When Is It Time To Invest In Paid Advertising?

Is paid advertising for suckers?!

First it happened to your blog. Your avid readers started to trickle off. Strangers found you less frequently. It felt like you were shouting into the darkness. So you said, “Screw blogging! I’m taking my message to Facebook.”

Then it happened to Facebook. Post engagement plummeted. Less than 10% off your followers were even seeing your stuff while your newsfeed seemed to be overflowing with reminders of orange faced tyrants and everyone else’s beautiful, clickable lives. You felt used and abused by the Zuck. So you said, “I’m done with Facebook. Instagram’s better, anyway.”

Then it happened to Instagram. You got “shadow banned” for two weeks with no idea why. Your followers kept yoyo-ing, playing the follow/unfollow game. You got more likes from bots than real people. So you said:

I’M DONE WITH THE INTERNET! IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO BUILD A BUSINESS HERE. SINCE WHEN DID IT BECOME PAY TO PLAY?!?”

I feel you, boo. The Internet is growing by the second and with 200K+ websites launching each day, 2 billion+ active users on Facebook, 800 million+ active users on Instagram, and so on and so on, it feels like a LOSING GAME.

Once upon a time, you could throw up a website and somehow people FOUND IT and, more importantly, YOU and you didn’t have to jump through any hoops or spend any money.

Now it seems like you could run naked through the streets with your domain name on your butt and the only page views you’d get would be for the officer booking you into the clink for the night.

This is why I want to talk to you about PAID ADVERTISING. (Gasp) I know that “advertising” has become a dirty word in a world of content marketing and social media. The idea floating around is that to PAY is to SURRENDER, to GIVE UP, to say “I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO GET FOUND ORGANICALLY.” To advertise or not to advertise…that is the question.

This sounds like a job for Awkward Marketing. In this episode, I’m taking on ads, traffic, and how to know when it’s time to invest in paid advertising. (And when to wait it out.)

Links & Resources I Mention In This Episode

Rachael Kay Albers

Rachael Kay Albers is a creative director, business comedian, and brand strategist gone wild. She writes and performs about branding, pop culture, tech, and identity. When she’s not muckraking about marketing, Rachael runs RKA ink, a reinvention studio and branding agency for businesses that burn the rulebook. She's also on Instagram a lot.