ROI. I knew their ad spend could work harder for them. And I knew that with direct access to the platforms—without the layers of middlemen—I could deliver better results at better prices.
So I quit. And I started Ads in One Place.


The Transparency Problem in Digital Marketing


After a decade in this industry, I can tell you the biggest issue I see isn't necessarily bad strategy or poor creative (though those happen too). The biggest problem is clients not getting the data they need to make good decisions.
Think about it: You're spending thousands of dollars every month on advertising. Shouldn't you be able to see exactly where that money is going? Shouldn't you know which ads are working and which aren't? Once your campaign is optimized, shouldn't you be able to check your campaign performance whenever you want, not just when your agency decides to send you a report?
Too many agencies operate in a black box. They show you a PDF report once a month with numbers that look impressive but don't tell you the full story. They don't want you looking too closely. They don't want you asking questions about why certain things aren't working.
That's not how I work.


Do Things Differently


When you work with Ads in One Place, you get full transparency. Here's what that actually means:
1. Live Dashboards, Always Available
Once your campaign is optimized—which typically takes anywhere from one to two weeks—you get access to real-time dashboards showing exactly how your campaigns are performing. Want to check your numbers on a Tuesday afternoon? Go ahead. Want to see how yesterday's ads performed? It's all there. No waiting for reports. No wondering what's happening with your money.
2. Campaign Roadmaps Before We Start
Before we launch anything, I lay out a complete roadmap for your campaign. You'll know the strategy, the targeting, the budget allocation, the timeline—everything. No surprises. No "trust me, it'll work." No throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. You see the plan, you understand the plan, and then we execute the plan together.
3. Weekly Check-Ins (If You Want Them)
Some clients want weekly calls to review performance and discuss adjustments. Others prefer to check their dashboards independently and only meet when needed. Either way works. The point is: you're in control of your level of involvement.
4. A/B Testing Culture
Here's something most agencies won't tell you: you should be testing your ads constantly. Not just running the same creative for months and hoping it works. We test different headlines, different images, different audience segments. And when something isn't working? We kill it and try something new. If something's working, we'll push budget into that particular creative.
But here's the catch: you can only do this effectively if you're checking your campaigns frequently—or even better, if your agency is doing it for you. That's exactly what we do. We're in your campaigns constantly, watching the data, making adjustments, testing new approaches.
 

The Radio Station Taught Me What Not to Do


Those 20 years in radio weren't wasted. They taught me how traditional media operates: big promises, big budgets, and very little accountability. When you buy a radio spot, you get ratings estimates and demographic ranges. You never really know if it worked.
Digital marketing is different. We can track everything. We should track everything. And clients should have access to all of it.
The radio station model was about keeping clients at arm's length from the data. The agency model I built is about bringing clients as close to the data as they want to be.
What 10 Years in Digital Marketing Has Taught Me
After a decade of running campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Display networks, TikTok, CTV, and every other platform that matters, here's what I know for sure:
The agencies that win are the ones that treat client money like their own.
I check campaigns like I'm spending my own money—because in a very real sense, your success is my success. When your campaigns work, you grow. When you grow, you keep working with me. When you see real ROI, you tell other business owners.
That only happens with transparency.

I started Ads in One Place because I was tired of seeing businesses overpay for mediocre results wrapped in fancy presentations. You deserve better.
Whether you're spending $1,000 a month or $50,000 a month, you deserve full transparency. You deserve an agency that treats your money with respect. And you deserve someone who's been in the trenches for a decade and knows what actually works.
Let's talk about your campaigns. I promise: no sales pitch, no pressure, just an honest conversation about what's working, what isn't, and how we can do better.

 

-About the Author: Ben Brucker is the founder of Ads in One Place, a digital marketing agency serving businesses across the United States. With 10 years of digital marketing experience and 20 years in the media industry, Ben specializes in transparent, data-driven advertising campaigns across all major platforms.