Scattered

One thing that’s struck me over the past few months is how easily scattered marketing can be if I let it, especially when it comes to ads. I see a strong temptation to try Google ads, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Instagram ads, Amazon ads, and on and on. The thing about ads in all those places is that they take a little something I like to call “money.” I’ve seen a couple of columns on advertising for books and they tend to say something similar: target your audience. Yes, I know that’s Marketing 101. But the pull is strong to spend money several different ways without really figuring out who uses those social media platforms and who will see your ad and hopefully click through. It all sounds good when they say your ad will reach ten thousand people, but how many will actually take action? A depressingly small number. Sorry to say it, but it’s true. I don’t know what the real industry average is, but from what I’ve seen so far with Google ads is if you get five people out of a thousand to click on your ad, that’s actually pretty good. Next time around I’m not sure I’ll do Google ads again, but I sure won’t scatter ads all over cyberspace. I’ll have to think about it.