During our company’s weekly business review, our teammate presented our latest numbers and reminded everyone about the new market we were eyeing.
When he began listing ideas on how to grow in that region, my eyes widened at the mention of the dreaded three letters: “ADS.”
We tried them over and over—experimenting with different messages, with different imagery, using different keywords, on different channels (Reddit, Facebook, Google). Each time, we saw a quick burst of sign-ups. But real, active users? Not so much.
We discovered this the hard way, after sinking thousands of dollars into “learning periods” that tested multiple ad iterations. In the end, it was the priciest channel by a factor of ten, yet revenue barely budged.
Not worth it.*
But why did we continue to keep “testing” ads and burning cash?
- Because bigger companies used ads, so it must work (for them, at least).
- Because we were sure our new messaging and imagery would be a big hit.
- Because we spotted “new” keywords we felt confident about.
- Because we thought a cheaper channel might somehow appear.
- And this time, because we were entering a fresh market we’d “never tested ads with before.”
The fast-paced allure of ads was tempting—just drop the money in, iterate quickly, and hope for immediate results. No heavy lifting for the dev team, right? Unfortunately, that’s exactly why we kept falling into the same trap, even though our audience clearly wasn’t responding to ads.
Relevant, I just read the wise words of an entrepreneur I admire: “Got a marketing channel that STILL isn’t paying off, and you just can’t seem to find the right angle? Stop trying to make it work. That angle probably doesn’t exist.”
This time, I pushed back. Rather than adding more budget to another ad “experiment”, why not invest in channels we knew had already proven successful? These tactics may not have felt as simple or “quick,” but they actually delivered results. We needed to leverage what worked, even if wasn’t as easy to build, not to what if’s of a channel that just seemed like the easiest to try.
Experimentation without actually using our lessons is just wasted time.
We put our ‘one more tweak’ mantra on mute and redirected our energy toward winning channels.
Our budgets and growth metrics will thank us later.
*NOTE: Different growth channels can work for you and your business. Just not ours, at our stage, with our audience, at this time. :)