Beyond the Click

The Truth About Trackable Advertising was the subject of a recent Sound ADvice email newsletter that I sent to my subscribers.  I’ll add you to the mailing too if you ask, it’s free and is delivered once a week.

Not everything that counts can be counted.

It’s easy to fall in love with advertising you can track. Clicks. Conversions. CPMs. These numbers can seduce business owners because they make us feel smart and in control.

Digital ads – Google, Social Media, YouTube, etc. – can absolutely play a role in your marketing. They’re great for short-term wins and direct response.

But the kind of advertising that builds great brands, that earns customer loyalty, price flexibility, and long-term growth, that kind usually isn’t trackable. Branding advertising is emotional, it’s remembered, and it often takes time before it shows up in a sales report.

Here’s the trap: When everything has to prove ROI in 30 days or less, you end up making ads that say little, do less, and vanish without a trace. You stop planting seeds and only harvest what’s already grown. Keep planting seeds.

The truth is that your brand lives in the minds of your future customers. You don’t know when they’ll be ready to buy. If they don’t know you, trust you, or like what you stand for – then no amount of perfectly targeted digital ads will change that.

So yes, keep running those trackable campaigns. Just don’t stop there. Great businesses are built on stories, feelings, and familiarity – none of which fit neatly in a spreadsheet.

If you’d like to see 3 Tips to Think Beyond the Click, click here.

Besides my work in radio, I’ve also worked full-time in other medias including social and other digital spaces that I just mentioned.  I know the benefits and shortcomings personally and even though I was paid the big bucks to run digital campaigns, i know that it’s not enough.

A few years ago I had a client that was a local business owner who was spending $20,000 a month on Social Media ads and just $4,000 monthly on my radio station.  When we looked at the results, the number of appointments from Social Media ads were double the number of appointments from his radio ads.  How many of those appointments stuck and became a real selling opportunity?  90% of the radio ads and just 40% of the Social Media ads.

How about actual sales?  Of the appointments kept, the radio ads were also 90% real sales compared to less than half the social media ads.  And the total dollars per job from the radio ads were 50% higher than the social media.  It was eye-opening.

Yes, you need an online presence.  but you also need to build relationships with potential customers the way radio can do.