If something was working a certain way for quite some time, it's hard to wrap your head around the fact that it has changed.
Marketing has NOTHING to do with what it was a few years ago.
Here is why:
Think of the last purchase decisions you made.
And make a conscious effort in finding out where you found out about those products or services.
- How many of them came from a social media advertisement?
- How many of them did you find after searching on Google?
- How many did you see come up in a newsletter you are subscribed to?
In my case, it would be practically cero.
And when asking around, I hear similar stories.
Where decisions are made
Across different industries, from e-commerce to consulting, mentoring, from car repair shops to woodworking, we're seeing a clear trend:
Decisions are made based on recommendations given by other people.
People who might not be known, but trusted.
And where does this trust come from?
I'd call it "inherited" trust:
- because they publish in a niche forum
- because they have a lot of upvoted comments (e. g. on Reddit)
- because they got a lot of likes, comments or support in their niche facebook group
The key term is "niche":
Once you find "your crowd" in a niche forum, you'll automatically be more likely to trust their recommendations.
This doesn't make it simpler for marketers used to come up with creative ideas to run ads that, just by attracting attention, used to convert into sales.
Often, it takes 0 clicks ...
Well-respected marketers like Rand Fishkin have talked about it for a long time - a lot of buying decisions involve 0 clicks - the platforms themselves will give all the information a user needs.
Just take Google, for instance ... a big part of what we do for SEO these days is based on branded searches:
Users already found out about your brand on other platforms, and are now googling <brand> features, <brand> pricing, does <brand> do <use case>, etc. - they're not discovering a brand for the first time on Google, but actually want to back up their buying decision.
Those great Facebook ads times ...
I've lost count of the brands I helped with SEO that got to 7 or even 8 figures just through facebook ads a few years back.
Btw, I don't mean to downplay that achievement, it takes great skill and a lot of experience to pull that off!!
My own team was doing FB ads at times for Gyms at some point and easily filled up their open slots with simple funnels - a good video and a landing page was all it took!
In general, I believe the process back then was simpler, mostly following one of the following schemes or slight variants of it:
- Ad => Landing Page => Sale
- Ad => Presell page => Sales page => Sale
- Ad => Landing Page => Opt-in => Follow-up sequence => Sale
Why this is no longer enough
In my personal experience with my SEO consulting business, I've seen the shift come with Covid in 2020.
My SEO business almost doubled thanks to all the Facebook ads focused businesses, claiming they were no longer getting the required ROAS to keep investing in FB ads alone and now wanted to be found on Google as well.
Hundreds of brands had neglected organic search completely, just because their ads funnel worked so well for so long.
But why don't ads work anymore the way they used to?
Customers want proof, not promises
Every brand's customer base has matured in experience. They will no longer buy on promises only, but actually want proof.
Just think of courses people buy that promise to enable you to build a pipeline of prospects in 30 days, or the FB widget that could help you with all kinds of repairs, or that beauty product that would replace all your beauty products with just one single cream ...
FB ads at times reminded me a bit of the TV shopping channels, offering things "too good to be true" just to make a sale happen.
Just making big promises is no longer a scalable strategy.
People trust people
We're not as quickly to trust any more - unless we see it "go viral" (or believe it did just because we see so many reels or tiktoks about it).
Let's face it: recommendations from some dude on Reddit with a lot of upvotes may often beat the most creative, disruptive, attention-grabbing ad on socials.
That's the power of the niche!
Now it requires a long-term strategy
"Rapid fire testing" was long a valid strategy for ads:
You'd create 10 different versions of an ad, show them to your target audience,
then take the best angle, title, visual, etc. and create your campaign with it while trying to beat it with variants.
While this still might work to a certain extend, I believe today it takes a more long-term strategy to not burn your ad spend.
Also, because people require a lot more touch points with a brand than they used to.
We've learned attribution isn't as clear-cut as it seemed to be
Every ad platform polishes data so it looks like they were responsible for a conversion to happen.
But the reality shows it's more complex than that:
If you want to get a feeling for your situation, head over to Google Analytics 4, Advertisement, Attribution paths, and select "Medium":
Down below, you'll see the different channels involved before a conversion happened - and the touch points it took for users choosing that combination of channels. Ya
(This requires your conversion tracking to be set up properly ... if you have trouble with this you might want to reach out).
As you can see, it's hardly ever a straight path from an ad or landing page to a conversion / sale. There are very often 2, 5, maybe 20 touch points involved before a user makes their decision.
Precision marketing
General ad based marketing won't cut it these days anymore.
Brands need to
- get better at targeting who will really want to get to know your brand
- get better engaging with your audience on a variety of platforms
- embrace the niche they are in and become an active contributor
- show proof of how their product or service solves a challenge, and get other people in the niche talk about it
This won't happen with a traditioal ad strategy.
It requires a precise marketing plan for each platform that does not only cover ads and targeting, but in-person engagement.
Check out this Reddit thread from 10 years ago on the best CRM for small business:
Best and inexpensive CRM for small business
by u/BigSomewhere0 in CRM
It's ranking number 2 on Google for "best CRM".
I know Google's giving this probably an extra boost due to their partnership with Reddit.
But it's also what people want to see:
Humans discussing options.
Guess how many people will check out the mentioned tools here ... just this thread alone is definitely responsible for tens or hundreds of trial sign-ups on the mentioned CRMs.
Forums, in whatever shape or form (Reddit, Quora, Slack communities, Telegram channels, etc.) are back - because this is where we get to directly engage with people who are "like us" - interested in the same things, going through the same challenges ... and we get a chance to learn from their mistakes.
Why would I buy a car polish others already had a bad experience with?
Who would buy a face cream just because of an ad, unless there were people with similar skin issues trying and endorsing it?
I wouldn't buy a cheap brand's disc sander unless I see experienced woodworkers endorsing it.
Contributors, not (only) Influencers
I think it's important to make a distinction between influencers and contributors here.
Influencer marketing has been big for a long time and definitely works when done right.
However, I'm seeing more and more AI-based influencer marketing, which leads me to expect some sort of inflation here.
It's going to take more influencers than before to get the same performance across this channel.
Contributors, however, are still, for the most part, real people. Platforms will get better at spotting obvious spammers and shadow-banning them so they don't impact conversions that much.
For a sustainable strategy, you want to be or have access to contributors on different platforms. Not just influencers.
It's contributions that stay the longest. A simple recommendation of the top 3 CRMs might stand the test of time.
While an influencer might publish a story that has vanished after 24 hours, your contribution to that Reddit thread might drive sales for years.
Imagine doing that at scale, following a platform strategy!
Marketing ain't what it used to be.
It's not just about flashy ads anymore; it's about precision, being on the right platforms, and showing up consistently.
Think "smart factory" – data-driven and always-on.
If you're not measuring, you're just guessing.
And remember, AI is a tool, not a magic fix.
If you're ready to ditch the guesswork and build a strategy that actually works, then let's talk. I’ll bring the dad jokes.