When Paid Media Isn't A Good Idea

The speed at which paid media begins generating data can sometimes be misconstrued with driving net new business just as quickly. Expecting to turn paid campaigns on for the first time and see results within days or hours can end up in disappointment sometimes.

I’ve found that paid media isn’t a good option for businesses if:

• These campaigns are intended to support the launch of a new business or product/service

AND

• The marketing team doesn’t have a solid understanding of messaging and positioning

AND

• Leadership is expecting paid media efforts to deliver quick results in the short term

Based on my own experience, paid campaigns will struggle to generate any meaningful results without the proper messaging and positioning in place across the business (ads, social, website, etc…). Naturally, when a business or product is brand new it’s rare that the team has already nailed both of these pieces. As a result, it’s unlikely that paid media will get a new business or product up and running profitably right away.

With that said, paid campaigns certainly can help to collect data to understand which messaging points and positioning angles work best. I would just caution that this can take time, potentially months depending on budget. This means that if a business wants to use paid to figure out messaging, leadership might want to determine if they’re comfortable investing in this channel for months at a time without seeing any substantial return.

Otherwise, my generic recommendation is to slowly chip away building out an initial cohort of customers and conducting thorough customer/audience research to test and validate initial messaging and positioning. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but once it’s clear that the marketing team is on to something, that’s when I recommend spinning up paid media campaigns.

Have questions, considerations, or critiques? I’d love to hear them! If you’re reading this via email, just hit respond. Otherwise, you can find me on LinkedIn.