The Investment Nature Of Advertising

(Tim here, Kim’s busy making stuff)

A Quick Story That Illustrates an Important Advertising Point

I wrote a post today on RemodelingGuy.net about a textured solid surface material. The whole time I was writing it I was thinking about selling on Etsy and advertising.

Here’s the short bullet-point version of the story:

• I noticed an ad in House Beautiful Magazine (print version) yesterday.
• I made a mental note to look into the product more.
• I forgot.
• I went to my blog today thinking about writing a post.
• I noticed the Google Ad was for the same product, but a different version.
• I was reminded of what I saw in the magazine and wrote a post about the product.

The interesting thing is that this Google Ad has been appearing on my website for months and I’ve not really noticed it because of the particular color/texture the ad shows.

But when I saw an ad in another place that was slightly different, it did catch my eye. And, very interestingly, when I saw the magazine ad I felt I had heard of the company. In truth, the only place I had heard of the company is in those Google Ads on my website, but I didn’t know that at the time.

The bottom line, aka The Point, is that advertising for something new is a matter of impressions over time. It can take what seems like an eternity to build that brand recognition, but it will happen with persistence.

Mix your ads up, showing different versions at the same time in different places. Try to appear in similar places (similar blogs, magazines, etc) so that you increase the chances that the same people will see your ads “all over the place“. It makes a difference.

Ads are an investment that will pay, but not necessarily immediately (though they can). For the highest rewards, you have to just plan a budget and stick with it. You can’t jump ship if you don’t see an immediate increase in sales and say “that didn’t work”.

It’s a matter of time and impressions. Time and impressions. Time and impressions.