Why spending more on marketing rarely fixes it
Neil Addison ·
Most businesses reach a point where the marketing doesn't seem to be pulling its weight. The usual remedy is to do more of it. This piece makes the case for doing something less exciting first, and explains why that matters more now than it did even a year ago.
In short, more spend makes a message louder, not clearer. If your website, Google listing and social profiles each say something slightly different, a bigger budget carries that confusion to more people, and you pay for every one of them.
The better order is the less exciting one. Make sure everything you already have says one clear thing: the thing your customers value you for. Then decide what, if anything, to add.
A familiar pattern
It often starts with a quiet month. Enquiries dip, a competitor seems busier, and the natural response is to do more. More posts, a presence on a new platform, a monthly package with a tier name and a list of deliverables, a budget for ads.
None of that is unreasonable on its own. Activity is easy to see and easy to measure: twelve posts went out, the ads reached four thousand people. What gets measured less often is what those people found when they looked a little closer.
And they do look closer. Someone who sees an ad will often check the website, the Google listing and the reviews before they pick up the phone. If those say three different things, or nothing very much, the ad has bought a moment of attention and then handed it to a muddle. More activity can't fix that, because the muddle is the thing being amplified.
Meet Birkby & Lowe
If you've seen our homepage, you'll have met Birkby & Lowe Joinery of Southport. They don't exist, we should admit. But if they did, they'd be doing perfectly well, which is rather the point.
They'd have been fitting kitchens and staircases since 1998. Their customers would leave reviews like “Fitted our kitchen in Birkdale. Spotless, on time, fair price.” Work would come in steadily, mostly by word of mouth.
Now look at what they say about themselves. The website promises “Bespoke Timber Solutions”. The Google listing calls them B&L Joinery Ltd and doesn't show opening hours. The Facebook page goes by a third name, and its last post wishes everyone a merry Christmas from last year.
Nothing there is a disaster. It's simply a business that's good at its trade and too busy to keep its own story straight. Hand it a bigger budget and a package of twelve posts a month, and more people will meet that muddle. Spend an afternoon instead on one name, the hours and a headline about fitted kitchens, and every channel it already has starts to pull in the same direction.
Why it matters more now
More and more people don't search for a local business any more. They ask for one. “Who's good for a fitted kitchen in Southport?” goes to ChatGPT, Google's AI answers or the assistant on their phone, and back comes a short list of names.
This has moved quickly. One industry survey found that the share of people using AI tools to find local services rose from 6% to 45% in a single year (BrightLocal, via Justin Harris). The figures are American and the trend is young, so treat the exact number with care. But the direction is hard to miss.
What matters is how those answers are put together. AI doesn't see your ad spend, it reads what you've already published: your website, your Google listing, your reviews. ChatGPT draws on Google Maps for places, hours and reviews (Cloutly). Google's own AI leans heavily on the Google Business Profile (BrightLocal). In one large US study, around 60% of the sources cited for local services were the businesses' own websites (Steady Demand).
Our reading of this is simple. AI can only recommend you as clearly as you describe yourself. If your name changes from one place to the next and your hours are missing, it has little to go on, and it will name someone whose details line up. Advertising stops working the day the money stops. Clear, consistent basics keep working, and now they also shape the answer people hear when they ask.
This isn't a case against advertising
Advertising works. A well-placed ad for a business with a clear message, a tidy listing and good reviews can bring in customers quickly, and for launches, seasonal pushes or a new service it's often the right call.
The point is the order. Fix the message first and every pound of ad spend lands on something that holds attention. Spend first and you're paying to send people towards the muddle.
When a business is ready to advertise, we're glad to help it make the most of the budget: the wording of the ads, the page they lead to, and where they're worth running at all. We'd just rather that money went to work on solid ground.
Five questions before you spend more
None of these needs a consultant. They take about ten minutes, and they tell you whether the basics are worth a look before the budget goes up.
- Search for your business by name. Does the same name come up on your website, Google listing and social pages?
- Ask ChatGPT, or the assistant on your phone, for a business like yours in your town. Are you named?
- Are your opening hours, prices or booking details where a customer would expect to find them?
- When did each of your profiles last change? Would a stranger think you're open and busy?
- If a friend read your homepage, could they say in one sentence what you do and who for?
If a couple of those gave you pause, you already know there's work to do. The harder part is knowing what to fix first, and what can safely wait.
That's what our free second opinion is for. We'll look at your business the way your customers see it and send you one page: what we'd fix first, why, and two things you can do yourself this week. Before you spend more, it's worth knowing where the money would work hardest.