The Truth About Advertising: My Honest Thoughts

Advertising as a marketing tactic dates back centuries. It’s nearly impossible to imagine a world without it. The power of advertising is undeniable, especially as it has grown, evolved, and shifted over the years to meet consumers where they’re at. Advertising offers businesses and brands who are looking to expand their reach and grow their customer base a ton of benefits. In this blog post, I want to break down these benefits and share my thoughts and the truth about advertising. 

My Honest Thoughts On Advertising

First off, advertising is a fantastic medium to build momentum quickly. Advertising can help businesses launch new products and get them in front of their target audience in a short amount of time. 

Advertising is also a direct and fast way to see what is working and what isn’t working in your business and marketing. This makes it an effective way to test different marketing strategies, campaigns, messages, and creative elements to determine what resonates most with your target audience, what you should repeat, and what you should eliminate. 

Another benefit of advertising is that it’s a wildly efficient way to expand your reach. This can help businesses reach a wider audience than they would if they solely relied on organic marketing efforts. For new businesses or businesses looking to make a shift, expand into a new target market, or launch a new product or service, this is particularly beneficial. 

My last honest thought about advertising is that it’s a great way to track ROI, specifically when it comes to digital advertising. It’s easier to track metrics such as clicks, conversions, and sales on a digital ad as opposed to organic marketing efforts, such as organic posts or stories. This gives businesses a clear idea of what their return on investment is, which can inform future advertising efforts. 

While there are clearly several benefits of advertising, there are also a few key downsides to be aware of when looking into advertising. 

The Truth About Advertising

Oftentimes, businesses, particularly in the small to medium size range with limited budgets, hinge the trajectory of their overall marketing on advertising, letting the results take them down. While it’s definitely possible for advertising to generate results quickly, it's also important to remember that it’s just one part of the overall marketing strategy. AKA, don’t put all of your eggs in one advertising basket. 

Additionally, too often, the “marketing” gimmicks of advertising trick businesses into thinking they can get results with ultra-minimal investment. They start to believe that they can invest $1 per day and get massive results, and that’s simply just NOT true. In reality, they’re twisting the message to show you it’s more accessible than you think. The truth about advertising is that it requires a significant investment in order to see real results, so businesses need to prepare to allocate the necessary budget and resources to get meaningful results. 

It's also important to understand the distinction between print and digital advertising. They serve very different purposes and lead to different results. Print advertising, such as in magazines, newspapers, and flyers is still relevant, but serves a vastly different purpose and leads to a different result than digital advertising efforts, such as Facebook ads, Google ads, and Instagram ads. Before starting any advertising efforts, take time to consider your goals, your target audience, and which medium would be most effective for you. 

Finally, impressions are the #1 selling metric for paid marketing because it's the most tangible to predict. While impressions matter, they’re not money in your pocket, so that’s important to keep that in mind. 

The cost-effective ROI most of us are looking for requires a highly targeted approach to advertising. If you are new to it or if your budget is restrictive, the most effective paid marketing efforts are campaigns that amplify specific points in your organic campaigns, such as strategic initiatives, product launches, milestones, etc.

Overall, advertising is an extremely powerful strategy for businesses looking to build momentum quickly, expand their reach, grow their customer base, and determine which efforts lead to the highest ROI. Just keep in mind the downsides of advertising so you can take the most aligned approach for your business to get the results and return on investment you’re looking for. 

If you’d like to find out where your marketing stands and if advertising is right for you, take our FREE Marketing Self-Assessment to learn more.