The divergence
In 2020 a competent digital team ran three or four platforms: search, one or two social networks, maybe a display network. Today the same team is expected to operate search, four social platforms, connected TV, retail media, streaming audio, digital out-of-home, and at least one demand-side platform.
Headcount over the same period grew marginally. The gap has been absorbed by individuals, not by systems.
How the gap gets absorbed
Three ways, all bad. Depth is sacrificed — each platform gets run on defaults instead of tuned. Coverage is sacrificed — channels that require the most learning get dropped, usually the newest and least competitive ones. Or QA is sacrificed, which is invisible until reconciliation.
In practice, teams do all three a little.
Why more hiring is not the answer
Because platform count is not going to stop rising, and each new channel requires a specialist to run well but not enough volume to justify a specialist’s salary. That is a structural mismatch, not a staffing shortfall.
This is the case for systematized execution: the parts of the work that are identical across platforms — briefing, building, QA, pacing, reporting — should be handled once, not eleven times.
What this means downstream
For a local advertiser, this is why your provider runs two channels. Not strategy — capacity. Ask them which channels they do not run and why, and listen for whether the answer is about your business or about theirs.