The rules of digital growth are shifting fast as AI-driven discovery is rewriting how consumers find products and services. Even long-standing giants are feeling the impact. Google’s search market share dropped below 90% in Q4 for the first time since 2015. At the same time, Gartner projects that organic search traffic could decline by 50% by 2028. For brands, this is a signal that old acquisition playbooks are losing their edge.

The culprits are clear: customer acquisition costs are rising, platforms are fragmenting, and AI is advancing faster than most teams can adapt. This widening divide between marketing spend and profitable growth is what many in the industry are calling the performance marketing gap.

For entrepreneurs and venture-backed founders, the question is no longer whether to spend on marketing. The question is how to do it profitably.

Why Cardiff Ventures Invested in The Agency

Founded by former Google advertising executive Charleen Kao, The Agency has built a reputation for helping high-growth companies scale efficiently with AI-driven strategies, unified measurement, and full-funnel marketing. Cardiff Ventures sees this partnership as an opportunity to accelerate The Agency’s impact, enabling more brands to execute strategies that align marketing spend with real business outcomes.

The Agency’s approach focuses on three key areas that help brands bridge the performance marketing gap:

Cross-Channel Strategy: Full-funnel campaigns designed to align marketing with business goals, not just top-of-funnel metrics.

Measurement and Analytics: Unified performance tracking across channels, connecting marketing and sales with clear KPIs and actionable insights.

AI/LLM-Driven Performance: Campaign optimization leveraging AI and large language models to improve targeting, creative, and ROI.

By combining these elements, The Agency equips brands to move quickly, stay nimble, and make data-driven decisions in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

That’s exactly where Cardiff Ventures focuses its energy. The firm backs founders who are tackling the most pressing challenges in technology and growth, with an eye toward companies reshaping how business gets done. More than capital, Cardiff brings strategic partnership, helping entrepreneurs turn industry disruption into sustainable opportunity. Its investment ensures The Agency can scale these successes to more companies, helping founders close the gap between marketing spend and meaningful growth.

Future-Ready Marketing

Brands face several hurdles in today’s environment:

Marketing and Sales Misalignment: Teams often work in silos with conflicting definitions of qualified leads and disconnected KPIs.

KPI Confusion: Fragmented reporting can obscure what actually drives revenue.

Channel Fragmentation: Managing Google, Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn in isolation misses opportunities to integrate insights.

AI Adoption Lag: Many companies recognize AI’s potential but lack the expertise to implement it effectively.

The Agency’s methodology tackles these challenges head-on, providing founders with a clear roadmap for profitable growth.

With backing from Cardiff Ventures, The Agency is positioned to help brands future-proof their marketing strategies. AI-targeting, LLM-driven discovery, privacy changes, and emerging short-form video platforms are reshaping how companies connect with customers. Brands that act now to unify strategy, measurement, and execution will be best positioned to turn disruption into a competitive advantage.

“Investing in The Agency allows us to empower founders to navigate the most complex marketing landscape in history,” said William Stern, Managing Partner at Cardiff Ventures. “Charleen and her team are building systems that not only close the performance marketing gap today but ensure long-term, sustainable growth.”

The Future of Growth

The companies that dominate the next decade will be those that close the performance marketing gap now. Cardiff Ventures’ partnership with The Agency underscores a shared mission of helping brands scale with intelligence, precision, and future-ready strategies. By combining Cardiff’s support with The Agency’s expertise, founders can confidently navigate the digital marketing landscape and turn investment into measurable growth.

The next 12 months will be some of the most disruptive in digital marketing history:

AI- targeting and LLM-driven discovery will redefine how brands reach buyers.

Privacy changes will require new measurement strategies and frameworks.

Platform fragmentation will accelerate as short-form video content and AI-driven search upend old playbooks.

Firms like The Agency are already helping to shape this shift. It has gained visibility through client results and thought leadership. At the Real Business Growth Summit, The Agency shared the stage with executives from Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, and HubSpot to present best-in-class strategies. It also collaborates with entrepreneur Brad Lea, host of the Dropping Bombs podcast, to deliver growth insights to business leaders globally, in addition to serving as the growth partner for Brad Lea’s training company, Lightspeed VT.

In today’s AI-driven landscape, growth isn’t about spending more. It’s about future-proofing and building systems that unify strategy, measurement, and performance. The brands that close the performance marketing gap now will be the ones turning disruption into their greatest competitive advantage.